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https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/05/09/warhammer-40000-faction-focus-astra-militarum/

Confirms that rapid fire doubles shots at half range. Confirms that Sniper weapons can freely target characters. Leman Russ is T8 and 12 Wounds.

Doc beat me to it.

 nintura wrote:
RG is a Primarch and has 9. I feel this is done JUST SO he can hide. It could be my tin foil going on, but that feels like they are still trying to keep things in the Ultramarines favor. I was hoping they'd stop doing that.

Bite your tongue. They are calling this the Warhammer 40,000: Ultra Edition after all

Also confirms that Rough Riders are still a thing, which I am glad for.

I am not sure why folks think this is the most play tested version of 40k. Back in 3rd edition and early 4th they used to have all sorts of gaming groups contribute to play testing and the rules. In fact in 2nd Edition in the Chaos codex, Andy Chambers writes about going to tournaments and interviewing players to see what they wanted in the book and how he wanted the rules to be reflective of the communities wants. Granted GW stepped back from that approach the last few editions. Alot of what we are seeing is just recycled rules from past editions, there isn't much new content.

However one thing is certain, no matter what rules they come up with the players will break. 100% guarantee. In fact GW will most likely break their own rule set when they start producing paid for content- they do it every edition. 7th edition was not a bad rule set, if you just took the rules in the general rulebook. What broke the system was the formations and the individual unit rules (that came after the rule set). Hence no matter how well play tested the general rules are, unless GW has a commitment to continue after every codex to play test extensively, the rules will break down. You can say that's pessimistic, however, I have played through every edition and GW does it every time.

Do I mind the rules change- not really, I am a bit disappointed many rules have ported over from AoS which I think is a terrible system- but I refuse to believe GW is going to keep it balanced. They just can't do it, not with all the factions and content they will be putting out for sale and the genuine desire to make new models more attractive to customers than old models (and rules are a part of this process) as well as rules designers actual affinity for certain factions that lead to biases in the rules design (they want the rules to reflect the nature of the model/army which in turn gives them rules that are too good compared to other armies).

As far as ICs not joining units, it will be good for some units/some gameplay and it will be broken by others, again its not a stretch to imagine this and if you think its going to be totally balanced across the board- every single unit/ every character than you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

 docdoom77 wrote:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/05/09/warhammer-40000-faction-focus-astra-militarum/

Confirms that rapid fire doubles shots at half range. Confirms that Sniper weapons can freely target characters. Leman Russ is T8 and 12 Wounds.

siiiiiick.

kroot snipers (if they remain) are going to be interesting options.

Lol Guardsment having 4 shots at half range. Good lord!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Lobukia wrote:

 nintura wrote:
RG is a Primarch and has 9. I feel this is done JUST SO he can hide. It could be my tin foil going on, but that feels like they are still trying to keep things in the Ultramarines favor. I was hoping they'd stop doing that.

Bite your tongue. They are calling this the Warhammer 40,000: Ultra Edition after all

lols, fair enough. Should have seen that coming.

 Vaktathi wrote:

I am not terribly thrilled about untargetable characters however.

*snip*

This mechanic *will* see abuse.

That said, it will be interesting to see how they handle units like IG command squads.

I agree. While I see the need to do something to protect characters, the cutoff of 10 wounds (especially if RG fall under that at 9 wounds) is laughable. Things like RG and Daemon Princes should be able to be picked out from the masses of tactical marines and cultists they're standing amidst. Quick, glance for only a second at the spoiled picture and I bet your eyes will be drawn to RG easily...





Once again, the pendulum in this edition feels like its swinging too far (just like with completely random charge distances in an edition with customized unit movement values). I called last edition Greedhammer 40k due to the marketing ploys masquerading as game mechanics but I'm starting to think I may have to call this the Pendulum edition this time around.

 docdoom77 wrote:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/05/09/warhammer-40000-faction-focus-astra-militarum/

Confirms that rapid fire doubles shots at half range. Confirms that Sniper weapons can freely target characters. Leman Russ is T8 and 12 Wounds.

So wait. People have said them how the Chaos one literally didn't said nothing of value, and now they have give us some rules in this new article? Hmmm... obviously, this is the GW of old, that just want to deceive us, oh, poor people with a feble mind, that just accept what GW give to us without critical thinking and analisis...

Ok that makes 216 bolter hits to take down a Leman Russ. Who wants to bet on the number of bolter shots needed for a land raider?

I would guess 16 wounds and 2+ save, which makes it 456.

 docdoom77 wrote:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/05/09/warhammer-40000-faction-focus-astra-militarum/

Confirms that rapid fire doubles shots at half range. Confirms that Sniper weapons can freely target characters. Leman Russ is T8 and 12 Wounds.

Reecius, if you're reading this...

There’s so much more to say! Those of you who are long time Astra Militarum players, like me, are going to be thrilled with what is coming.

There is no such thing as a long time "Astra Militarum" player. Old time Imperial Guard players on the other hand...

Leman Russ are 12W 3+ T8, Snipers hit Characters through units, and Orders are automatic!

 docdoom77 wrote:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/05/09/warhammer-40000-faction-focus-astra-militarum/

Confirms that rapid fire doubles shots at half range. Confirms that Sniper weapons can freely target characters. Leman Russ is T8 and 12 Wounds.

Commisars still help negate the penalties for morale, and that Leman Russ doesn't start slowing until it loses half of it's wounds. I think we can gather that the first half of a model's wounds won't cause degrading statlines to kick in.

Rapid Fire seems to be the total number of shots at full range and double at half (Rapid Fire 1 becomes Rapid Fire 2 under FRFSRF).

4 shots per guardsman... that's a whole lot of flashlights.

 nintura wrote:


Hence the "" marks... it was said "but what about centurions." That's an "if" statement. IF I had Cents, he could hide. IF I had knights, Magnus could hide. I just dont see how the number of wounds should make it possible to hide or not. RG is twice the size, or more, of the surrounding troops.

I'm not saying "if you happen to have this one specific unit of centurions he can hide", I'm saying he's on a significantly smaller scale than Magnus and most units in the game are within a head or two of him heightwise. A lot of the scale for his model actually comes from him standing on a dramatic base. He's probably only 15-20% taller than regular marines which doesn't leave a lot of extra room to easily spot him across a battlefield and make him an easy target like you could with Magnus. The number of wounds was probably chosen as an easy way of identifying a size criteria. It's a lot better than going through and saying something like "models with a combined volume of... may hide".

sturguard wrote:
I am not sure why folks think this is the most play tested version of 40k.

Because GW has admitted they haven't put as much effort into any other edition before this one, to include when 3rd and 4th came out.

sturguard wrote:
However one thing is certain, no matter what rules they come up with the players will break. 100% guarantee.

Likely true. That said, if GW holds up on their promise to keep updating the edition said breaks will be fixed in a timely manner.

 nintura wrote:
Lol Guardsment having 4 shots at half range. Good lord!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Lobukia wrote:

 nintura wrote:
RG is a Primarch and has 9. I feel this is done JUST SO he can hide. It could be my tin foil going on, but that feels like they are still trying to keep things in the Ultramarines favor. I was hoping they'd stop doing that.

Bite your tongue. They are calling this the Warhammer 40,000: Ultra Edition after all

lols, fair enough. Should have seen that coming.

I am ready to roll!

This edition is turning out to look really good. Now all we need is new plastic guard kits that can make one of several famous guard armies!

 En Excelsis wrote:
it means that they will arrive at conclusions which favor whatever bias was present in those specific pockets of the community - which seems specific to tournament organizers. Their interest in clearly in streamlining the game for greater efficiency (here: shorter matches).

You do realize that the people running thouse 'tournaments' also run the largest narrative events that have ever existed in 40k? Apocalypse games spanning 30+ tables, recreations of seige of terra, small killteam daylong campaigns.

Their events are nnot just a grand tournament full of people beating each other with deathstars. They have paiting and modeling showcases, fluff competitions, narrative gameplay, and even third part games. They even run game shops! They're literally everything you want, plus everything I want; but people are begruding them for their tournament success

 docdoom77 wrote:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/05/09/new-warhammer-40000-characters-may9gw-homepage-post-4/

I'm liking what I'm reading so far. As always, I need to see it written out. I'm fine with characters not joining units. If you could limit it to one character, that would be decent. However, you could still put smash-fether in a bike command squad with storm shields and have a nearby librarian in another squad buff them with invisibility or "_____" awesome power. That is still a tough nut to crack and meets the 1 character per squad rule. This way, the librarian would have to buff them individually, if he can even cast the same power twice. Just a thought.

Zero complaints about the character rules...except that GW continues on with boring/unfluffy/stupid rules for certain characters.

I hate the throw-away "uh...re-roll 1's...that's your special rule". If you're going to do a special rule, do one that makes sense or has some vague lore/fluff behind it. That was one of my biggest complaints about 7th ed and all of the heaps of characters and special rules they came with.

Re-rolling in general is crap and wastes time...so get rid of that gak.

If you can't think of a good rule for a character, don't give them one.

Oh man, that Imperial Guard preview!

Hmm, that is odd.

Bolters -- Rapid Fire 1 = 1 shot at more then half range, 2 shots at half range?

Lasguns - Rapid fire 2 = 2 shots at more then half range, 4 shots at half range

Wonder if Stormbolter will go to being Rapid fire 2 instead of assault 2?

 ClockworkZion wrote:

sturguard wrote:
I am not sure why folks think this is the most play tested version of 40k.

Because GW has admitted they haven't put as much effort into any other edition before this one, to include when 3rd and 4th came out.

sturguard wrote:
However one thing is certain, no matter what rules they come up with the players will break. 100% guarantee.

Likely true. That said, if GW holds up on their promise to keep updating the edition said breaks will be fixed in a timely manner.

What would lead you to believe that? Given GWs track record there has to be more than just "they told us so"?

How long has AoS been out? When are the Ogres getting their update?

Again, I hope GW does the right thing, but given their track record, we won't know for about 2 years or so if they have changed their old habits.

labmouse42 wrote:

 ClockworkZion wrote:
Since Magnus has over a dozen wounds, does anyone else feel like the Greater Daemons will be rolling in at above ten wounds as well?

Without a doubt. Look at the new models for the LoC and Fateweaver. Look at the BT model. All of those are likely to be over 10 wounds.

I'd look at their AoS profiles for an idea of how many wounds greater daemons will have. 14 for BT, 10 for GUO (but I'm expecting him to get an upgrade the way LoC did with 1kSons), 14 for LoC, 10 for KoS. I doubt there'll be a direct translation from AoS daemons to 40k, but I would be surprised to see major differences.

Voodoo_Chile wrote:

 ClockworkZion wrote:

Spoiler:

 nintura wrote:

 Crimson wrote:

I don't think it is at all weird that Guilliman can hide behind infantry while Magnus can't.

Put RG up next to a regular marine though. Then tell me how he hides in the middle of that lol

He wears a really big camo cloak.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 ClockworkZion wrote:


Hm. Are swooping/gliding things in AoS?

Yes. For the most part, it's just Movement related stuff.

Flying/Swooping/Gliding things tend to have a very high Movement value to start with--and also they don't have the same restrictions for how they move(they can move over terrain and other units to get where they want to go--but cannot end their move on top of or within a certain distance of an enemy unit).

Hm. Curious how that'll carry over to 40k. Any penalties for shooting at them?

No, no penalties for shooting at Flying units. Though there is no distinction between those on Disks of Tzeentch (what would be a Jet Bike in 40k) or Aetherwings (flocks of birds).
Of course a Maw Krusha is technically a Flying unit, not sure there is much that would miss a cabbage...

Spoiler:

There are a few.

sturguard wrote:I am not sure why folks think this is the most play tested version of 40k.

Mostly from GW telling us it was and not really giving us a reason to doubt this.

ClockworkZion wrote:

 docdoom77 wrote:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/05/09/warhammer-40000-faction-focus-astra-militarum/

Confirms that rapid fire doubles shots at half range. Confirms that Sniper weapons can freely target characters. Leman Russ is T8 and 12 Wounds.

Commisars still help negate the penalties for morale, and that Leman Russ doesn't start slowing until it loses half of it's wounds. I think we can gather that the first half of a model's wounds won't cause degrading statlines to kick in.

I wouldn't jump to that conclusion just yet. Some behemoths in AoS start degrading from as early as the second wound taken. Others need to take quite a few hits before it starts to wear them down.

'‘First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire!’. This now makes a unit of Astra Militarum infantry treat their lasguns and hot-shot lasguns as Rapid Fire 2; that’s 4 shots per Guardsman at half range! '

'it'll be really hard to take down a dreadnought with lasguns unless you have a bucket load of shots'

hahaha you just got a bucket load of shots

 docdoom77 wrote:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/05/09/warhammer-40000-faction-focus-astra-militarum/

Confirms that rapid fire doubles shots at half range. Confirms that Sniper weapons can freely target characters. Leman Russ is T8 and 12 Wounds.

Even Ratlings – with their sniper weapons allowing them to pick out and target Characters – will now be reaping a tally on your enemy’s leaders in the name of the Emperor!

To whomever called sniper rifles as character targeters/killers a few pages back, well done! Credit where credit is due. My sniper scouts will FINALLY get used!

The write-up, hyperbolic as it is, makes it seem like units will do what they're supposed to. That alone is interesting to me!!!

Some juicy updates today
Notably Rough Riders are still a thing, Im liking the character rules and inv saves seem to be still about ala Magnus.

Anyone wanna mathammer out some lasguns VS a Leman Russ? Wait. Just kidding.

well, my eldar army has 50 ranger models in it. It might actually become deadly again.

 kronk wrote:

 docdoom77 wrote:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/05/09/warhammer-40000-faction-focus-astra-militarum/

Confirms that rapid fire doubles shots at half range. Confirms that Sniper weapons can freely target characters. Leman Russ is T8 and 12 Wounds.

Even Ratlings – with their sniper weapons allowing them to pick out and target Characters – will now be reaping a tally on your enemy’s leaders in the name of the Emperor!

To whomever called sniper rifles as character targeters/killers a few pages back, well done! Credit where credit is due. My sniper scouts will FINALLY get used!

And my sniper drones