Warhammer 40K Tabletop XXX: Imperium After Dark

[Bobby Baratheon]

I didn't see a points cost, but based on the general ratio of power points to actual points, I'd assume Magnus' price tag is 400+, and probably not higher than 425. Assuming that's close to it, he seems like a pretty terrifying beatstick. Even his smite is pretty dangerous - 1d6 - 2d6 mortal wounds is nothing to sniff at, especially considering how easily he'll manifest it. T7 with 18 wounds (and the 3+/4++) means he's decently durable. He moves 16" before losing wounds, so he's also very fast. That sword, too . . . He can eff up almost anything in melee. If you don't have an invulnerable, be prepared to suck up 7 WS2+ S16 Ap-4 Damage 3 attacks. That should be enough to delete most single things (assuming he didn't soften it up with smite first). This also doesn't take into account his other three powers, which could be awesome or sucktastic for all we know.

My question, though, is if he himself benefits from his buff to nearby Thousand Sons. If so, virtually every one of those 7 attacks will connect, and they'll be wounding on 2's unless you have T9 (good luck). And doing 3 Damage each.

Against T8 and lower (assuming no re-roll):
7 attacks. 5.833 hit. 4.861 wound. Unless you have an invulnerable, you have no save. 3 Damage each, so that's 14.58 Damage on average.

Invulnerables could mitigate the damage, but his souped up smite should deal enough mortal wounds to anything he's planning on charging to balance it out.

He probably does get the re-roll, though, which means all 7 of those should realistically connect more often than not unless you have terrible luck. All seven connecting brings the damage up to ~17.5-ish damage.

Seems like a reasonable deal for the price of ~2 tricked out daemon princes.

[Brookshw]

Huh, guess i missed that. In any event, theres barely anything over 10 so far, and theres a fair few leaks.

True. Add carnifex w/ claws to the list (s12).

Hmmm.....can't recall if dreadnaughts have something similar.

[JNAProductions]

I didn't see-what are the GUO stats?

[Drasius]

[Renegade Paladin]

Huh, guess i missed that. In any event, theres barely anything over 10 so far, and theres a fair few leaks.

Try Dreadnoughts. Anything with a power fist that's over S5 will exceed S10.

[Bobby Baratheon]

Were carnifexes always that cheap? I'd imagine their wargear can up the price significantly, though.

[Tome]

Huh, guess i missed that. In any event, theres barely anything over 10 so far, and theres a fair few leaks.

Pulse Blastcannon is S10/S12/S14 depending on range.

[Mystic Muse]

Were carnifexes always that cheap? I'd imagine their wargear can up the price significantly, though.

They're almost half the price they are in 7e.

[Cheesegear]

"Crisis Suits come 3 to a squad 'cause that's what's in the box, dur."
*Sees that Hive Guard can be taken in squads of 1*

What is GW even doing?

[LeSwordfish]

I had two games of SW:A today, and they were fun. The start of a campaign:

Ninth Talon

Spoiler

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(All with Mark Of Tzeentch)
Rogen - Aspiring Champion: Bolt Pistol, Chainsword, Camo Gear,
Sar Ayen - Chaos Space Marine: Bolter, RDS,
Krios - Chaos Space Marine: Bolter,
Arcos - Chaos Space Marine: Bolter,
Saul - Chaos Gunner: Plasma Gun, Camo Gear, Telescopic Sight,

As recommended by the playground. Camo Gear is here represented by Jump Packs - presumably they can jump and dodge about enough to be harder to hit. Or something.

Game One: Kill Team Fight vs Tau

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First game was versus Tau - I couldn't have given you a list, but it was about eight models including a Pulse Accelerator Drone, a gunner with a rail rifle, and my opponent's favourite model, a Tau called, apparently, the T'au for "Spoon."

Sar Ayen's voice crackled in his vox. "I see them. Three on the left, two on the right."

"Good," Rogen growled. "Any worth the pledge?"

Sar Ayen huffed, a verbal shrug audible through the helmet connection. "You know what the blueskins are like. None are even worth the bolt rounds."

"We're still killing them, right?" Saul, the raptor with the massive plasma gun, hadn't removed his helmet in months. His massive weapon hissed constantly, and leaked a waft of coolant into the ductwork over their heads: Rogen fancied that Saul's voice had taken on some of the hiss too, and a haze of coolant vapor hung around his vox-grille when he spoke.

Rogen sighed. They were low on spoils to trade at the edge of the city, which meant they were low on bolt rounds, on armor plates and on spare teeth for their chainblades. The gear from these aliens would fetch a reasonable price in trade - not to mention the promethium caches apparently somewhere in the area.

"Yes," he allowed. "Saul, go high. Sar Ayen, take Krios and sweep left. Arcos and I will go right: I want their leader's skull."

"We're killing them?"

"We're definitely killing them."

The game opens up with my team spreading out as described. My leader heads one way after his leader, while the other marines duck the other way to take on a group of new recruits with the accelerator drone.

The rattle of bolt fire sounded as Sar Ayen and Krios opened fire, but both were forced to dodge back into cover as a fusillade of pulse shots returned, the rusted pipeline they were behind buckling under the damage. Sar Ayen leaned quickly out of cover and fired a single shot, then grunted with laughter. "Got one."

"Don't get cocky," Arcos growled, "they hit hard."

"It's too late to stop Sar Ayen from getting cocky," Rogen muttered, and Arcos laughed. They were some distance from the main firefight, picking their way through the burned-out carcass of a cargo vessel, trying to get the drop on the tau leader. Rogen fired his jump pack briefly, hopping up to the top of the cab - and then ducked back down into cover again as a heavy shot punched a hole the size of his torso in the cab's cowling. "Sniper, rail weapon!"

"I see him." Saul hissed. "I've been climbing the damn walls to keep out of sight of him, but..."

There was a pause. Rogen could imagine the raptor leaning out, aiming his plasma gun one-handed while the other gripped a ceiling.

"Got him," Saul muttered with satisfaction.

With the benefits of range, my Plasma Gunner can target his Rail Rifle while being out of range, and a brief burst of sustained fire takes him down (and, as we will discover later, kills him outright.) Thanks to luck and Sar Kell's sight, he and Krios manage to take out two of the Tau on the other flank, and with Rogen approaching his leader fast, my opponent Bottles when Saul kills his drone.

I roll 3 for my D3 promethium, and immediately spend one cache (we got one for free if our starting kill team was painted) on buying a new Trooper with Bolter, Sight, and Chainsword (to be given to someone else as soon as possible.) Rogen rolls for an advance, hoping for Scavenger, and instead picks up the ability to re-roll his advances. Nice!

Aside from his Rail Rifle, most of his team is up and about again - except beloved Spoon, who is captured.

Rogen grabbed the tau juvenile by the neck and hoisted it bodily aloft, turning it from side to side to inspect it better. Shrapnel from the rubble it had been using as cover had scored open it's helmet and left it dazed and deadened when it's teammates abandoned it.

"I'm sure we can find something to do with this," he said speculatively, and Sar Ayen - who had insisted that it still counted as his kill even though he had not even hit it - laughed loudly. To it's credit, when the tau made a grab for it's carbine and brought it around to aim at Rogen's head, it nearly managed to get a shot off before Rogen swatted it away. The Tau howled, it's arm shattered.

"Don't make this any worse for yourself," Rogen advised. Sar Ayen laughed again.

Game Two: Rescue vs Tau

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My opponent wants to play again immediately to try and get Spoon back, so I oblige. He gets only a handful of his kill team, while I can only deploy four on the board to start: I setup Spoon in the centre of the board and four guys around him - it's only later that I realise the facing matters and I've placed them all facing inwards. His random table edge then puts him directly behind both my Champion and Gunner.

The unfortunate blueskin was hung from a lamppost by hooks driven through flayed flesh. A pool of cerulean blood was spreading from the ground below him. Saul adjusted the sights of his plasma gun, and let it hiss out a brief burst of vapourised coolant.
"They're late," he grumbled.
"Silence." Rogen growled. "The slippery bastards are dripping with sensors and could hear a bloatfly fart. Your complaining is not going to be quieter."
"Have you heard a bloatfly fart?" Sar Ayen asked, static crimping his voice: he was looping wide around the square, hoping to catch the blueskins creeping up on them. "A passing Rhino would be quieter."
Saul seemed to intake breath to respond, but instead yelped in pain. Rogen immediately spun round, aiming his wrist cannon at shadows - and spotted a set of shadows deeper than the others.

The tau sneak up, and try a shot at Saul - two out of three miss, though, and his armour soaks the third shot. He dives for cover, raising the alarm.

"Behind us," Saul grunted. "One of them drew a bead on me."
Rogen triggered his jump pack and leapt towards the nearest shadows, ignoring Y's uproarious laughter in his ears.

Rogen charges towards the nearest two pathfinders, while both my reinforcements arrive and sprint forwards towards the fight. Two marines go on overwatch around "Spoon" to prevent the tau making a dash for him, while X hauls himself to his feet - only to be immediately pinned again by the commander. The two tau near Rogen dodge around the corner enough to line up shots on him- and knock him down with a well-aimed pulse shot.

Sar Ayen ducked into cover behind a pillar and opened up with a fusillade of shots. One of the Tau fell, but was dragged to his feet by his commander, and the three blueskins retreated in remarkably good order, Y thought: one of them even managing to pump a flash grenade into the ruins above them to knock Saul back on his arse. Sar Ayen laughed long and hard at that, but stopped abruptly when a flatline tone whined - one of the talon was down.

"The boss is down." Arcos announced shortly. "I can't see him."
"I can. It's bad," Krios said.

I move several of my squad so as to line up shots on the two approaching Rogen, but none can hit or wound. Sar Ayen pins one, but in his turn the commander gets him up again. He pulls his commander and companions back into cover, and ducks one of the others into cover too, but one runs straight for Rogen and engages him in close combat. Because Rogen is down, he is immediately removed from the game - by a Tau! In close combat! That's so humiliating!

Rogen couldn't breathe, could barely see, could only grunt with pain and drag himself back. The high-energy plasma round had torn through his breastplate and laid the interior of one lung open to the air- and now he was struggling to even move as his trophy rack dragged on the ground, his damaged jump pack a crippling weight on his back.

Two more pulse rounds hit him, cracking his breastplate and gauntlet on his other side. He managed to turn to see the blueskin approaching, but could do nothing as it lined it's carbine up directly against his forehead for a final killing shot.

Rogen rasped out a curse - and then the Tau screamed, as a fusillade of plasma burned off both it's arms and set it's fatigues on fire. High in the building behind, X ducked back into cover and vented coolant, with a distinct air of satisfaction.

Saul downs and kills the tau with three overcharged plasma shots, while Y, A, and another marine each down another. With only his commander left standing, my opponent retreats.

It looked as if they were pulling back, Saul thought, watching the blueskins retreat, largely carrying each other. Sensible: with all of Ninth Talon now approaching, they couldn't possibly hope to hold their scattered position. He tensed as the leader swung his carbine up, aiming it one-handed - but it wasn't aimed at any of the Night Lords. Instead, the plasma round struck their prisoner square in the chest, blasting him open and ending his life.

Saul nodded. That was what he'd have done too.

End of the game, victory for me, another "three" for my d3 promethium. Rogen rolls for his recovery - six! And his advance - a skill - Scavenger! Good times. I put my main advance on Saul, who gets +1 move, which is neat enough I guess.

With Scavenger and the bonus from my opponent failing to rescue poor Spoon, that's 250 points to spend, which is enough for a new Gunner with a Plasma Gun - fun fun fun.

All my Opponents casualties get up, except for the one who took down Rogen...

Rogen was dragged up and leaned against a wall, and didn't have the opportunity to object as Arcos patched his injuries with synskin. He did, however, once he could breathe again, and he pointed at the blueskin who had taken him down. The fire in the unfortunate creature's fatigues had gone out and now it was lying there, it's legs spasming.

"That one is still alive," he muttered. "See that it stays so."

Then he passed out.

Captured!

I've raced ahead in the campaign, tied only with the Harlequin player for first place, with both Tau lists, the Inquisition, Skitarii, and Wych Cult all well behind. With my upgrades I'm now at 1450 points total, and if I can win the next Rescue I get another 250 point bounty.

Ninth Talon, Now

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(All with Mark Of Tzeentch)
Rogen - Aspiring Champion: Bolt Pistol, Chainsword, Camo Gear, Destined For Greatness, Scavenger
Sar Ayen - Chaos Space Marine: Bolter, RDS,
Krios - Chaos Space Marine: Bolter,
Arcos - Chaos Space Marine: Bolter, Chainsword
Saul - Chaos Gunner: Plasma Gun, Camo Gear, Telescopic Sight, +1 Move
Zar Kell - Chaos Space Marine: Bolter, RDS
Sierk - Chaos Gunner: Plasma Gun, RDS, Telescopic Sight,

With the RDS destined for someone with a bolter at the end of next game. I think the sensible thing is to buy another (nearly naked) dude for my next purchase, then spend 150 points tooling him and everyone else up.

[Voidhawk]

Huh, guess i missed that. In any event, theres barely anything over 10 so far, and theres a fair few leaks.

Dreadnoughts are Str 6 base, and come with a x2 fist so they hit at Str12. Though we are yet to see any unit with a non-wound base value above 10.

This also doesn't take into account his other three powers, which could be awesome or sucktastic for all we know.

We know what he gets, the Dark Hereticus discipline is the Chaos Marine one and was leaked earlier.
Prescience lets him give re-rolls to non-Thousand Sons units, or ones that are 10-18" away from him.
Infernal Gaze lets him do a couple more MW to something.
But Warptime lets him move again for free, giving him an effective first-turn threat range of 36"+charge.

[Blackhawk748]

"Crisis Suits come 3 to a squad 'cause that's what's in the box, dur."
*Sees that Hive Guard can be taken in squads of 1*

What is GW even doing?

Being high, clearly. I mean, a freakin broodlord is 162 points? In what screwed up universe is a freakin Broodlord worth more than a Hive Tyrant??

[Brookshw]

That Haurspex pricing is just silly unless its massively changed (fingers crossed). Overall seems like they aimed to make nids more swarmy w/ the prices (tbd). Mawloc spam is gonna be sweet.

Maybe my lictors will suddenly be viable! No, no, not at one per unit.

Darius, do you have a link to the source or the weapon points?

[boomwolf]

Prices are meaningless before gear prices. We got things with minimal gear cost above the model cost.

Anything big seem to have spiked in price.


Anyways, Magnus, ahriman and Co git dark hereticus powers by default, I'd wager one of the pages yet to be seen includes powers you get if playing pure TS/tzeentch.

[Brookshw]

Nvm, rest of the points are leaked, scroll down. Interesting that toxic sacs are scaled in pricing.
Dakka.

[Voidhawk]

Full photo leak of literally everything. Not great quality, but comprehensive:

- Core Rules
- Chaos
- Imperium 1 (Marines)
- Imperium 2 (Not Marines)
- Xenos 1 (Eldar and Necrons)
- Xenos 2 (Everyone Else)

[lord_khaine]

Kinda embaresing, there is a.. im not certain if syntax error is the right word.. or a cut&past error.. in the Eldar psychic power Embolden.
And else im a little sorry to see that Mind War apperently did not make the cut.

Else wow though, the Avatars stats does not seem like to much at first glance, but since it only has 8 wounds that means it cant be targeted if its close enough to an Eldar Unit. And the 12 inch aura of ignore morale suddenly makes it seem like a rather viable choice. Especially for massed aspec warriors and Guardians.

[boomwolf]

Chaos is rather.l disappointing.
Marks do nothing (couldn't even find anything referring to a mark keyword), thousand sons have only the base spells, so with matched play limit of each spell once per turn your many sorcerers are unable to even try casting due to lack of spells (and death guard gets more spells? Seriusly?)

Chaos seems really unbaked.

Tau (my other army) also seem unbaked.



Overall, great potential, but these index seem like "well you can technically play now" rather than proper armies.

[Gauntlet]

Chaos is rather.l disappointing.
Marks do nothing (couldn't even find anything referring to a mark keyword), thousand sons have only the base spells, so with matched play limit of each spell once per turn your many sorcerers are unable to even try casting due to lack of spells (and death guard gets more spells? Seriusly?)

The Matched Play rules say you can only cast each power once per army except Smite so you get to do something with all your psykers at least.

Tau actually look pretty good to me. Strength 5 shooting in general is looking pretty solid this edition, and Gun Drones in particular look great for it. The difficult bit is deciding what your monster slayers are going to be.

[Requizen]

Still parsing Necron info. Initial thoughts:

Infantry armies are going to be super strong. Vehicles are very expensive, as are Destroyers and Tomb Blades... but they're better so maybe it's worth? Still, anything that's not Silver Tide is going to be very, very low model count. ~50 points for a freaking Tomb Blade! More than double of 7th.

RP is both better and worse than 7th. Better since you can benefit over multiple turns and the new Res Orb + Cryptek combo is insane. Worse since it's much easier to just fully gib units of dudes in one turn.

Doomsday Arks and Doom Scythes are the new hotness. Trust me.

We lost all allies. Very unhappy. I have literally nothing to do with my kitbashed Necron Knight, unless someone lets me proxy it as a Monolith or something.

Deathmarks are top tier.

There are a few potential deathstar units out there, which is good to see. I'm seeing Lychguard+Cryptek+Overlord/Anrakyr, Imotekh+Cryptek+Flayed One blob, CCB+Tomb Blades/Praetorians, or even just simple Overlord+Tesla Immortals. Lots of good synergy.

Two LoW options are... I dunno. Obelisk just shreds infantry but so does everything else in the army. Tesseract Vault has potential with all C'tan powers but it's very expensive. Vault may become super powerful but we'll see once the price pans out.

Bubble Wrap/Tarpit units are going to be the name of the game for Necrons. I don't see myself having a game without at least 30 Warriors on the table at a minimum.

[Turalisj]

Kinda underwhelmed by the Necrons and Grey Knights, but mein gott have Adeptus Mechanicus received an improvement. Arc rifles are kinda meh now and the TUA looks friggin' sweet. The TUA and plasma guns are probably going to be the new mainstay for AdMech armies. I'm not so sure on how to build my sicarians now, infiltrators have the infiltrate rule which is an easy turn 1 charge after burst fire with stub carbines or fletchette pistols. But ruststalkers have the potential to unload mortal wounds (Which seems to be the new rend).

[Professor Gnoll]

So... are Chapter Tactics a thing? I can't find them anywhere.

Anyway, looking at Harlequins- the weapon choices lost a lot of flavour. They're basically just variations on the Power Weapons theme. Troupe Masters are now Captain-level instead of Sergeant-level. Solitaire is almost exactly the same except now much harder to kill thanks to being a proper Character. Falling Back and still Charging is a solid ability to recapture the initiative if you lost the charge- though I can't see that many clowns surviving a charge even with the new 4+ Holo-suit invuln. Harlies are fast, though, with 8" moves and Advancing and Charging. Also, if I'm reading Flip Belts right, they ignore all Terrain, including buildings and such. Shadowseers continue to be mandatory with Shield From Harm (couldn't they have called that Veil of Tears, just so something got to be named after the iconic ability?), and Death Jesters are less 'move units around' and more 'precision target special weapons out of squads'.

Harlequins seem pretty similar to how they were before- just with better invulns and more attacks. And that can only be a good thing.

I'm going to miss the old Embrace, though.

[Requizen]

The current thought is that if they're going to give free rules to certain Chapters(/Hive Fleets/Legions/Septs/Dynasties/Clans), they're going to do it in the Codices that will be released later. Much like AoS had the basic rules but then in the Battletomes you could get special rules for your specific Stormcast Chamber or Orruk Clan.

[Gauntlet]

Necrons look interesting. It seems like they'll have plenty of ways of killing anything without a ton of wounds, since they have quite a lot of weapons with good strength and plenty of -1 and -2 AP weapons, but they don't have very many weapons that do lots of wounds at once, short of their big stompy close combat units. Even the c'tan powers don't do much to big creatures, since d3 mortal wounds isn't particularly scary for something with 16+. I guess they have the durability to last a couple of turns while they grind a big target down with weight of fire.

[DataNinja]

Huh. The Lance mode of the Fire Prism is strength 12. I am a little sad that Lance weapons don't seem to have a rule for treating the opponent's Toughness as lower, since that was kinda their thing, but, ah well.

Interesting that Wraithguard actually have a semblance of melee ability. -1, with D3 Damage.

Vectored engines are really interesting, especially if you're able to combine them with star engines. Seems like that could make a not half-bad delivery system. Advance 16"+2d6, and make it harder to hit.

Well, then. Ghoshelms appear to be a 3+ "save" against Mortal Wounds only. So does the Avatar's Molten Body rule. I wonder how common things like this are going to be.

[bluntpencil]

There's a fair amount of errors.

A master-crafter power sword, for an Inquisitor, is free, as opposed to 4 for a regular one.

Deathwatch Captains, Chaplains, and Librarians don't get Special Issue Ammo.

Drop Pods are prohibitively expensive for something that, in Matched Play, won't be taken in huge amounts anyway, and it can't really get into that 6" melta sweet spot anyway.

Plasma Guns, if Rapid Firing, all must be rolled individually (something which this edition was supposed to avoid!) in a squad.

[Requizen]

Necron Thoughts:

Spoiler: Units

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Named Characters
-Imotekh: Points up, statline up, combat up, shooting up. Abilities got better, the buff to Flayed Ones is way more usable than the old crappy DS one, and the Storm is much more reliable (and you can use the Command Point reroll on it if you need to). I think he may actually be worthwhile in this edition, especially if you’re going for some sort of Flayed One fun time.
-Zahndrekh: Points up, statline a bit up, abilites down, combat a bit up. Eh, situational now. If the meta turns into one where shutting off abilities with Counter-Tactics is strong, he’ll be an auto-include. But, for everything else, he’s a bit sub-par.
-Obyron: Points up, statline up, combat up. As a beatstick, he’s better, but you never really brought him to just wail on things. So… eh? Pass I think.
-Orikan: Points up, statline up, combat up. Abilities are better since he just gives units a 5++ in both shooting and melee, making him a strong buff to any unit he’s nearby. His melee statline makes him pretty scary to many things in the game, so he still fulfils the buffing beatstick profile that we like. Still worth taking. Stick him with Warscythe Lychguard or Flayed Ones for something truly brutal.
-Szeras: Points up, statline a bit up, shooting the same. Abilities are a bit bad, since they’re still random and he doesn’t hand out 5++ like other Crypteks. Still a decent shooting platform that can stick around Immortals or Warriors to give them 4+ RP and supplement their statlines, so… not all terrible? But still one of the lesser options imo.
-Anrakyr: Points up by 7 so basically unchanged. Shooting is the same, but his buffs are way better, able to turn any unit into a decent beatstick or just give the general Overlord buff to any unit. Gained an Invuln! Actually quite good now - buffs things, fights well, and can potentially blast a vehicle or monster with his Arrow. Good choice!
-Trazyn: Not even gonna write about him. He was bad in 7th, he’s worse now somehow. Pass, unless you really want a fluffy army.

HQ
-Overlord: A bit more expensive, but not by much. Now has a solid buff, and the Staff of Light is decent in melee, so even without a Warscythe he’s a good beatstick. Warscythe is better, of course. Res Orbs have amazing troll potential.
-Lord: Eehhh… I dunno yet. The reroll isn’t that big since we’re all LD10, but can be useful. Another Res Orb holder. His statline is ok but nothing amazing. Not an auto-take but I can see one being ok.
-Cryptek: Very good. Very good indeed. Points only up a bit compared to before, but affects multiple units, so it’s ok. Statline is actually better since he’s not garbage in combat anymore. There should be at least one of these in every list, I’m thinking.
-CCB: Good and bad. Price is about the same, durability is different from before but maybe worse overall? But now can hide behind units. Probably best to stick with Praetorians since he can buff them while they bodyguard him, but Wraiths work too. Pretty good fighty unit I think, will see some on the table but not overbearing since you can’t get 2+ and what not.
-Destroyer Lord: Slightly more expensive, and serves different roles now. Still a decent beatstick, but now also can be used as a bodyguard/buffbot for Destroyer units as well. Maybe not as good as before, but it’ll depend on how Destroyer armies look.

Troops
-Warriors: Cheaper, with better guns? What’s the catch? Well, not as durable by themselves, but a big blob backed up by Crypteks, Ghost Arks, and Res Orbs is even harder to kill than before. These are great. Take 15-20 and have fun.
-Immortals: A bit pricier now, but dang their guns are good. Either Rend -2 or a crapton of shots. And Tesla can proc on a 5+ if you’re with an Overlord! I think 10+ units of Tesla are good for the buff, but 5 man units of Gauss will be really strong MSU units. Very good options.

Transport
-Ghost Ark: A bit underwhelming, but adds resiliency to Warriors. Shooting is pretty good now that you can use both Flayer Arrays on a single target, getting 10-20 shots in one go. Fast now, too, so you can get Warriors and Ark alike up field and laying down fire quickly. Can potentially get plinked down by mid-range shooting, so watch out for that.

Fast Attack
-Tomb Blades: Bloody expensive now, but got lots of nice boosts. 2 Wounds is good, higher speed is good, double the shots for Gauss, 4x the shots for Tesla. Can hang around with a CCB for Res Orb shenanigans. Their use now might be more for high-damage flanking, since they’re likely to just die. But they’re a bit expensive for suicide runs, so take that with caution.
-Destroyers: Also expensive now, 150% the old price, but with an extra wound and a lot of speed. No more JSJ (though that seems gone in general). Cannons are great - will eat multi-wound models for breakfast and are a great way to chew down big monsters/vehicles. Much more elite than previously, but can be great if you’re against other elite armies with their speed and damage.
-Wraiths: Whoo boy. Even more durable than before (though no more Harvest for RP), just as fast. Cheaper? Wow. Damage is different now - harder to wound things on a 2, but also harder to be forced into wounding on 6s. AP -1 is different from rending - more reliable overall, but less swingy. I think they’re great if you still want to take 18. Beamers are decent now since you can actually shoot them decently, though they don’t straight remove models. MWs are always cool though. Whip Coils seem… eh? Attacking before dying is nice but save the points unless you’ve got nothing better to put them on.
-Scarabs: Pretty buffed, now will be doing 3+ to hit and 5+ to wound at a minimum on every target. And cheaper now, so a big swarm isn’t as costly. Can make a great tarpit unit, and can grab that 5+ in cover.

Flyers
-Night Scythe: Points up, shooting is better. Durability is different. No longer safe behind “Snapshoot only”, now can be plinked down over turns. But high Wound count and 3+ makes it still relatively safe. Invasion Beams got a bit more flexibility, since you can “transport” multiple units and drop which one you need. Some tactics here.
-Doom Scythe: Got a lot more expensive, but the shooting is way better and more reliable. Much like the Night Scythe, starting on the board is great since you get it for the full game, and no more facings means that the Death Ray is going to be laying down the hurt against many units, all the time. Just be careful to not run off the board.

Elite
-Praetorians: A smidge more expensive, but a better statline other than being slightly slower. Rods are still good shooting, but either weapon is good in melee. I think these guys are pretty legit.
-Lychguard: Slight point jump, but have a lot of synergies with characters and got another wound. Shields are worse, but coming back with full wounds from RP sorta makes up for it. Both weapons are solid in melee, though Warscythes are obviously better.
-Flayed Ones: A fair sight more expensive, but now they can reliably use reserves, have synergies, and can bring back lost models. Yeah, worth it. Just as good against most infantry, a bit better against harder targets with the new wound chart.
-Deathmarks: Super good. Bumped up by a minor cost per model, but worth it. Traded wounding on 2+ out of reserves and Sniper for reliable Reserves and MWs on 6s, still can Intercept units, and can pick out Characters. Overall less killy than before, unless you roll hot on 6s, but the reliability more than makes up for it.
-Stalker: A big old brick now. Went up a fair amount in points, but is very hard to pop now and is way faster (10” until it gets hurt!). Still buffs shooting, and the melee profile got better with an actual AP value now and d3 damage. We’ll be seeing these aplenty.
-C’tan Deceiver: Powers got buffed, which is huge. Redeploy went from “in your deployment zone” to “give him and d3 units Infiltrate”, which is extremely dope. And an extremely good melee profile. And cheaper. And a Character so can hide behind models. Literally what is not to love? This guy rocks!
-C’tan Nightbringer: Trades the Deceiver’s tricky deployment for a beastly shooting and melee profile. Yeah, worthwhile. Once this guy gets into the enemy’s lines, he’s just going to take things apart.

Heavy Support
-Spyders: A bit middling. Up in points, statline went up to match. Repair is actually worthwhile now that vehicles have something between “full health” and “dead”. Gloom Prisms being straight Deny attempts is better than before. So a decent support unit, especially if you’re using Scarabs, but I’m not huge on them until I see them in action. Pass on the gun.
-Doomsday Arks: The sauce. Reasonable jump in points, but now way better survivability and more reliable shooting. With the new Deep Strike rules, it’s easy to protect against Drop Pods and the like, and Quantum Shielding protects against long range multi-damage things like Lascannons. Can get chipped down, but better overall and one of our better anti-heavy options.
-Annihilation Barges: Expensive and fairly fragile, but they put out a lot of shooting. Not too hot on them just yet, but time will tell. I think they might cost a bit much and we already have a lot of anti-infantry and weight of fire.
-Monoliths: 1000% improved. Deep Striking? Mass firepower? Utility? Yeah, this brick rocks. And good luck tying it down since it Flys for retreat and shoot. Lots of good AP shots plus a solid frame.
-Heavy Destroyers: Expensive, but once again one of our best mobile anti-heavy platforms. Not the only option with the improved Doom Scythe and Doomsday Ark, but still good. Range and speed, plus built in rerolls and a 2+ when standing in cover is solid. The price makes spamming them even harder than before, but multi-damage shooting is a bit scarce in our force so it might be worthwhile.

Lord of War
-Tesseract Vault: Up in price, up in durability sorta? All powers + spheres means this thing is going to put out a lot of hurt. Still, a quarter of your army in “regular” sized games is… wow.
-Obelisk: Slightly more expensive than a Monolith, for way more shots that hit better, but also no AP. Decent MW output if your opponent is spamming Flyers, but overall seems a bit disappointing. The reliable Reserves is nice, I suppose, but mine will probably not hit the table any time soon.

Overall I'm happy. Some stinkers, some iffy ones, but I'm already picturing builds that make me happy. Glad to see some of my favorite units return, as well.

[bluntpencil]

Deathwatch have cooler, easier to use interplay between unit types in their kill-teams than before... but they're not going to be able to take full advantage, since they can only squeeze into a Blackstar, and can't teleport into battle like the Black Spear could do before.

Terminators make Kill-Teams immune to morale. Bikes make them better at assaulting (Fall Back and Assault), Vanguards better at shooting (Fall Back and Shoot)... dammit GW, this is interesting, but it's a massive waste of points.

Also, Stalker Bolters are just longer ranged, Heavy bolters. No sniper tricks. :(

[Theodoric]

Kinda underwhelmed by the Necrons and Grey Knights, but mein gott have Adeptus Mechanicus received an improvement. Arc rifles are kinda meh now and the TUA looks friggin' sweet. The TUA and plasma guns are probably going to be the new mainstay for AdMech armies. I'm not so sure on how to build my sicarians now, infiltrators have the infiltrate rule which is an easy turn 1 charge after burst fire with stub carbines or fletchette pistols. But ruststalkers have the potential to unload mortal wounds (Which seems to be the new rend).

I suppose; many of the Skitarii gimmicks have been boosted, especially the omnispex. Phosphor rounds now simply ignoring cover's a big one too.
On the flipside, Vanguard only do more damage now instead of extra wounds, and Rangers' AP capability is a lot lower. Moving and shooting Transuranic Arquebus' is also not a thing anymore.

So far haven't found anything to complain about with Imperial Guard. Organisation's pretty different and you're going to need a lot more FOC slots, but that just makes it easier to get the bigger detachments. But I'm saving going really in-depth with them until I have my hands on the actual book.
Techpriests and Ministorum Priests are now completely folded into the Mechanicus and Ministorum factions, though. All well and good since I can give Priests eviscerators again; still a great model.

[Requizen]

Anyone run into obvious cheese (a la Scatterbikes) yet? Everything is looking pretty decent all around, imo. I've seen some pretty strong units, but nothing that screams "spam this and win the game" to me.