first games in 6th edition share your experiences

[ikken]

several of the other forums have a thread where people are sharing their general experiences of their first few games in 6th edition , i thought i saw one in this forum but could not find it so i will start one .
This is not a play by play battle report just a general sum up and impression .

so i managed to finish a 1000 point game against SW , took 2 days , as i could only play in the evening , and constantly flipping through the rule book to see how things had changed and the new order of things took time . the game lasted 4 turns , and ended in the nids tabeling the SW .
the mission was the one with 2 objectives , and mysterious terrain.
my list had a HT+2Tg , terv , POM+20Garg, 13gaunts , DOM.
SW had rune priest (jaws), TWC,LF,2GH, + WG in TDA leading all infantry units .
the biggest change is no more fearless saves , this one thing made the difference between the nids tabeling the sw and the sw running over everything .
one thing that hasn't changed is JAWS still hurts , the RP picked off the tervagon on T2 .
the firing at closest model was a bit of a tough nut as well , the Space Wolves , had added a wolf guard in terminator armor to every unit except the thunder wolf cav , then made sure that model was out front soaking up all incoming fire, and when he missed a 2+ save he would make his 4+ LOS save . It was a very effective tactic , and the only way i managed to get round it was with the DOM , who managed to nerf a squad of GH , and stay out of sight of the LF and then next turn move out and zap the LF . it should be noted that both these units failed moral testes from shooting and proceeded to run off the table so i had some luck here .
the gargoyles got stuck in early with the TWC , and tarpitted them for 4 rounds of CC , while the POM slowly chewed through them , being fearless they stuck around even though they lost combat almost every turn , but he didn't have enough attacks to kill the whole unit and the POM just kept slowly chewing through the TWC .
over watch shooting did minimal damage , and i am happy to suffer a few over watch wounds and get stuck in CC where i can now grind down a unit ,
had i played the same game in 5th , i would have lost . fearless wounds would have wiped out the gargoyles on the 2nd round of cc and he would have run the back field with the TWC ,

I was happy with the POM , he made the gargoyles very effective , against the TWC , with out him in that unit they would not have been able to chew through the TWC and the TWC would have eventually won and had the run of the back field .
I originally took him hoping to create ripper swarms , but never did manage to create one .
all in all , I think Nids will be much more competitive this edition , I don't know about top tier but I am sure that the Nids won this match entirely because of the changes made in 6th edition .

anyone else had any games they would care to share ?

[sturm]

I can see how the changes can affect nids in a good way. I believe it opens up new combinations and new tactics. No fearless wounds is obviously one of the best thing that could happen.

Now that being said, I had 3 games with in the new edition, all 3 against necron, and I seriously don't know what to do. Lost all of them and it was not even close. Tesla guns are a pain on flyers, rapid fire is horrible, wraiths will target your Anti tank and eat them in no time, and I'm not even talking about the reanimation protocols. At one point, I had dealt 16 unsaved wounds (over 3 rounds of combat) to a squad of 10 immortals and they still standing 8 strong. Seriously?

I learned its a good idea to avoid models with mindshackle scarabs, and that overwatch hurts more than you'd think (rapid fire anyone?). Next thing is the random charges. If I could take one thing out of the rulebook, it would be that. I failed about 50% of all charges in the last 3 games I played, and I'm not talking about those 11-12" gamble, I'm talking 5-6".

I understand that I've been quite unlucky and I'm not raging against all the new stuff. Also, always playing against a necron is probably not a good thing to keep me happy, but I'll keep trying until I find something. I'm thinking about an all shooty list, we'll see.

I'll be glad to read more posts on people experiences so far in the 6th so I can have an idea of how we do against other armies.

[nurglitch]

That's some ridiculously bad luck if you only put down 2 Immortals after causing 16 unsaved wounds, even if there was a Resurrection Orb in the unit. Ditto for the dice. I think it's time you got new dice.

[polkadragon]

>and when he missed a 2+ save he would make his 4+ LOS save

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you supposed to make LOS rolls when the wounds are *allocated*, not when saves are made?

[killme304]

You make a LoS roll, then if you fail it you roll your armor on the character.

[ZergLord]

My list:

Tyranid Prime - LW&BS, TS, Deathspitter
3 Zoes
8 Ymgarls
3 Hive Guards
12 Stealers
12 Stealers
11 Devilgaunts
4 Warriors with VC
4 Warriors with VC
4 Shrikes - LW&BS, TS
Carnifex with Venom Cannon

Nothing special, just wanted to play some games and see how it goes.

I beaten 2 SW lists - one is Blood Claws and Grey hunters oriented with a Priest in Rhinos and LR, and other is footslogging GHs with 2 ML Devastators and a Lord riding a big wolf in a unit of 15ish small wolves; and beaten a Necron list with a Warrior blob, some Immortals, 6 Wraiths, 10 Deathmarks, 3 Tomb spyders, Overlord and Lords with Mindshackle Scarabs, a Cryptec and that Necron walker. My opponents made some mistakes, especially the Necron opponent. Apparently they didn't figure it out that it's a horrible idea to get too close to Stealers in 6th ed.

My favourite change is the lack of No Retreat. Good riddance. It's such a good feel to tarpit a unit in combat and not die. I almost stop caring that my army lacks assault grenades. Being able to kill vehicles more easily makes our life easier too.

I think that our infantry took a nerf because of the weaker cover saves, BUT our MCs have been buffed because they take cover saves just like infantry. So I think that this will force people to learn how to properly mix infantry and monsters in their lists.

Speaking of which, I think that in this edition you'll have to mix shooty and assault elements of your army. Your one dimensional army is going to fail horribly unless, MAYBE, if you have an army full of very mobile units (looks at BA Jumpers) or an army with tremendeous firepower (looks at IG).

Charging through cover is a huge deal for everyone now. I wonder how much it will take for people to realise that they should use mobile units like jumpers, models with fleet and dudes in assault vehicles as their dedicated assault
units.

I don't like the new wound allocation abuse, but I'd rather choose that over vehicle spam and No Retreat.

As for our Carnifex, I think that there's very little hope left for him. Even with buffs to MCs, he's still 30 points more expensive, and ironically, there are even more reason not to take him in favour of the Trygon and other MCs. If you give him 2x BL Devourers then he could be ok, but I'm not very optimistic. I have remodelled my old Carnifex with Crushing Claws (does anyone remember the Godfex?) to look a bit more cooler; I'll try a couple of games with him and maybe, somehow, he'll be useful in my army...

[dakkathrope]

First off, hey I just joined the forums a couple days ago but I've been lurking for a month or so.

On Topic:
I've played over 10 games of 6th so far and all of them at 1000 points.
The biggest things I've noticed is the random charge can be awesome and horrible at the same time. I lost a couple units due to failing a 5" charge distance with fleet rerolls, but in most cases having a strategy to get the heavy hitters into cc without taking the overwatch is helpful. So far using ripper swarms to take the overwatch has been working really well for me. Also thanks to the HP rules I glanced a few walkers to death with gargoyles. Tarpitting with termies has been extremely helpful too by keeping the scary stuff tied up while my heavy hitters march around the field and finish them off.

[Davor]

What is LOS? Line of site???

[Nightstalker]

LOS in this case is Look out sir!

[Davor]

Thanks Nightstalker. So I take it LoS is Line of Site, while LOS is Look Out Sir! Now it all makes sense.

So how many Characters did the SW player have? I am curious there.

[ziyousansz]

The randomization effect is both hilarious and frustrating, but I suspect it will ebb and flow that way. My first encounter with randomly-rolled powers gave my broodlord Gate and Telekine Dome (which, funny enough, where what I mentioned as the powers that stood out to me about TK in another thread). My opponent shot his lootas into my stealers, ricocheted two bullets into a nearby dakkajet, and crashed it into bikers. It was pretty awesome.

So far, I like that vehicles have a more available answer. I like that the randomization keeps everything from being clear-cut as well. I rolled a 3 on a charge reroll (the gods of luck have long ago given their opinions of me), but I also rolled a 12 on a charge at another time.

What I'm not sold on are the Outflank and Reserve rules. I had been working towards a Null Deployment list and now I have some units I'm not sure I'll take so regularly. Then again, my opponent is moving away from mechanization and Night Fight pops up frequently to protect my footsloggers.

Okay, scratch that. I like the checks and balances of 6th, and I like the chance to revisit and rework old strategies.

[Illithid]

LOS - Line of Sight / LO,S - Look Out, SIR! ~ I normally try to put a comma in the second one to clear confusion.

Things I have found. I love the Psychic abilities on the tervigon. Back in 5th Ed. I was not a fan of the guy, but now it is a machine, waddling up the board, spitting out baby termagants and buffing or making itself up to a Str/T 9 behemoth!

No "Fearless" wounds - I can safely lock things in combat with smaller units and feel happy that I can then assault afterwards with something harder hitting.

Overwatch is not to bad, normally only 1 or 2 wounds on the assault. Rippers are indeed great for sucking up that Overwatch so that your Hormagaunts or whatever get the assault.

Genestealers - mine so far have been VERY disappointing.

[webebuggin]

Yeah gene hordes are out, broodlord commando squads are amazingggg. Both for challenge sake and the chance to nerf and buff. Don't underestimate broodlord with iron arm that t8 str8 is insane. Instant killing terminators if he tends and they fail invul.
Gargs are amazing now, jumping over terrain for assault is great.

[WestRider]

Haven't played with my Nids yet, but the one Game I got in with my Guard highlighted some general points.
- Mysterious Objectives can totally suck. Had my Home Objective blow up on me something like 4 times over the course of the Game.
- Using Transports requires a great deal more forward planning. A significant part of why I won is that my Opponent's Troops got up in my face a Turn later than they would have in 5th, due to the harsher restrictions on Disembarking.
- On a similar note, Light Vehicles die much more easily now. I'm so happy with this. The Vehicle Damage Chart has been the bane of my 40K experience for almost 15 years now, and finally I don't have to worry about it any more. I can just glance stuff to death with massive torrents of firepower.
- With those two combined, 5th Ed-style Mech is certainly dead. We will almost equally certainly see effective Mech Lists in 6th, but they're going to look different than they did in 5th.
- Conversely, Flyers are a serious pain to deal with. Even with a Vendetta and a Quad Gun in my Aegis Line, I didn't manage to kill my Opponent's Storm Talon, and I only lost my Vendetta due to Hovering for a Turn to drop off the MeltaVets at the wrong time.
- Random Charges, particularly through Cover, can be brutal to Units without Re-Rolls of some kind. We didn't actually end up with any Combats getting worked out, every Charge attempt failed.
- One of those was due to the fact that Overwatch can do some significant damage when there's enough of it. Be careful when Charging Guard Blobs.
- Wound Allocation takes a while to get the hang of, but I think for the most part, it's going to be better and faster than 5th. Basic Units are certainly going to go more smoothly. We'll see about DeathStar Units designed to pull WA tricks, tho.

[killme304]

From my experience, random charge sucks balls, and I'll be making my lists more gun heavy as a result. Out of 16 charges declared, only 4 have connected, and 8 of them that failed were 6" or less.

Look Out, Sir is busted. I had a unit of 8 warriors + prime soak up 2 full turns of DE fire at 2500 and not be wiped out.

Flyers are retarded to deal with for any army. Bugs need some Skyfire ASAP, since everyone else gets fortifications and can actually hit worth half a (please do not swear) with them.

I already hate the allies mechanic, anyone that can will team up with eldar for those @#%@ing runes, making taking a psychic test a trail of patients.

Carnifexen are even more useless in a melee situation than a Tervigon. If you want run them, strap some guns on him, and give them a prime so they don't get wiped out so fast.

That said, I ran my Tervigon into a unit of bikes that I managed to assault. My opponent thought I was cheating when he saw how many attacks at S10 I was getting. The look on his face was priceless.