40K BREAKING: It’s The Fight Phase Teaser
Games Workshop talks up the Fight Phase for Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition!
After the Charge teaser from yesterday, we knew this one was on the way. It’s time to get down to the business of fisticuffs – let’s talk Fight Phase!
via Warhammer Community
“We’ve already seen in our article on unit profiles that Initiative has gone. Instead, the priority for striking is based on the previous phase, with those units that completed a charge swinging first.
Units that activate gain a free 3″ move towards the closest enemy. This can be used to get within 1″ of other enemy units, if you’re cunning, dragging more foes into the melee and preventing them from shooting next turn, even if you didn’t charge them directly (giving them no chance to overwatch). Enemy gun lines will need to be careful about how they position their supporting units, so as to avoid getting dragged into the fight too.
Following chargers, players take it in turns to activate units across the board to fight – this can get quite tactical, as both players need to choose the combats where dealing maximum damage will be important to them, while trying to limit enemy retaliation on their valuable or fragile models.”
Read the full article HERE
There is lots more info in the article from Warhammer Community. But I wanted to pause and talk about the core changes first.
- No more Initiative – we knew that already but this also explains that Charging units not only get to strike first, but they activate BEFORE all other units that were/are in combat.
- Units gain a free 3″ move towards the closest enemy – this can be used to drag other units into combat, even if you didn’t directly declare a charge against them! This will make folks think about positioning as you only have to end within 1″ of an enemy now to attack them
- The Fight Phase has alternate activation for the players – we’ve seen this in Age of Sigmar and it can be the most tactically important steps in the game!
- Fixed “To-Hit” rolls mean that your deadly close-combat warriors should be more effective in close-combat than they were in previous editions.
Now, Games Workshop does go on to mention that certain units like Tyranids with Lash Whips and Slaaneshi Daemons may be able to attack out of sequence. Stratagems will also impact this sequencing – the Fight Phase is about to get a lot more nuanced.
GW also mentioned that players will have more an “influence over the outcome of combat now.” I’m not sure what that means, but I think it might have something to do with those Command Points and other decisions we might have as players. Plus, it sounds like Close Combat weapons have also caught the eye of the design team and they will have their own special rules, too!
“Across the board, these changes lead to combats that are more deadly than ever. Generals who successfully coordinate a battlefield-wide charge will be rewarded with a phase of utter carnage, while their opponent will have to work hard to minimise taking damage, and carefully consider their retaliatory options.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m very curious about the balance between shooting and melee in 8th right now. These rules make it sound like close combat will be fairly rewarding for armies that can get there – which is great! But the shooting rules also have me worried about those same armies actually being able to get there. That is a fine line that requires the balancing skills of a tight-rope walker to get right.
Then again, we are only getting teasers of these rules and we still don’t know what other special rules armies will have. I don’t think it’s enough info to go off of yet – there are still plenty of things we just don’t know. But I’ve got to give Games Workshop credit because this drip-drop of info is making me really pumped about the rule-set and I want more info!
What do you think of these changes to the Fight Phase? Are you looking forward to busting out a close combat army to see how it all works?!
