Warhammer 40K 6th Edition: Part 2

Last time, I talked about some changes I'd like to see in the next edition of 40K. These aren't rumors or anything like that, this is me flexing my Game Designer muscles and just talking about the current state of 40K and what I'd like to see change in the next edition. In part 2 of this series, I'm going to focus on vehicles and how they factor into gameplay. Here are the changes I would like to see made in no particular order.

1. Mech is too good. In 4th Edition, transports were too weak. In the current edition the pendulum has swung to the other side and mech is king. We got some good stuff with 5th Edition like troops that assault a vehicle use the rear armor value. Also the unified damage chart is much better. I'm not entirely sure what the answer is to this. Is it as simple as a glance is only a -1 on the chart? Eh, that's too crazy.

Maybe we just need additional modifiers on the chart. If a vehicle is Stunned or Immobilized you gain a +1 bonus on the damage chart because the vehicle is basically a sitting duck. I like that a lot better. Of course if you happen to be sitting in an immobilized Rhino and someone hits you with a meltagun at close range you're in for a world of hurt. Vehicles do need to be weaker and there is nothing more annoying than rolling 4 or 5 Shaken results against the same vehicle.

Another issue I have is blowing up transports doesn't usually have much of an affect on the passengers unless they are rocking a poor armor save. I'd like to see Destroyed – Explodes results cause Strength 4 wounds on embarked troops and cause a pinning test like they do today, but they should also be upgraded to rending. This represents the poor SoBs who couldn't get out in time and gives Terminators something to be afraid of if someone pops a Land Raider.

The other thing I would like to see are vehicles scattering when they are blown up. We had this in 4th Edition and I'd like to see it make a comeback. Nothing is weirder than when my Stormraven comes crashing down and it dies on the same spot. I like how Ork Trukks can go flying out of the way, let's do the same thing with all vehicles that asplode.

2. Fix tank shock. The concept of tank shock is really cool. I take my cool bad ass tank and I run over the enemy and crush them beneath my treads. In the game, it's kinda dumb because you can never really kill anyone. There must be a lot of really annoyed tank drivers in the 40K universe.

  "We have Tyranids closing in on us sir," the corporeal reported. "What should we do?"
  "Run them down!" The Chimera kicked up the earth as it sped toward the incoming throng of hormagaunts.
  "By the Golden Throne! Corporeal, how could you possibly miss all of them? They're everywhere!"

The designers probably didn't want people trying to run over infantry the entire game and I understand that, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. With this one, I'm not so sure what the fix is. Maybe everything works like it does today, but tanks also inflict d3 Strength 5 hits against the unit. If the vehicle is fast, it inflicts d6 Strength 4 hits to represent the difficulty of getting out of the way. To avoid abuse, maybe you have to move a set distance that turn or you could only fire defensive weapons at the unit you tank shocked. That makes it a desperation move like it should be.

3. Make embark/disembark a separate action. This is a great point from dzer0 who commented on my first 6th Edition post. I'm really surprised I didn't think of this, because I always struggle with this. How many times do you disembark and you are stuck trying to figure out how to either move your vehicle or your troops because you have to do all of the movement at once?

He had a great idea. Make disembark/embark it's own action. Now I can disembark my troops, move my Razorback out of the way and then move my Assault Squad. Better yet, I can move my troops forward, drive another transport across the battlefield and have my troops hop in during the same phase. I wouldn't have to worry about positioning everything perfectly beforehand. This would also allow for better screening tactics with your transports and give players more flexibility when moving across the battlefield.

4. Rules for flyers. I of course would like to see rules for flyers since they seem to be the rage ever since the Valkyrie was released. Now we have the Stormraven, Razorwing Jetfighter, and the Venom. I think this is a sure bet just like the new edition of the game will still involve the rolling of dice. I wouldn't be surprised if Supersonic wasn't Games Workshop playtesting rules for flyers from the new edition.

That's it for today. I promise, my next post will be about the hobby and I'll either show some new scenery or miniatures I'm working on.

Till then,
–The Harrower

Spring Cleaning

I have a lot of models laying around the house and my wife has been bugging me to get rid of some stuff so I started a bunch of auctions up on eBay. A lot of these are models I meant to put together, but I never did. You can see all of my current auctions here. If you're leery about purchasing on eBay at all, rest assured I have a 100% feedback rating and I'll do combined shipping if you win multiple auctions. Here are some highlighted items:

1. Warhammer 40K Forge World Dreadnought Chaplain– This bad boy is brand new. Never got around to putting him together and with the new plastic Furioso kit, I figure I never will. Comes with 2 close combat arms and a twin-linked multi-melta.
2. Space Marine Land Speeder Tornado– This is the old box with the metal bitz. This is something I found when I was cleaning (I have so much crap, I always find hidden stuff). Right now it has no bids and is starting at $0.99. Can't beat that...
3. 25th Anniversary Emperor's Champion– I always liked the Black Templars, but the Blood Angels were always my favorite. This is another miniature I'll never get around to painting. I like this one better than the current Emperor's Champion. This one is long out of print. Get him before he's gone!
4. Blood Angels Sculpted Shoulder Pads– This auction is for over 50 (I think I counted 60), Blood Angels shoulder pads. I really do like these, but unlike Tenacious D, I don't think the metal will live on. I'd rather plastic so I'm letting these go. On Games Workshop's site, these would cost you over $45. Right now, they are $0.99.
5. Blood Angels Sergeants– I think these were the first Blood Angels marines I purchased. Sad that I never put them together. These are the pewter miniatures that are long out of print. Also includes 4 pewter Death Company. Right now, the auction is at $0.99.
6. 40K Limited Edition White Dwarf in Space– Not sure why I got this. I hate dwarves and I hate squats even more. There was something about it that I thought was cool. Anyway, this came as the limited miniature with a White Dwarf subscription and you can't get him anymore. Would make a cool character for a squat army. This miniature is still in the shrink wrap.
7. Legion of the Damned Squad– I got this boxed set as a present for my birthday. I really love the look of these guys, but I'll never use them. The auction comes with everything except the Sergeant (he's my Reclusiarch). It also includes the Sergeant's back banner if you want to make your own.
8. Thaindon Elf-Lord of Caledor riding Kargos the Despoiler– Man is this miniature old. It was sculpted by Aly and Trish Morrison almost 20 years ago. If you are a collector, this miniature is for you. It has all the pieces and harkens back to the early days of the miniature craft. That and it's EXTREMELY rare. $0.99 to bring Thaindon and Kargos home with you.

I have a lot of other auctions up on eBay like regiment bases, movement trays, combi-weapons, plastic jungle trees, and some other metal miniatures. If you have any questions, drop a comment below or send an email to theharrower[at]dedard[dot]com.

Till next time,

–The Harrower

Tournament Aftermath

Solidsnizzle invoking
the Gods of Chaos.

Last Saturday was the 40K Tournament at Adventure Games in Dixon City, PA. Turns out that Jawaballs and Fritz didn't show, but there was a good turn out nonetheless. I didn't want to do my Blood Angels a disservice and play my first tournament with only a primed army, so I decided not to play.

Solidsnizzle (another member of DED 'ARD) ended up playing as the ringer in the Tournament and was loaned the use of Farseer Frank's Chaos Army. Solidsnizzle ended up ahead of the entire field at the end of round 2 and just needed a victory to win the whole Tournament. In a surprising turn of events, he ended up playing Farseer Frank and was thwarted by his Eldar in the 3rd and final round.

I wanted to scream at times watching Solidsnizzle's games because he missed a lot of key assaults, but for someone that has been playing 40K for less than a year and was using an army he never played before (he's only played Imperial Guard), he did really well and I was very impressed.

Farseer Frank preparing to
command his smug Eldar

The Tournament victory didn't stay in the DED 'ARD family unfortunately, but was won by Jim Benson who had a really well painted Sisters of Battle Army. He seemed like a really nice guy and played some solid games from what I saw, so kudos to him on winning an extremely close tournament. Next time, maybe DED 'ARD we'll be able to bring the trophy home. All in all, it was a great first tournament at Adventure Games with a good turn out and hopefully they'll be a lot more tournaments in the future.

The next tournament at Adventure Games will be on July 24th and will be a Two Headed Giant Tournament featuring 2 vs. 2 games at 2,000 points. I'm really mad I didn't play in this tournament, so there is no way I'm missing the next one. Expect to see a lot of painting posts in the coming weeks as my Blood Angels get ready for the coming battle.

Here's some more pictures I took throughout the day. Once I have the proper DED'ARD website completed at http://www.dedard.com, we'll be able to have real photo galleries and I'll be able to post a lot more pics.

 

Next time I'll talk a bit about my new commission service and I'll be doing some spring cleaning and posting a bunch of eBay auctions. Watch this space for some sweet deals.

Till then,

–The Harrower

Miniwargaming.com's Open Letter

I find myself agreeing with a lot of what is being said here, so I'm just spreading the word:



I love 40K, but every now and then, I begin to feel like a battered spouse with a black eye, and GW is promising they'll never do it again...

Specialize vs Generalize: What's your approach?

Recently I've seen a flux of small point value lists (I consider 1500 small for reference) and I've been taking particular note in how some people like to run/equip their various units. For example, a common build I've been seeing a lot recently for tactical marines is a missile launcher and a flamer. Delving deeper, the common reason is "well, it can shoot a tank and toast a horde of orks!" And this build pattern repeats itself in the army where they'll have 3-4 squads each with an anti-infantry and an anti-tank weapon. As a matter of fact, I think the Assault on Black Reach marines come built like that. But, is it the right move?

I can understand wanting to have that old boy scouts motto of being prepared be applicable to everything you have, but shouldn't that be something you have applied to your army in general? Not the individual units? I'm a big fan of specialization, and I will admit that the habit does stem from playing a specialist army (Eldar), but that doesn't mean to say that the same mistakes can't be made. For example, the community recognizes Dire Avengers as being one of the best shooty infantry units in the game, but the Exarch has melee build options. Why? Well, first off, it's a hold over from 3rd and 4th, back when mech was something noobs did. Second, I think a lot of people perceive putting a power weapon in the hands of one model makes it a viable assault unit. In reality, I'm just going to laugh off any Eldar assault lead by a power weapon toting exarch. S3 + T3 + power weapon x= assault unit. Or even a unit that is capable of handling whatever situation is thrown at it. Honestly, I almost feel like the Dire Avengers having any assault options is a misleading joke that GW just throws in there, and I don't understand why people fall for it. As I always say, to succeed with the Eldar, use their units for what they're designed to do.

If you can find a double use for a single build though, well, now you're thinking ~_^. For example, Fire Dragons are excellent tank hunters, but their S8 AP1 weapons also happen to be good at roasting Tyranid monstrous creatures, and War Walkers with a scatter laser build not only make hordes run in fear, but 24 S6 shots outflanking makes almost any tank quiver in its treads. Dual purpose builds rock and should always be taken advantage of.

Anywho, back to marines. So let's say Jimmy wants to run four tactical squads, and wants to make sure he has good tank hunting and a horde contingency available. He decides to go the way of the Salamander and use meltaguns and flamers, but how should he equip the units? Following an emerging trend, he would put one multi-melta and one flamer in each squad. But here's the rub for me. Jimmy may think he's covered, but what if he was a monstrous creature and a horde of gaunts in front of him? A flamer is worthless versus an MC and the squad of gaunts will just laugh off a single melta shot. And here's the kicker, let's say it's critical that he needs to take down the MC. Jimmy may end up firing all four squads at the MC just to get the melta shots in, and everything else, from bolter shots to flamers just go to waste, and now the guant squad can swarm him. How do you remedy this? By combining your special weapons together.

Plague marines are fantastic at this. I dedicate each squad to either flamers or melta guns, and then on top of that, I'll give each champion a combi-weapon to match. So, if I were to use the same scenario, I can bury 6 melta shots in to the MC and 6 flamers in to the gaunts, which is much more efficient.

-FF

Pie Plate Woes aka Fire Prisms, What's the Point?

Every so often, I like to go back and reread units to make sure I feel like I'm taking full advantage of everything my Codex has to offer, and sometimes I have a revelation. Most times though, I feel like I made a good call in never using something, like Fire Prisms (and the Night Spinner counterpart). And it's not just Fire Prisms either. I feel the same way about most tank choices that rely on a single gun with a large blast template to own face, and this includes vindicators and defilers for example, but at least they're already Strength 10 with a good AP. Fire Prisms though...just yuck. Sure, some people may tell you "dat's why you link 2 or 3 of 'em up and get a betterer gun to do da shootin' wit..." Congratulations on having a 500 point gun that automatically has a 50% miss built into it. Every time I watch a batrep on YouTube and see an Eldar lose and gt a confused look on their face because their Fire Prism didn't do anything, I just chuckle to myself.

There are so many things wrong with the Fire Prism, and for a proof of concept, compare it to a Falcon. The Falcon is the same point cost, has access to the same upgrades, and you can get 3 Strength 8 shots as opposed to the single Strength 9 shot (Strength 5 if you use the large blast). For a real kick in the teeth, the Fire Prism arbitrarily has BS4, but since it's a scatter weapon, you get the same hit chance as BS3...same as the Falcon! The last important note is that the Falcon is also troop transport. So not only can I blast you at long range with Strength 8 weapons, but I can hold an objective as well. Fantastic.

So what brings on this rant? Just so many "famous players" on YouTube who use this and seem to advocate it, but I've never really seen them do well with it consistently. In my opinion, check out War Walkers. These guys are my bread and butter, and every battle, tournament, league, etc, they've been by MVPs. My lists usually tend to include 2 3-model squads of walkers, each decked out with dual scatter lasers, and a Falcon with holo-fields that I keep a 5 man dire avenger squad in.

In closing, I'm not the only one on DED 'ARD who's gotten fed up with pie plate guns. A few of our marines players won't touch vindicators, and one who did own 3 of them, dumped them because of how little they performed for him. IG players have it a bit easier though since they can run their template producing vehicles in squadrons for better cost. I'd be very interested to hear if you have had similar experiences with your blast template vehicles, or if you even think I'm completely off the mark.

-FF

Adventure Games: Kickoff Tournament

While normally we just discuss tactics or the hobby, I've decided to give a plug to a local store here in Northeast Pennsylvania. Adventure Games just opened a brand new location in Dickson City, PA and is having it's first Warhammer 40K Tournament in years.

The new location is over 8000 square feet and is currently set up to run nearly 20 tables for wargaming tournaments including 40K, WHFB, and Warmachine. The tournament is on June 4th at 11am. Armies are 1850 points with a cash prize for the winners. Yours truly will definitely be participating, along with several other DED'ARD members. So, if you think you'll be able to make it, here's the details:

Adventure Games
849-851 Main St
Dickson City, PA 18519
570.307.GAME

If you'd like to register contact j.evans.84@hotmail.com before June 1st with your roster and to pre-register.

Stay tuned for follow up pics of the tournament itself.

-FF

Not So Finecast

I've been viewing the recent Games Workshop price increases with my usual disbelief. I'll still pay these prices because I love their miniatures and their games are the best in my opinion, but even I'm starting to get a bit annoyed. Along with the price raise, we also had this whole concept of metal miniatures going away and being replaced with resin. As Tenacious D would say, "You can't kill the metal. The metal will live on." Looks like that isn't the case and these new resin figs will reign supreme. Not sure how I feel about all this.

When the rumors started flying, I was thinking that Games Workshop was going to use all of the same molds from their metal miniatures and just sell these new miniatures like Forge World direct on their website. This would cut out discount shops like TheWarStore and others and increase their bottom line. Since the announcement on Monday, I've been kinda meh about this.

The idea of getting lighter miniatures was cool as I honestly hate working with metal, but there are other issues of working with resin. I know a lot of people love Forge World and can't get enough of their kits, but I hate working with that stuff more than metal and every time I buy something from them it's not only overpriced, but the casts are terrible. The concept of boiling miniatures and sawing through 2 inches of flash is just ridiculous to me.

Over on Dakka Dakka, Legion4500 got one of the new Finecast miniatures and has been posting a review on it. You can read his review here. All of the pictures I have here are taken from Legion4500's post. First off we have new packaging. I'm really digging this. Nice full color pic of the model on the front and the back is clear so you can see what you are getting. The miniatures come on sprues which means Games Workshop made entirely new molds. Also, this will be sold through distribution so you'll still be able to get them at your favorite local game store (FLGS). Mabybe GW isn't so bad afterall...

Then we get a look at one of the miniatures and it looks pretty good. I know they claim the detail is sharper, but I don't see much of a difference from the metal miniature. Resin can capture finer details, but I don't have a habit of looking at my miniatures with a microscope so this doesn't intrigue me too much. 

Then we move on to the material itself. From what Legion said, "The material is wierd feeling, it does not feel or smell like resin - its more on the plastic end. it is EXTREMELY SOFT - cuts with a new hobby knife easier then a hot knife thru butter. There are some heavy sprue gates but due to the softness of the material its easy to remove and clean up. Sanding is semi easy - I recommend fine grit or you will cut right thru the figures details in no time. The metal burs and stuff that plague the metal figures don't exist here. Sanding leaves less mess then a plastic figure. Almost no dust." Sounds intriguing. Maybe I will have to pick one of these up.

Lastly, we come to the casting and it looks like the same Forge World shenanigans. Pieces are bent or entirely missing and there are a lot of air bubbles that are marring the surface. The proof is in the pudding and all my hopes for this line are pretty much gone. Maybe this is just the first batch and the quality will improve over time, but I'm not holding my breath.

What do you guys think? Is Finecast worth it or not? Is this the next big thing in miniatures or is this another crazy scheme by GW to make more money? Leave your comments and let me know what you think. And don't forget to check out Legion's full review with more pics over at Dakka Dakka.

I was recently commissioned to do 4 gaming tables for the game store Adventure Games in Dickson City, PA. I plan on having a tutorial up in the near future. Also, Adventure Games is running a 1,850 point 40K tournament next weekend and I hear Jawaballs is planning on attending. I won't be playing in the tournament, but I plan on being there to see it all go down. Maybe I'll post some pics.

Till next time,

–The Harrower

Building Desert Terrain

I've been doing this blog for over a year and looking back I find it pretty surprising that I haven't done any posts on terrain. I'm sure the other members of DED 'ARD are equally surprised considering how insane I am when it comes to making terrain. I'll admit, I'm somewhat of a terrain snob and nothing makes me lash out more than bad terrain. My devotion to terrain usually comes at the sacrifice of my models as you'll typically see primed red Blood Angels being pushed through lavish terrain when you play at my house. I know that defeats the whole purpose of why we game, but it is something I'm still working on. Anyway, building terrain wasn't the main reason why I got into the hobby, but it was pretty high on the list.

As a kid, I've always been amazed by model building and I used to look through old magazines on how they made models for movies like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Dark Crystal for hours on end. Alas, today a lot of the modeling craft has been replaced by 3d modeling, but I still love it and I was glad to see Peter Jackson go old school with The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Not so glad with how he butchered the story and turned Frodo into an unlikeable ass, but that's a topic for another time. Today, building terrain and converting miniatures are my two favorite things with the hobby and terrain building is still something my wife really enjoys so I usually get her to help me out on my latest projects. Here's a few examples of some terrain we've made in the past.

I'm going to be running a campaign for our Gaming Club starting next month. It's going to be based on Planetary Empires and everyone is going to be fighting over the planet Ghalis IV. The planet has been lost since the Dark Age of Technology and has remained hidden in the Ayntaara Nebula for thousands of years. Ghalis IV has remained untouched by the strife of the 41st millennium as no scanners or Psykers have been able to pierce the nebula's depths. This will be an escalation campaign with games starting at 500 point combat patrol matches as the armies make planetfall and escalate to 1,500 point games as they stake their foothold on the planet.

One of my new 4" by 4" table sections.

As you see in the pics above, my tables are kinda huge and really heavy. I made them years ago with 3/4" plywood and 2x4s. I'm replacing these with newer tables made out of 1/4" MDF and 1x3s. The tables are in two pieces one 4" by 4" for Combat Patrol and another 2" by 4" so I can make a tournament size 6" by 4" table. These tables are a lot lighter and easier to store.

In total, I'll have 3 tables. 1 grass board, 1 city board, and 1 desert board. Each of these will correspond to the tiles on the Planetary Empires sets we'll be using. I have the desert board painted and ready to go, but as of yet no terrain to speak of. Don't worry I'll have pics soon including a tutorial on making your own game table.

With the table completed, I did what I usually do. I scoured the internet looking for examples of cool looking desert terrain to draw inspiration from. Problem is, this time I came back pretty much empty handed. I would have thought with Tomb Kings just being released and Necrons on the near horizon there would be a ton of cool desert boards to get ideas from. Alas, there isn't much out there and the stuff I looked at was your basic rocks and tan colored hills.

So I'm not off to a great start and I sat in my basement for the past week waiting for inspiration to strike. I've got a spark thanks to my wife and I started working on a tar pit while she was doing a rock pile with a stone arch, but at this point that's not much. There's something about doing a desert board that just makes it harder to visualize for me. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I can definitely use some ideas from my readers. I really want the terrain on this board to be more than tan colored hills. I need stuff that is unique to the desert from a visual standpoint, but also allows new challenges on the table top.

So what do you guys think? If you were playing on a desert board what would you like to see that would not only look cool, but bring some unique terrain elements to the game. Please share some links and thoughts in the comments below. Hopefully I can get some ideas and put together a really awesome board. I'll be sure to share and do tutorials along the way.

Till next time,
–The Harrower

P.S. Geek bonus points to the person who can identify where my terrain logo draws inspiration from.

Warhammer 40K 6th Edition: Part 1

I apologize for my hiatus. School and work have been keeping me incredibly busy and I haven't had a lot of time to do anything hobby related. Work has finally slowed down a bit and the harder classes are behind me for now, so I can get back to 40K and focus on the hobby. I just want to thank Farseer Frank for taking up the reins again the past few weeks and sharing his tactical insight. I hate the Eldar with a passion and that's thanks to my poor record against his Eldar in 1 on 1 matches. The best I've managed is a draw, but that will hopefully be something I improve on in the future.

I've been reading a bit about the rumored 6th Edition of everyone's favorite game coming out next year and I just want to point out some things I would like to see in the new edition. All of my ties to GW HQ in Nottingham have been severed years ago and I don't know anyone that works there anymore. That being said, these are not "rumors" or an "insider's look". These are just my thoughts on what I think needs improvement going into a 6th Edition. I'll start with 3 and add to it over the coming weeks. In no particular order.

1. Wound Allocation Rules. The current rules are bollocks. Nothing annoys me more than doubling up power weapon wounds on the same model to reduce casualties. Here's an example: I have an Assault Squad with 4 marines left. 3 of the marines are just standard with bolt pistol and close combat weapon and the 4th marine has a flamer. I get charged by a unit of Khorne Berzerkers. I take 2 power weapon wounds and 6 regular wounds. I allocate the 2 power weapon wounds to the poor SoB with the flamer and I roll 6 saves on the remaining 3 marines. This greatly tips the odds in my favor and actually makes it beneficial for the attacker to cause less wounds! Come on Alessio you didn't see this in playtesting?

I hope how they fix this is that allocation works the same way, but you don't do it all at once. You start with any attacks that ignore armor saves and then resolve the rest from highest strength down to lowest. So in the same example from above, 2 of my guys are dead outright. No save. I take the 6 wounds on the remaining 2 troops. That makes sense! This will still allow defenders to avoid taking saves on characters and certain models, but won't result in lost wounds because you decide to put 2 of those power weapon hits on the guy carrying the flamer. Not only that, it will speed things up. Nothing is worse than having a squad with a lot of different wargear and trying to figure out who is saving for what and new players have a VERY hard time with this.

2. Kill Points. I'm REALLY not a fan of Kill Points. In a game where you use equal points on both sides, I don't like that one army can give up a lot more than the other. For starters, Victory Points work a lot better. I kill a 400 point unit I get 400 points. Gee, that makes a lot of sense. I've been in games where my opponent has basically nothing left and I still lose by 1 or 2 Kill Points. And it's not like this is good for list building. It's stupid to build a list around how many points you are going to give up as that has nothing to do with the fluff of the game.

Can you see Dante talking to one of his Captains, "I don't know Tycho. Let's leave all of the tanks behind. Let's just use Jump Packs so our army is less vulnerable." Dumb. What I would like to see is something similar to Victory Points, but round the numbers to the nearest hundred. If I have a unit of Death Company that costs 250 points, they're worth 3 Kill Points. If you want some variety in there, make specific Org choices add to it. HQs are worth an additional 3 Kill Points. Elites are worth an additional 2 Kill Points. Troops, Fast Attack, and Heavy Support are worth an additional 1 Kill Point. That makes a lot more sense. I should get more points for taking out my opponents more powerful troops and his leaders.

Also, you should get points for units that are at half strength or immobilized. As is, Kill Points force you to make tactical decisions that don't make a lot of sense.

"Tycho, fire on that immobilized Rhino!"

Tycho responds incredulously, "Um, what!?"

"We have a better chance of destroying that then we do that unit of Plague Marines. That's an order marine!"

There will always be a way to game the system, but Kill Points can be done in a way that makes a lot more sense and isn't as lopsided.

3. More Missions. The current crop of missions is a joke. 3 missions with 3 different types of deployment? That gives us the huge variety of 9 different game types which as everyone who has been playing 40K for a few weeks knows isn't much. I miss the old days when you bought a new Codex and you got a mission to go along with it. Or what about the cool mission cards from 2nd Edition? When you had no clue what your opponent was trying to do and the game was more exciting.

I do think Battle Missions was a step in the right direction and I hope both it and Planet Strike are mined for ideas when they come around to creating missions. I do like the Stratagem System and I hope to see that in 40K proper. I'd like to see more variety. You can add the dynamic of Attacker vs. Defender or change the Force Organization Chart depending on the mission. The good news is that the new version of Warhammer Fantasy Battle has a bunch of missions. Hopefully we'll get that in the next iteration of Warhammer 40K.

So what do you guys not like about the current edition? What would you like to see changed? Post your thoughts below. Next time I'll talk a bit more about what I'd like to see in 6th Edition and I'll let you know what I've been working on.

Till then,
–The Harrower