First impressions of the 6th edition

Just a quick (and lazy) post today. I had a chance to play game of 6th edition at a convention about two weeks ago and thought I'd share some impressions. I'm pretty much an unexperienced player, since my armies are still largely upainted (and I refuse to play with unpainted models), and I've never really cared of other tactica than space marine gunline. Unfortunately, my Genesis Chapter is still under 1.000 points, so I brought my Bad Moons Orks instead. Even worse, my Orks are going to be a mechanized army, and my opponent played Necrons.

Ouch.

 My army was largely inconsistent (I simply took most of my painted models) - a shooty Battlewagon, a Deff Dread, one Trukk full of angry Nobz with their Warboss, three Deffkoptas and a bunch of Lootas and Boyz hiding near my objective. My opponent had few squads of Necron Warriors and Immortals with Tesla weapons, two Annihilation Barges and a Lord. I knew I was pretty much screwed - especially with the new Hull Point rules - but I accepted it in an orky way and decided to have fun, no matter the odds.

 We played Dawn of War deployment, Emperor's Will mission (aka one major objective per player). The game was lost since the very deployment, since my low experience - in fact, this was the first time I had Deff Dread and Battlewagon in play, and therefore, they didn't do anything - they were wrecked soon by Necron Warriors fire. Defffkoptas proved to be more resilient and later on I had some luck with them - even scoring two 6's in a row and shooting down a Barge with a rokkit, no matter its Quantum Shielding.

These 'crons are scrap.

With Battlewagon and Deff Dread down, the only unit I could count on was the Warboss and his retinue. Their Trukk was easily destroyed by the Necrons, and the disembarked Orks were assaulted by Necron Warriors and their Lord, who challenged my Warboss. I accepted the challenge and passed the roll on Mindshackle Scarabs (with a roll of 9). I think my opponent underestimated me here, since his squad was quickly wiped out, including the Lord. My Warboss was left with one wound though, and died a turn later. The Nobs still had some luck though, as they succesfully took down the other Annihilation Barge.

At least I had beer.

Still, the battle was lost for me, since my enemy was left with too many Troops. My Waaagh! has failed and my Boyz were unable to assault an approaching Warrior squad, and that was pretty much the end of the game. I guess I ended with only one victory point (earned for taking down the Warlord) - not that I cared. When it comes to Warlords, I was quite dissatisfied with the random choice of abilities - actually, the command ability I obtained was useless against Necrons!

My overall impression with the new edition was very good though. The game felt much more realistic and epic - for example, while the new wound removal system is very disadvantaging for foot-slogging orks, it feels very atmospheric and forces the player to think about their special weapon positions. Defensive fire is very unpleasant as well, though my Nobz welcomed it (they have used their kombi-skorchas against the ambushers). Snapfire is something that's going to make Lootas even better than they are - why-oh-why do I have the feeling that they will be nerfed in the next codex. Challenges between individual characters are a very interesting addition though that will please many ork players. I love the way Challanges combine 40k-epicness with careful tactics and risk. The reduced cover saves are also something that will not please foot-sloggers; I guess this is weighted by the addition of hull points - everything is going to die more often, it seems.

All in all, there is more risk to all player actions now (thanks to warlord abilities, hull points, random effects and defensive fire) - and, when combined with the allowance of pre-measuring and alliances, I think this will lead to a much more tactical game. Bravo there, Games Workshop!

Anyways, back to finishing my Deff Dread and Typhoon. I hate myself for playing with an unfinished model!