WFB 8th Ed. Tactica #2 Warmachines

8th edition is upon us and if you haven’t heard warmachines has changed a lot. Today, we look at how warmachines work in 8th edition. Don’t worry if your favorite army can’t field them. We are also going to look out how to kill these hazard lobbing annoyances as well.

In 7th most people would rely on ballistic skill using machines if they had a choice. Guess ranged weapons were very difficult to use. Not only did you have to have a good eye for distances, the 1/3rd chance to hit, and the 1/6th chance to misfire could easily prevent your guess machines from having any effect at all. However, with the vast amount of changes ,I think you will see a shift to the guess ranged weapons in 8th.

-Less damage to ranked troops

-More negatives to hit with cover

-No longer a bonus to hit large targets

-Does not have indirect fire capability

-With large formation, scatter is less problematic

-Does massive damage to ranked units

-Can still shoot at models indirectly behind buildings/other units

-Does multiple wounds

This is mainly referring to stone throwers and mortars. Cannons and other race specific guess weapons have gained distinct advantages with the removal of guessing. Even scraplaunchers are rather painful under the new rules. Trebuchets and the Hellcannon are particularly devastating because of the higher strength they possess.

Not every change in 8th was beneficial to the warmachine. With the removal of randomization and the ability to always wound on a 6, warmachines can drop to fire even quicker then they use to. Combined with the fact that warmachines are, in general, larger than the troops in front of them they can be seen almost anywhere on the battlefield. Another aspect that warmachines now have to deal with is speed! Everything is faster in 8th. Fast cavalry can be 1” away on turn 1 with the new vanguard rules and the randomness involved with marchblocking.

In one of my friend’s games the other day he fielded 2 units of 6 Slaanesh Marauder fast cavalry with throwing axes versus a Dwarf player. The 2 units of fast cavalry were able to vanguard move 12”, march 16” to be in throwing axe range of an organ gun and stone thrower. With the blessing of the pleasure god, the 1st unit of marauders rolled 5 hits and 3 6’s to wound the organ gun. The 2nd unit was able to manage 3 hits and 2 6’s on a nearby stone thrower. Needless to say, the dwarf’s warmachines did not last long through the 2nd turn.