Observations on Play

Stopped in the local store today to watch some games, and, because I'm the way I am, throw in rules assists. I guess I'm not really surprised, but in the few hours I watched, it was Marines. Lots of Marines. One game was Space Marines v. Space Marines, a second was Space Marines v. Chaos Space Marines (with Traitor Guard ally), and the third was Necrons v. Space Marines. There were more Terminators out there than you'd have expected if they were 5th Edition games. 6th Edition has definitely made them more valuable (that is, worth the points now).

Sixth Edition has been out for a month now, and as one should expect, there's still learning happening. The first game (the Codex Marines v. themselves) was the one that I followed the most. The two gentlemen playing had missed most of 5th Edition, so they were learning 6th Edition almost from scratch. Naturally there were many look-ups during their game, but that's how we learn, especially when we're new. One item that came up was whether you can Rapid-Fire after moving. One of them was pretty certain you only got Snap Shots if moving and shooting over 12". I was on hand to clear it up, but since I was just some random stranger acting like he knows the rules (remember I haven't shown my face at this store since well before 6th Edition), I had to flip open to the page for them. I might not be able to win a game, but maybe I should be a judge. Hmmm.

I did learn something about Grenades, though. I was under the impression that you could only Assault with one grenade per unit due to the Shooting Phase restriction. Turns out that's only a Shooting restriction, though. This is good. It was going to make Marines lives very difficult if they could no longer use Krak Grenades on Vehicles en mass like they used to. The restriction lies in them only getting one attack regardless of the number of attacks on their profile while using them in Assault. This came up due to a Dreadnought tar-pitting a squad of Tactical Marines.

The mission being played was Custom: L2P Objectives. Again, this was about learning the game, so they forewent the more flavorful example missions provided in the rule book for the 5th Edition classic objectives: 4 Objectives, KPs to break a tie. I didn't see the initial set-up, but I imagine they went with long halves and no Dawn of War Night Fighting. I didn't see the end either, but when I left around turn 4, one side had a Scout Squad on a corner object in cover with camo cloaks, a Tac squad on another that was also on his side, and a squad of Terminators with a foot Power Armour Chaplain contesting a third. The other side had a squad of Devastators on the fourth Objective. Overall it was a pretty interesting game.

Of course, there was a player who was a little confused about the number of Vehicles the people playing had on the table. "Nobody takes vehicles anymore in sixth edition. They go down too easily." I'm guessing they've been on the Internet too much and not on the table enough. I also found out there used to be a Grey Knights player at the store who did the full six Psyfleman Dreads list and did pretty well for himself. . . . He doesn't play at the store anymore because no one would play his list anymore. Weird. I guess that means I'll always have people lined up to play me and my zero wins. ^_^

Overall it looks like 40k is still going strong in my area. By the way, I did an interview with the 11th Company podcast this week, so look for that in the coming week or two. I hadn't yet visited the local store when I did the interview (so that's why I don't have anything to talk about on the interview about the local scene). Anyhow, hopefully I'll have an army in a presentable (read: fully painted) state in the next couple weeks and I'll start putting up Battle Reports again!