40K Editorial: On 5th Edition – Three Years on…
So 5th Edition has been out for over two now. Its time to start talking about what we think really worked, and what didn’t…
Right off the bat, lets talk about some of the biggest changes from 4th and how we think they turned out four years after the fact.
Assault Rules: These as usual for a new edition got a hefty overhaul. Unfortunately, just as the master players of every edition in the past were those who mastered the nuances and tricky skills of the Assault Phase, they have been discovered in 5th. The tricks are new for this edition, but they are still tricks. Overall, Assault by its nature of having double the chances to kill as shooting is still the dominant avenue towards tabling an army and forces that can bring high lethality into assault quickly are generally top tier contenders.
Vehicle Rules: These got a minor tweaking from 4th, with an emphasis on improving vehicle survivability. It worked. This combined with the new lower costed tanks has flooded the tabletops around the world with more vehicles than we ever could dream of in 4th. The fact that this mechanized army style tends to cost roughly 50% more than a foot army is obviously a coincidence.
Missions: Gone are the old 4th edition sections of all types of encounters, replaced by the 3×3 grid of the main rulebook missions (and every body’s favorite – killpoints). We already see a huge variety of interesting missions these days to deal with this – on the tournament circuit. And, no don’t mention the Missions book, that nobody owns.
True LoS: Its apparently here to stay, having just been added to Warhammer Fantasy. Love it or hate it, I think the key is to ask, not how to get rid of it, but how to make it work better. I’ll start off with a request for a standardized chart keyed to base size to settle the “can I see your kneeling Wraithlord” arguments.
The Armies: We’ve seen quite an interesting set of armies updated so far. A whole ton of Marine books and others I never thought would see the light of day (Blood Angels, Space Wolves, and Dark Eldar) have some roaring back into the mix while some of the games old standbys have languished in the outer dark (Craftworld Eldar, Chaos Marines). More oddly, while we have seen a lot of interesting rule mechanics here and there, (stat checks, pain tokens, etc…) it still seems that no matter what the designers do, the elite Assault armies are ruling the wasteland – with the exception of IG and their seemingly unique ability to field over-the-top firepower if they can get the drop on you.
So the question is where are we right now rules-wise, what worked, and what didn’t. What would you put on your top list for updating in 6th?
