Woohoo! We finally have a Faction Focus article on my Imperial Guard today! Time to celebrate! Yippee! YAY! And even better, it's much better written than Frankie's disaster of his Chaos article on Sunday! Thank you, Reece!
Okay, he started off by promising - like Frankie did - about how Bullgryns, Rough Riders and Scout Sentinels will be a lot better than their current incarnations. And Heavy Weapon Squads. Veterans will be better (but still not as good as Adeptus Astartes) because they won't die as easily after jumping out of a Chimera, shooting something and then dying (sucide melta squads apparently seemed to be a problem - huh, but I don't really use infantry, mechanized or not, so I can't tell). How are they better? Nothing on that. Cue a groan from me as I started dreading this to be another Chaos article with no real substance and just hype.
Fortunately, my fears proved to be unfounded quickly enough. Apparently there were brief hints of how the existing units will be better. Ratlings and their sniper weapons can now target Characters. If I recall, their current rules are just Precision shots, which means I can only target Characters if I roll a 6 on their To Hit rolls. If this is true, then it's an improvement. It also answers my question about the Commissar that I raised in the Morale article the other day. If you recall, I was concerned about the devastating consequences a bad roll of morale would have on Imperial Guard infantry platoon, because if you lose a huge chunk of them, you'll lose another equally huge chunk (losing 10 men in a 50-men platoon will lead to losing another 4-9 men depending on your roll). Thanks to the Commissar, it seems that the morale problems caused by these heavy casualties will be mitigated and he will have new rules appropriate for the new morale system.
And finally, the news that I've been waiting for. Tanks! Thank you very much, Reece! He actually gives us useful information on our Leman Russ tanks! They now have Toughness 8 and an armor save of 3+ (huh?! Shouldn't it be 2+? I mean, we used to have AV14, you know?). And more importantly, they have 12 wounds. That's right. You heard me. TWELVE wounds. It also seems that they won't have reduced ballistic skill when losing half their wounds - the only adverse effect is that they will slow down if they have 6 wounds or less. Phew.
Yeah, unlike Frankie, Reece didn't just say "your Leman Russ tanks will be better" but actually provides details on how they will be better. Frankie, learn from Reece and don't just say Daemon Engines are more durable and better. At least tell us why and how they are better. A 3+ armor save is disappointing, but Toughness 8 means bolters will need 6+ to wound, and 3+ armor save is decent. And a whooping 12 wounds is awesome.
Disappointingly, there's not much information on Imperial Guard specific Detachments so I don't know if I can field an armored company as before, but we shall see.
But we have something on Orders! Apparently Orders work automatically now - we no longer have to roll morale tests to see if an Order passes. As usual, they provide a variety of bonuses, and we have 7 to choose from. Groovy! Um, not much change, but the work automatically change is HUGE. I can have my Tank Commander issue Orders now without worrying about...wait, but what Orders do I need? I mean, each model can split fire now, so I don't need the Split Fire Order. Maybe the pop smoke one, or the move flat out and shoot Order. I don't know, but if it's true, I'll benefit from it.
One Order that interests me that Reece mentions is the ever popular First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! Order! It doesn't just give us an extra shot, but it gives our lasguns and hot-shot lasguns Rapid Fire 2! In other words, we'll be firing 4 shots at half range! Now that's pretty awesome (but given how pathetic the range of our lasguns and hot-shot lasguns are, I'm not sure I want my infantry to be that close to their targets). But I'll take what I can get. My Storm Troopers will certainly benefit from these! Go, Kamikaze Troopers! Unleash that fullisade of hot-shot las-fire on those Traitor Marines!
Thanks, Reece, for providing so much more information than the disappointing article written by Frankie on Chaos (Abaddon being spelled as Abbadon, ha ha ha ha ha). The Guardsmen of the Draconian Armored Force salute you and we'll be relying on you to continue doing a great job for the Emperor!
By the way, there's no mention of a next Faction Focus article and who will be next, but now that my Imperial Guard has their article, I couldn't care less (unless it's Adeptus Mechanicus or Imperial Knights). I'll let you guys know when I get more info. Until then, the Emperor protects!
I think a 2+ Save would be too good on something that beefy. That would make it essentially unkillable to armies that don't have a lot of good AP (like Tyranids and Orks).
ReplyDeleteSeems like they'll be worth taking for my Genestealer Cults though haha.
That's true, but don't Tyranids have good AP in melee? Like Carnifexes and Genestealers having Rending (AP2 - not sure how that will work in 8th Edition), etc.
DeleteNOOOO!!!! We'll purge the mutants, xenos and heretics! I'm going to flood every hive city with promethium and set them ablaze to prevent the Genestealer taint from spreading!
Right now Tyranids benefit from the AP2 in combat from our Monstrous Creatures, but who knows if that is staying, haha? Outside of that our AP is REALLY poor, with only two plasma based weapons getting AP2, and everything else AP4 or worse. We have a Str 10 gun that is still only AP4 for some reason...
DeleteSo yes, if 8th makes it so we can actually GET into combat readily it will be fine, but our shooting is beyond terrible. Although things look good on that account.
I REALLY want to know what Rending does in 8th. I hope it's covered soon, along with Blast weapons.
The Genestealer taint always spreads. We are already all around you, watching from behind the eyes of your squad mates, lurking in the minds of your technicians. Waiting in the shadows. The beautiful thing about fire is it just creates longer shadows for us to hide in *evil grin*
With the new charging phase, new movement rules (specific for units and it seems that your Tyranid units will have much faster movement speed specific to their types), I'm sure you'll be able to get into combat easily.
DeleteIt'll be weird if Tyranids become good at shooting, I mean the whole point of them is to get into combat as soon as possible, where they will literally tear my poor Leman Russ tanks apart with their claws. I'm sure the Carnifex will become something to be feared once again. I remember how my Sicarian Infiltrators (Skitarii) destroyed a Carnifex in combat all because the poor fellow was Initiative 2. With the new chargers attack first rule, I'm sure Carnifexes and others will get to swing first in combat and deal a lot of damage. I wouldn't be worried about that.
I have no idea how Rending will work too. I mean, thanks to the new Wound table, all weapons basically have Rending (automatically wounds on 6+). The only thing is the AP2, which as we know, has changed dramatically as well. Hmm...
I'm going to have to call in Lord Commissar Ciaphas Cain. He has experience in dealing with your kind. :D
I'm looking for if the MT stays independent from IG.. my MT imperial knight strikeforce would be ruined otherwise :D
ReplyDeleteI suspect we'll get a separate detachment, or a specific one for them, whose Command Benefits will be different orders. Or maybe we can field them as Troops, heh.
DeleteReally hoping I can field them as troops to my knight house, been using Porphyrion with 2 gw knights and LOTS of Mil-temp :D
DeleteI think you can actually do that with the Faction keywords being Imperium, so you can field them as Troops and the Knights as Lord of Wars or something. I'm not very sure. I guess we'll find out!
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