First games of 6th Edition

[DanPesci]

So after finally getting a copy of the 6th edition rulebook, myself and a couple of mates played through a few small 'tester' games over the weekend:

 

Me: 750pts Space Wolves

TDA Rune Priest w/Divination

3x W.Guard (2x TDA/WC/CM - attach to GH, 1x no upgrade - attach to LF)

1x Lone Wolf (TDA)

2x 10 G.Hunter (2xPlas, Standard, Wulfen)

1x Long Fang (3xML, 2xLC)

 

 

Ross: 750pts Codex Space Marines

Mark: 750pts Chaos Space Marines

 

First day we played a round robin against each other

 

SW Vs SM = space marines win

CSM Vs SM = choas win

CSM Vs SW = space wolves win

 

First game was me against Vanilla Marines, who'd brought a contemptor dread fresh from forgeworld - all was going well until the contemptor got an 11" charge (note - this was the first ever game of 6th, so wasnt used to those charge ranges...at all!) into my flank and ate through half my army, none of whom could hurt it, as i hadnt realised krak grenades were useless against A13 (or that the contemptor WOULD BE armour 13 hah). By the end of the game the vanilla marines won on objectives, as i only had 4 grey hunters left on the table.

 

Second was against a chaos list, which I wiped off the board by turn 5. Awesome bit came when id used foreboding (?) on my long fangs, and my mate (kinda daftly, but in true 'what would a khorne lord do' way) charged his 'khorne lord on juggernaut with the black mace' at them. 2 Lascannons and 3 Krak missiles at full BS on overwatch is hilarious and he died spectacularly.

 

 

Second Day

 

On the second day myself and Ross (codex space marines) played another battle where we upgraded our lists to 1000pts - I added a small GH melta squad and some more long fangs, and added melta bombs to all my squads so i could actually have a chance of killing that contemptor dread if it charged again. We got purge the alien and after seemingly close battle, I ended up winning by 3 kill points, although it could have swung at a couple of points, especially as we both had at least one AWFUL round of shooting each where neither managed to kill anything.

 

 

First impressions of 6th

- 24 inch range on boltguns and plasma after moving is awesome, ive also killed a lot less plasma guys than i though ti would with 4 of th em in my list - in all three battles i only had 1 die from gets hot.

- Divination powers are awesome, although giving my rune priest a more defensive role than he used to (i used to bomb him forward in a rhino with JotWW). For either sitting back with longfangs of heading forward with grey hunters (or spending half the game doing one then switiching to the other), Prescience coupled with whatever other power you get seems to give you excellent buffs for already great troops and heavy weapons choices.

- Possible 12" charges are great fun...we had two games that totally changed after people either failed or made 8-9"+ charges, in the game i didnt play, Marks berserkers charged 9 inches up a pyramid to destroy Ross librarian and veteran squad in combat..was awesome to behold ;)

- Definately space wolves still have a good strong codex, although lists now seem to favour lots of plasma over lots of melta (which was my old setup in 5th)

- Really liking the new random terrain elements and such, we played with lots of mysterious objectives, woods, and artefacts - I think it makes setting up the whole 'narrative' element much better, and makes for more fun, if unpredictable games...and it gets you encouraged more for setting up your own ideas....

 

for example, in the game i played against marks chaos, Ross set up the battlefield as an abandoned tank factory, with a dozen land raiders/rhinos scattered about, squads were allowed to deploy on top of these and various artefacts were placed in/around them, however on turn two a secret note was opened, which revealed that any tank would explode on a roll of a 6, with each tank being rolled for at the start of every player turn. Mark, on turn two, rolled 5 sixes, which all happened to be on tanks my squads were stood on or by. My long fangs heroically made about 8 saves after they had been arranged across two tanks which both blew up. I then rolled 3 sixes in my NEXT turn...so pretty much 7 tenths of the board terrain had exploded by turn 3...which was hilarious and made for a great 'themed' game.

 

I can see why some of the new rules are annoying folk who play competitively, as the random elements, and allies, will make it much harder to produce a solid 'allcomers' list. But im really liking them so far (albeit...none of us have any/have tried using any flyers yet...)

 

But yeah, overall, great fun weekend, lots of surprises mid battles, and 2 victories and 1 loss..ill take that for the first few games :)