So after a fairly long hiatus, I have finally got around to looking at the 7th edition rules.
I have to say, I am not really impressed. For a rough estimate, I would suggest around 95% of the core rules and around 99% of special and weapon rules have stayed the same. For the price of the books I expected more.
Which brings me to the books. There is a big rule book, a background book and a sort of painting book.
The painting book has mostly big photos of models with no real explanation on how they were painted. There is a heavy emphasis on Ultramarines and not much on other factions and something that may possibly be classed as tactics, but it really doesn't come across that way in reading it. I could quite happily have never seen this book, never mind paid actual money for it. If it had shown a few more gamers armies, or shown how to do some of the painted models, or painting methods, then I would have been much more impressed.
The background book is a rehash of what has been said in previous publications. I couldn't actually see anything new in this whole book. While I am sure it is of some value to new gamers, to someone who has been playing for near twenty years, its not very much use to me. The specific sections on different factions is covered in much better details in their own codexes.
Now those books have been dealt with, back to the rules. The rules are really just 6th edition with a couple of changes. This isn't a bad thing as 6th was a solid set of rules.
Big changes, as far as I can tell are as follows;
Psychic phase. It looks like initially a small nerf in the volume of powers cast, although certain armies will see a boost I think. Its quite similar to the old fashioned dice pools for casting from fantasy. Its early to say for sure, but focused witchfires actually look usable now, which is a nice change. There doesn't appear to be an upper limit on how many dice you use to cast either. This means you can throw all your dice at a spell you really want. I also like how you get the primaris power for free if you pick all your powers from the same deck. Overall this is an improvement.
Shooting phase. There has been a fairly interesting change. You now roll all the weapons of one type, then resolve the effects before rolling the next set. This will slow games down, but provides a tactical choice to the game in trying to stack melta hits on characters when the fodder is hosed down in front of him with lesser weapons. I like this.
Charge ranges: Has stayed the same, but with small changes. Now difficult terrain reduces the charge by a set distance. Makes it a bit more predictable. I think this is good too.
Vehicle damage: It is now no longer possible to blow up a vehicle in one hit with an Ap3 or worse weapon. This makes vehicles across the board tougher and thus more desirable. Except oddly landraiders, and other 14 all round vehicles, which were virtually impervious to these lower damage weapons in the first place. I am unsure how much of an effect this will have, except armour 10 vehicles become considerably tougher.
Lords of war are now included in the Force Organisation Chart.
New missions are far more dynamic, allowing armies built around speed and reaction to do well, where as static armies may struggle.
Overall my impressions are that 7th is a positive step forwards. I can't think of any changes that have been for the worse, but it does strike me as more 6.5 than a new version of the rules.
