Goatboy’s 40K: 9th Edition Official Rules Excitement
Goatboy here and at BOLS HQ, we finally got our hands on the new edition! Here are my first exciting impressions of #NEW40K.
It is a heck of a box, and with the prices out it is going to be an exciting time. I know I’ve been wanting to burn some money on some plastic goodness. I am leaning towards some kind of assault based Necron idea but will have to wait and see. Overall – the game is not super different than 8th – it feels more refined in some interesting ways. I wouldn’t say it does everything I want – but it feels ok. I will hopefully get a game at some point as we are waiting on the points and FAQ changes.
Flying Away With Changes
So let’s see the significant changes – I think the fly update is probably one of the bigger ones to hit the scene. There were a lot of units that liked to use fly to leave combat and throw a crap ton of bullet hell at whatever unit was behind the assault. Removing the ability of the unit to fall back and shoot is a huge change. Especially since a lot of big stuff that had scary guns were able to move out and shoot whatever they want. Yes, vehicles and monsters can shoot into the combat, but you are forcing their decision on who they can target – a big benefit for moving up and touching a unit or two. The extra -1 to hit is also a nice bonus as well. Overall I find this change to be a good thing as it still validates out moving your opponent and engaging things to force specific interactions.
The other big fly change is how flyers interact with the game now. The ability to move off the field and then deep strike in the next turn for free anywhere is a huge thing. You can move up, throw some firepower, and then get away to deep strike and shoot at a hidden unit. Thankfully the Airwing is gone, so they need to utilize different detachments to get all the fliers. I know some people think it might be too good, but it does make the other fliers feel like the Eldar ones that could move, turn, and get you anywhere on the table. We’ll have to see if Flyers are still an issue.
Stratagems
The shift on the Reroll Strat is huge too. It forces specific Stratagems that depended on a die roll to be a lot harder – which is a good thing. Too much of the time, a reroll 4+ felt like it always happened. It also allows GW to make Strats that are very powerful but hinge on a 50% chance. It also stops the ability to save yourself from an explosion. This gives things like the Alpha Legion explosion strat a lot more power and can be annoying if you are lucky and roll a ton of 6’s when your boxes die. I know this edition started to feel like a vehicle heavy option – but those explosions can just wreck you.
I Smite Thee!
Did anyone see where you can’t just cast Smite 3 times with Magnus? Smite is the only power that can have multiple casting, and I wasn’t finding anywhere that said Smite can only be cast once by a model. I expect the whole Sorcerer abilities that were FAQ’d in Chapter Approved to show up in the upcoming Army faqs that should be out in 2 weeks. It just makes sense as they spent all this time getting Grey Knights a chance, and I doubt they would remove it all of a sudden.
Mystery FAQs
This is again another weird issue with this book – we have the rules, but we don’t know how all the books will work with them. Obviously, we expect some balance to come from the FAQs that don’t exactly sync up with the main rule book. We’ll see what happens when they finally come out. I hope we see something along the lines of retconning some armies’ lack of “legion” traits for all their models while all the other books let everyone be cool with their rules. I will just have to wait and see.
New Missions
On the mission front, they look alright. I get the feeling a lot of games will revolve around a player trying to table on turn 3 and then spend the next few turns getting some of the primary mission. I also think we will see some armies like Orks with Da Jump quickly move out and get ahead. The Competitive player in me thinks I should always plan for going second, as that is the only thing I can try to mitigate. The lack of forcing an Alpha Strike list to get a +1 to go first is not there, and with no Seize, it is just something you can’t depend on.
Into the Future
I am sure I will have more thoughts as I dig into the book some more. I just got it, and I have the next few days off in the house like a lot of other people, so I am sure I will find some juicy tidbits. I am just excited the box set is pretty affordable (ok GW affordable), which is awesome. I bet we will see a true “starter” set coming towards the end of the year. That Primaris Biker Chaplain has to come out at some point, right? It makes sense he would be the extra special unit in some kind of additional basic Starter kit? I wonder if they go to the thought of just doing a smaller book and a single army for the starter set. Keep it simple, under 150 bucks, and let people jump in with some themed dice and heck maybe a new codex?
Alright, time to chill out a bit after a long work week. Until next time!
