So we've all been playing the 8th edition of Warhammer 40K for several months now. If your experience is anything like my gaming group and mine, there have been some harsh lessons to learn. While my experience has been overwhelmingly positive, I must admit some bitterness and disappointment with some of the changes. If I'm going to keep playing the game, I need to get past the bitterness and focus on the fun to be had playing games with good people. The first step of this will be changing the way I play the game.
(Above: a narrative game where my forces on the right needed to sabotage the bridge and my opponent on the left needed to protect it. 75PL each)
Mortal Wounds - Cover - Falling Back from Combat
Mortal Wounds, Cover and Falling Back from Combat; these three things (amongst others) seem to cause me great problems in the new edition. I didn't play much into 6th Edition and only a couple of 7th Ed. games as well. The problems with these changes is that I forget how they work when building an army, and don't evaluate how they work well enough when I'm playing the game. When Ad Mech snipers start picking off expensive characters, and dealing mortal wounds at a ludicrous rate, it hard not to start feeling bitter. When your expensive scouts with camo cloaks get shot up by units that ignore cover, your smug 2+ save smile starts to fade. And when you finally get into close combat only to see the unit fall back and allow other units to shoot you to ribbons, its hard not to cry out in anger.
But let this not be a post ranting about how much I hate 8th Edition. In fact if it wasn't for my experience with 4th Edition and up, I don't think I'd have that many problems. I absolutely love the Power Level System (even if I disagree with some unit costs) as a way to organize a game quickly and easily.
I've been reviewing my codex, and I think I need to invest in more bodyguard types for my characters. While there are ways to attempt to regain damage from mortal wounds, the best choice would be to have someone else take the wound. I have two Ssylth for my Drukhari Archon, and will convert up a pair of Honor Guard to take wounds from Shrike and might look at a Primaris Apothecary to keep everyone at full health. I'm picking the Primaris one because he has two good pistols and can fire both in the shooting phase. This means Shrike will have to move slow until he's ready to leave their protection. I guess I'll find an Ogryn or two to be bodyguards for my important Catachan characters, although I mostly just buy more guys and expect to lose a few. For my Chaos Space Marines, I can't find anyone to take wounds for the characters, and few healing options, as I don't play any Nurgle.
I've decided to rethink my Scouts and stop thinking that they can be viable troops. They can be used to shape the battlefield with their deployment anywhere 9" from the opponents deployment zone and 9" from any enemy units. My sniper scouts will ride in their bus, a land speeder storm, and use it as ablative wounds.
As for the rest, maybe I'll just take a break and go for a walk.