Goatboy’s 40k: 8th Edition Hands-on First Impressions
8th is here and we can officially play with a paper book! Let’s talk about how 8th is treating you.
May the false Emperor soil his golden throne and the true leaders of humanity come forth and bring about a true age of Darkness! Or like – just do whatever you want. 8th is here and we can officially play with a paper book! I’ve played 4 games versus a buddy as we test Tournament lists for the upcoming American Team Championship next month. The lists are extreme and no point in chatter on about the copy and paste nonsense. Instead let’s talk about how 8th is treating you.
Personally I am having a good time with 8th edition. It is a lot less stressful on movement and initial army building that is letting me have a lot of fun. Its been a bit since I had fun – even in losing with a game of 40k. But not everything is amazing. There are a few things I hope will see clarified in the upcoming FAQs, thoughts, etc as people work through the rules. In some ways the leak has been good for the game as we had 2 weeks of play testing to allow thoughts, rules, and other things to come to the top of the soup that is new the edition of 40k.
Blasts – Maybe?
Currently I do not like how Blasts have been handled. The loss of a better chance to hit mixed with a lack of overall hits has really hurt them. Look at how a Frag Grenade does d6 hits and a Plasma Cannon does only d3 hits. It doesn’t feel right just yet and makes me think there could be some tweaks. I do like how flamers are handled thought – as the auto hit mechanic makes them very interesting. In fact I wonder if Blasts would be fixed if they allowed Auto hits of some sort back. Like if they didn’t move or something. I just don’t know yet as they just don’t feel right – or worth it right now. I think that is because I am constantly rolling a 1 or 2 when I throw out a blast. It feels like anything that is just a massed amount of shooting will end up being better then any sort of blast. Looking at the Rapid Fire Battle Cannon versus the Avenger Gatling gun. One is a guaranteed 12 shots that while not being as good at hurting a vehicle – does the same thing to most infantry. The average on 2d6 comes out to 7 hits – and you still have to roll to hit. It just doesn’t feel the same even though in most other 7th games you really only hit 3 or some models in any given unit.
Proofreading Please
I also feel some of the armies need some point tweaks as some things just feel to cheap. Mix this with some “typos” and misreadings and we got some army issues. I think this falls into the idea that while the game was heavily play tested – it was done in a way with more intent involved in using and utilizing the rules. The competitive players look for ways to break/push the game into an advantage for their armies so instead of intent we look for pure RAW and that can generate issues. If something can be read in multiple ways – you end up leaving a place for people to try and abuse the option. We also need a good fine-tooth combing to see any typos, missing rules, and other things due to “combo’d” armies like the Ynarri and how things ride in their purchased vehicles. The keyword mechanic is good – but when we have an over arching keyword that doesn’t have a consistent ruling across all options (Wraithguard and how they ride dirty in non Eldar vehicles). We’ll see as I feel this GW is a lot more prone to fix and change things as they get more data from events.
The Emerging Meta
I am also hoping events first try the initial rules, test out some things, and then make decisions to try and balance their own events games. This comes from the push to remove low drop armies advantage of choosing to go first or not. I feel that is an important factor to try and limit massed MSU armies and is a big factor in creating and building your own army. I do think armies will end up being more balanced as events, missions, and game play start to work out good and bad lists. But the first thing we need to do is let the game breathe, see if it has some sickness or not, and then look at performing surgery or engaging GW to help “fix” their game.
Hello Sisters
Overall I am pretty happy with most armies have some ability to work within the game. The old good armies did get kicked down a few notches but as is usual with any game – there are better armies than others. I am hoping army books will let some of these lackluster armies shine a bit more – but we’ll have to wait and see. Currently I think a fixed army is the Sisters book as everything feels good, it has out of sequence abilities, good weapons, and the best keyword with Imperium added to all their units. I do think there is some rules ambiguity with them right now – but will see if that gets answered or not. It has to do with Acts of Faith and a unit that gives them more then one a turn. When you get a bunch of these to activate and you got something that could be deemed a bit “much”.
Hopes and Dreams
I am hoping we see more Command Point powers. I really like this bit of “management” and feel there is a lot of play with armies rules and abilities beyond simple rerolls. It also means some armies will want more Command Points to use too – which again can make for some more interesting and balanced lists. That is what I want most of the time – just balanced lists and games that let everyone have fun and a chance. If not even a chance – just a good ability to remove as many of your opponents models as you can.
What have I found to be odd in the game? The reroll & modifier mechanic is weird – but when you think of the amount of reroll 1’s and other abilities it makes sense. It’s there to balance some reroll 1 options and still allow for some true misses. It is a bit clunky but that is because are trying to break multiple editions rules that are locked in our brains. In a few months this won’t matter at all as we have memorized all the internal bits and pieces and quickly devour any new “release”. Right now I am excited to have some of the Chaos Space Marine legions filled in as that keyword feels lackluster beyond a few small character auras.
Currently I am playing Chaos armies as they are my bread and butter and take up the majority of my plastic crack armada. In fact somehow I am building new Chaos guys with a ton of updated Berzerkers using AOS stuff. Plus I bought a Lord of Skulls and finished building it last night. It didn’t cut me like the last one I did for a client so I am happy. It still has some time to stab me with the blood containers on the back.
~What are you building for the upcoming weeks? Anything new or are you just bringing out the weird old stuff that might be good again?
