6th Ed. Ramblings and Predictions

I will have the book this weekend.

First, my sources:
http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=112662
http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?t=22683

I don't want to go too far and deep into this, but I have some predictions for 6th Ed. that you might or might not agree with.  Please, feel free to chime in and let me know if any of this is incorrect.

Lets start with some of the things I noticed.  Please excuse me if this is unorganized, but I just wanted to write some shit and get it out of my head.  There's a lot of info here, so open up the two threads I linked above so you can follow along.

Also keep in mind that I'll be talking from a DE, SW, BA player's perspective, as well as touching upon GK, Tyranids and other armies I find interesting.  I will use bold and italicized to cover army specific stuff.


Night Vision ignores Night Fighting.  This is good because Night Fighting can happen in any game now apparently (on a 4+).  It changes a little bit, like max range being 36" and anything shooting over 24" gets a 2+ cover save.  Dark Eldar ignores this.

Acute Senses get to re-roll Outflank.  Space Wolves like this.

Rage is now +2 attacks on the charge, and some sources say it has no movement penalties?  Looks like Death Company will be getting a buff.  This is probably in preparation for Khorne Berserkers.

Jink looks like a 5+ cover save for Fast Skimmers and Jetbikes if they move at all.  That means Dark Eldar Flickerfields will only be good when sitting still.  If they go flat out, those models get a 4+ cover save. Eldar players must be shitting their pants right now because every one of their vehicles just got Flickerfields on top of Energy Shields and Holofields.

5+ cover is everywhere now.  Most things provide a 5+ (to include shooting through units, being inside of craters and being partially concealed) though Ruins give 4+.  Lesser degrees of protection makes MEQ easier to remove (greater answer to Paladins), makes it reasonable to kill Guardsman in cover, but makes more elite armies suffer more (Eldar).  Vehicles and models now get cover saves if 25% of the model/unit is covered instead of 50%.  Looks like DE vehicles will be getting cover saves everywhere now:  25% cover is easily obtained, Flickfields out in the open and standing still, or 5+ cover from Jink just because you moved.

New USR named Hammer of Wrath makes it so units attack at I10 hitting at regular strength.  BAs will like this because it works with Jump Infantry.  Not sure if this benefits from Furious Charge or whatnot.


Zoom - a Flyer USR that keeps the flyer from ramming, tank shocking, being rammed, being tank shocked, must move 18" if at all possible, may turn up to 90* before moving, can move upwards to 36". It may still fire 4 weapons when moving at these speeds. If the flyer ends up moving off the table due to the Zoom rule it may roll to come back on the next turn.  Vendettas looking really good right now at 130 points.  Not sure about the Voidraven yet though.  The Stormraven also looks pretty good with its ability to fire so many weapons.  Considering now units need 6s to hit flyers (unless you have a special rule that allows you to use your regular BS), this is pretty huge.


Random charges are in with 2d6 on the charge.  Fleet allows you to reroll the run roll or the charge roll during a turn. No longer allows you to run AND assault in the same turn (as that'd give a unit with this rule a 24" threat bubble under the new rules).  Paladins with 2d6 to charges seem ridiculously scary, especially with Relentless staying the same.  You can now move 6" shoot everything, then charge up to 12" away for 18" threat range on Paladins after shooting.  Fleet looks like smaller distances overall, so less mobility but greater success at getting the charge.


However, units consolidating into combat now happens before units get to strike, and the range of consolidation has been reduced to 3".  That means that although things like Paladins can potentially touch you from 18", not many of them will be in combat.  This applies to all units assaulting.  Combine this with things like Overwatch being able to Snap Fire and the lead unit before he gets into combat might mean no units can actually reach combat.  Hmm..


Feel No Pain is now 5+ and can only be prevented by Instant Death.  This means that Power Weapons can no longer kill FNP units reliably.  ID is the only way to really get rid of them.  This looks to be a copy and paste 5+ Regeneration from Fantasy, but there's nothing in 40K that removes it.  Looks like a buff overall to FNP because now you can't remove them with S7 AP2/1 fire.


Preferred Enemy is now re-roll all 1s for shooting and close combat, both to hit and to wound.  Wolf Priests got better, and Hive Tyrants with Old Adversary (6" PE bubble) definitely got better.


All close combat weapons have AP values now:

Powersword: AP3, gives user 5++ in CC
Poweraxe: +1S, AP2, I1
Powerfist: 2xS, AP2, I1
Chainfist: 2xS, AP2, I1, 2D6 vs. armor
Powermaul: +2S, AP4
Powerlance: +1S & AP3 on the charge, AP4 otherwise
Lightning Claws: S User, AP3, Melee, Shred, Specialist Weapon
Forceweapon: AP3
Force Sword S User, AP3, Melee, Force
Force Axe S +1, AP2, Melee, Force, Unwieldy
Force stave S +2, AP4, Melee, Concussive, Force

Does this honestly mean you can't harm Terminators with Power Weapons that's not a I1 striking weapon?  'cause I'm seriously worried about things like Paladins now (between this and the 2d6 charge range).  Maybe the reduction of overall cover save to 5+ will be even this out.  More importantly, what does this mean to Frost Blades, Huskblades or Boneswords?  A codex FAQ MUST be shipped upon 6th Ed. release.


Overwatch and Snap Fire.  Snap Fire allows you to fire weapons you wouldn't normally be able to fire at BS1 (heavy weapons, sponsons on a tank that has moved and fired it's main weapon....more information will be available on the exact details upon the release of the rulebook). Blast weapons may not snap fire.  Overwatch states that charged units able to shoot may do so using the Snap Fire rules. Templates hit d3 times, blast weapons may not be fired. This can only be done once per unit per turn.  Looks like Orks will be loving this shooty change.


Shooting now only works against models the unit can see, with the enemy unit taking saves from closest to furthest, only pulling casualties as models fail their saves. This will likely slow games down, but should prevent other wound allocation cheese that occurs.
Shots from Overwatch also allocate wounds this way and can prevent a unit from successfully being able to assualt due to taking enough wounds that the first rank doesn't reach the unit.
Regardless of the number of hits actually made, you can only wound and kill models that are in range of your weapons.
No Half Strength blast templates vs vehicles. Templates now do full strength hits regardless where the center hole is.
Independent Characters and Snipers may allocate wounds to visible models in range with rolls of 6s to hit.
Grenades may now be used as a shooting attack.
Unit Leaders (example: Battle Sister Superior) and Independent Characters benefit from "Look Out Sir!" save versus shooting to prevent from taking wounds.

Sounds like a better change overall, although I'm worried how much this will slow the game down.  A lot of rules lawyering I see with this one.


Vehicle Hull Points and damage:

When a vehicle is glanced 1 Hull Point is removed for each successful glancing hit. When a vehicle suffers a penetrating hit a Hull Point is lost and then a roll on the vehicle damage chart is made (+1 for Open Topped, +1 for AP2 and +2 for AP1, no penalties for AP-): 1-2 Shaken, 3 Stunned, 4-5 Weapon Destroyed, 6 Explodes!). When all Hull Points are gone the vehicle becomes a wreck.
Most vehicles have 3 Hull Points, however some have 4 (examples: Soul Grinder, Land Raider, Ghost Ark, Monolith) and others have 2 (examples: Vyper and Ork Buggies).
Overall, a better change for vehicles, but I'm unsure whether or not I like what this means for Dark Eldar.  Does the 5++ offered from Jink justify the 2 Hull Points and higher damaging weapons?  This makes vehicles riskier, which is a great change, but sad for my paper airplanes.

Disembarking can only be done if the vehicle moved 6" or less and must be placed within base contact with the access point and then moved upwards to 6" from the access point. No more 8"+ bubble from the access points when disembarking.
Huge nerf for the likes of Orks and DE who relied on jumping out of their vehicles from 2" after moving 12".  I need to see the rules for Open-top vehicles, but this worries me a lot as a DE player who likes Wyches.


Psychic Powers.  There's a lot of them, so I'm not going to bother posting it.  They're in the links above.  In a nut shell, if your army doesn't have a Psyker or solid Psyker protection, you're pretty much boned.  A 6+ to save as Psychic protection doesn't justify getting nuked repeatedly by these abilities.  Orks, Dark Eldar, Tau, I feel bad for you.


Allies
Perks/Penalties based on trust level between two armies. Some armies can't ally with certain other armies and Tyranids aren't allowed Allies.
Can NOT ally with your own army to break the FOC.
Allies require you to take 1 HQ and 1 Troop choice before taking any other options. May take an additional Troop Choice and up to 1 of any non-HQ choice from the Ally's army.
Looks like a nightmare for game balance, but we'll see how this plays out.


There's some other rules out there, but for now, I'm done.