Are Assault Armies Dead?

So, I've been hearing this over and over...  I'm not sure, but I DO think they have taken a serious hit since the new edition hit.  Not being able to Assault out of Reserve in general is bad, and of course having an entire new class of target that is completely immune to HtH is pretty bad as well...  Random Charge length can be annoying, but overall I actually like that.  It HAS killed off the 5th edition standby of the "Power Blob" the IG could field.  Casualties being taken closest (or directed by placed shots) leads to some interesting situations that could well allow you to kill so many targets that you are no longer IN combat...  Or you lose wounds done because you can only kill the close things...  Of course the inability to assault from non "Assault" (or open topped) Vehicles is pretty bad...  Especially because this prevents you from Assaulting if you have to get out of a wrecked or destroyed Vehicle...

This and the no assaults from Reserve are particularly difficult to justify.  The stated reason is that the designers have is that they did not want the players to be hit by things that they could not react to before getting hit...  All well and good, except then you get things like the Heldrake that CAN simply fly on, hit you with the Vector Strike then hit you again or another unit altogether with it's Flamer of Doom...  The first happens before ANY reaction is possible, including Interceptor fire, the second after, but by then it is too late usually and frankly how many Fliers get killed by Interceptor fire?  Most of my armies will have the Quad gun, or an Icarus Las Cannon...  If they're lucky and have access to the Forgeworld stuff or are allowed to proxy in stuff then the Hyperion Missile turrets or Mortis DNs perhaps...



Kind of lost track of where I was here...  "Assault" to me I guess I apply my own more modern definitions to.  So, I would include short ranged "shock" shooting as part of an Assault strategy.  Sternguard or IG Stormtroopers dropping in onto a target and smacking it with Plasma and Melta at point blank range to me is every bit as much "Assault" as the Death Company jump packing into HtH...  More suicidal I think as you are not "safely in HtH and will likely take heavy casualties or get wiped out by the return fire, but My Sternguard never failed to get me First Blood when I played them regularly...  Yes, in my best iteration of that list was in the 1850+ point range and included CPT Tycho's Fleshtearer doppelganger, Sternguard, Medic in Terminator Armor and the Vanguard Vets following the Drop Pod's beacon in to deal with anyone silly enough to be close to the CPT and the boys...  Sometimes they even survived.  And I usually won the fight, and the battle because First Blood, Line Breaker and Kill the Warlord were all pretty good odd wise for that setup...  NOT long term holding the line, unless I happen to kill them all of course :-)...

Off to work out I guess, I am finding that I think a lot better when I am on the move...