Thoughts after first 7th game

[AgentP]

I played my Tau against Khan's nids today, 2000 pts, the Malestrom mission where cards are secret.  My overall impression is:

 

(1) Maestrom missions, and tactical objective cards are super cool and a great addition to the game.  I especially liked that our mission had the objectives secret, I wish more missions used this rule.  It definitely added randomness to the game though, as your success was at least 50% (maybe 90%) determined by the luck of the card draw.  But, as a player who kinda tactically sucks, I liked this, as it gave me a chance to hold my own.

 

(2) I like the terrain rules.  Even though area terrain is technically gone, it basically isn't as ruins, forests, and craters all act as effective area terrain.  The rules were well written and easy to employ.

 

(3)  The psychic phase is kinda out of control, and kinda not.  My tau stopped jack all game and the nids had 16? dice each phase.  Yet even with that dice number, I still felt their psychic impact was less than 6th.  But I think with a better psychic power than tyrannids have, this would have been much more unpleasant.  So this is going to have to play out more before my verdict is in.  I think it might be crazy....but maybe not.  Time will tell.

 

(4) I feel like we need a house rule to buff assault.  Either infiltrators/outflakers can assault when they come in, or you can consolidate from assault into further assault...something.  The game is still too weighted to shooting, to an unbalanced degree.

 

(5) We're going to see a lot more vehicles, and lot more transports.  

 

(6) The change to vector strike and FMC not charging in a turn they change flight modes is a serious kick in the nuts.

 

(7) I think the key to 7th will be reimagining list building away from a 6th mindset, into something leveraging the benefits of multiple combined arms FOCs, dataslates, and LOWs and structures.  I think list variety will grow.

 

(8) Overall, the Tau did what they do, they shot a lot of twin linked ignore cover shots.  But I think as people begin to exploit the psychic phase, Tau will drop in effectiveness.  I think the psychic phase, like the WHFB magic phase, will be an essential element of the game.  And top armies will have to have a presence in that phase, or have intrinsic rules to lessen the impact of that phase (ala WHFB dwarfs).

 

Just my thoughts.  Might be wrong, probably am.  And probably will change my mind after more games.  So take them for what they're worth (likely nothing).

[InfestedKerrigan]

What were the changes to area terrain? I don't recall reading about that elsewhere.

[Threejacks]

  Yeah the psychic phase is a bit over the top now.

 

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?45396-Malefic-powers-and-demons-why-the-7th-Edition-physic-phase-sucks

 

 The Daemon player ended up summoning around 2k extra points of units during that game.

 

 I really like the magic phase in WHFB but the one thing that's missing here in the new 40k version is the ability to "go defensive" on a magic build.In WHFB one can take dispel scrolls and other units.models that aid in denying the opponents spell casting.40k needs something like this now.

[Guest Mr. Bigglesworth]

One of the displines allows you to summon, with how many warp charges daemons have I think daemons can now build top dex. The ability to replenish your ranks and boost you invul makes these guys a bit much.

[andozane]

  Yeah the psychic phase is a bit over the top now.

 

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?45396-Malefic-powers-and-demons-why-the-7th-Edition-physic-phase-sucks

 

 The Daemon player ended up summoning around 2k extra points of units during that game.

 

 I really like the magic phase in WHFB but the one thing that's missing here in the new 40k version is the ability to "go defensive" on a magic build.In WHFB one can take dispel scrolls and other units.models that aid in denying the opponents spell casting.40k needs something like this now.

 

Watched that bat rep...that game looked boring.

Interestingly enough, the daemon player did summon almost 2k extra...but the game ended in a draw.

 

Imperial Knight ally :)

[Fatman]

Us poor Chaos players. We can't get solid competitive units. We get to choose from sub-par or game breaking.

[Lord Hanaur]

What were the changes to area terrain? I don't recall reading about that elsewhere.

thwere is no area terrain.  You're obscured or youre not.  Specific terrain provides cover for being IN it.

[Justjokin]

Thanks for sharing this AgentP!

[AbusePuppy]

thwere is no area terrain.  You're obscured or youre not.  Specific terrain provides cover for being IN it.

 

Functionally area terrain still exists, as craters, ruins, and forests (the three most prevalent types) all do the same old "if you're touching it you get the save" rule. Area terrain is no longer an actual terrain type, though, and the saves of some pieces changed a little bit as well as the bonus for Going to ground in forests/ruins has been removed.

[Lord Hanaur]

You're not wrong but Im just explaining that there is no longer a generic "thing" called Area terrain, that's all.  Now the specific terrain defines the saves you get and when.

 

I like how cut and dry that makes it.