Warhammer 40K... 6th Edition

Change is good.  I truly believe that.  Change tests the limits of what a long standing game edition can handle as it evolves with time.  Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition was a failure and as such I transitioned to the Pathfinder series of RPG gaming.  Plus its all available for purchase on my iPad.  That is a huge bonus.  While Warhammer 40K 5th edition is very fun there is a definite transition that has been evolving as each new army book comes out.  The Warhammer 40K game as it stands has too many optional rules and quirky game elements that can be simply explained as poor based on the time the army or general game based rule was instituted compared to the newer elements of the game that have expanded on the 40K environment in an often game changing level.

I tend not to complain about army rules...I hope.  I think 40K is fair for everyone but there is undeniable evidence that some armies need to do some crazy list building just to remain competitive in top tier tournaments.  I am predominantly an Imperial Guard player.  I have a plethora of options for my army, although I do hate that everyone says stay in your tanks about my troop squads but it is decent advice, and so I am confident I can remain competitive in the current game system.  This brings me to the rumored 6th edition 40K.



I have long been awaiting word of what might come of the new 40K game edition.  It's exciting to see how the game could change.  It's a challenge.  Almost all previous 40K wisdom will go out the window as the meta gamers develop the new ways of reaching a win.  As for casual maniac players such as myself I get to experience something new with familiar elements that will make the game even more enjoyable.  I have never experienced an edition change in 40K.  I only ever experienced the Warhammer 7th edition change to 8th edition.  I think that was a good change but I don't know many players that partake in 8th edition sadly.  I have a rocking Beastmen army that I would love to run weekly.... as soon as its painted.  As for my 40K army inventory I am swimming in Steel Legion troops, Elysian Drop troops, Cadians (blah!), and just about any tank I need to succeed in an apocalypse battle.  I am looking forward to using my inventory in diverse ways that link to larger campaigns.  It seems that from the rumors I am reading that there will be many new elements (if the rumors are anywhere close to the truth, and they might be) that the game will be faster, deadlier, and much bigger.

I hate small 40K games.  I just do.  It's not because I feel I need to compensate for a lack of skill with more units.  It's because I spent too much money to see a life like sized military unit take on exotic armies in a Sci-Fi setting.  Military units are big... because there will be casualties.  I don't get to play very often so naturally I want to get a good game in before its back to work again.  With that all said I want to point out some cool new rumored rules (roughly described) that I hope will be true.

• Units have Evasion.  No matter how awesome you are of a marksman shooting at stealthy snipers will be harder.  (Fast vehicles will gain here as well.)
• Terror.  This is a must and should easily work on the 40K battlefield.  There's some scary stuff out there.
• There are tiered levels of things like Eternal Warrior, Fearlessness, Instant Death, Fleet, etc.  Very cool.  This is diversifying the capabilities of armies by multitudes.
• Tactical Retreat, denying an enemy kill points and victory points by moving off the board for the remainder of the game.  This makes sense.  Of course meta gamers will ruin this but as a student of military history I approve this dynamic!
• Vehicles react to shooting and assaults almost like other units.  It's hard to describe but it works from what I have seen.  The vehicle damage chart even looks better.  I am an IG player though so I am biased.
• Overwatch!  A unit moving within 12 inches of your unit can get shot, and that goes for deep strikes.  Amen!  This makes total sense.  There are tiered Deep Strikes can deny overwatch though.  Special Forces insertions?!  Cool.
• Wound allocation looks way better.
• The Fast rule looks better.  This pairs with the movement rules looking unique, and even charge is better looking offering better chances of evenly weighted games with Nids and Daemons getting charges off.  Charges might be twice your movement distance.
• The phases are switched around with shooting AFTER assaults.  I like it.  The 40K game table just got flipped on its side on that accord.  Change is good.
• Retreating units can jump into a transport and regroup automatically.  This makes sense.  Think about it.  If you have a complaint on that one you're probably some one who hates a fair fight.  Just secretly add 400 points more to your army and stop crying.
• Barrage: roll to hit with BS.  If you miss scatter normally.  If you hit you move (if your vehicles is multi-blast template enabled like a manitcore) the rest of the blast templates around the original blast with it at least touching it.  Hot.  Faster, deadlier, awesome!
• Parry weapons might have parry, and mostrous creatures have some cool add-ons.
• Lastly, I will mention the game types.  There seems to be three variations.  One is a one player versus one player (1k to 3K pointed lists) with annihilation and randomly set victory points that are totaled based on a random roll result before the game making MSU and KP denial players having to think of ways to better balance your army list.  The second game is a allied based (3-5 players) game with two teams with objectives based on the size of the game.  Alternate turn activation.  The last mission is basically an apocalypse battle with 3K+ sized army lists.  Two players, alternate turn structure.  All games seem to be 6 turns stock.  No silliness there.  You also have to hold an objective for a full turn to gain points for holding it.

Sigh...  If any of these rumored rules come to fruition in the new game system for 40K I will be very very excited.  I will probably be happy no matter what.  I encourage 40K players to get ready for the challenge.  Each man is a warlord and must learn the new ways in order to field his army in battle and to victory.  I will be tracking the changes as they come out until the 6th edition release.  Until then I will be making sure I have a diverse Imperial Guard inventory to better prepare for the future 6th edition battlefields.  As if I haven't used the word enough, I am excited about this projected change in the 40K game.