Now that I have had time to digest the rule book, and play in some tournaments, I want to say that I absolutely love 6th Ed. Mostly because it is now any bodies game!
Allies have leveled the playing field folks. And they are here to stay. Embrace the madness!
But it makes sense.
WWII, The Gulf War... any major engagement the US enters is not without allies. Why would the 41st Millennium be any different?
Allies serve the exact purpose they are supposed to. They allow armies to flush themselves out and fill holes in places they are weak. They help each other.
In 40k this is the answer to all that was wrong with 5th Ed. Gone are the days of "The Leafblower" where a single codex would dominate all comers.
At DaBoyz (I have a GT review in queue at BOLS, come on Larry post that sucker!) I faced a beautifully painted Tau/Eldar army by Ricky Johnson, but not only was it pretty to behold, it was down right nasty. Previously neither of those armies would compete alone. Sure you would see the rare exception where a good player squeaks into the top three with Eldar or Tau, probably due to soft scores, but the number of GT wins between the two is indeed small.
I love that Ricky was able to play an army he obviously cared about and do it with style. Allies is allowing players to dust off those old models that have been rotting on the shelves for years. I got to actually play Tau at Mechanicon, to unfortunate results, but I still enjoyed painting and playing them!
Some see it as a marketing ploy to move more plastic. Well DUH! What a great idea GW! Rather than constantly codex creeping individual books to try to sell the flavor of the month, just let us play whatever we want! I'm honestly shocked we did not see this sooner.
Allies were a great decision that help the game, and the guys who love to make armies. I for one will get to make my Armageddon army, and now I can finally do my own Eldar that was back burnered last year, by giving them some Tau buddies. Look to see a renewed interest in my Ulthwe army soon! Hey Eldar guys, are there any fluffy examples of Ulthwe working with Tau I can draw upon for inspiration?
6th Ed is more than just allies though. Flyers are huge too. They can be nasty, but I have yet to see them make a huge impact in the game. Ben Mohoelieliee played Cron Air at DaBoyz, and took Best General, but I have to believe that it would be fairly common for him to run into armies designed to blast him. My experience vs flyers has been one of adjustment. They sure change the way I play 40k, but I have not seen them over power things. I love playing my Storm Raven now! It adds a tactical element to the game that I believe a lot of guys have over looked.
I am not too crazy about 6th ed missions since most games I have played have been pretty heavy on just grabbing objectives. This sorta tips the game in the favor of those combinations who can pack the hardest hitting "Troops" on the table. But again, Allies fixes this too.
I think my biggest complaint about 6th is hull points. Sure it makes it easier to beat Leafblowers, sorta, but I hate how it completely invalidated my Drop Pod Dread army before it even saw the light of day. Before I could drop 4 dreads on the table and reasonably expect at least one or two to survive a round of shooting. Extra armor and Smoke meant that I would get a couple into assault, backed up by a couple more next turn. Well now every STR 5 and 6 gun in the game is a dread killer. Before I would just shrug off glances, especially DC dreads who outright ignore shaken and stun, but now multi lazers, star cannons, and even heavy bolters are bonified dread killers through hull points.
To balance HP though, come Warlord traits and new powers. I love that I can swap out codex powers for Divination. It adds taste and variety! Plus some beef to replace weak codex powers.
We have definitely not even cracked the surface of some of the combinations possible in 6th. But the days of the single overpowering uber codex are over. (replaced by overpowering uber combinations) But at least now there are many many more choices! Great Job GW on making some good decisions.
On a related note, I have a little rules discussion for you. The new 6th ed approach to special rules is pretty easily abused. Ricky Johnson had his Tau Suit Commander upgraded with Stabalizers, and claimed that this granted the effect to the entire squad he joined. SO, this meant that he commander could join a squad of broadsides and they could all move and shoot without penalty. Same for Black Sun filters too I believe. How do you guys like them apples? Do Broadsides get the benefit of a suit commanders stabilizers?
The Walking Dead reviews soon!
Jawaballs
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20 comments:
You know, the Dreads may not be as survivable now, but it's still on my 40K bucket list to cast Prescience on a Furioso w/ Duel Blood Talons and charge into a 50 man Guard blob lolz.
Which one is Prescience? I don't have my book on me. I actually played a furioso at DaBoyz and indeed managed to cast a reroll to hit Primaris power on it with my libby before charging it into combat against a bunch of Nids. It was satisfying. Very satisfying.
Prescience is the re-roll to hit power out of the Divination tree. That would be the one. :)
@Neil
Did that this last weekend. Killed 36 models on the charge :D
units still move at the pace of the slowest model in the unit. fearless & stealth are conferred from a single model but I don't think Relentless does and I just checked the FAQ, there is nothing about it.
Stabilizers also work with allies. So you could have Marine devastators that can move and shoot at full BS. My favorite use of power transfers is a sorcerer casting Invisibility on the unit of Plague Marines he's in, and then moving to another unit of Plague Marines. Now each one of them has stealth and shrouded.
I agree on the Allies front. It opens up options for both tourney and storyline players, and sells a good amount of product. Folks in these parts are really enjoying allying CSM to Daemons, Eldar and Dark Eldar, Tau and Orks, stuff like that. Yes, there will walys be the guy who selects his Allies based purely on combos and maximized efficiency/dice rolls, but that guy exists outside the world of Allies as well. Such a nice segue to CronAir, btw...
Flyers aren' that bad either. So far, they've been taken in limited numbers due to FOC slots and points values. Of course, Necrons break the fun there, as they're th eonly army with dedicated transport Flyers, and ones that break the basic tenets of Flyers and Transports. You can't blame the Max Efficiency players for taking them though, as they are the most efficient units out there. it's hard not to slam that Easy Button of Invasion Beams on the last turn of an objective game.
I can't speak to the Tau rule thing,but the key will be whether it grants a USR, and if that USR says that it applies to a "model" or a "unit", and if it's unit, if it requires an entire unit with the rule, or a unit with at least one model with the rule.
I have not played much of 6th but this post inspires me to. Jawa, will we see you at Adepticon? Seriously, you should swap your games days trips for Adepticon...much better.
No, that is a negative on Adepticon 2012. But, almost a positive for next year. I was speaking to some one who will remain undisclosed at the moment who is on the waitlist for this years team event, and we decided that the Team thing in Tennessee this summer is a strong posibility, with Adepticon 2014 a near certainty. Nowadays I need at least a year to plan. I am more about the artistic side of trying to win a team theme competition, but I want to beat some face too.
Oh and as far as Gamesday I believe this will be my last next summer. I made it my mission to keep going until I fail to win Best Banner, and I made a pact last year to actually try to win a Demon, so I am committed for 2013. But it is simply not worth going to any more.
For me and Fritz Gamesday is about just hanging out, meeting fans from Youtube and the blog, playing casual games vs all comers and having fun. We had a great time last year, but I'm not sure a trip to Chicago was worth it...
What was worse with the Broadsides is that he also attached a Farseer. Now they had powers to ignore cover, and could move to get angles and shoot at full BS. Needless to say he tabled my mech heavy army in three turns. :)
@General / TheRhino
Relentless goes model by model. S&P applies to the whole unit if one model has it. S&P is relentless except you can't run or overwatch. What's great about the stabilizers is that it grants S&P (so relentless) on your turn, but then stops at the end of your turn so that you can still fire overwatch on the enemies turn.
I did something like that with the Biomancy power Endurance. I used it one turn to try to get my dreadnought to recover a hull point, the next turn to give relentless to a unit of allied Long Fangs, and then the next two turns to give FNP to my terminators who were in HtH with a Chaos Lord. I've found Endurance to be one of the most versatile Psy powers in the game because there is ALWAYS a good use for it.
On the same note, Sgt. Telion may make camo cloaks obsolete on whatever unit he attaches to. His presence gives his unit stealth, doesn't it, so why would you pay more for the cloaks? Just in case he bites it?
@Dan
That's a sweet combo. The only problem with transferring the powers is keeping those units close.
The camo cloaks give a +1 cover save now instead of stealth. So if you buy camo cloaks and Telion, the squad has a +2 to cover saves.
Derp. Yeah, I saw the Telion error in the .pdf after I posted.
The range on Endurance is pretty good - you can't throw it scross the board, but my Librarian is in Terminator Armor, and they tend to stay pretty center of the board/action. Even if there the best use is out of range, there always seems to be some use on the board within range. In a different game, Endurance kept my terminators alive for an extra round against Screamers... not that that changed the ultimate outcome.
When will Jawa put up a new video of the month...c'mon man!
thanks for the clarifications guys! slow and purposeful is conveyed and therefore they are relentless. nice.
On the note of the stabilization system,the ability isn't conferred to the rest of the unit, in fact quite the opposite happens. It states quite clearly in the entry in the tau codex that for it to be used the whole team must be equipped with it, as a team of broadsides cannot have it, the squad nor the commander would be able to use the ability.
It says "If one model in a team has AS then all models in the team must be similarly equipped, and if one model makes use of the system, all must do so." I believe the first part refers to when you purchase the ASS. It doesn't say anything about not being able to use ASS if not everyone has it.
as a Tau player, the black sun filter DOES give nightvision ability to the rest of the unit but that is specified in the special rules section on a rule by rule basis. Another example? Hit and Run. So if someone says the rule is conferred to the entire unit, just double check the main rulebook and that specific special rule.
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