A few thoughts on 6th Edition

So I played two small games this weekend with my Eldar versus Lamenters to figure out how the rules would work in 6th Edition.  It was a lot of fun and I look forward to the new game.  This will probably be something I avoid tournament play as it seems wound allocation and other things can be abused pretty badly.  A few first impressions though:

Blood Angels will still be fun to play and my army won't change too much except for a few things.  Death Company.  They are amazing.  With 5 strength 5 attacks on the charge these guys are going to wipe out anything they come across.  Paired with  a Chaplain or Reclusiarch they will be re-rolling both to-hit and to-wounds rolls!  So ten of these guys jumping out of a Storm Raven or Land Raider will be laying about 40 wounds most marine equivalents.  Sadly Furious Charge loses the +1 to Initiative, which is going to really drop the survivability of the Assault Marines.  I depended on I:5 to keep them alive.  The free I:10 attack is nice, but can only be used if they didn't move 12" in the movement phase.  Playing with Mephiston the other day I rolled probably the perfect combo of psychic powers for him.  Between the 3 powers he got: +D3 Strength, Toughness, Initiative and attacks; Eternal Warrior, Fleet, and re-roll all failed to-hit, wound, and saving throws!  While that was a pretty lucky set of psychic powers, most of them looks like they will have uses.

Eldar will get a nice rejuvenation with Eldrad being awesome with psychic powers (gets 4 and casts 3), and jet-bikes are really nice always getting a 5+ cover and being crazy fast if they need to be.  War Walkers are still great, and in my game I saw how useful the new squadrons rules are when one got immobilized I was able to leave it behind and move onto the objective with the other two (it was the mission that heavy support choices were scoring units).  I also discovered the joy of Dire Avengers with Shimmershield and Defend.  They were a nice tar-pit for a squad of TH/SS Terminators and a Librarian the entire game.  Dropping them down to a single attack a piece was brutal and with a 5+ the Eldar were able to really hang in there.

Overall my impression were good, though both armies will change a little and I will have to get used to the new rules.  I like the character that has been infused into the mission and game as a whole and think so far that it is a better system than the last.

Reclusiarch in Terminator Armor