Warhammer 40.000: Waffen, Bewegung und Psionik

Und wieder gibt es Infos zu den Regeländerungen in der kommenden 8ten Edition des grimmsten aller darken Sci-Fi Tabletops!

New Warhammer 40,000: Weapons

Yesterday we took a look at the profiles of units in the new Warhammer 40,000. But that is, of course, only half the story. The other half is the weapons they wield. Like units, these have had some pretty big changes, but are still recognisably the weapons you know and love.

Let’s take a look at three classic examples: the iconic boltgun, flamer and lascannon:

Damage is a big change. This stats effectively lets a single hit deliver multiple wounds to one model. So, as we can see, the bolter does a single wound per hit, and so is optimised for shooting models that have a single wound themselves, whereas the lascannon, one of the most powerful man-portable weapons in the game, kicks out D6 damage, allowing it to blast chunks off large vehicles and monsters and kill light vehicles and characters in a single hit. Against something like Guardsmen or Orks though, this formidable damage output will be wasted.

The AP system is changing too. Rather than a binary yes/no on saves, the new Warhammer 40,000 uses modifiers – the lascannon will punch easily through power armour, while the bolter and flamer are, again, best deployed against less durable, more numerous targets.

Lastly, you can see that the flamer no longer uses a template. However, when in range, it causes D6 hits that do not have to roll to hit, and this applies even against units of a single model – this can be devastating, especially when used in large numbers <cough-Burna-Boyz-cough>, trust us when we say we may be entering the age of the flamer as the go-to special weapon of infantry squads the galaxy over – let the galaxy burn!

The rules team behind the new game have taken the opportunity to rebalance a lot of the weapons in the game, and with the new armour modifier system and removal of the cap of 10 on Strength values, we’ve made sure that every weapon has its use on the battlefields of the 41st Millennium. D weapons, for example, are gone, and instead there is a scalable Strength and damage that matches the effectiveness you’d expect from every weapon.

So there you go.

We’ll be back tomorrow when we look at movement.

Was ist neu?

• Waffen machen unterschiedlich viel Schaden pro Treffer. Wo Bolter und Flamer pro Treffer nur einen Punkt Schaden machen können, kann die Laserkanone dem Zielmodell W6 Lebenspunkte rauben.
• Rüstungsdurchschlag wird durch einen Modifikator ersetzt. Anstatt Rüstung entweder zu ignorieren oder voll zuzulassen, wird der Rüstungswurf nun von besonders starken Waffen erschwert.
• Schablonen gibt es nicht mehr. Stattdessen verursachen Flächenangriffe einfach eine variable Anzahl Treffer auf der Zieleinheit, die dann alle einzeln verwunden/gerüstet werden müssen. Das spart jede Menge Zeit und Streiterei dabei, festzustellen, wer denn nun unter der Schablone ist.
• Da Werte nicht mehr auf ein Maximum von 10 beschränkt sind, können Waffen also auch eine höhere Stärke als das besitzen, und so können TK-Waffen stufenlos nach oben skalieren.

New Warhammer 40,000 – Movement

Movement has always been key to Warhammer 40,000 – positioning your units for optimum arcs of fire, advancing to claim objectives or just plain-old charging across the battlefield into combat!

Movement in the new edition will be very familiar to players of the game today, but the rules team have taken the opportunity to improve a few elements.

In the new edition, every model has its own Movement characteristic. This means that, rather than every model moving 6″ unless specified otherwise – things like Terminators will advance slowly and inexorably, while Harlequins leap and bound, and bikes and speeders zip across the battlefield.

Some units will have a minimum move too – this mostly applies to flyers, who can’t stop. Again, this is much like the rules today, but every flyer will have their own minimum and maximum move value, to represent the fact that swift fighters will naturally be quicker than a lumbering bomber.

Running has been rolled into the Movement phase now, too. You can “Advance” when you move by rolling a dice and adding the result to your Movement to go a bit faster at the expense of shooting.

This applies to all models – infantry, vehicles, bikes – everyone. By including this roll as part of your move, the game speeds up, as you no longer have to move modes in both the Movement and Shooting phases.

Other than that, the movement rules are pretty much what you’d expect today – no moving though enemy models, unless you can fly over them, and no walking through solid walls – logical stuff.

Oh, there was one last thing.

If you’re in combat at the start of your turn, you can Fall Back by moving away from the enemy. You’ll lose the ability to advance, shoot or charge that turn, and crucially, enemies will be able to shoot at you! This does, however, open up a vast range of tactical options for armies like the Astra Militarum, who will now be able to effectively deploy in firing lines, with each row falling back from any assaults in good order (if they survived) while the unit behind them fires at the attackers. It goes both ways though – if you have a dedicated assault unit that specializes in killing infantry (like Warp Talons) your opponent will find it much harder to pin them down in combat with heavily armoured units for the entire game.

That’s a big change!

We’ll let that rattle around your brain for a day, and we’ll be back tomorrow with news about the Psychic phase.

Was ist neu?

• Alle Modelle haben jetzt einen Bewegungswert, der angibt, wie schnell sie sind. Terminatoren werden nicht mehr genauso schnell wie Harlekine sein.
• Manche Modelle (besonders Flieger) werden eine Mindestbewegung machen müssen, um z.B. in der Luft zu bleiben. Auch diese ist von Modell zu Modell unterschiedlich. Bomber und Jäger sind eben nicht gleich schnell.
• Gesprintet wird nun in der Bewegungsphase. Man würfelt einen W6, zählt das Ergebnis zur Bewegungsreichweite und bewegt dann das Modell. Das spart Zeit, da man nicht mehr zweimal messen und bewegen muss. Sprinten geht wie gewohnt auf Kosten des Schießens.
• Einheiten, die zu Beginn ihrer Bewegungsphase im Nahkampf sind, dürfen sich geordnet zurückziehen. Allerdings dürfen sie dann diese Runde nicht mehr rennen, schießen oder in den Nahkampf stürmen. Das erlaubt aber nahkampfschwachen Trupps, sich zurückzuziehen und ihren Kameraden die Möglichkeit zu geben, auf die Horde schäumender Berserker in ihrer Mitte zu schießen!

New Warhammer 40,000 – Psychic Phase

The Psychic phase for the new Warhammer 40,000 has changed a fair bit.

Previously, each of your psykers would generate warp charge for your pool. This worked pretty well in most games, but in very psyker-heavy armies, it often meant that some psykers sat around not doing a whole bunch, while one or two mega-psykers (we’re looking at you, Magnus – you big warp charge hog) had all the fun.

In the new system, the Psychic phase has been re-worked from the ground up.

Each time you pick a psyker, you can cast as many spells as their datasheet states (which would previously be the same as their Mastery Level) and there’s a simpler, two-dice mechanic for casting, you just need to beat the warp charge value. The more potent the power, the harder it will be to cast.

Enemy psykers will then have a chance to block these powers if they are within 24″, and again, the mastery of the psyker will dictate how often they can block a power each turn.

The new system is much more scalable – meaning that the phase works well at any size of game, with any number of psykers running around.

Perils of the Warp is still there of course. It wouldn’t be Warhammer 40,000 without the chance of accidentally having your mind eaten by a Daemon and your soul sucked into the psychic oblivion of the Warp while your body exploded in a multifaceted explosion of etheric ichor…

Every faction will have its own psychic lore with a range of thematic powers. In addition, every psyker knows the Smite power:

Mortal Wounds are a new mechanic too – these cannot be saved by any means and punch straight through thick armour and even invulnerable saves! Ouch.

That’s the basics on the Psychic phase.

We’ll be back tomorrow with news on one of the updated war zones from the new Warhammer 40,000, and on Sunday, we’ll be looking at the Shooting phase.

Was ist neu?

• Es gibt keine Warp Charges mehr.
• Stattdessen kann jeder Psioniker eine feste Anzahl Kräfte pro Runde wirken, und eine bestimmte Menge an Bannversuchen unternehmen (jeweils soviele wie bisher das Mastery-Level des Psionikers war)
• Das soll z.B. dafür sorgen, dass nicht mehr fünf kleine Psioniker Energie generieren, aber nie selbst Kräfte wirken, während Magnus alles aufräumt. 😉
• Um zu bannen, muss man übrigens innerhalb von 24″ des gerade wirkenden Psionikers sein.
• Um eine Kraft zu wirken, wirft man zwei Würfel. Kommt man über den benötigten Wert, hat man Erfolg. Stärkere Kräfte = höherer Zielwert.
• Gefahren des Warp wird es weiterhin geben.
• Jede Fraktion wird ihre eigenen, thematischen Psi-Kräfte haben, aber alle Psioniker können die oben gezeigte Kraft „Smite“ einsetzen.
• Mortal Wounds sind eine neue Mechanik: Jede dieser tödlichen Verwundungen geht direkt durch Rüstungs-, Rettungs- und andere Schutzwürfe durch!

Warhammer 40.000 ist unter anderem bei unserem Partner Fantasy Warehouse erhältlich.

Link: Warhammer Community