6th Edition 40K Rules Leak

[Bigred]

BASICS
A document has appeared on the internet on multiple sites that appears to be a version of the upcoming 6th edition rules.

GROUNDRULES
THERE WILL BE NO LINKS TO ANY SUCH DOCUMENT ALLOWED. Any links will be deleted immediately, and posters will be turned over to Duke's loving hands...

Other than that, feel free to discus anything you like about the ruleset in this thread. Its content, validity, what have you. Have fun.

NO LINKS - WE MEAN IT!

-Your friendly neighborhood Bigred

[eldargal]

If it is fake it is an incredibly elaborate one and given that most leaks have some kind of GW approval it isn't beyond the realm of possibility that they have leaked this to gauge community view and get some playtesting via forums and such.

Still I think it best to work under the assumption it is a hoax, it would be just like the online community (well, Warseer and 40konlinemostly) to get all enthusiastic over this leak and then when it turns out to be a hoax blame GW.

[Mr.Pickelz]

With the way GW is tightening up their security on info, I personally view it as a bit of a hoax, with some practical wish-listing to add credit to it.

[Bigred]

I agree eldargal. Having worked on our campaign books and videogames design documents in the past, the sheer size, formatting and completeness of the document points to it being real. It bears a marked resemblance in scope, word choice, and layout to the leaked version of 5th edition that broke a couple of months ahead of time.

It could indeed be a hoax, bit if so, its more like a big group effort to produce an alternative ruleset that could work with the existing codices over many months of work.

That said, having studied lots of these things professionally over the years, it has a "stitched together" feel to it, like a Frankenstein amalgam of 40k, WFB, with even some Flames of War, Dystopian, and Warmachine tossed in for good measure. All the overlapping and abundant special rules and abilities almost have a DnD 4.0 vibe as well.

I could see this as a starting point to put in front of playtesters to start to pare down and remove the overcomplex fiddly bits (there are many). It doesn't have that clear coherent "vision-feel" of a single individual. Still, 6th Edition would be the first post Alessio/Priestly major system update, so who knows how far the design studio might go, with so much institutional memory having left the building.

This would definitely be the biggest change to the game since 2nd edition.

[Dalleron]

This "rules leak" is news to me, spending all my time on SW:TOR and whatnot.

But I offer something regarding the "Frankenstein-ing" as you put it. They did the same thing to WFB with it's 8th ed. So something similiar happening to 6th ed 40k isn't out of the realm of possibility.

I hope the next rules shake things up alot, this edition is kinda boring.

[flekkzo]

I've tried to figure out which version of Eternal Warrior Lysander gets, but I haven't figured out which one he has. I'm hoping for 3, but that is hoping

Rules looks interesting, got quite a lot of stuff in there. Wish I could be part of the play test, bet I would have a lot of feedback

[eldargal]

Reading through bits of now I'm thinking more and more it is a hoax, the way it is set out is unlike GWs usual method and is more than a little amateurish. I'm reminded of some of the less logical layout choices in Dystopian Wars.

For example, all Fast Skimmers have nine special rules on pages 110, 41, 47 54, 64, 72, and 73. Really? So instead to turning to the Fast Skimmer section and reading what it does I have to go through eight more pages and remember what each ability does? Not only that some of the abilities have tiers (Fearless (2) for example) so you have to remember that as well.

This is common to all the special rules sections, every other special rule has 'see page ***'.

There is a weapons section in the book which includes weapon stats AND prices. GW have never done that before? It is also completely inconsistent, star cannons are now S7 Assault 2 with a 10 point price reduction but bright lances who need readjustment even more aren't mentioned.

Something just feels so off. I'm not saying it couldn't be real but I'm highly sceptical.

Oh and in the rulebook it says th best human pskers are Mastery 3 while the best Eldar are 5, but Eldrad is Mastery 2 thank to his Spirit Stones which give Mastery 2. So the best psyker in the damned galaxy is inferior to the best human battle psykers? That makes perfect sense.

Ghosthelm gets an update despite the update not updating anything, along with several other rules. It is like they were just filling in slots to make it look like it was the rumoured codex update that was coming with 6th rather than it being a real update.

[odinsgrandson]

...There is a weapons section in the book which includes weapon stats AND prices. GW have never done that before? It is also completely inconsistent, star cannons are now S7 Assault 2 with a 10 point price reduction but bright lances who need readjustment even more aren't mentioned.

Something just feels so off. I'm not saying it couldn't be real but I'm highly sceptical....

Hm... Well, sort of. Everyone used the same weapons in the Rogue Trader days, but I don't think the prices were conveniently located with the rules.

In 2nd edition, they decided that the same weapon was worth more in the hands of a Space Marine than it was in the hands of a Ork or Imperial Guardman. Before that, everyone used the same weapons list- and there are actually minis of Marines holding Shurikan Rifles and Zoats (an old kind of Tyranid) had power fists.

So, funny piece of related history. When they split up the weapons tables, they printed up a separate book with all of the rules for the weapons in it. One of the most complex weapons was the conversion beamer, but they must have overlooked the fact that absolutely no one in the game could use it.


I'm not saying that the document is valid. However, all of the rumors I've heard of 6th ed leading up to now have been that there would be a lot of substantial changes. So I'm not sure that the differences between this and earlier editions is any evidence.

I mean, I remember when I was first hearing rumors of the 3rd ed and I thought "What are you smoking!? GW isn't going to get rid of movement values and turn every armor saving throw into a force field."

[lobster-overlord]

I am in love with the "Game Cycle" As a former player of void 1.1, I never did like GW's need to have me go, you go, me go, you go...

[Professor_Kylan]

Hm... Well, sort of. Everyone used the same weapons in the Rogue Trader days, but I don't think the prices were conveniently located with the rules.

In 2nd edition, they decided that the same weapon was worth more in the hands of a Space Marine than it was in the hands of a Ork or Imperial Guardman. Before that, everyone used the same weapons list- and there are actually minis of Marines holding Shurikan Rifles and Zoats (an old kind of Tyranid) had power fists.

So, funny piece of related history. When they split up the weapons tables, they printed up a separate book with all of the rules for the weapons in it. One of the most complex weapons was the conversion beamer, but they must have overlooked the fact that absolutely no one in the game could use it.


I'm not saying that the document is valid. However, all of the rumors I've heard of 6th ed leading up to now have been that there would be a lot of substantial changes. So I'm not sure that the differences between this and earlier editions is any evidence.

I mean, I remember when I was first hearing rumors of the 3rd ed and I thought "What are you smoking!? GW isn't going to get rid of movement values and turn every armor saving throw into a force field."

I'm pretty sure that the points costs are only included in the wargear section as a pricing guide to the strategum "Weathered Bastion" to upgrade the flamers.

First impressions? If this was edited and laid out a little nicer, I'd be very happy if this was the new official rules for 40k. All of the armies I collect seem to have been made more fun (IG, Tau, SM, Eldar - please note the phrase "more fun" rather than "more powerful - that's yet to be seen) and the addition of keywords I think will make the game easier to learn in the long run and a LOT easier to play.

Now, to play the waiting game...

[Waiting game: Unit, Support - Wait until 6th ed is released. Unit may attempt to not spend all money on the new Vampire Counts models. Roll a d6, on a 2+ unit gives in to base instinct and buys Vampire models.]