DrBored
05-25-2014, 11:46 AM
I had a play test with a bunch of friends, where we each brought 500 points and split into two teams of three.
Eldar, Tyranids, and Dark Eldar versus Space Sharks, Black Templar, and Tempestus. There was a lot of learning to be done, since so e players were vets of 6th while others havent played since 5th.
We picked a Maelstrom of War mission, each had our own warlord, and drew 3 tactical objectives per team. Our 6 objectives were spread pretty evenly and there were lots of buildings on the table.
Between my Space Shark Librarian, and the Eldar Spiritseer, we had a few good opportunities for psychic powers. Eldar chose their own powers, I went with the new Pyromancy.
Space Sharks
-Librarian
-2 Tac squads (5) with Plasma Gun and Rhino
-Ironclad Dreadnought
Black Templar
-Master of the Forge
-2 Crusader Squad (5) with Razorback (Assault Cannon)
-Dreadnought with Assault Cannon
Militarum Tempestus
-Command Squad in Taurox
-2 Scion squad with Plasma Guns
-Scion squad with Volley Guns
Eldar
-Spiritseer
-2 Wraithguard (5)
Dark Eldar
-Haemonculus w/Shattershard and Dark Gate
-Wracks (5) in Raider
-Wracks (5) in Venom
-Talos w/Splinter Pods and Liquifier Gun
Tyranids
-Tyranid Prime
-Tyranid Warriors (6) with Barbed Stranglers
-2 Tyranid Hormagaunts (15)
(The above are estimations. I'm not 100% on some of the lists)
So, we played through the game, drew our objectives, and had a blast. The funniest part? Both sides, under Battleforged, could be 100% legit lists entirely, thanks to the new ally rules and the hazy Battleforged rules.
The psychic phase went well enough. Eldar, of course, cast a lot of their buffs on those Wraithguard that made them nigh unkillable, so most of our firepower went to neutering the Tyranids and Dark Eldar. Early on, we got lucky and got tactical objectives that had us hold the points on our side of the board, which made for easy points. Later in the game, we got objectives that had us focusing fire on the Haemonculus to get a quick Warlord point, and one objective forced me to get super-aggressive with one of my Rhinos, zipping it well into the enemy deployment zone to score a point.
Pyromancy is definitely worth another look now. Being able to cast multiple spells in a turn means a Librarian with Pyromancy can unleash a lot of firepower against a unit, and by taking a ML2 Librarian and taking both powers from Pyromancy, I got the Primaris for free. Most of the powers are only one Warp Charge, so they're really easy to fire off. I used those powers to completely annihilate a squad of Wracks, and could still shoot at them with the Librarian's regular ranged weapon as well! That's a huge buff to Pyromancy.
The vehicle rules help a little bit, but when facing down a bunch of Wraithguard with their str 10 weapons, even an Ironclad just couldn't stand up to it. Both our dreadnoughts were slaughtered before they could do anything, which was mighty unfortunate.
Militarum Tempestus are quite threatening, but they honestly weren't putting out the firepower that I would have expected out of their volley guns. Still, I think the Tempestus and the Assault Cannon Razorbacks did most of the killing, with the Space Sharks providing a few extra pot-shots.
Going through the phases, double-checking the rules, making sure we were aware of all the changes was quite a challenge, and I'm sure we missed plenty of things, but overall, it seemed like there were fewer arguments, and the rules that we did interact with were nice and clear. The Psychic Phase is well-written, but you need to read all of it before jumping to any conclusions based on early paragraphs (but that's always been how GW has written their stuff). The new rules for shooting didn't come into play too much, since most things were entirely within range, and for Space Marines, it's really not very important when dealing mostly with Bolters and Plasma Guns that have the same range.
The one thing that will cause more arguments than anything else are the new terrain rules. Theyre super clunky, requiring that each individual model be obscured by 25% to recieve the cover from the terrain they're in. I've had arguments over large vehicles having that amount of cover when behind buildings, I can't imagine the arguments that will come about as a result of not having area terrain any more. My personal advice? Just dont bother with that nitpicky crap. Call it area terrain don't label every single piece thats on the table. It'll take too long, cause too many arguments, and generally not feel as fast or clean as it should. Maybe other people will feel differently, but I think this is where GW dropped the ball the hardest.
The rules for army-building are vague at first, but then you realize that you can take any combination of detachments in any number in a Battle-Forged army, and suddenly the only difference between Battle-Forged and Unbound is the requisit HQ and Troops tax that you have. Seriously. That's it. That said, I think we're going to see plenty of people sticking with Battle-Forged for a good while.
And the final thing I'll say is that I'm ager for the Ork Codex for one reason... the Rulebook says that other Codexes will have new types of Detachments, and the Ork Codex would be the first to showcase this, with their own detachments that have specific restrictions and command benefits. I'm really eager to see how they use that, since it could be a very, VERY easy way to introduce many more factions much easier and faster than by doing Supplements. If you take the 'Saim Hann' detachment, for example, Bikes move to Troop, but you don't get Objective Secured. If you take the 'Emperor's Children' detachment, Noise Marines are Troop without needing to take a Slaanesh Lord. If you take the 'Iron Warriors' Detachment, you get one less Fast Attack slot for one more Heavy Support slot. This is all speculation, but the Ork Codex will be the first to showcase this new idea...
Anyway. I'm feeling good about 7th after having a game, and I hope to play many more in the new edition!
Eldar, Tyranids, and Dark Eldar versus Space Sharks, Black Templar, and Tempestus. There was a lot of learning to be done, since so e players were vets of 6th while others havent played since 5th.
We picked a Maelstrom of War mission, each had our own warlord, and drew 3 tactical objectives per team. Our 6 objectives were spread pretty evenly and there were lots of buildings on the table.
Between my Space Shark Librarian, and the Eldar Spiritseer, we had a few good opportunities for psychic powers. Eldar chose their own powers, I went with the new Pyromancy.
Space Sharks
-Librarian
-2 Tac squads (5) with Plasma Gun and Rhino
-Ironclad Dreadnought
Black Templar
-Master of the Forge
-2 Crusader Squad (5) with Razorback (Assault Cannon)
-Dreadnought with Assault Cannon
Militarum Tempestus
-Command Squad in Taurox
-2 Scion squad with Plasma Guns
-Scion squad with Volley Guns
Eldar
-Spiritseer
-2 Wraithguard (5)
Dark Eldar
-Haemonculus w/Shattershard and Dark Gate
-Wracks (5) in Raider
-Wracks (5) in Venom
-Talos w/Splinter Pods and Liquifier Gun
Tyranids
-Tyranid Prime
-Tyranid Warriors (6) with Barbed Stranglers
-2 Tyranid Hormagaunts (15)
(The above are estimations. I'm not 100% on some of the lists)
So, we played through the game, drew our objectives, and had a blast. The funniest part? Both sides, under Battleforged, could be 100% legit lists entirely, thanks to the new ally rules and the hazy Battleforged rules.
The psychic phase went well enough. Eldar, of course, cast a lot of their buffs on those Wraithguard that made them nigh unkillable, so most of our firepower went to neutering the Tyranids and Dark Eldar. Early on, we got lucky and got tactical objectives that had us hold the points on our side of the board, which made for easy points. Later in the game, we got objectives that had us focusing fire on the Haemonculus to get a quick Warlord point, and one objective forced me to get super-aggressive with one of my Rhinos, zipping it well into the enemy deployment zone to score a point.
Pyromancy is definitely worth another look now. Being able to cast multiple spells in a turn means a Librarian with Pyromancy can unleash a lot of firepower against a unit, and by taking a ML2 Librarian and taking both powers from Pyromancy, I got the Primaris for free. Most of the powers are only one Warp Charge, so they're really easy to fire off. I used those powers to completely annihilate a squad of Wracks, and could still shoot at them with the Librarian's regular ranged weapon as well! That's a huge buff to Pyromancy.
The vehicle rules help a little bit, but when facing down a bunch of Wraithguard with their str 10 weapons, even an Ironclad just couldn't stand up to it. Both our dreadnoughts were slaughtered before they could do anything, which was mighty unfortunate.
Militarum Tempestus are quite threatening, but they honestly weren't putting out the firepower that I would have expected out of their volley guns. Still, I think the Tempestus and the Assault Cannon Razorbacks did most of the killing, with the Space Sharks providing a few extra pot-shots.
Going through the phases, double-checking the rules, making sure we were aware of all the changes was quite a challenge, and I'm sure we missed plenty of things, but overall, it seemed like there were fewer arguments, and the rules that we did interact with were nice and clear. The Psychic Phase is well-written, but you need to read all of it before jumping to any conclusions based on early paragraphs (but that's always been how GW has written their stuff). The new rules for shooting didn't come into play too much, since most things were entirely within range, and for Space Marines, it's really not very important when dealing mostly with Bolters and Plasma Guns that have the same range.
The one thing that will cause more arguments than anything else are the new terrain rules. Theyre super clunky, requiring that each individual model be obscured by 25% to recieve the cover from the terrain they're in. I've had arguments over large vehicles having that amount of cover when behind buildings, I can't imagine the arguments that will come about as a result of not having area terrain any more. My personal advice? Just dont bother with that nitpicky crap. Call it area terrain don't label every single piece thats on the table. It'll take too long, cause too many arguments, and generally not feel as fast or clean as it should. Maybe other people will feel differently, but I think this is where GW dropped the ball the hardest.
The rules for army-building are vague at first, but then you realize that you can take any combination of detachments in any number in a Battle-Forged army, and suddenly the only difference between Battle-Forged and Unbound is the requisit HQ and Troops tax that you have. Seriously. That's it. That said, I think we're going to see plenty of people sticking with Battle-Forged for a good while.
And the final thing I'll say is that I'm ager for the Ork Codex for one reason... the Rulebook says that other Codexes will have new types of Detachments, and the Ork Codex would be the first to showcase this, with their own detachments that have specific restrictions and command benefits. I'm really eager to see how they use that, since it could be a very, VERY easy way to introduce many more factions much easier and faster than by doing Supplements. If you take the 'Saim Hann' detachment, for example, Bikes move to Troop, but you don't get Objective Secured. If you take the 'Emperor's Children' detachment, Noise Marines are Troop without needing to take a Slaanesh Lord. If you take the 'Iron Warriors' Detachment, you get one less Fast Attack slot for one more Heavy Support slot. This is all speculation, but the Ork Codex will be the first to showcase this new idea...
Anyway. I'm feeling good about 7th after having a game, and I hope to play many more in the new edition!