First of Sixth

I finally got my copy earlier - my preciouss...!

So what are my first impressions?  Well the production quality is very good, especially the artwork on the Holy Terra and the Space Marine Monastery foldouts, which are extremely dark and evocative of the whole grim future theme.

As for the rules, a few things have caught my attention.

I had misunderstood the changes to Rapid Fire.  Moving models can't fire twice to maximum range, but can now fire once at least.  Shooty armies will still like this.

The rules about snapfiring Heavy Weapons, either when moving or charged, will also be fun.  A Devastator Squad used to be a relatively soft target for assault, but they can now defend themselves a little better.  In particular, with the closest model being hit first, it will be the tooled-up characters leading the charge who could now get a faceful of lascannon!  I think this will also make flamers a lot trickier to employ.

There were a few comments in GW Newbury about the Allies matrix.  It's a shame Tyranids can't ally with anyone, but fluff-wise it make sense.  However, vanilla Space Marines now consider Tau to be trusted Battle Brothers, whereas the Inquisition are merely Allies of Convenience.

I had hoped you could buy more terrain than just fortifications, as part of your army, such as a morale-boosting statue.  However, the sheer variety of potential mysterious terrain on the board means you are unlikely to get any particular roll.  We will just have to improvise more.

The new Big Guns Never Tire and The Scouring missions each seem to encourage you to take Heavy Support and Fast Attack choices respectively, as each one counts as scoring in these missions.  However, as they are also worth a Victory Point for your opponent, this could make them less attractive.

My next personal objective is to make sense of the psychic powers, so I can start using the spell, sorry psychic power, cards I also got today.

Tuesday will be my first chance to try out the new rules set, and I can't wait!

The cat is getting out of the bag and will soon be amongst the pigeons

So after the rumours and the teasers, GW have now announced Sixth Edition in White Dwarf and advance orders are now up.

I'm looking forward to seeing the details on things like flyers, buying terrain as part of your army and the psychic powers, but I think a real game changer has been less prominent.  Rapid fire weapons have been boosted, increasing the range for two shots.  With the rules for Overwatch, I think this could mean shooty armies like Tau and Eldar, which are surely due new codexes (codices?) soon, will be more competitive.


Could we also see fewer GK armies, with terrain such as the Psychoneuein Hive inflicting D3 hits at S3 AP2 on every psyker on the board?


Only time will tell if there will be more shooty armies instead of combat armies, especially with the increase in flying transports and gunships.  Interesting times are ahead.

Waiting for Sixth Edition

I haven't done much 40K this week, between work and the Euros.  Even at the school club this week we were mainly building some Fantasy models from the Island of Blood box set.

With the new edition of 40K imminent I'm pausing in making any more HGs for the moment, although I have had some thoughts about improving my list.  Having a Master of the Forge on a bike with a Conversion Beamer could be fun, or using a Drop Pod with locator beacon to help the Assault Squad.  The Dreadnought Drop Pod rules would also be a good combo with an Ironclad.

Alternatively, a Librarian is quite fluffy for HG, and the new rules for psychic powers could be interesting.  I guess we will find out soon.

Latest games - Howling Griffons 600 pts

My HG had three games yesterday as part of Quinn's School vs School competition.  It was a mini-league of four doubles teams of 2x600 pts per team.  I was paired with one of the lads from my club, who used a Captain, two tac squads and a MM dread.  My HG was basically my entire painted force so far - Chaplain, Assault Squad, Sniper Scouts, Tactical Squad (now 10 man with ML and flamer) and the assembled and basecoated Predator.  I have decided not to quarter the Predator, but to do the main body yellow, with the sponsons, doors etc in red.

First game was against a Blood Angels / Chaos combo, with lots of jump-packs and power weapons for the BA and Plague Marines, Obliterators and a Lash Sorceror for the Chaos.  As usual for a new model, the Predator died first turn before it did anything.  I also infiltrated the snipers into the central woods, but they proved ineffective against power armour and were soon assaulted and wiped out.  In the end we lost 7-2 KPs, as once the Predator was gone we only really had the MLs from the tacticals for longer-range fire-power, but not enough close-combat power to beat them in assault either.  The highlight was probably George's Rhino with dozer blades immobilising itself in  crater with two ones.

The second game against another marines combo and was closer.  This time the Predator did its job of soaking up fire a lot more successfully.  Even if it couldn't shoot half the time, it ended up frustrating our opponents for four turns before succumbing.  We lost 4-2 this time.

The third game against the Ork combo of our other club team could have gone either way.  The Predator survived to the end this time and my Snipers kept their Bikers pinned all game and then killed them off.  My Tac Squad and Assault Marines also took out a Trukk with its Boyz and Big Mek quickly before the Warboss and 'Ard Boyz arrived.  The Tacs surprisingly even won the combat against their first charge, but were eventually ground down by the Warboss.  On Jamie's flank he did well immobilising and thus destroying most of the Killa Kans, but could not quite finish the unit off.  However he did account for the Mekka Dread towards the end with the Captain's combi-melta.  The final result was 6-5 to the Orks, with the difference being our two Tac Squads breaking off the table at the end, as the Orks were too close to regroup.

OK, so we came bottom of the league with three losses, but it was a fun day.  All of the games were Kill Points, when I had planned more for objectives games.  I need to think more about KPs and focus more on grinding down the opponent, instead of offering them points.  At 600pts my army lacks a cutting edge, so I probably need a bit of a rethink.

PS - no pictures today, as Dan's Dreads aren't finished yet.

GW price rises

Perhaps GW hope that nobody will realise, as there hasn't been a proper announcement yet, but I notice that there are the new prices on the GW website already.  For example a Predator has gone up from £31 to £35.  It does seem to be just a £1 or £2 in most cases, but the pick has to be the Space Marine Battleforce, which has gone from £60 to £80 - a 33% increase!  I'm glad I got a Battleforce a couple of weeks ago and even picked up a Predator yesterday!

I wonder how many players will now announce they are giving up?

Howling Griffons 800 pts list

Club this week was mainly spent getting some doubles teams organised for an interschools tournament Quinn is setting up at GW Newbury over half-term.  I am particularly looking forward to the Ork-Ork combo, including Dan's Deff Dread list from IA8.  I'm not sure what he can take at 600 pts each, but he has converted some great models, especially his grot tanks.  I shall try to get some pictures.

As we have a week off for half-term, I intend to get some more Howling Griffons done.  After some deliberation I have now come up with a list suitable for Carnage, ie 800pts, must have at least one each of Elite / Fast / Heavy before you can take a second.


HQ Chaplain
- jump pack

Troops Scouts
- 5 sniper rifles

Tactical Squad
- 10 Space Marines
- PW
- ML
- flamer

Fast Attack Assault Squad
- 5 Assault Marines
- PF / PP
- PP

Land Speeder  Storm

Elite Ironclad Dreadnought

Heavy Support Predator
- Autocannon
- HB sponsons

That gives me a couple of solid AV13 vehicles (I don't expect to see much AV14 at 800 pts), which will hopefully soak up some fire and whittle down any troops on objectives, before sneaking in with fast units to contest later on.