I may be a little behind the curve, but I finally got my first game of 6th edition in yesterday. Funny thing is I know the rules better than some, being a bookworm at times and such. But my first game was interesting, learned a few things, gained a bit of perspective. I decided to try out my standard 2k BA mech list just to see how things have changed for it.
So we set up terrain and roll for missions based off of the nova; table quarters, objectives, vp. pitched battle, big guns never tire. Nemesis goes first, and rolls hot in shooting, blowing up most of what he shoots at. His beast pack had moved into the center terrain, and is set up to multi assault and wreck a good amount of vehicles, but rolls horrible on his assault roll (even with 3d6 and rerolls). I move things around, and open fire, killing a raider and a venom and some infantry, but nothing amazing.
Second turn Nemesis' shooting balances out from first turn as he misses almost 3/4 of his shots and only half of those get glancing results. Next turn I glance two venoms, kill two true born and fire both vindicators into the giant beast pack. I scored like 10 wounds, but between LOS and 4++ beasts, I kill like 3 models only. And my storm raven with dread did not come in like I needed.
By turn 3 I decide to call it, as he has destroyed almost all of my tanks, and I've already lost steam against him, plus learning the game has taken longer than I expected. But I learned a few things.
- Fast Las/plas is nice, but Plasma overheating on 1HP razorback (killing itself) is not fun.
- Dread in storm raven sucks, as it keeps him out of the game for 3 turns or so.
- Runes of warding are not auto stops, mephiston pulled off his powers just fine for 3 turns. LD 10 on 3d6 is 50%ish.
- Overwatching blasters annoy mephiston, and 2+ armor saves can be torrented down(specially when I fail 1/3 of them instead of 1/6)
- Beasts are stupid good, and get better in terrain. 3d6 pick highest move through cover, aren't slowed by terrain, rerolls with fleet.
- 5-man assault squads are crap, now that they are a turn later on assaulting out of razorbacks.
- Warlord powers are awesome if you get ones you like (mephiston counts as scoring, haha)
So that provided some interesting thoughts. I don't think my mech list got that much weaker or worse, mostly just the match up and DE alpha striking me. Next I'll have to try jumpers or Nids and see how a more foot list has changed.
Once I get a few more games in with my older lists, and see how things have truly changed, I can start changing things in the list and making a better/stronger 6th army.
Has anybody else tried full mech lists still? I'm just wondering on the results.
Mech works fine if you have high volume shots that also have strength 6, 7, and 8 capabilities.
ReplyDeleteBeast cannot charge 3d6. Nothing can charge 3d6. The 3d6 is only for moving through cover not charging. Beasts just ignore the terrain, but not for the purposes of initive reduction. Fleat does help as you can reroll one or both dice. DOA with allies can be competitive.
It is 3d6 dropping the lowest, as per the move through cover rule. And with the reroll from fleet, makes them have a pretty good chance of making it. Init 1 drop doesn't matter much when assaulting tanks. I'm planning on trying DOA next.
DeleteDrop the highest, not the lowest, which means that it's about 5".
DeleteBeasts get the 3d6 drop the lowest per that rule - for the movement phase. In the Move through cover USR it notes that it has no affect on charge range though. You just get the normal 2d6 charge + fleet
DeleteIt is drop the highest normally, with the Move through cover USR it is drop the lowest.
DeleteOOPS, Andrew got it, small sentence at the end, Move Through Cover USR doesn't effect charges. Well, now I know, and knowing is half the battle right?
DeleteI played a game recently with a full mechanized army. I played against one of the guys in my local group and we are practicing for a 1000pt tournament. We both play smart though: the armies were pretty balanced, not rock-papers-scissors crap.
ReplyDeleteI was playing Space Wolves and he was playing Space Wolves. I had:
1) Rune Priest
2) 3x 5/6 Grey Hunters in Razorback: twin linked lascannon
3) Venerable Dreadnought: assault cannon, heavy flamer
4) Dreadnought: plasma cannon
I did okay but having to have the troops get out to score means they can die very easily. Also, infantry in cover (when there are a lot of them) can be annoying as hell to actually kill off (instead of just killing part of a squad). My opponent had a all infantry force and it was tough to kill so many guys in such a small game.
I've been playing my Vanilla Marines as mostly mech(my Tau allies are all on foot). Tactical Marines in Rhinos are still a mainstay unit. With snap shots and firing bolters up to 24" on the move, they got a nice boost too.
ReplyDeleteMarines look at this edition and pretty much go 'meh.' None of the 6th changes really effect how vanilla marines play that much. The only things that maybe got worse would be speeders, but that's arguable.
I could see it being tougher for the more assault oriented lists like BA and Wolves. I don't think you can get away with putting assault units in non-assault transports this edition.
I'm actually switching from mech-spam to DoA myself for BA. I usually run the tank-wall backed up by Rhinos packed with doods, which I think should still do well this edition. But I like the idea of Jump marines actually doing something now, as well as the FnP bubbles working alot better on guys outside vehicles.
ReplyDeleteNice to see a game in and I can't wait to see some more info. I haven't played a game yet either, but I'm gonna use every bit of impressions I can to get at least one of my armies good... :-)
I'm not fully sold on DOA yet until I play it. Furious charge losing +1I, and losing +1S and +1A when multi assaulting, and then FNP going to 5+. But I'm liking the idea of always hitting vehicles on 3+. I'm interested in seeing how it does. I'll keep you posted.
DeleteOne thing you may not have noticed about Gets Hot! and twin-linked weapons is that, per the Gets Hot! rule, you only are effected if you roll a 1 followed by another 1; just having the final roll end up a 1 doesn't cause you to suffer Gets Hot!
ReplyDeleteOh, that makes it much better! Thanks, I didn't notice that before.
DeleteDear lord I didn't notice that! Hah, had 3 Warrior Acolytes die to Gets Hot! after I got 3 1's on the re-roll.
DeleteBy any chance, could you point out where that rule is for future reference?
In the USR section under Gets Hot!, it says how to handle twin linked weapons. Pg 42 or so (I don't have my book in front of me)
DeleteMy first bout with DE, I had my Trueborn in Venom move up 12" to get into position, and went ahead and snap-fired them at a tank just to see if I could get lucky (4 shots has a decent chance, right?).
ReplyDeleteI hit with 3.
Of course, I was shooting through a force-fence thing (3++) so it didn't end up doing anything, but it was still hilarious. Snap fire can be a dirty useful tool, even on averages.
It seems at first glance (as we're still in first-glance range, so to speak) that most Imperials (particularly the once-were top dog Marine builds) are more or less shrugging at the changes. They play as they did, and they play fine. A lot of the fun quirks and boosts went to armies that will really enjoy them. Go figure.
Glad to see there is someone working as slow as me through 6th and the new rules. I share a lot of your concerns/ideas about 6th. Plasma on vehicles overheating stinks but it does balance out Las/Plas spam and those evil IG plasma tanks. Dreads in Stormravens does stink. With the massive bumps that flyers get in terms of invulnerability, it is give and take. I do not like that flyers have to stay in reserve. They shoudl be able to deploy ont he board landed or as skimmers. I doubt that will ever be FAQed, but it would be nice for the option.
ReplyDelete