SNEAK PEAKS: NOT VERY SNEAKY

Hey there everyone, last post I take about the rules primer that is available to every one on the Warhammer Community website, and that post came with a lot of holes in it because it only covers the very basics of the game.

Well since then I have been digging through all of the sneak peaks that the Community page has released and each one has a little tid bit of additional information that slowly brings a little more focus into what the overall game is going to look like.

Secondary Objectives are a new thing and it looks like GW has taken a page out of the ITC book and implemented a ton of varying ways to earn points throughout a battle

These Secondary Objectives vary from killing CHARACTERS to performing psychic actions to holding objectives or table quarters.  All of this is awesome and really gives players a chance use their armies strengths to their advantage while exploiting their opponent's.  We did get a bit of a peak of what some of the Secondary Objectives are, but other than killing CHARACTERS, the description cut off after a couple lines.

The Command Point system has been completely revamped as well, every one starting the game with the same number of CP and using them to buy detachments.  So now, the more detachments you have, the FEWER CP you will start with.  As a bonus, your CP are refunded from the detachment that contains your Warlord.

So with everyone starting the game with the same number of CP and having to spend CP on detachments, it's looking like you will be seeing far fewer multi-detachment armies with the odd one to shore up some specific army weaknesses.

It looks like GW has also heard all the bitching and moaning about 8ths abysmal terrain rules and have cracked down on all that wishy washy rules writing.  Terrain now has 4 categories, Hills, Obstacles, Area Terrain, and Buildings.  There are also a list of traits that a piece of terrain might have, which is a list of rules that can be applied to that piece of terrain.  This is potentially a great set of rules as this allows players to create their own terrain with rules that perhaps don't have an exact equivalent to the pre-made pieces in the book.  Two of these traits are Light and Heavy cover, the former giving a +1 to saves from shooting attacks, the latter giving a +1 to saves from melee attacks.  Another interesting trait is Obscuring...

This trait sort of incorporates the ITC rule that the bottom floor of ruins blocks LOS.  Now keep in mind that these traits may not necessarily apply to every piece of terrain that meets the requirements.  I see these working more like keywords, and the next slide will show you why I think that.

As you can see the different pieces of terrain have a different set of rules.  Now, I can see the trait DEFENSIBLE listed in the ruins traits, and this is a new feature...

So, it looks like if a piece of terrain has the DEFENSIBLE trait your infantry units can pull off one of these 2 maneuvers.  And speaking of Overwatch, it appears that this is now a stratagem.  Other than only one unit being able to overwatch per phase it is pretty much the same.

The last thing to bring up today is Strategic Reserves.  Units that don't already have the ability to be set up somewhere other than the battle field can be put into Strategic Reserves and kept off the table.  This will cost a number of CP depending on the total power level of the units kept off the table, costing 1CP for up to 9 power and another CP for each 10 power after that.  Bringing them onto the field is as easy as...

Now there is a line in the article on the Community site that says it is possible for you to be able to set up your models closer than the required 9" if your models are set up within 1" of your own battlefield edge and that they could even be set up within ENGAGEMENT RANGE in that instance.  Also note that there is no limit to how late in the game reserves can show up other than if they aren't on the table by the end of the game they count as dead.  This comes into play more for AIRCRAFT as they can once again leave the table in their movement phase bringing back something from 7th edition.

Well, that's all the things I could find on the Community site, I know there are tons of other leaks as several other online personalities have gotten a copy of the books already so they can do their hype articles and battle reports.  So far things look like they are moving along smoothly.

I'll be posting another article shortly with a little bit of a deeper look into what I think the rules are going to do the game so keep an eye out for that.  Thanks for reading and feel free to comment.

Til next time, keep them dice rollin.