RUMORS: 40k 5th Edition – Round 4!
Rumors brought to the community by warseer’s Champsguy:
~And the beat goes on….Following up on the 3rd set of 5th Edition rumors we see this new list with even more tidbits for us to chew on. Lets dive right in:
Shooting
-Blast weapons don’t roll to hit, they just scatter. They now operate like template weapons in that any model touched by the blast is hit. No more “roll 4+ for partial” stuff. A unit firing multiple blast weapons (a SM Dev squad being the example) fires like a multiple barrage unit would in 4th edition. Scatter once, then lay the blasts off of the original template. These two things might make up for the lack of a to-hit roll. You don’t need to center the hole over someone when you place it before determining scatter.
-You can shoot over other squads if you can see over them because of elevation, etc. You can always shoot at vehicles or monstrous creatures over other squads.
-Line of Sight: It’s units that block LoS, so you shouldn’t worry about spending 45 minutes drawing LOS from each individual trooper to each individual target. You draw LOS from the eyes of the model. Area terrain gives cover saves. There’s an entire chapter on ruined buildings and how they affect line of sight (like a mini Cities of Death). I honestly don’t remember if 6″ of terrain blocks sight or not.
-After shooting and wounding, you can choose to become pinned. You get a +1 to cover save (or a 6+ if you’re in the open). It’s the “get down!” rule.
– Flamers: You now determine wounds for all template weapons firing from a squad before you take saves or remove casualties.
-Gets Hot! is back to the 3rd ed version. So that Ork character doesn’t have to worry about rolling 3s on his plasma gun.
Assault
-Assaulting in cover: If you assault someone in cover, and you don’t have grenades, you now become initiative 1 (instead of them becoming init 10). This works a lot better when more than two units are in combat.
-If you are charged while broken, you make another fall back move immediately. If you don’t get away (i.e., they can still reach you), you’re destroyed. If you do get away, you get away.
-Preferred Enemy now allows you to reroll all misses, instead of hitting on a 3+.
Vehicles
-No shooting of defensive weapons if you move full speed.
-Smoke launchers are a 5+ cover save.
-Vehicles can now get up to a 3+ cover save, depending on what they’re hiding behind.
-No re-roll of wounding against transported infantry no matter how far you moved.
-Fire all weapons if you stay still (except Ordnance, it’s got special rules). Fast vehicles can fire everything if they move up to 6″. If you move, you can fire 1 plus defensive weapons. Fast vehicles can move up to 12″ and fire 1 plus defensive. If you move more than 6″, you only fire defensive (I think you can still fire defensive weapons here, but I’m not 100% on that).
-Fast vehicles can move up to 18″ (their max speed now) and only fire defensive.
-Vehicles can only fire at one target. I did not see any special rules for sponsons firing at multiple targets.
-Vehicle damage chart: It’s about halfway between the glancing and penetrating charts of today (1-2 is the can’t shoot/move thing, 3 is weapon, 4 is immobilized, 5-6 destroyed/annihilated). Glance is a -2. If you are glanced, your vehicle can at most be immobilized.
-Transports: If your transport is destroyed, passengers now take a S:4 hit, saves allowed (instead of a 4+). If an open-topped transport is destroyed, it’s a S:3 hit because its easier to disembark.
Miscellaneous
-Still saw nothing on 6″ plus of area terrain blocking line of sight. You CAN declare certain types of terrain as LoS blocking — it just has to be done before the game. You also decide what is difficult, what is dangerous, and what is impassable. Certain things can be difficult for one type of model and not difficult for another. So tank traps might be dangerous terrain for vehicles, but count as clear terrain for infantry. A river might be impassable for infantry, but dangerous for vehicles. You just have to decide before you play. I like this, as it gives more power to the players.
-Force weapons now just inflict instant death instead of that weird pseudo-instant death.
-You can still only take one save per guy.
-Yes, allocate wounds before making saves. This will probably encourage larger squads (goodbye, 6 man las-plas).
-Bikes all now get a 3+ cover save for their turbo-boost. So the psy-cannon thing is out the window.
-A unit with Scouts that is inside a vehicle confers that ability to the vehicle. Let the Pathfinders and Possessed Marines rule!
-Fearless REALLY sucks now. There’s no limit to the number of wounds you can take from being outnumbered. 20 to 1? That’s 20 armor saves.
-As usual folks, Caveat emptor…
Once more, this raftload of rumors points to a 5th Edition that seems to be more than a little “tune up” of 4th. We are seeing real change here, that promises to make the game more free-wheeling and realign the roles of infantry vs vehicles. We are seeing many, many examples of new rules that seem targeted directly at some of the “no brainer” units and tactics in the game right now.
