Warhammer 40,000

I'm sure they exist. They wouldn't be a personal retinue, but something more like "Kill everyone aboard that ship. Take what you want, then blow it up" kind of thing.

So less a "they tromp around with me while I go on my adventures" and more a "I have their phone number in case there's something I need blown up yesterday?"

Yeah, I'd imagine that barring strange circumstances, orks would be too unruly for normal missions.

The Rogue Trader sourcebook mentions that while having a single Ork around isn't that hard to deal with; controlling them becomes increasingly difficult if they start forming a group. Eventually a Nob emerges and turns on you because he has to keep his Boyz united. A dozen would be the maximum I would have around and I'd definitely have a failsafe of sorts.

edited 3rd Jul '12 3:18:12 PM by Rationalinsanity

Anything interesting in 6th edition fluff?

I missed the inauguration of 6E. What did I miss? Any major rule changes apart from allies and psychic cards?

Other than alliances and stuff, wound allocation is done front to back, without regard to weapons or Sergeants. I Cs have "look out sir" which allows them to sacrifice a regular man in a squad they were attached too. Vehicles have a lot of new stuff that Medinoc can elaborate on.

No new phases, random assault distance. Did I miss anything?

edited 30th Jun '12 6:02:32 PM by Augustine

This post was thumped by the Codfish in a Derby Hat

And with the release of the new rulebook, the FA Qs have now been updated to bring all codecii up-to-date. That said... Who's surprised that Chaos Space Marine characters get indirectly shafted to the changes in power weapons? Particularly Kharne and Typhus (whose scythe now counts as an axe, which means it hits at I1).

Dante as well. Kind of hilarious. Then again, from the very same Codex, Tycho's Dead Man's Hand "ignores armour saves in close combat".

Can vehicles really not fire ordnance weapons after moving? I wonder if that leaves Stormeagles high and dry... Hits Vindicators pretty hard too, actually...

I edited my post: They actually can. Plus, they can shoot all other weapons at BS1.*

But more importantly, a shaken/stunned vehicle can still shoot at BS1. And destroyed weapons are no chosen randomly.

In layman's terms: all vehicles are now Glass Cannons: They're destroyed easily,^note Especially now that AP2 weapons get a +1 damage roll bonus and AP1 weapons are now +2 but oh boy do they hurt before that!

Lastly, an "immobilized" aircraft doesn't actually crash, it has the throttle blocked instead (Can only stay at combat speed/cruise speed according to its last move).

*Note: You can't shoot flamers at BS1.

edited 30th Jun '12 11:42:37 PM by Medinoc

Ah, that's cool. Also, turns out I was wrong about Stormeagles anyway, their large blast missiles are Heavy weapons (I was thinking they were 2-shot Whirlwind launchers).

Randomly-chosen armament destroyed is interesting. Man, I want to get some games in to get to grips with the rules.

So I had, by varying definitions, either three or one-and-a-half games with my Orks today.

Game 1: against a friend of mine with Dark Eldar. Said friend pretty much has a computer in his head that allows him to break any game more complicated than paper-scissors-rock over his knee. Rather than the Cronos spam I'd half-expected, he instead went for Razorwings with fuselage groaning under the weight of all the missiles they carried. This would have merely been "hugely inconvenient' had my anti-vehicle strategy not been utterly shafted by the oh-so-wonderful Dawn of War deployment, aka "hey, your heavy weapon troops are useless all turn 1", or if I had at least managed to seize the initiative, or if I'd remembered how wound allocation worked. Net result was that I lost about a third of my army in a single barrage of hate-torpedoes before my other troops even made it onto the field. I surrendered by turn 2.

Game 2: Still Dawn of War deployment, but this time Orks vs Tau. Ended quite rapidly after my frontline units (primarily the Nobz) more or less strolled through the barrage of fire, virtually unscathed, and were sitting right in front of the Ethereal and his railgun-toting Broadside bodyguards with power claws twitching. He conceded immediately, and we zipped back to rolling for deployment and mission.

Game 3: Table-corners Annihilation, still Orks vs Tau. A narrow loss, but it was enough fun that I consider it a win. Mainly, it taught me that the Warboss doesn't have to lead the nobz, that despite this nobz are really good fire soaks, and that Ld 9 tests with a bosspole can still be failed if your troops are incompetent enough.

Shit. I never fielded nor fought razorwings so I really underestimated them. Should have seen something like that coming. Its really an alpha strike technique.

The +1 for ap2 and +2 for ap1 doesn't actually change much. The damage table has been changed so that the +1 just makes you as likely to destroy a vehicle as you were before, and anythign with worse ap is effectively same as ap- was in 5th. Vehicles are harder to shut down (glances don't impair their ability, shake and stun still lets them fire at bs1, and weapon destroyed is randomized), but ultimately easier to destroy (since now a set number of glances or penes destroys them automatically).

A nasty trick I notced is that if you have one guy with 2+ save standing in the front of the unit, every wound will be allocated to him untill he dies. If he's a character, you can allocate ap2 wounds to some random mooks with the "look out sir!" rule. Effectively as long as he lives, the entire unit has a 2+ save. Seems rather stupid when a unit of Paladins gets hit by a battlecannon and Draigo takes every wound. On the other hand, you can manouver so that the guy is no longer the closest model, and the downside of having your big expensive character acting as a bullet magnet is, well, having your big expensive character acting as a bullet magnet. I can still kill a 3 wound 2+ save character in one turn if I focus fire on him.

I don't think "closest to shooter dies first" applies for explosive weapons. But I haven't read that part yet.

Plus, remember that Look Out Sir is not automatic.

edited 1st Jul '12 11:38:55 AM by Medinoc

I still don't understand the logic of releasing a 6th edition so soon after rolling out the 5th one. What was the point of 5th edition's release, then?

Money, Dear Boy

5th edition was released in what, 2007-8? From what I understand that's a pretty normal cycle for a 40k edition.

And the faction-specific 5E codices were released when, exactly? Codex Necrons (5E) was only released last year, if you're forgetting.

Yeah, but that's also quite common. Codices released towards the end of a cycle usually have rules that carry over into the next edition well.

See: Necron flyers.

Also, Codex: Space Marines (the oldest 5th edition 'dex) came out in 2008.

edited 1st Jul '12 4:54:11 PM by math792d

Yeah, the edition/release cycle has been pretty routine for GW for a while now (doesn't make it right, just means that it's something worth remembering).

Still don't have my book. Can you charge a flying MC after you're scored a wound on it or shot it down or something?

Okay, tangential question: When was the first and last 4E rulebooks/codices released?

The 4th edition rules were released in summer 2004. The first two army books were Space Marines and Tyranids. The final book was Chaos Daemons in May 2008.

Don't have the book yet, but I'm going to love the new vehicle shooting rules given what I always take two of in 1500+. (Note: My list is a combined arms list rather than a pure mech approach.

Lumbering Behemoth is going to be hateful due to the turret weapon being in addition to normal shooting rules. This blue truth is supported by the new changes to blast weapon interations with armor penetration rolls.

It is now theoretically possible to kill (or at the very least screw up) multiple vehicles with one shot if placed right. Given ordinance allowing you to roll 2d6 and pick the best, the probability to do a penetrating hit on light/medium vehicles is reasonably high.

Quick question since I don't have the book yet and haven't heard everything. What weapons have the Sky Fire rule? I know the Hydra does due to the new IG FAQ.

One of the missile options for the missile launcher does. Other flyers.

Other than that, I'm not sure.