I'll take the 5th

The new 40k rule books have arrived. We flicked through the Pages, looked at all the lovely pictures and soaked up the new book smell. Binx even read the rules, which is a surprise as the 4th edition was relayed to him over a period of years.

So with 40k at the forefront of our gaming brains Wednesday would see our first two games with the 5th edition rules. Tomarse’s Daemon Hunters v Lordybloke's Orks and Zed’s Marines v Binx’s Slaaneshi Chaos marines. It was to be 1k and friendly lists to test as many rules as possible.

We all like the new wound allocation and were pretty slick with it by the third turn. It will spell the end of small tooled up squads. Well for most of us it will, for others it will take some time. Possibly years.

Cover saves haven’t changed anything considerably. Woods look like they may be the cause of some argument. True line of sight and with the attack passing through two or more elements to confer a cover save but passing over the base doesn’t. We’ll see how this goes for the moment.

Blast weapons are an area of dispute. Tomarse likes the fact ‘the template lands somewhere’, Zed dislikes the ‘everyone with a blast template has the same chance of hitting’ and doesn’t think that the BS reduction is an acceptable solution. Lordybloke likes the ‘any of the template counts as a hit’ rather than giving away a hit as ‘2mm of the target base isn’t covered and is therefore a partial’ as per the 4th edition rules.


Defender reaction is viewed as a favourable change and saved Lordybloke’s Orks from a real beating when the Grey Knights charged.

Modifying the leadership for losing close combat is a popular addition from fantasy and insane courage probably won Lordybloke his game. However it was noted that being fearless with a low armour save could be punitive if you lose the combat, especially if by a significant margin as additional saves have to be made.

Ramming and Running fall into the “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” category.

Allowing dedicated transport to be re-tasked is also popular but may be open to abuse by Chaos players. We all feel abused by the Chaos codex as it is.

Grey Knights advance to contact

Inquisitor Warband last stand

Maruaders deploy

Chaos advance

Overwatch as marines assault