Warhammmer 40,000 7th Edition 16 Rule Changes in White Dwarf issue 16

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Ben Jackson

You may have already seen most of the contents of this week’s White Dwarf. I think just about every page has been plastered over the internet. I’ve included the cover, contents and back page below. I view showing any more as beyond the bounds of fair use.

It’s no secrete the issue is all about the new edition of 40k. There is really good content in this issue about the changes in the rules and background.

Here are the confirmed changes so far.

1) unbound armies: take any units from your codex apart from special characters as many times as you want.

2) All units can now capture objectives, just like Apocalypse.

3) battle forged armies follow. Organisational charts and get extra bonuses.

4) Maelstrom War Missions: Six alternative missions that use 36 tactical objective cards. Each player will have a number of objectives each turn. As each objective is achieved a new one is awarded, along with victory points

5) Psychic phase: all psychic powers are now cast after the movement phase. Each turn you have a warp charge for each psychic in your army plus D6 warp charges.

6) Psychic tests: roll a D6 for any warp charge you want to use , but all doubles 6s or even triples results in perils of the warp event.

7) New Psychic Discipline demonology, enables psychers to summon Demons.

8) Unit coherency is now 6″ vertically.

9) No leadership test is needed for Split Fire.

10) Rules for super heavies, D weapons and all scenery are included in the rule book for use in standard 40k games.

11) wound allocation is now done by weapon type from shooting through to save. So in a tactical squad all flamer shots would need to be resolved before bolters roll to hit.

12) the vehicle damage table has moved by one point, so to destroy a vehicle you now need to roll a seven.

13) Moving through difficult terrain now takes 2 inches off charge distances.

14) Psykers who take all their powers from a single discipline now the Primus power as a bonus.

15) Troops in battle forged armies automatically take any objectives they are contesting unless they are contesting objectives against enemy troops also in battle forged armies.

16) Battle Forged armies can reroll warlord traits

There’s really no reason you can’t start playing with these now. To play with demonology you will need the white dwarf.

Lovely picture in the back page this week. Here is half of it.

Will it be easier to organise a game of 40k 7th edition

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Ben Jackson

Over the last few iterations of 40k it’s become more and more difficult to organise a game. This isn’t purely due to the changes in rules, but a combinations of rules, diversity and peoples’ ever growing armies.
I remember when a game of 40k meant getting out all 6 models I owned. Rolling some dice to work out what profiles and equipment they had, putting down my 5×3 grass board, (movement was only 4 inches in those days) along with some of my dad’s railway buildings and using books as hills. These days it involves booking somewhere to play or booking my family out of the house. Agreeing who’s turn it is to be space marines. We only had space marines back in the days before Tyranid attack and 40k box sets. Packing up over 100 models and some tanks into a case, agreeing which missions/expansions we will be playing, if forge world rules, super heavies, fortifications, D-weapons or flyers are to be excluded, what points value is being played and if it’s going to be a balanced game. And all that’s before thinking about your army list phew.
As you may be able to tell, I like to turn up, put my painted models on the board and play game. Life is too short to spend more time planning a game than playing it. The problem with this is after 20 something years collecting Ultramarines it’s not going to be a fair fight if I bring all my models and the game probably won’t get finished either.

Will 40k 7th edition make planning a game any easier? Not Likely! Even if super heavies are in the core rules I don’t see tournaments or local game groups allowing these without question. Even though most armies now have a way to deal with flyers my own gaming group still views flyers as something that has to be authorised before being used. I don’t see D-weapons being given an open blessing either. D-weapons will need to be toned down in order to be used in standard games of 40k, I think D-weapons need to be toned down full stop, or have their points values adjusted given the changes made in 6th edition. My hope is the core rules version of d weapons won’t be as over powered is they are right now and this will stop the questioning over their use.
If the rumours on Allies sliders are true army list writing is about to get far more complex as you will have the option of taking 3 allied lists and picking which one your going to use once you have seen your opponents list.

So do you think 7th edition will result in simplified rules, less expansions and smaller armies??? Or much like Bruce Banner will 40k become a every bigger greener angry monster of a game.

In what way is this not 40k Seventh Edition?

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Ben Jackson

With news breaking there will be far reaching changes within the next 40k book, which even if Games Workshop call it revised 6th edition it will be the 7th book titled Warhammer 40,000. The question in my mind is how is this not a new version. So far we have confirmed changes in
Psychics, Allies, Force Organisation and Missions. There are long standing rumours their will be inclusion of, large fortifications, D-weapons and super heavy vehicles. If the leaked transcript is to be believed, the changes will also cover movement in assault, running, flyer movement and assault consolidation, shooting at flyers, universal special rules and goodness knows what else.
If anything I can see this being a bigger change than move from 5th to 6th edition.
The other thing that keeps occurring to me is how similar seventh edition is going to look to the post dark millennium second edition. The inclusion of mission cards psychic cards a psychic phase are all elements of dark millennium. Of course 40k already has a psychic phase and has done for sometime. Elder players are very familiar with needing to cast a bunch of psychic powers at the start of their movement phase and all they are really doing here is splitting out that action, although your opponent will now have the ability to stop those things happening.
For those of you who didn’t get to play dark millennium it was both the pinnacle of detailed rules from the old old editions and the most cumbersome and unbalanced versions the game. I do hope Games workshop are not repeating the same mistake. This new book could spell a new era of fun in 40K or another step closer to the abyss of unbalanced gaming.

Persistent Warhammer 40,000 Seventh Edition Rumours

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Ben Jackson

What? Warhammer 40k Seventh Edition Already?!?

Chapter Masters is dedicated to pictures of well painted miniatures and Warhammer gaming news. Rumours are an area we now like to stay well clear off. This is because they can cause upset, even when untrue and result in the rathe of GW’s legal team. However something has to be said about the possible event of Warhammer seventh edition later this year. Sources on Bell of lost souls, fate212, 40K radio and other Internet sites are all drip feeding a steady pace of alleged rules from Warhammer 40,000 7th edition, rumoured to be launching later this year. Dates seem to range from May to somewhere in September. This may mean it will be as soon as Games Workshop is able to release it. I like to stay away from any specific rules within the rumours of seventh edition however within the multiple sources there have been some consistent themes of the changes that are about to take place. All sources seem to agree this will be a refinement of six edition rather than a big jump in rules. One common rumoured rule is the ability to consolidate into new close combats. Another is the addition of rules for superheavy being contained within the main rule set. With the release of the Imperial knights, this would make a lot of spence. Finally an end to the force organisation chart looks to be on the cards. At least two sources have now indicated will be moving back to the 40k second edition format just like warhammer fantasy. Use of percentages allocated to force organisation. For example up to 50% of your force being taken from an allied codex or at least 25% of your force being taken from troops.

Update 1/5/14 – 2 credible sources have reported the force org chart is not changing.

I think the thing I’m wondering most about 7th Edition is not what rules it will contain, but how the gaming community will re-act to a new book so soon after 6th edition. Will people be happy to drop another £50 (or even £60) for something with a shelf life of only 2 years. By the end of 5th edition I think most gamers were itching for some new rules. To be honest I don’t think I could claim to know the rules in 6th edition yet. If there is a new version in May(24/5/15), or even 23-7-14 I don’t think I ever will.

Playing on J’migan Bridge at Warhammer World

Posted on March 29, 2014 by Ben Jackson

Having recently played a game on J’migan Bridge I’d like to share my lessons learnt so you can enjoy the experience even more. First this board is fantastic, hence it being booked up 6 weeks in advance. Second the deployment style makes a big difference to how the board plays. Play across the board and one player will have lots of fortifications and d weapons at their disposal. This will make for a very unbalanced game. J’migan Bridge will force you to split your force into a left and right flank assault. As the bridge forms a big obstacle , unless you want to try to move models under it. Given how hard is is to get dice out from under the bridge, you would be mad to try. As the visibility is restricted in the dried up river bed only tall models like superheavy walkers and flyers can see from the centre of the board. The Fortifications side of the board is
very difficult for tanks and wheeled vehicles to advance through. Skimmers don’t suffer from this problem. The side used in this deployment style has to be carefully weighed up against both you’d plan of attack and the type of units in your army.

Playing lengthways on J’migan Bridge (as show in the picture) produces very different dynamics. For starters either side of the deployment is much more balanced, both in terms of fortifications and D weapons. No mans land will be formed from a combination of the bridge and the dried dried up river bed. This makes a very open and beachhead salt style game.
Playing diagonally on this board is very much the same as playing across the board in that one side will have a clear advantage. I was actually very surprised at the difference having trenches made to the game. They provide a lot of cover benefiting both sides, but this doesn’t dominate the game. Having obstacles which some units can’t cross makes your deployment phase all the more important.
Below are pictured of playing lengthways followed by playing across J’migan Bridge.