Friday 24 August 2012

332 Drax's First Games of 6th Ed + Reactions

Hullo All,

Well now, I'm delighted to say that in the last three days I've finally managed to play my first games of 6th Edition. Three games, in fact: a 2500pt sparring match with Jay at The Club (in prep for an upcoming tourney) and two 1000pt fluffy games this evening against the excellent Col. Gravis. What follows however isn't a battle report so much as a brief overview and then my thoughts so far on 6th Edition (If you want to skip, it's the bit in colour, below).

[Incidentally, check out Gravis's new pseudo-Praetorian gatling gun sculpts currently on sale!]
The first game was The Emperor's Will with Dawn of War deployment; me going first. I took a mech list (with which I'm always rather uncomfortable) and thought I was going to take an absolute battering from Jay's assaulty Blood Angels, but in the end he had a lot of metal nuts to crack and he was unlucky with the dice. A horrid, cheesy psyker battle squad and a failed terminator charge didn't help, I'm not proud to say!

This evening, Gravis and I decided to try to play a couple of small games with fun, fluffy forces, and as it happened the forces were fairly evenly matched, both being predominantly infantry (which we both enjoy) with a smattering of other bits. I took it as an opportunity to try out two rare choices: firstly one of my elusive Leman Russ Exterminators, and secondly my three sentinels, each on their own. For his part, Gravis tried two lists: one more offensive, with his beautiful cavalry and mounted vets; the other more static, instead brimming over with heavy weapons teams.

Game one was The Scouring/Dawn of War, and the second was Purge the Alien/Hammer and anvil. In each case I won the toss and opted to go second and first, respectively. To summate, the first game started off evenly matched and anyone's guess but eventually swung my way, and in the second game, as I arrayed my troops in a straight line in range and marched Somme-style towards inevitable death it looked for all the world like it'd be entirely one-sided...but somehow - just like in game one - a combination of Gravis's ill-luck and my sneaky flanking units rolling in from the correct flanks was enough to turn the tide. As I am The World's Slowest Player of 40K and we're still digging for new rules, Gravis gracefully conceded. 

Two great and sporting opponents - thanks, chaps!

DRAX'S THOUGHTS ON 6TH EDITION

 In no particular order, and please shout if I've got something wrong! I've just colour-coded it too - green is 'good'.
  1. I really really love everything about snap-firing
  2. ...except the hydra being forced to do so against ground targets (although I've not yet experienced this)
  3. Pre-measuring, huh? Wow - that makes a difference. I like it, but it does seem to'cheapen' the game, somehow...
  4. I really really like the new wound allocation rules.
  5. Precision Strike is a good rule, and works
  6. No assaulting at all out of 'normal' vehicles in normal circumstances? Technically this really benefits me as I suffer it far more than I use it and chimeras are (quite rightly) rubbish for assaults, but this rule really makes no sense at all when the vehicle hasn't moved
  7. Hull Points - great. This seems to work fine and makes sense, but it's a real shame they wouldn't stretch to giving Leman Russes that fourth HP.
  8. WHY oh why are vehicles still hit on rear armour in assault? Why on Terra not make it side
  9. I like that glances have no other effect now. Works well.
  10. Snipers are way better now, though mine still fail to do anything useful!
  11. 'Look out Sir' is a bit of a pain, but a good counter to the new wound allocation system 
  12. Plasma guns are considerably better now
  13. ...As is mounting heavy weapons in chimerae
  14. I like the new vehicle movement rules
  15. 'Barrage sniping' is sneaky. I don't like it, but now I know about it, how do I avoid playing to it?
  16. Mounted troops not claiming objectives? Well, it's daft of course, but it was needed for the game
  17. Barrage always scatters 2d6. Grr. Makes a bit of sense, but I'm not mad keen. Still, this is countered by the very reasonable buff to whole-blast full strength.
  18. I really like the different kinds (and values) of objectives
  19. I like the tiered VP system.
  20. VERY DISAPPOINTED to see, in Purge the Alien, the veiled return of Kill Points. What a bloody stupid mechanic. seriously.
  21. Not being able to assault from resrve has somewhat put the kybosh on my poor Penal Legion, but will doubtless be very good for my squishy guardsmen in the long run!
  22. Like the new missions so far
  23. Psychic rules (what I've seen) are ineresting and flavoursome.
Overall then - although there's doubtless tons I can and will add to this list, albeit metaphorically, those are my thoughts so far. Let it hereby be known:

Drax approves of 6th Edition 40K.

Cheers!

- D.

14 comments:

  1. Looks a bit more green than red, so we should be good!

    Also, shameless plug for the Ruins of Medusa V blog-campaign, we could really use some guardsmen to help recover those artifacts. You just know the Space Marines will lock them up if they win...

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  2. wow, there are some interesting changes there! I really should go pick up a copy of 6th...

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  3. Huzzah! Glad you got a chance to play, anyway - and those games seem to have covered most of the new rules quite thoroughly. Me and Headologist may decide to get rid of premeasuring for our games (not decided yet), we liked that element of skill in the game. But overall it's a good system although I'm not a fan of the vehicle hull points - makes them a bit uber in my humble opinion. Thanks for sharing, very helpful to see it laid out like that!

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  4. I had Karitas' 6th BRB for a couple days, but it was just enough time to look at the pretty pictures. S'pose I'd better one sooner or later.

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  5. We'll have to have another game soon Drax when I'm back in Guz. This time, maybe my flyer won't be downed without a sigle shot!

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  6. "3. Pre-measuring, huh? Wow - that makes a difference. I like it, but it does seem to'cheapen' the game, somehow..."

    I agree with your comment, but Flames of War is the same way, correct? And you've had nothing but praise for that...

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  7. Any thoughts about characters and challenges in close combat?

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  8. Cheers, guys!

    >Spyrle: Sweet! I'm going to do some reading up, and then I'll be all over Medusa V! If I write up the Blood Angels battle can I include that please?

    >Ackland + Zzzzzz: old cynic that I am, I still have to say it's a beautiful book! Also, GW have almost mastered the arts of proofing and effective indexing. Almost.

    >Siph: happily! And flyers now scare me rigid.

    >Artificer: with two Guard armies? You're joking, right? And there was no real occasion for the marines and Guard to have a noble fistfight. Mostly because BA assalt marines don't have much need to challenge Cadian snipers (read: "ratlings")!

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  9. >Darkwing: You made a comment (god knows what's happened to it) querying the difference in my opinion of pre-measuring between 40K and Flames of War.

    In response, I think the main difference for me is that Flames seems more collaborative and consenting. For example, the rulebook encourages you to discuss your intent with your foe beforehand to avoid discrepencies. It seems to me to fit the 'past tense' narrative too.

    In addition to this, maybe in 40k (which is a far more abstracted system in many ways) I liked the idea that you had to have a little extra personal skill and judgement too...to compensate, perhaps for the dreadful imbalances in the mechanic.

    Maybe.

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  10. Always good to read another good write up on 6th Ed. Makes me want to play my 1st game of 40K in over 15 years all the more. :) (Don't count the attempts at a game with my little boy.)

    I'm now half way through reading the rules and they seem lots more fun than 5th Ed - which is what I was looking for. now all I need to do is find a mate who'll jump in on the starter with me.

    We need pics in future batreps. I like seeing all yer guard arrayed for battle.

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  11. What I like about the new rules is that they basically allow you to do what you want!? It's like the brainstorm was like... "wouldn't it be cool if"... and they basically answered "yes" to it all! chucking grenades, issuing challenges, shooting at chargers... Overall I think the game is far more cinematic, and I've found that they encourage the taking of risks!

    "Who dares wins" and all that (or dies horribly of course!)

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  12. Barrage doesn't ALWAYS scatter 2d6 does it? If you roll a "hit", it stays put, right?

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  13. Dai, I wish we'd taken pics. They looked absolutely spiffing arrayed against Gravis's gorgeous minis!

    And BoxerSaint, you are correct: a hit is a hit!

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  14. Drax, by all means you can submit that report. With the way the Warp is, it might not even have happend yet for everyone else!

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Thanks for taking the time to comment!