40K BREAKING: The Charge Phase Teaser!
We knew this one was coming – Games Workshop talks Charges in 8th Edition Warhammer 40k!
After talking about the movement, shooting, psychic powers, unit profiles and weapons, Games Workshop is now talking about Charges and how those will go down in 8th Edition!
via Warhammer Community
“The basic mechanics of this phase are very similar to how they work now. You can select any unit with 12″ as the target of your charge, and your units will move towards them 2D6″.
Enemy units still have a chance to hit the charging unit with overwatch, provided that they are not already in combat. Just as in the current edition, overwatch is a hit on a flat 6 – all pretty familiar so far.
In the current Warhammer 40,000, you need to reach base contact. In the new edition, though, you only need to come within 1″ of an enemy, which in practice means that compared to the current charge range, you get an extra inch.
You also can’t move within 1″ of an enemy you didn’t declare as the target of your charge, so if you want to engage multiple units, you’ll need to brave the overwatch fire of all of them. Overwatch can also be fired multiple times per phase, but as soon as the unit is engaged, they will no longer be able to fire back.”
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So we’re still seeing a lot of the same things we’ve already got:
- Declaring a Charge – 12″ range, 2d6 Random Roll
- Overwatch – still in the game, still hits on 6s
- Must stay 1″ away from enemies (unless you declared them as part of a charge)
But the biggest change is probably that you only need to get within 1″ of your enemy for the charge to go off. The second biggest change is that “Overwatch can be fired multiple times per phase” – ouch! If you declare you’re charging a unit, you better make sure you get there.
On the plus side getting a successful charge off just got easier. If you’re within 3″ of an enemy you can’t fail a charge (if you survive the Overwatch fire that is). And even if you’re 12″ out, you only need an +11 on the dice roll to make it…
If you look at these tweaks combined with what we know so far about movement and shooting, the big picture is starting to come into focus. Those random pistols units have had will become a lot more popular to use considering you can fire them in the shooting phase even if you’re locked-in. We’re going to have to see how the fight phase is broken down before we can really make a call on shooting vs close-combat!
What do you think of the tweaks to Charging?
