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Hi all,

I've been out of the wargaming community for just over 3 years, most of my games were played between 5th and 6th edition with a handful of games played in 7th edition. Due to a lot of life getting in the way and general demotivation I'm slowly trying to get myself back into the game with some painting and modelling. This is all well and good, but I'm keen on playing the game again and I have a few questions to get me up to speed regarding rules changes and my armies as well as lore.

I've been reading up on 8th edition and it looks like a lot has changed both rules wise and lore wise. In terms of lore are there any centralised places where I can get a brief summary of what has happened with all of the Primaris marines and the Eldar dying. Are power level games more common than points level games and which game mode flows better overall? I'm looking to start with some casual games before working my way into playing competitive games.

Is the force organisation chart still effectively thrown out the window in favour of detachments? I enjoyed the structure of force org charts and was wondering if 8th has reverted somewhat to that system. Are allied forces still a common sight or are pure armies now more effective?

In terms of the meta right now, what armies are considered the meta or is there a relative balance with some of the new codices released? In addition, with my armies being mainly Eldar and Tyranids, how do they stack up in terms of play-style and what kind of units are seen compared to 7th edition? (I know jetbike spam was all the rage in 7th). I also have a small force of Black Templars which have gathered dust since there codex disappeared, are they any way viable now or have Primaris Marines invalidated my tactical marines?

That's all the questions I have for now but thank you for reading and hopefully I can get back into the game with renewed vigor!

-TH

Power levels are not that common, most players are still playing points, but you will find some communities that do PL's.

Yes, detachments are the new FoC's, they work like old FOC but in general you can have up to 3 of them (3 of any, 3 patorls, 1 patrol 2 battalions, w/e you want). Each one has its own restrictions, the BRB will go over them more in detail on the restrictions.

Meta is basically Soup for now, Imperial and Aeldari are the top 2. Imperial is some BA (2-3 HQ's of Captains with Hammers, some Scouts for troops), Knights (Either a few small Knights or one large knight, one large knight is more popular atm), and some IG (A couple HQ's and 6 Troops along with Heavy teams, all with Mortars). This is strong b.c the IG can support the Knight, and BA Captains are just insanely powerful, the Guardsmen are very good for how little points they are.

The biggest thing is the Damage chart has change, S3 can hurt T5 on a 5+ to wound now, and with AP being change to reduce armor saves, give these 2 changes, weapons like Assault cannons and HB's are strong now, they can hurt infantry and vehicles.


Then there is Faction Keywords, get used to this, everything has a Main faction and then sub factions, a Detachment needs to have the same faction keywords, and Allies need to share them as well.
Here is an example; Imperial > Space Marine > Salamander, as you can see the Imperial is the main keyword, then you have 2 subfactions

in terms of Lore updates, the core rule book (like the one you get with dark Imperium) sums things up pretty nicely. given what you've said, re eldar dying, sounds like you've got some misconceptions already. I'll attempt to highlight the BIG changes that have occured since 5th edition (when things where pretty stable)


1st: Cadia has fallen and is no more. Abbaddon the despoiler destroyed it as the 13th Black Crusade hit it's Climax Colour Sergant Kell is dead, and Creed is missing (Pokeballed by a Necron)
2nd: There is a new group among the Eldar, the Ynnari, who worship Ynead, the eldar god of death, whom is now stirring and showing the early signs of birth the craftworld eldar and dark eldar are still around.
3rd: this is the big one, Robute Gulliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines and Lord Commander of the Imperium of man, is alive and walking. He now serves as Lord Regent of the Imperium, which means basicly he's "acting emperor" he's just wrapped up the Indomatus crusade, to retake territory lost when the great rift opened up (I'll get to that next)
4: With the Fall of Cadia and the completion of some other rituals elsewhere (such as Magnus smacking around the space wolves on Fenris) the eye of terror has turned into the great rifty, splitting the galaxy in half, the part of the galaxy beyond the rift is called Imperium Nihlus and is in a bad way.
5: apparently just before he got into stasis Gulliman had set Arch Magfos Cawl on improving on space marines, which have now been delviered in the form of the Primaris Marines.

To add a tiny bit about the Aeldari, Ynnari feeds off death, they are an extremist cult of Eldar groups that think the God of death is the answer, feeding him their souls over Slaanesh. Their purpose is to resurrect Ynnead and defeat Slaanesh itself and they believe it can. Due to this and Yvarine, they are growing in numbers really fast, getting stronger and stronger (Yvarine was a , Warlock, a Wych cult, a Corsair Baron, etc..., she is a very influential person that knows the ways of all the Aeldari tricks, she is very powerful).

The "Death of Eldar" most likely comes from that it is said resurrecting the God would end the Aeldari Race, Yvarine is said and believed to have found a way to make this not true (or she lied, no one knows).


Finally about meta lists? Their is a balance patch coming out really soon, play with what you have for now and wait for that Chapter Approve book before building anything towards a meta, as it is going to change.

 Tyranid Horde wrote:

In terms of the meta right now, what armies are considered the meta or is there a relative balance with some of the new codices released? In addition, with my armies being mainly Eldar and Tyranids, how do they stack up in terms of play-style and what kind of units are seen compared to 7th edition? (I know jetbike spam was all the rage in 7th). I also have a small force of Black Templars which have gathered dust since there codex disappeared, are they any way viable now or have Primaris Marines invalidated my tactical marines?

That's all the questions I have for now but thank you for reading and hopefully I can get back into the game with renewed vigor!

-TH

Tyranids have bit problems with internal balance and have been struggling with newer codexes(codex creep is quite evident) but they can work. Dakka carnifex and flying tyrants are aces.

Eldar build is one of the two super hots(apart from IG+pick 2 from knights, blood angels and custodians) so that works though craftworld eldars mostly provide some key units(farseers for doom and dark reapers being prime ones). Add in lots of dark eldars and possibly harlequins/ynnari.

Those are the top builds so if you go to competive situation expect to see lots of those. Tone down things and more stuff is usable. There's couple armies with serious trouble ATM. Grey knights, orks and mechanicusm being prime issues though orks get codex next month which might change things(in theory could turn meta upside down as currently knights changed meta toward "kill knights" so in theory ork codex could cause huge shift if they become such a threat that all those knight killing armies are struggling but ATM that's not the case as orks are in such a sorry state ATM...).

Black templars alas are in quite a sorry state but that's not due to primaris but power armour in general being not that good(barring some specific units like the blood angel captain of doom which is why you see BA in soups. It's captains by bucketloads and minimum scout tax) and black templar chapter trait being hardly hot(extra help in h2h when marines generally are poor in h2h...) and outclassed by raven guard trait so hard it's not even funny.(generally if you have -1 trait in army TAKE IT. That's why alaitoc is nowadays eldar craftworld of choise despite before being fairly rare. Luckily GW seems to have realized how bad idea that trait is as after eldar it's been out from all codexes. It's super hard to make up trait that's as good as that and so far none have managed to be. Thus if it's in book it's been best)

You'll want to read through all the rules, but there are a number of important changes this edition:

1. Army building: allies are now limited to major faction, ie, imperium, chaos, eldar, nids. Orks, Tau, and necrons are by themselves. Generally, if you can ally, you should. The two main reasons for this are because you can pick the best units from each book, and get to access more powerful stratagems from up to three books.

2. Stratagems are new, and have a large impact on the game. When you build your army you get command points (CP) from the detachments. You'll typically want to fill all three detachments to get more points. You spend these command points on stratagems, which let you do special abilities that can be quite powerful. You'll typically want to build your army in such a way to take advantage of stratagems since they can be very powerful. Stratagems are limited to one use per phase, so a lot of the reason you take allies is so you can access their units and stratagems as well.

3. Movement. Movement is largely the same as it used to be, but unit spacing and positioning is more important than in previous editions for a number of reasons. Firstly, a lot of units have aura abilities that you'll want to make sure things are in range of. Secondly, the way deepstrike works, enemy units can drop in within 9" inches of things, shoot, and charge (which is so 2d6 roll), so it can be very important to screen your more powerful units to keep deepstrikers away from them. Thirdly, the way assault works, units can pile in and consolidate into units they didn't charge, which can really disrupt certain armies, so it's important to space and position your units to avoid letting valuable units get locked in combat. Models are able to fall back out of combat, but unless they have the Fly rule they won't be able to shoot after they do, and if they don't have fly they can also potentially be unable to fall back if there are models in the way (which is something people will ldo on purpose to lock you in). There are also a number of psychic powers that damage the closest model, so you'll usually want to be aware of where the enemy psychers are and put cheap stuff between them and your good stuff.

3. The psychic phase is very similar to the way things were in 5th. Each psyker typically has 2-3 powers they choose from a list of 6. These powers are most buffs, debuffs, or damage powers, and usually only effect one unit. The smite power is a universal power that almost all psykers know, which hits the closest visual enemy model. Smite and most damaging powers do "mortal wounds" which are special kinds of wounds that don't allow any saves to be taken against them, and roll over into models in the same unit they hit, unlike most other weapons. Enemy psykers can cancel your powers if they are within 24" by rolling higher on the 2D6 test you passed to cast the power, so staying out of deny range can be useful sometimes.

4. The biggest changes to shooting are that all units can now split fire their guns at any number of targets, and characters with less than 10 wounds can't be targeted by most weapons. Characters don't join units anymore, so this just helps protect them. A few things to be aware of about shooting are: 1) a lot of armies have ways to debuff your shooting with negative to hit modifiers (so instead of hitting on a 3+ you'd hit on a 4+, etc), and some have ways to stack these negatives to -2 or -3. Eldar are particularly good at this. 2) Cover now gives a +1 to armor save, so it is more useful for units that already have a good save than those that do not. 3) this edition tends to make use of more line of sight blocking terrain, so movement and firing lanes are very important. The ITC ( most popular tournement ruleset) also plays so that the bottom level of ruins always blocks like of sight.

5. The charge and fight phases are probably the most nuanced phase in 8th edition. Things to read and learn about are: who to declare charges against, how the actual charge move works, how to do the pile in and consolidate moves correctly, when to fight again via stratagems, how to tag units to lock them in combat, how to tripoint units to keep them from falling back, and how to pull models to avoid getting locked and/or get out of combat. The rules for combat are very different than previous editions and they are really worth knowing well.

BrianDavion wrote:

3rd: this is the big one, Robute Gulliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines and Lord Commander of the Imperium of man, is alive and walking. He now serves as Lord Regent of the Imperium, which means basicly he's "acting emperor" he's just wrapped up the Indomatus crusade, to retake territory lost when the great rift opened up (I'll get to that next)

The Regent thing is not mentioned in the rulebook or in the marine codex. In the studio fluff he is 'just' a High Lord. Him being a Regent is only mentioned in the BL novel.

Lore: The 3 books of Gathering Storm (supplements, not novels, but the lore is there)

1) Fall of Cadia
2) Fracture of Biel-Tan
3) Rise of the Primarch

SG

Thanks very much to all of you, it's a real help to get a run-down of the major things that have changed since I last played or read any lore.
I think it's time to have a good read of the BRB and get myself into some games!