New Warhammer 40,000 My verdict (Finally)

The new edition of Warhammer 40,000 has been out for just over a month now and I’ve finally managed to get around to playing a few games, so I can now give you my opinion of what I think of it. 

So far, I’ve played two games, both of which were Open Play using power levels to determine army size.  For my first game, I used my Blood Angels and in the second I switched allegiances and used my Death Guard (Mainly because I was itching to try out some of their new units!).  As we were playing Open Play we also decided to use the new Open War cards to randomly determine the mission, deployment zone and twist.

I’m a big fan of the the Open Play format.  Using the power level system just made selecting your army so much quicker and easier.  One simple cost for a unit, which you can then equip however you like within the confines of their datasheet and you’re done.  The Open War deck also made the set up quicker as you and your opponent don’t spend ages choosing which mission and deployment you are going to go for.  The random nature of the deck also gives you lots of versatility.  I was a little worried that the Open Play mechanism might mean that some armies would be overpowered but in both of my games the final victory literally came down to just a few points, so could have gone either way, and so they felt very balanced (Something GW said they wanted to achieve with this edition).  

Now onto the big rule changes.  Again, I would have to say that most of what they have changed I liked.  Taking it in turns to deploy units gets a big tick from me.  Having the ability to counter your opponent’s deployment options adds a new tactical element to the game.  The reserves rules are also a lot simpler, with units in reserve being able to be deployed in whichever turn you wish and with no roll off to do so.  Gone to is the random scattering of deep striking units such as Drop Pods and Terminators, meaning their set up and deployment is a lot quicker.  Oh, and units arriving from reserves can now charge upon their arrival!!! This is another big change and something that really needed to be done as it made no sense that a unit pumped up ready for battle would arrive in their drop pod and then just slowly walk out and sit there for a bit waiting for the enemy to charge them.  Okay so you must deploy at least 9 inches away from an enemy unit when you arrive (which counts as your move) but as long as you can make a charge role of 8 or higher you’re going to be in combat! 

The movement phase is fairly similar to before but now each unit has its own movement characteristic, which can get a little tedious having to look up especially as the Index Books are not the easiest things to navigate.  However, once you start to remember the moves for all your various units this will soon quicken up.

As for shooting units can now target different enemy units, so a tactical squad can fire its Bolters at troops and its heavy weapon at a tank.  Again, this change makes a lot more sense and I really like this rule change.  Units that shoot can now also charge as well, effectively meaning you can move, shoot and charge in a turn.  Templates are gone, but this only speeds up the game and you no longer have to argue over how many miniatures are exactly under your Heavy Flamer template, you just role D6 to find out how many hits your weapon has done. 

The combat phase has also had an overhaul.  Initiative has gone and the unit that that charged hits first, the enemy then chooses which unit they want to fight back with over the various combats going on (allowing them to potentially go first in a combat that they are already engaged in from a previous turn).  The extra attack bonus for charging or having two close combat weapons have gone but instead you can attack as many time as you have combat weapons (So, for example a Captain armed with a Powerfist and a Lightning Sword who has 4 attacks can make attacks with either or both weapons at the same or different targets).   You still get to fore over watch if you are charged and it appears that even vehicles can do this now to.  

Special rules such as Look Out Sir, Cover etc have also had a revamp.  Again the theme seems to be one of stripping it back and keeping it simple.  For example cover saves are now always +1 to your save regardless of what terrain you are in.

So overall I have to say that I was very impressed with the changes.  Although the core game is a lot simpler to play the games themselves are much quicker and more importantly a lot more fun.  As I mentioned earlier I love the Open Play rules and I see myself using that system the most, especially for non competitive games.  

My only criticism at the moment is to the layout of the rulebook (As trying to find specific rules, such as how close should you be to an objective to claim it) can be tricky and time consuming.  The same can be said with the Index’s having to flick between pages to find your units stats to figure out what they do.  These are though, very minor complaints.  In my opinion the changes to the rules are for the better and has made 40K fun to play again.  As long as GW stick to this simpler rules system and don’t start to bloat it out by adding more and more rules to the system (As they did with 7^th edition) then I think they’re onto a winner.  Keep it simple, keep it fun.