Mkay, I apparently read too many other blogs… Goatboy had a pretty decent write-up about
how “Elite” as a slot in the 6th edition Codices has become
something less than “Elite” here http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/08/goatboys-monday-40k-elites-are-not-so.html. I’d have to agree for the most part. But the same can be said of Fast and Heavy
Support really… While HS has some of the
“BFG” stuff, and both HS and FA CAN become scoring in certain missions, frankly
the current edition punishes you for bringing anything other than “Troops” or
things that can be made Scoring more often than not. So, the books with the best “Troops” are the
most successful armies. Have to admit,
this is one of my major concerns with the upcoming Marine book.
Rumor has the Grav weapons coming in with AP of 2. So, the new Melta perhaps? Just remembering 5th edition where
there were IG Vet Squads, whatever else, all armed with as many Melta weapons
as they could because there were a lot of Vehicles and there frankly was no
real disadvantage to the use of Melta.
It killed “Whatever” you were shooting at. In some cases not as efficiently as Plasma,
but it wouldn't kill YOU for shooting the weapon, so… Oh, and it was/is cheaper. Hoping the Grav weapons are not too over the top silly, but good to see ancient things hitting the field again... Now, hoping the AA stuff is actually good enough to keep the Heldrakes at bay for a bit...
In any case, the current Tactical Squad in the Marine books
is pretty worthless in my opinion. Not
very mobile, the bolter isn't that powerful a weapon these days, and the 3+
armor just isn’t what it was years ago.
Scouts with the proliferation of “no cover saves” in recent books have
taken yet another hit and are now back to novelty status from a solid, cheap
Troop option. And…? With the Vanilla Codex, a bike CPT would
allow you to use Bike Squads as Troops I guess.
Great, until you hit your first Heldrake or Tau gunline. Then, just more expensive casualties. Blood Angels get Assault Squads as Troops, as
well as Death Company (and DC DNs).
Assault troops are “eh” these days overall. I do FAR better with them than my Tac Marines
in my Fleshtearer force as the Jump Packs at least make the lads mobile enough
to try to run a flank or use a big piece of terrain to hide in and assault out
of… So, against all but the most
powerful armies like the Necron air force, Chaos allies, Tau Gunlines and now
Eldar forces they can at least be a threat that must be dealt with… The Death Company are really only technically
Troops as they can NEVER hold anything, so they are just shock troops for
me. Kill as much as they can and hope I
have the only force still standing at the end.
Not being able to assault out of Reserve for the most part means that
Scouts and Deep Strikers by and large are no nearly so good as they were. Oh, and there are Interceptors now that can
just kill you as you hit the field. So,
even less useful given I can only Reserve 50% or so of the force in this
edition. Target saturation is hard when
you only have a few Deep Strikers…
So, back on topic J.. I am interested to see what, if anything else
that GW does for the old Tactical Marines.
It does not appear as if they will themselves be getting anything in the
lines of new Transports or armor, so…
Well, I am assuming a major points reduction at least, but really what
else? Another Melta Gun is neat and all,
but what else can they do? Just having
the required bodies to hold objectives is not enough I think. They probably wouldn't get the Sternguard
ammo types, and that might well be overly powerful… Remembering the old CCW/Pistol/Rifle weapon
load out would be nice, but really nothing new or all that useful. Seeing the Tau get the ability to provide
cover fire for their own people as they get charged and this being applied in
the Apocalypse Marine formation? Might
be something that at least some of the new Tactical Marines might get something
to that effect… But what else
really? Guess this is why I’m not a game
developer…
Other thing, the Supplemental Codices… Are they really supplemental or are they
something different? http://blog.spikeybits.com/2013/08/editorial-digital-releases-are-they.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SpikeyBits+%28Spikey+Bits%29
Pretty darn expensive for the 2 pages of rules, and of
course there is the whole bypassing the FLGS thing… Since I actually PLAY at the game store, I’d
much prefer to make my purchases there. ‘course,
with electronic content, this is not an option.
For the most part I am not really seeing this as a major problem… So far they’re “neat” options, but nothing game
breaking or really overly powerful that will be dominating the competitive scene. I know GW does not support this and they
claim to not to care or write their rules with this in mind, but this is how a
LOT of the game is played here in the States…
The fact that the rules are “exclusive” and not generally available to
everyone is a major concern for me as a player in a tournament, and honestly I’m
not sure I’d be allowing them as the Tournament Organizer… I have a small one coming up at the Gopher
next month, and due to the size, not a major issue for me J… But of course by then at least one more will
be released, and if this is the one that breaks it? I guess my major objection to this is the
clear “cash grab” as they release the DLC a bit at a time for “premium” prices. I am concerned that the cost will continue to
shoot up while they release more and more things that break the game further,
requiring the competitive players to keep buying direct from GW… Guess we’ll see.
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