Goatboy’s 40K: New Box, New Rules, New Game!
Goatboy here to talk about that new amazing 9th Starter Set, and all the new rules we’ve gotten this last week!
I’m coming to you from my little work cell in my house. A room full of computers, rc cars, plastic models, paint, and all my hopes and dreams. The big dream right now is to get my hands on 9th edition so I can finally find a way to get a game in. It is so hard to not build lists right now as things are expected to change, points going up, and army lists slim down after a few months of eating Poptarts and Hot Pockets. We’ve had a pretty cool week with some Death Guard Rules, Fabius Biles nonsense, a smattering of Custodes/Silence Sisters, and even some awesome new 9th edition rules. With that’s let’s go with what I liked.
War of the Spider
First will go with the new army rules. It feels like this new Psychic Awakening is pretty packed. You have what looks like a pretty big Death Guard update, a whole new army from Fabius Bile, cool updated Custodes, and a new combined army for the Imperium. That’s a ton of new rules to get into one Psychic Awakening book. It feels like some of the other book should have gotten some of this treatment but these updates were heavily needed for these armies. As I write this the DG leaked out a bit so look for a better breakdown later when I get a chance to read it all thru. Just know I am excited as my current playstyle for them looks like it is intact and even has some other neat options.
Fabius
I am a huge fan of Fabius Bile from back in the days of my initial Chaos infestation. I had a few armies with them where I upgraded some Chaos Space marine units, got them in Rhinos, and brought my own special form of pain to the masses. The new rules he gets for his Legion is interesting as getting a flat +1 strength and movement is pretty spicy – especially when you start combining it with Fabius doing other upgrades himself. This could lead to some crazy fast assault units smashing into your opponents army. Heck – if this new edition gives the Legion traits to everything in the army we could see some really nutty armies out there with wave and waves of damage potential. Heck if you could still stack modifiers you could have gotten some -3 to hit Possessed just as easily as some of the others armies. I am still thinking the army will be an odd one – but again till I see the full leaked rules I will have to wait. I will get one of these Fabius Bile clones to paint whenever that model comes out.
Custodes
I am also very excited for the Custodes rules as I have a fledgling Biker force and would like to add more. If the Sisters of Silence are a great/cheap troop choice for the army as part of the Talons of the Emperor – well then I might be in for a fantastic ride full of golden bros, quietly awesome battle warriors, and a drive to kill as many Thousand Sons I can find (Screw you Matt!). I also like how the Assassins seem to take a part of this as an option for Imperium armies and not breaking their detachment. More rules for these guys are great as I have a decent amount of them ready to play with. If I can fit all this into one Detachment then I get to be greedy with 12 CP’s.
New Edition Rules
Beyond Psychic Awakening we also had some new rules show up for a preview. I like the whole “keyword” for terrain as it will allow events to build a little more thematic options that are not just flat L’s covered in texture. Those worked well for the current edition but creating the obscured rule based on the tallest point on the terrain is a good thing. It will be a bit confusing but I expect a a lot of events to have a defaulted terrain doc in their packet for those playing their event – whenever they get to start back up again. Blasts look like I expected. A flat set of hits for throwing damage at unit sized over 5 is a good thing as it can be very frustrating to roll that 1. The idea that Grenades get it is great too as it makes my DG grenade bomb extremely awesome – especially with an added 6″ of damage potential. It also makes things like Missile Launchers more interesting as they an easily throw out a ton of damage clear hordes.
The big win from the new rules is the updated Tanks. It sounds like will see a lot more boxes on the battlefield and if Flamers don’t get the Blast rule be afraid of Plagueburst Crawlers getting close and just throwing sprays of vomit over everyone. It makes me thinking seeing Punisher Leman Russes moving forward and getting mixed in becoming an important thing. I don’t know if it will bring back Land Raiders but who knows. I think with some more options for auto explosion that might come for some armies will be a scary thing. I also wonder how people riding in the vehicle can shoot and if they need to shoot the unit they are engaged with or they can shoot over the assault. I could imagine some Battle Wagons open topped and full of Flash Gitz or Burna Boyz getting close and dousing the enemy in damage.
Another interesting thing I saw was the whole Unaligned rule that seems to show up. The Zoat is labeled as Unaligned and the rules bit seemed to indicate you can put him in your army. They don’t get anything but it still lets you do some weird stuff with the Unaligned things. I wonder if will see that more often for some specific characters and options for army building. I also wonder about the whole 7 different main army roles you could have and build off of.
New Boxed Set
Finally we saw the new boxed set. It looks like a ton of models and some really sweet looking plastic. The box looks huge and it is marketed as not a starter box – but instead a new edition box. It is interesting as there are no dice or rules in the boxed set – just tons of new minis. Also – all the minis were not snap fit and look like models that will show up in future boxed sets. Check out those Necron Warriors and how they have options on the sprue this time around. You also don’t have the whole – weirdly super combined sprues that were a pain to split apart when you did some army swaps when the box comes out. I wonder how much it will cost as it looks like a ton of stuff. I am hoping we go back to under 200 but will see. I even like some of the new stuff they showed not from the boxed set. The Necron chunky boi destroyer is pretty neat and while I am not interesting in making a Cron army – it is great to see new stuff for them that looks so good.
Overall it is a pretty exiting time as a GW fan. They ended up not doing so bad with the shut down and even made some money after they started shipping again. They showed some heart in saying their game is for everyone and right now we are all just excited to throw some cash at our local FLG and buy that new boxed set.
Come on New Edition set – get here fast! What are you most excited about?
