Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.
The burning pits of Hades, also known as Sweden in summer
Pacific wrote: Thanks guys for the replies - I think as we get to bigger points values we will probably introduce more 'toys' that will eat some of the points and as has been said above add more wargear. Although we have stopped using mixed weapon units to try and speed things up, as we had a few combats take almost 30 minutes to play inc. a challenge, which is nuts for a mass combat game. Also found New Recruit app a must, as it really helps speed up looking up special rules and stat lines.
Try using coloured dice for mixed weapon units. Makes it quick. Red dice for power swords, blue dice for heavy chainswords, etc.
New Recruit is decent, but be aware it has mistakes sometimes.
In a nutshell, it's an iteration on older editions of 40k (6th/7th, themselves iterations of a model going back to 3rd).
Things are at once more standardised and broader. Morale effects are more relevant, as units can be genuinely crippled if pinned down by a suppression weapon or flushed out of cover by massed flamers. Raw stats are more important, as unit abilities are rarer than in 40k and offer fewer combo opportunities; you won't generally see your warlord give their squad a bunch of bonuses to their damage, durability and mobility just for existing like you will in 40k.
Vehicles are more "vehicle-like". You will not kill a tank with just lasguns no matter how many lasguns you fire at it. Vehicles are completely immune to damage from weapons whose strength is more than six points lower than the vehicle's facing armour value. However, dedicated anti-tank weapons can deal massive damage, and vehicles are often vulnerable from the rear where even lighter weapons can manage them.
Army construction is also much more structured. In 2.0, you used a fixed detachment of "slots" where you could take a limited number of units from each category (HQ, heavy support, etc). In 3.0, the army building is modular, with HQ models you take bringing their own detachments with them, with some character types getting access to more or unique detachments.
Armour piercing is all-or-nothing rather than subtractive. AP4 weapons ignore 4+, 5+ and 6+ saves, but do nothing to 3+ and 2+. This makes 2+ save units very resilient, and means you need to consider carefully what weapons you use for which role (though weight of fire forgives many sins). The Breaching rule acts as a middle ground by improving your gun's AP on a high enough wound roll, with worse AP otherwise.
The biggest difference however in my opinion, and the main thing which keeps me here in place of 40k, is the detail in unit customisation. A unit's base profile is fairly cheap, and additional equipment is bought for points, allowing you to decide whether you want an expensive workhorse, a cheap body or something in between, and allowing more room for cheaper weapons to thrive instead of being outcompeted by heavy guns on the same unit. You can also take units in partial sizes (I am painting an 8 man melta squad right now), which allows you to fit them into certain transports and get spare models to use for conversions (conversions are a huge deal in 30k!), instead of being locked to fixed sizes.
The latest edition of 30k also essentially completely removes rerolls from the game. In some cases this is a welcome change, though I'd argue they removed too many, as some units are left too weak and/or inconsistent with them gone (such as Space Marine Assault Squads).
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2026/03/18 16:08:04
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
The introduction of Status Effects, and how those are applied has opened up design space for weapons. So whilst I’m sure there are still Rubbish Useless Guns out there? This has helped considerably. Put simply? If you get your head around the cunning application of Status on enemy units, a wide range of weapons will appeal to you.
It’s also helped discourage death stars. Each Status has a unique impact, but they also all inflict common debuffs. This includes striking last in combat, only able to make disordered charges, and not being able to contest Objectives.
So yes, you can Death Star if you want. And it can still be nasty. But even a single Status can leave the unit crippled, however temporarily. And if your opponent has planned well? They can jump that unit and give it a serious kicking whilst it’s not feeling its usual self.
And importantly? Not all Statis checks require an unsaved wound, just a hit. So being well ‘are in thick armour isn’t going to save your bacon every time.
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: The introduction of Status Effects, and how those are applied has opened up design space for weapons. So whilst I’m sure there are still Rubbish Useless Guns out there? This has helped considerably. Put simply? If you get your head around the cunning application of Status on enemy units, a wide range of weapons will appeal to you.
I've loved the implementation of the Statuses. Never really touched multilasers(outside of it being mandatory on Chimeras for the longest time) previously, now basically every Aux list I bring has them.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2026/03/18 16:30:02
You know you're really doing something when you can make strangers hate you over the Internet. - Mauleed
Just remember folks. Panic. Panic all the time. It's the only way to survive, other than just being mindful, of course-but geez, that's so friggin' boring. - Aegis Grimm
Hallowed is the All Pie The Before Times: A Place That Celebrates The World That Was
The burning pits of Hades, also known as Sweden in summer
While I prefer 2.0 overall, the status is one of the changes I approve of. It in particular gives a home to weapons like flamers and rotor cannons that previously struggled to find a purpose in a game with so much power armour.
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
Also, heavy tanks (really Land Raider and up) are pretty touch, especially in smaller points games where your opponent may have limited options for dealing with them.
But again, you can inflict Status Effects via glancing hits. So whilst you may not knack a big tank terribly quickly? You can dent its efficiency.
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
Last night I dreamed, for real for real, I had an Indiana Jones type adventure through an ancient temple and the final treasure was a leak of plastic Spatha bikes (painted as WS) and something infantry-sized I couldn't quite make out. To make it more legit, someone in the raiding party commented that the Solar Leman Russ was leaked in the same way.
The old meta is dead and the new meta struggles to be born. Now is the time of munchkins.
While having the Aurox and Carnodon back would be nice, the Auxilia need a cavalry unit that isn’t a sentinel variant.
Didn’t the Imperial Army (as it was back in Rogue Trader days) have grav-bikes of its own?
"Three months? I'm going to go crazy …and I'm taking you with me!"
— Vala Mal Doran
The burning pits of Hades, also known as Sweden in summer
Auxilia are somewhat akin to a whole army of Storm Troopers, but not quite. Veletaris are about that level, or just above.
They are a step above from the Imperial Army, definitely, and made up about 20-25% of the Imperialis Auxilia as a broader whole. But 20-25% still means a looot of soldiers.
Got my Myrmidons today and was surprised by the sprues- bodies and weapons mixed. Odds of 3 additional poses with the other two weapon options as a second kit? I'm going to leave the arms off half of mine for a while just in case.
This week’s extract comes from the first of the Black Books, Betrayal, released all the way back in 2012. Next week, we’re staying on the Traitor side of the Dropsite Massacre and getting familiar with the grim warriors of the Death Guard.
So here they are, the new Custodes. Actually, not that much of a difference. They're not much bigger than the older models, more like refined proportions. New Cataphractii are chunkier but with a slightly lower eye level, and the current generation of 40k Indomitus Terminators are still bigger. What's interesting is that the body sculpts are not unisex. Similar to Stormcast Eternals, you get wider, chunkier armour for the male Custodes, and slightly slimmer sculpts with subtle boob armour for the female bodies. 3 male and 3 female bodies per sprue.
Why'd they have to put the Glaive up same day as the Custodes man, i just wanna buy my big tank, and all them golden banana boys are crashing the preorder pages
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2026/03/21 10:08:14
New stuff:
Whirlwind (choice of Str 6 AP 4 Stun(1) or Str 5 AP 5 Panic(1)
Decurion Magna can pop into a Fellblade or Falchion turret to give the tank normal reactions (not only uts vs. other superheavies) and Auto-repair 4+
The old meta is dead and the new meta struggles to be born. Now is the time of munchkins.
stahly wrote: What's interesting is that the body sculpts are not unisex. Similar to Stormcast Eternals, you get wider, chunkier armour for the male Custodes, and slightly slimmer sculpts with subtle boob armour for the female bodies. 3 male and 3 female bodies per sprue.
I think I'm genuinely disappointed with this choice. I rather like the idea that Custodes are so heavily altered that there shouldn't be this much difference. I'm glad that the differences appear to be far more subtle than with Stormcast, at least.
She/Her
"There are no problems that cannot be solved with cannons." - Chief Engineer Boris Krauss of Nuln
LatheBiosas wrote:I have such a difficult time hitting my opponents... setting them on fire seems so much simpler.
Kid_Kyoto wrote:"Don't be a dick" and "This is a family wargame" are good rules of thumb.
stahly wrote: What's interesting is that the body sculpts are not unisex. Similar to Stormcast Eternals, you get wider, chunkier armour for the male Custodes, and slightly slimmer sculpts with subtle boob armour for the female bodies. 3 male and 3 female bodies per sprue.
I think I'm genuinely disappointed with this choice. I rather like the idea that Custodes are so heavily altered that there shouldn't be this much difference. I'm glad that the differences appear to be far more subtle than with Stormcast, at least.
I honestly didn't think there was going to be a noticeable difference on the rank and file Custodes.
I wonder if the styles are similar enough to mix with the current line, as I already have the Blade Champion and Valoris.
But I'm glad my FLGS made me pre-preorder my box last week.
BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
"Vulkan: There will be no Rad or Phosphex in my legion. We shall fight wars humanely. Some things should be left in the dark age." "Ferrus: Oh cool, when are you going to stop burning people to death?" "Vulkan: I do not understand the question."
– A conversation between the X and XVIII Primarchs
Does anyone have something that shows the new Glaive? I need something to drool at while I wait for the preorders to start shipping..
As for the Custodes having torsos for both sexes, I think they judged it pretty well this time around. Like, I didnt even notice it at first, so subtle enough not to feel irritating IMO
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2026/03/21 17:39:09
tauist wrote: Does anyone have something that shows the new Glaive? I need something to drool at while I wait for the preorders to start shipping..
As for the Custodes having torsos for both sexes, I think they judged it pretty well this time around. Like, I didnt even notice it at first, so subtle enough not to feel irritating IMO
To be honest, you're right. I don't think anyone really noticed it until Stahly pointed it out (thanks, Stahly /MASSIVE SARCASM).
She/Her
"There are no problems that cannot be solved with cannons." - Chief Engineer Boris Krauss of Nuln
LatheBiosas wrote:I have such a difficult time hitting my opponents... setting them on fire seems so much simpler.
Kid_Kyoto wrote:"Don't be a dick" and "This is a family wargame" are good rules of thumb.
Fatum Iustum Stultorum 
