40K 6th Ed. I got mine. Have you got yours? First impressions.

Well, because I'm sort of in the business, I got mine a whole day early. Ooooh, get her! Yes, I know nothing to boast about. So what can I say? Well seeing as how everyone else is saying something...here goes. First impressions -

First of all I have to confess my gaming 'status'. That's to say I'm basically a hobbyist. If you've seen my posts, they're not about the game, or the strategies, or the army selection. The models. So far that is...

I thought that with this edition I'd try to get a better handle on the game than the rudimentary basics I'd picked up from owning previous editions. Editions which I had read for fluff and painting source material only basically.

So here I am with 6th Edition and it's time to plunge in a bit more properly. This post is for you if you too have been dabbling...

The art work is fantastic, full colour and detailed. There are some great pull out panels which are atmospheric and add to the feel of a book (some say tome at over 450 pages) with a strong sense of artistic coherency. There's decay, corruption, death, destruction and chaos seeping in at the edge of each and every page.

There are a fair number of different sections too. The rules at first, followed by hobby advice, background histories, pas battles, photo galleries, game expansion ideas, mission types and a number of appendices with summaries of the most important information. So there really is a whole lot here. For £45 (or less, if you search the net), I think it's good value for money, though I'm not a teenager with limited funds.

Nice.

 Next:The rules.  I've always considered 40k to be a complicated game. There are a vast number of rules since you need a codex for your army too, to be fully rules equipped. And there's still a lot to plough through. In a way, I'm glad that I never knew the previous rules very well - since I don't have to do any re-learning. The first 30 pages or so are the basics then the rest gets added. The new Psychic Powers, for instance, come much later.
Those first 30 pages are quite manageable. There's a lot to remember but the new pre-measuring rule will help players like me and I think the feel of the basics has an appropriate battle 'flow'. For example, I'm happy enough that the close combatants have to work in initiative order. I think I get 'Pile In' and Morale checks and I'm reasonably juggling the AP knowledge for each weapon (if I have the stats close by!)

The Special rules and vehicles and terrain and character models are next. I guess I'll let you know how that goes. I'm hoping that a few blogs/vlogs will turn up (as on Beastsofwar perhaps), that will guide novices like me.



Look, lots of sharp stuff to kill stuff with.

Things I think I like so far-

Allies -why not? As a hobbyist I've got Space Wolves and Ultramaries and Dark Angels and IG all sitting around in various places. I don't think it will cause me to spend more money, as many have argued. I might just spread it out in different directions. Good! I can get that cool model from a different army.

Pre-measuring - who wants to argue how far one thing is from another thing? Who wants to try and work out if someone is sneakily trying to pre-measure anyway.

Snap-shots and overwatch - seems sensible to me.  Shooting in battles is incessant. Make it so on the table.

Explosive barrels - of course they are.

One thing I wish was in the new book -

A quick start guide. Noobs like me need to get going and have a reference guide that will help. There is a summary but it's six pages long. I think GW have missed a trick here. Other quick start guides I have seen are miles shorter (Warmahordes anyone?) There may well be one. Wait n see.

So there you go. I'm not sure I'm sold on random Psychic Powers and I know that Warlord Challenges will take ages to get my head around to any effective extent. But you know what, it's injected enthusiasm in all of the right places. Here goes...

Posted in: 40k,books