What has 6th Ed fixed?

[Mr Mystery]

Perhaps a little early for this kind of thread, but here goes anyway.

For those unaware, the 8th Edition Fantasy rulebook did a great deal to re-balance the game overall. New mechanics and rules helped to tone down the nastier armies, whilst buffing up the more tired armies. The result, even before the new raft of Army Books began hitting was a much better game overall, with less of a power gap between certain books.

And it would seem they are attempting the same thing with 6th Edition 40k.

I'm going to approach these changes based on the complaints I've most often read about online, so it's far from exhaustive, and remember that at all times this is just my opinion.

So, off we go.

1. Feel No Pain. Confirmed as dropping down to 5+. Phew. This became fairly prevalent in 5th Edition, whether through psychic powers, or mass upgrades to squads. To those armies with wide access to FnP, players often depended on it, leading to a great amount of frustration from opponents. Whilst not exactly game breaking, it could mean players weren't suitably punished for silly deployment etc.

2. Overwatch. It's about time if you ask me! I've never really played HTH heavy armies, prefering my short ranged firefights. Having played through the ignominy of 3rd Edition, where a squad in combat basically stayed in combat, through the various toning downs, this is the iceing on the cake for me. No matter what my opponent tries, my guns can now give it some dakka, which is nice.

3. Fear. Barely hinted at in White Dwarf, it's noted that all Daemon units cause it. Exact mechanic remains unknown though. But regardless, it's about bloody time. In Fantasy, when a Greater Daemon, or something akin to a Hive Tyrant comes barrelling at your troops, there's a fair chance they'll head for the hills. But ever since 3rd Edition, even a lowly conscript has simply given a round of applause as some colossal horror devours the command squad. Psychology has been sorely missed in 40k, and it's good to see it back!

4. The different valued objectives. HALLELUJAH! Now THAT is giving the game tactial depth. I loved 5th Editions victory conditions when it came out, but sadly as all objective were equal, my tactics stagnated. Deploy my objective on homesoil, set up a bunker unit. Sally forth to drive my opponent off his. Rinse and repeat game after game. Now though, I have to try to second guess my opponent, and he has to guess what I'm up to. Base sitting may not work all that well now, and it's possible the most valuable objective will be somewhat exposed. Small change to the rules, big impact on my tactical nous.

Now all these things I see as being overtly positive. It's hard for me to go into much more depth as so many of the changes remain largely unquantified! Now, over to you. Ideally, as there are many threads discussing concerns, try to stick to what you see as positive changes in this one!

[oldone]

By the looks of things off the interwebz i think they have balanced vehicles now with infantry, as hull points make it fairly easy to kill them but they are need for speed (transport) as the game seems to be mostly* based on objectives again which is brilliant.
Next there is cover, I'm an ork/ tyranids player and even I'll admit it was terrible having the whole 4+ blanket, what little <AP3 my armies could muster did little as they cover system generally stop the wounds from going through to various marines. but at the same time ruins are still 4+ so they have found a balance between 4th ed where (personally) cover favored shooty armies and 5th ed where (personally) it favored combaty armies.
Apart from that, as i haven't read the book probably a lot more

[fuzzbuket]

it also fixed casualty shenannigins! woooo

[Xenith]

If you multicharge, you no longer get the +1 A bonus. Unsure on that one. I guess no more multicharge shenanigans, as you will get overwatched by multiple units.

My Vanguard are upset at the overwatch rule.

[Black Hydra]

I think I'll still multi assault with my Wraiths. They are tough enough to weather a bunch of shots and can drop models in base contact to I1. My full strength Wraith squad took IG and Tau fire and they only dropped 2 of them with 4 Wraiths left, one wound each. I went on to multi assault the command squad and main crisis suit squad, getting rid of both of them in 3 turns. Totally worth it.

And overwatch is only BS1. Not much to be afraid of to be honest. As for that psyker power that allows one to fire at regular BS during overwatch, Tau don't get psykers so it's alright for now.

Hullpoints still intrigue me. There's a higher chance now of getting Crew Shaken (apparently) but hullpoints are stripped whenever you get anything else other than wrecked or destroyed (at least that's the consensus). I think Crew Shaken shouldn't count towards that. It would mean just glance the vehicle to death. I think that's why they removed Immobilized as well since that stacked with having all the weapons destroyed and wrecked a vehicle.

[gcsmith]

I think I'll still multi assault with my Wraiths. They are tough enough to weather a bunch of shots and can drop models in base contact to I1. My full strength Wraith squad took IG and Tau fire and they only dropped 2 of them with 4 Wraiths left, one wound each. I went on to multi assault the command squad and main crisis suit squad, getting rid of both of them in 3 turns. Totally worth it.

And overwatch is only BS1. Not much to be afraid of to be honest. As for that psyker power that allows one to fire at regular BS during overwatch, Tau don't get psykers so it's alright for now.

Hullpoints still intrigue me. There's a higher chance now of getting Crew Shaken (apparently) but hullpoints are stripped whenever you get anything else other than wrecked or destroyed (at least that's the consensus). I think Crew Shaken shouldn't count towards that. It would mean just glance the vehicle to death. I think that's why they removed Immobilized as well since that stacked with having all the weapons destroyed and wrecked a vehicle.

Oh, Trust me, you will see tau armies with a farseer, plus it makes complete fluff sense.

[Levitas]

A Dark Eldar point of view:

Having a boat load of wyches I want to see how combat works, as at this point just getting there looks dangerous. I'm assuming combat is nastier with the use of AP and that they can use their poison? Otherwise they get hit hard by overwatch and a nerf to FNP.

While having marines with FNP is hard to deal with, DE Wyches really need it to stand a chance in the marine environment. To get boltered on the way into combat is something they will have to dance with, even at BS 1 your going to loose a fair few models.

[PhatCat]

As a DE player, I've about seen enough to know it's going to suck. We effectively have no saves left... AP5 chainswords, cover down to 5+, FNP down to 5+. Open-topped still +1 to damage chart (and all those melta guns now +2, even if the chart was nerfed downwards). Can't move more than 6" and disembark. Random assault distances (though maybe fleet offsets...?)

But hey, now we get a 5+ Jink save... which we already had. And 4+ flat-out save! Which we already had. And our AP2 weapons destroy vehicles on a 5+! Which we already had (and sucks). Really, the only thing I've seen that might help DE are haywire glances getting possibly nastier (expect a FAQ nerf).

So, we have to use the broken-*** allies rules to hope to compete? And this isn't a blatant money ploy by GW to get us to buy more crap to cover up their lousy rules writing? Shocking.

[Black Hydra]

Oh, Trust me, you will see tau armies with a farseer, plus it makes complete fluff sense.

I did forget to take allies into account. Well that solves that.

Also that random charging really nerfs Orks and Tyranids. Here's why. Fleet now only allows you to reroll one D6 from the 2D6 for charging. Unless Fleet also allows the unit to assault after running, it means most assault armies won't have range. Sure the assault distance could potentially be 12" but really can we always count on that happening? And what about Thraka's special Fleet rules? Will one die always be 6 of the 2D6?

Overall that's one of those mediocre changes to the game.

[Black Hydra]

But hey, now we get a 5+ Jink save... which we already had.

Actually it seems only Dark Angels get Jink.