Pre-release thoughts about 6th Edition

So with 6th Edition mere days away from launch I thought I'd share a few of my thoughts about the upcoming release, the various rumors/leaks that are making their way around the interwebs and about 5th ed. drawing to a close. So without further ado...

Yep, it's a post about 6th, so here'e the obligatory pic of the rule book.

First off I want to say that I really enjoyed 5th. I honestly wasn't really ready for it to end. However as the rumors of 6th started to come out and it seemed that it was more and more inevitable I did start to lose interest. Not really in playing games mind you. I still have one last game of 5th planned for tomorrow night (where my Eldar will try to get some revenge for their loss at the hands of Yancy's Tau!) But I have had little drive to do anything else with the hobby. I haven't really made any new lists to try out in a couple of months. I have done a bit of hobbying, but it has been a real mental struggle to get myself to sit down at the hobby table these last few weeks. I just find it hard to get inspired to do anything when I don't know if it's going to be any good when 6th rolls around.

As 6th rumors started to spread all over the internet I was skeptical and quite frankly terrified of what 6th was going to bring. Random terrain, random charge ranges, allies, flyers, ap on close combat weapons. When it was just tidbits here and there all we could really do was look at how those things would work in the context of 5th edition and a lot of it honestly sounded horrible to me. I was worried that I wouldn't like it. I have literally zero interest in any other miniatures game I've seen being played so I was beginning to fret that my mini-wargaming days were numbered. Who knows, they still could be.

As more and more rumors and some leaks have come out though we are starting to get a better picture of what 6th is going to be like and I've really started to come around. I still think random charge lengths is terrible mind you, but overall the game looks like its going to be even more dynamic than anything we've played to date.

The rules for flyers look kind of cool. I currently don't have any ready to go, but I may have to get my Razorwing painted up so I can run it as an ally to my other forces.

 The new vehicle damage system and hull points sounds like it will bring the much needed toning down to light vehicles while actually making the more expensive heavier vehicles more worthwhile. I do have 4 Land Raiders so I may have to bust them out and see how that goes!

Wound allocation is going away/changing. I'm not sure if changing to the closest model is the best solution, but I'm willing to give it a chance if it helps do away with all the silly wound allocation shenanigans.

I'm still not 100% sold on the fortifications, but I suspect that in the end most tournaments will not be using this as it makes setting up balanced, fair tables very hard for the TO. At the very least I suspect that Fortress of Redemptions will be a no go. Even if I don't think they're all that great it's still only 0-1 per army so it's impact should be fairly minimal.

The changes to add ap to assault is IMO a good thing. I especially like that power weapons are AP3. It's really gonna see a big buff to terminator squads. These guys are gonna finally be the kings of the battlefield they should be!

Where do I even begin with Psychic Domination?! When we first heard about this it sounded like all powers except Grey Knights were going to be randomly determined. Now as we learn that you get your codex powers OR can opt to roll for PD powers it starts to seem like it will really just provide some new options in friendly games. Since in the end you still get to choose I think it will be a fun new option. I still don't think you'd want to try running it in any sort of tourney, but in a pick-up game at the FLGS, why not?

Then finally the biggest turn around I'm having would have to be on Allies. I loathed the allies rules in the old Deamonhunters and Whitchhunters codex's. I thought it was poorly thought out and unbalanced. When I heard allies were in in 6th all I could think of was that. As we've seen more and more about how they will work though I've gotta say I think it will work. I do think it has the potential to really amp up the power levels in a lot of ways, I also think it will provide so many different combinations that it will kind of balance itself out.

There's of course a lot more going on, but these seem like some of the bigger things to me. All in all as we get closer and closer I'm really starting to get pumped! It's gonna be a whole new game and I'm ready to dive in and start learning the nuances of it!

Also I'm thinking about doing a series of 'Learning' Video Battle Reports where we discuss various rules as the game goes on and afterwards discuss things we learned and what we thought worked well etc.etc. Of course this is the first I've mentioned it to anyone, anywhere so I don't even know if I'll have participants willing to share their thoughts, but we'll see. It's just something I'm toying around with.

So what are your thoughts here in the final few days of 5th? Are you excited? Anxious? Filled with unbridled rage at how this will ruin your army? Let me know, I'm eager to hear about it.

Till next time...