40k 6th Edition

The rumours of the new edition of Warhammer 40,000 are circulating like mad around the blogosphere.  Now I've recieved no secret comfirmation of the new edition, nor have I been looking for it from the many sources that there are.  There are reasons why:
1.  I hope the rumours aren't true.  I'm tired of replacing my rulebook or codices every few months.
2.  The current edition has its flaws, but overall I think it's the best version of 40k I've seen (and I've been playing since rulebooks weren't stand-alone' products but part of a box game).
and 3.  I think too many hobbyists have too much say in the game these days.  I know that GW acquiesces to feedback of their hobbyists more than people know.  And I think the constant reinventing of the game only allows more outside, and not altogether welcome, influences to those rules.

I know, by now, you're foaming at the mouth to know what these rumoured changes are going to be.  I found this information hidden within comments on the Bell of Lost Souls Blog.  Below is the link directly to his source.
http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=92589 

Unfortunately, no matter how much I want to believe that these rumours are just that, I can't say that a new edition won't be released soon enough.  Along that subject, I have no idea what GW will actually do, but I have some ideas of my own.  I want to start a conversation with y'all, my audience.  Please, read my personal thoughts and then let me know if you agree or disagree, or even if you have other suggestions yourself. 

So what would I do if I were the Lead Designer for GW's new Warhammer 40K 6th edition?  Let's divide this mammoth task into smaller parts and knock them out.:

1)  The starter set.  What would be the quintessential entry into the wargaming hobby world of 40K?

• The starter kit always requires three things:  The rules, two forces, and gaming supplies.  Most of these components are already set, but the forces can change.  First, always have two forces.  This rumour of only one coming in a box is dumb.  A hobbyist needs a buddy to play as well, or just wants extra stuff. 
• Second, the forces should make sense, i.e. a good guy and a bad guy.  I like the idea of Space Marines (see Why would anyone play space marines blog), but what should they face?  Well, we could have Imperial Guard vs. Renegade Space Marines.  I feel like this would be a great set, but second would have to be Loyal Space Marines vs. Tyranids.  That was the most apparent 'spacemen vs. aliens' presentation, and I like it. 
• Third, the forces should be equal to each other.  The last three starter kits were horribly unbalanced in favour of the Space Marines and that made the kits less appealing.  Putting at least a full infantry unit, a walker or small vehicle, and a character is a good start, but make sure these units are worth it.  So a SM force with a Dreadnought and a Tac Squad should be facing a Carnifex and a Hormagaunt unit of some heft.  Or in my preferred example, the IG should have a Sentinel, fourty Infantry, and a Command squad, all facing a Chaos Sorceror, a smallish Berserker squad, and a Dreadnought.  That's how you make a balanced battle and keep the starter kit more interesting.  
• Add some cool 'special' dice so the hobby supplies are unique to the starter kit, and I feel GW would have a winner.  Everyone knows that the rulebook will be in there, as well as the templates and measuring tapes.  As a matter of opinion, those sticks need to be replaced with tailor's tapes or something. 

2)  The Movement rules, including flyers and such.

• Include the rules for flyers on top of the current rules.  In addition to 'run' and the terrain effects on movement, there's really no need to do much.  How do you incorporate flyers?  Well, simple I think. 
• There's skimmers, which follow the rules already, and then flyers are similar.  They move more than 18" (up to 48") and can target one unit on the battlefield.  If the flyer leaves the field of battle, it uses the reserves rules to reappear.  It may do this voluntarily during it's movement phase, as long as it's move takes it into contact with the edge of the table.  It doesn't matter how low the controlling player ever wants to make this flyer, it is always visible from everywhere on the battlefield and, in turn, can see all parts of the battlefield in the foward arc.
• Small, but important, bring back the 'Passengers destroyed' rules.  This whole 'Emergency Disembark' has taken away the coolest part of surrounding transports- watching everyone inside jump out into a massacre and die!!!  How do you downpower mech lists?  Like this, reeeeeeeeeal simple.

3)  Shooting and close combat rules.

• Perfect, GW.  I LOVE the shooting and close combat rules the way they are now.  I don't like the fact the people seem to have a problem with line of sight, but that's about terrain.  By all accounts, I've never thought that a problem was in the rules for these phases.
• I will say, however, that some codices really undermine themselves in one of the phases.  For example, Space Wolves get more attacks than Tyranids when the Tyranids charge.  It's not right, as even the mighty Sons of Fenris struggle against the preturnatural ferocity of a Hormagaunt.  But this is an issue of codex balance, to me. 
• The vehicles' 'defensive weapons' rule is a great holdover from 4.5 edition into 6th, but now it's set wrong.  Defensive weapons should be Heavy Bolter or less (strength 5), which will make EVERY army happier. 
• Flyers may only target one enemy unit when they shoot, but they may either 'strafe' or 'bomb', which can be defined easily by weapon. 

4)  Psychology rules, especially 'fearless'.

• I really feel that psychology plays too diminished a role in the game.  I have one very simple solution:  Force Leadership checks on everyone!  Let me explain.
• Close combat is deadly and downright effective in 40k.  It's what separates the Imperium of Mankind from Star Trek, Star Wars, and even BSG- swords actually matter!  But it seems that warriors are all-too-willing to jump into combat.  I know everyone has had 10,000 years of practice and hatred to make them angry, but has anyone ever really wanted to fight hand-to-hand?  Even pro fighters try not to fight when they ain't gettin' paid.  It's natural not to want to fight.  So now, anytime any unit wants to jump into combat, they must make a Leadership check.  And think, that means the 'Monstrous Creature Terror/Horror' rule will actually matter.
• "But what about that pesky 'Fearless' rule?  I'm glad you mentioned that.  Fearless sucks right now.  It's beneficial in the shooting phase, but a detriment in the combat phase.  That's gotta change.  Here's my way- if you have to take any test to break from combat or panic from shooting, you pass it.  Those are normal psychological effects.  That does NOT include terror, which nothing can ever be used to.  Most armies have high Leaderships anyway, so rarely will it matter anyway. 

5)  Terrain rules, including bunkers and buildings, dangerous terrain, and wreckage.

• "Booooooo, True Line of Sight is stupid!!!"  Everyone who says this is a moron.  It was like this years long ago and nobody complained.  Then GW switched to arbitrary terrain 'levels', and no one ever agreed.  Now it's true Line of Sight and people can't get it right either!  Screw that, it's simple and sweet.  Good job GW!
• However, giving a 4+ cover save to everyone all the time is retarded.  Make it a 5+ cover save.  If there's any reason to doubt whether a unit is in cover or not, assign it a 6+ cover save.  IG won't be more survivable than Space Marines, Orks will have to buy Force Field Generators again, and heavy weapons will have an affect again!
• I also think that wreckage isn't treated properly on the field.  Whereas trees should be as tall as they are by model, the wreckage of a destroyed vehicle can be integral.  Treat the vehicle as impassable terrain, with a line of sight-blocking effect straight upwards into eternity- this represents the smoke.  Note that this still won't affect flyers' line of sight.

6)  Finally, the most important part- army selection and scenarios.

• First, the scenarios are great.  I like the 'objectives' focus that exists in two-thirds of the scenario options, as well as in Cityfight, Planetstrike, and Apocalypse (see 'Pimpin' all of 40k' blog).  I also like the Random Game Length, Reserves, and all the other cool deployment rules that there are. 
• Add 'Strategems' into the normal force selection options.  GW can even restrict or allow specific strategems for specific scenarios.  Most importantly, this is a way for the game to add a little more uniqueness to the armies.  
• Add Planetstrike to the main rules-set.  I feel strongly that Planetstrike is the best form of 'Attack/Defend' scenarios ever written for any game.  Just like the old 3rd edition days, there were different kinds of missions.  This is another aspect that can be brought back- just add a chart to page 86 that allows this again.
• Finally, change the Force Organization Chart.  Change it to be more like Warhammer.  I don't really want to limit what players may take, but I do want to mitigate 'Spamming'.  Here's how I'd do it:

• 1+ HQ choice required, no more than 33% of army points.
• any amount of Elites, but no more than 33% of army points.  No unit of elites may be chosen more than twice in most scenarios.
• any amount of Troops, period.  An army may have no troops, but that WILL limit what players can take.
• any amount of Fast Attack, but no more than 33% of army points.  No fast attack unit may be chosen more than twice in most scenarios.
• any amount of Heavy Support, but no more than 33% of army points.  No heavy support unit may be chosen more than twice in most scenarios.
• I know this would be a huge change to the game, but I think a healthy one.  If players want to 'Spam' their armies, it'll be crappy Troops choices.  And those players that loved having 6 Leman Russes or 6 Carnifexes won't be too unhappy.  This will also make characters that modify the Force Org chart more useful.  After all, being able to take 8 units of Terminators in a Deathwing army would be awesome when nobody else (except Grey Knights) can take more than two. 

And that's really it!  I don't think 6th edition needs to be different from what we have now.  But if it had to change, that's all I see.  What about you guys?  What would you like to see?

Why would anyone play Space Marines?

For all the years that I've been in the hobby (and that's been a looooong time now), I've heard every reason a person wouldn't want to play Space Marines.  In every form it can take, the anti-SM rhetoric has been constant and, sadly, had an impact in the community.

As most of you know (if not from reading my blog, then just knowing me), I am a Space Marine fanboy.  I've been a fan of them since I was a wee little tike that still believed in the magic of gaming.  And in all that time, I have been accosted with this hate speech and I've had my opportunities to put some people straight.  But it's been popping up again; the ignorant 'space marines are soooo stupid' crowd is starting to become that nuisance again, and it's been too long since I ranted.



I'm not one to let irrational, quasi-intellectual, bias-speech go on long.  Today I shall rant in favour of enlightening the anti-Space Marine crowd as to why.  So why would anyone play Space Marines?


There are three main reasons, by my reckoning:




1.  Everyone understands what a spaceman with a gun is. 

 I remember sitting in a meeting where we were trying to decide what should be inlcuded in the 4th edition starter-set.  Many of the talking heads there felt that we'd been using Space Marines too often and we should shift to maybe IG or even Sisters of Battle.  One of our bosses 'let us in on the secret' as to why we'd always included Space Marines:  Everyone knows what a spaceman looks like.  There's nothing more sci-fi in the minds of most people than a spaceman with a gun.  Going away from that, as you can imagine, wouldn't help non-hobbyists understand what we did.  Imagine, for a moment, that a potential hobbyist walks into the game shop and looks down at GW's so-called 'sci-fi' game, and they see...  nuns?  Yeah, that doesn't work out so well.  So there ya go:  In the interest of easy to recognize themes, a spaceman with a gun is perfect.

2.  They embody the 'ideal' in the same way as Knights.

 Everyone who's ever been into sci-fi or mideival fantasy at any point in their life has wanted to be a knight.  Maybe that took the form of a Knight of the Round Table or Knight Templar, or maybe it took the form of the Samurai.  Hell, maybe they've even wanted to be a Jedi, the knight-archetype from Star Wars.  In any case, the Knight holds an undeniable place in the hearts of all nerds and more.  Space Marines ARE the Knights of the Imperium of Mankind.  They may not be as chivalric (In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only WAR!  Not chivalry.) or as noble (Exterminatus isn't exactly noble), but they are certainly the best that mankind has.  They follow a code of honor, proudly display their panalopy, and act aspirationally.  Everyone loves knights, so it would make sense that everyone loves knights with Power Armor and Boltguns...

3.  The army's list and rules are the most versatile, if not the most targetted.

 This is the most controversial of all the points.  So many people view Space Marines as a 'kiddy army', or believe that SM players don't have to play well to win.  But I disagree whole-heartedly.  Consider this:  When everyone opens their codices to write an army list, who's their primary target?  When you go to the AdeptaHillbillyLordsFistonomicon Tournament, who makes up the balance of armies?  Make no mistake, I've had a bit of experience talking to the game designers, and they base the codices in the game against the Space Marine codex; even the non-standard space marines are compared directly to the regular boyz-in-blue!  Now some of you are gonna scream, "But that's because there's so many Space Marine players!!!"  Duh.  There should be because they're just that damned cool.  But the chicken did come from the egg, and the game was designed to be Space-Marine-centric since the beginning.  Don't like it?  Read the points above again, it ain't that complicated to understand why. 

so true, I used it twice

  Also, I hate the idea that any moron could win the game with Space Marines.  That's simply not true.  Every other army in the game of 40k is specifically designed to deal with Space Marines.  Tau have Vespid and cheap plasma, Eldar rock the Banshees and Reapers, and the Tyranids/Orks work best against Space Marines.  Even with all the toys that the Astartes have access to, they are still lacking Ld 10, 4 point models, and battle cannons.  Yes, the SM army is a forgiving one to play, but would it really be better if knights were soft?  Yes, the SM army can present any strategy, but would it really be better if a Samurai didn't know how to use a bow?  When an Ultramarine player pounds that arrogant 23-year-old and his spammy Dark Eldar list into the ground, who was really the better tactician?  I can tell you this:  Dark Eldar is a better marine-killing army than the Ultramarines are at killing anything else.  But watch as the Ultramarine player, a poor 15-year-old kid that has never owned another army and lacks any hope that he will, graciously takes the ridicule and watches his victory barely count for no other reason than he chose to play with Space Marines...
 

  Finally, the Space Marine army can do anything.  Eldar are amazing at shooting with a couple of really good close-combat units sprinkled in.  Tau are unmatcheable at long-range armor-busting and 'shoot & scoot' strategy.  Tyranids are overwhelmingly many or big, and sometimes even both.  IG have heavy guns with heavy armor and a horde of little doods around them to make it more difficult to take out.  Even the Sisters have miracles and Necrons come back to life.  What do Space Marines do?  They auto-rally most of the time and their squads can take a mix of heavy, special, and close combat weapons.  That's it.  But that's alot.  Every time I write an IG list, I notice that I can't run a useful power weapon anywhere.  When I write my famous Banshee/Serpent Eldar list, I notice that I MUST add Reapers or something to support my advance with real firepower.  But with Space Marines, I just throw a power fist, a plasma gun, and a missle launcher into a single Tactical Squad and I'm ready for anything!  It's the peace-of-mind that flexibility gives me that makes SM so versatile.  And I'm sure that it's not too different for alot of people...

Why would anyone actually play Space Marines?  If the three reasons above didn't make sense to you, then there's one last final reason that should do the trick:

I love my Space Marines because they're Genetically-enhanced, Super-human, Psycho-indoctrinated Warriors armed with advanced Power-armor and Boltguns.  They know no fear, they go anywhere, fight anything, and do it for the best reason there is to fight:  To save my human ass.  And because of THAT, I loves me some Space Marines.

Rumours from someone else

This morning, I woke up to find some stuff posted on my FB page about the upcoming Warhammer release:  Storm of Magic.  It was originally posted on my site by Tom Back (thanx, Tom) and then I found it on a great blog known as Tabletop Fix, who credits Warseer for the info.  Here's the pics:

(click on them to see the larger pictures.  I'm trying to keep the article as small as possible.)

Since most will have already seen this stuff, I'm just gonna throw my opinion out there:
If this is what Warhammer Fantasy is about to become, I'm thinking the stranglehold 40k has on America may finally come to an end.  This is the COOLEST stuff I've seen since the days of good DnD books.  Now, if only it were legal to prostitute oneself to make enough money for all this stuff...

Building my Stormraven Gunship

As promised, I'm gonna show off my assembly of the gunship.  I had to scrimp and save every penny I could to get his craft, but I gotta admit, it was well worth it. 

Now, as with all these hobby blogs, I gotta tell you what you would need if you were going to build this kit:  A set of side cutters, a flat file, a hobby knife, and plastic glue.  Really, that's it!

The first thing I had to do, and of course the first step in any model-assembly, was read the instructions.  Below, you can see me doing just that.  What that picture doesn't show you is that this is the THIRD time I've read these instructions.  The first two times were on the toilet.  I'm all about efficiency!  :-)

After familiarizing myself with the directions (which is important since GW makes 100-piece models and gives you 12 steps to build them...), I assembled the fuselage.  I love the fact that it has the same profile as a Rhino.  Continuity is always good.  It's also important to note here that you should pay close attention to the 'Don't Glue' parts of the directions.  The VTOL/Maneuvering nozzles move up and down...

Adding the landing pads and stabilizers, it finally begins to look like a vehicle!

Then the engines.  I don't really like the way they look, but then I think I'm spoiled by the Valkryie's engines.  Regardless, the engines are always my favorite part of any aircraft kit.  I think that hearkens back to the days when I was going to be an Aerospace Engineer.  Sadly, it was too much work (not to mention that I had no idea what it really meant to be an engineer- there's no drawing!!!), but I dig me some engines!

The wings were next, and they were okay.  Building everything so far has been very easy, but again, I don't like the way GW made the wings.  Besides being square (i.e. not aerodynamic), they're just ugly.  Luckily, the ease-of-assembly overrides my dislike.  Once I attached the wings and engines to the vehicle, I started getting really pumped...

Then I started building the 'fun bitz'.  That's the cockpit, the weapons turret, and the sponsons.  The cockpit and turret were difficult because you have to glue the rods into the canopy.  (If I could offer you any advise for yours:  Test fit the glass canopy and then glue the rods.)  As far as these steps-  DO NOT GLUE THESE!!!  When it comes time to prime and paint the model, you'll thank me.  In addition, now is when a good converter can make everything interchangeable.

 I tried doing the conversions.  I was gonna use tiny magnets and make all the weapons and sponsons intechangeble (or removeable).  After two hours of staring and sketching my ideas, I finally gave up.  I did, however, come up with a very elegant solution- I used a dot of super glue for each of the pieces (each sponson and the typhoon launcher) to attach to the vehicle.  In addition to not gluing the canopy on the cockpit or weapon turret, this leaves me with the ability to easily 'snap' the parts off later and change them if I want.  Sorry if you were expecting something more profound, but my conversion skills aren't what they used to be...

One of the ideas I considered for the weapons turret was using a Razorback turret instead.  It took some shaving, as the mounting-hole was a tad too small, but I got it to fit.  I figured this would tie the Stormraven more into the rest of the army as no other Space Marine anything has a manned weapons turret on it (at least not these days.  Check out the old Whirlwinds and Razorbacks to see manned turrets).  Unfortunately, after fitting it on, I realized that the turret was too tall and didn't quite fit the profile of the vehicle.  It's still possible that I may go this way in the future, but not right now.  I just didn't like the result.

And now, the Stormraven was built.  What do you do with an aircraft model after you finishing assembling it?  Well, fly it around the house, obviously!!!

Vroom!  It made me think of the two Thunderhawks my staff had to paint many moons ago.  I walked into the shop to find my red-shirts flying around with massive, $700 models.  I was not happy, until I took one and 'vroomed' around the shop myself.  Well played, staff.  Well played.  And this Stormraven, yeah, it's not too far off a Thunderhawk- which makes me wonder if I can get four kits and build one myself.  Nope, because I'm too poor to get four kits, so there goes that idea.  I guess I'll just have to keep flying my Stormraven around the house...  :-)

Happy Hobbying!