Competitive 40K: Charges, Overwatch, and Characters
Adam, from TFG Radio, here to talk about some new 9th Edition rules we saw this week.
We are now seeing a second week of previews from Games Workshop. Although not every day is a rules preview from their Twitch stream, we are still seeing some information getting shown when they show us the faction focus. This has led to many more instances of wild speculation, Open Play games claiming to be 9th edition games, and already people selling their armies online. I’m not here to talk about that though. What I am here to talk about this week are a few of the rules we have seen and how these rules can affect the meta, and even maybe what models you may start seeing on the battlefield. This week we will be looking at the new Overwatch, Look Out, Sir rules, and the Charging blurb.
My what large feet you have, the better to charge them with…
Charges
If you read the faction focus article for Sisters of Battle, you will notice at the very bottom a blurb about charges. Although Overwatch has been somewhat limited, the designers have decided to also limit the reach of your charging units. You must now be able to reach all the units you declared a charge against. This restriction now forces you to choose which units to charge carefully, so you can no longer declare against everyone within 12″ unless you can reach all those units when you roll to charge. This is the same for those times you declares against two units, one close and one far, hoping you roll high enough to reach the far unit but also making sure you get into combat because you can easily reach the closer unit. Just this small blurb alone will cause people to look at units or wargear that have a long charge, give you a free reroll when charging, or gives you added distance when charging. Units that can advance and charge, such as Wulfen or some Slaanesh units, will also be making more of an appearance on the battlefield, so be prepared.
Studying the new Overwatch rules intently…
Overwatch
Overwatch is actually a recent rule, having been introduced in 6th edition. Previously, in 2nd edition, Overwatch had a different set of rules. In the new edition the designers felt that it was too powerful and also ate up a lot of time for very little gain. What we know is that Overwatch is now a stratagem, thus limiting their use. There seems to be ways to have more than one unit use Overwatch and units still gain benefits to their Overwatch. Even so, there will be some shake up in armies now that Overwatch is somewhat limited. It will actually force hard decisions on to whether use that stratagem now or when your opponent declares another charge on a more important unit. Players will also have to decide whether to include units with better guns or more guns. Units like the Deredeo Contemptor or Broadsides may see even more use as they carry a large amount of guns. Some players may even forego their shooty army and add in a melee unit or two as a counter assault element. I find it hard to see a static gunline working in this new edition because of the new missions and now this new Overwatch rule.
Man, my phone has been blowing up
Look Out, Sir
A return of this rule name brings some small, but significant, changes. The number of wounds limit is reduced by one and the way units block for characters has changed. This really could change how you build your army. Do you go the multiple small unit route so that you can easily have units with range of your characters? If you do though, your units can easily be brought to under 3 models and make your characters vulnerable. Go big squads and you open them up to being hit by blast weapons and getting hurt that way. It will be a tough balance on the size and number of units in the army because of this. If you have a character heavy army your army arrangement and movement during the game will be more important. Unit’s like the Ogryn Bodyguard or Victrix Honour Guard may see more time on the tabletop in order to protect their characters. That means that certain force org slots may become more scarce if they are filled with bodyguard type units. Since most of those types of units are elite choices we are lucky that the battalion detachment now has 6 elite slots available. I’m sure you can make good use of those.
~That’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed the article. Let me know what you think of these new rules, and what units to look out for, in the comments section below.
