So I sat down for a night of reading and studying... The IG codex that is. In this post I am only going to tell you about my first impressions, my "gut reactions" so to speak. Let me preface this post with saying I have done my best to stay out of all the rumor threads flying around as I didn't want to be jaded prior to actually getting my hands on a codex. So there may be things here that you have known about for months but I just learned last night.
Yes, I have a knot in my stomach. It's bad, and good. I'm not sure yet which is better. Most of the things that get me are minor, and things I've expected for a long time. Two small things are that my Sgts all loose the option for bolters or lasguns, the must have Pistols and CCW's and the Hvy Wpn team is a armed with a single weapon. Meaning that the loader is truly a loader now and may not fire a 2nd wpn. Not really life changing but these two bother me. In the first I like to model my Sgts with Bolters or Lasguns, it's just one more long range shot in the squad. In the 2nd if you put a Hvy Wep team in an Inf squad you loose that Lasgun shot from the loader as well...
The 2nd biggest thing that got was how the Vox Network is going to work and the overall loss in Leadership. Officers no longer have the "Leadership" special rule, instead they can issue orders either 12" for the Company HQ Officer or 6" for the Plt. SIX inches? Common that really gets under my skin, and the fact that you can't extend the range with a Vox network... Vox only allows re-roll of orders that's it, nothing more so you still have be within in 6 or 12 inches. Even if a squad is within the above distances they are still stuck with the Sgt's leadership of 8. Ok, that's still better than the 7 before but is still lower than the 9 IMHO this really turn's IG into a gun line. The PLT HQ is gonna have to be Johnny on the spot trying to stay in range to issue orders. Planning ahead is going to be BIG to insure that the HQ is in command aura distance.
One more thing that I'm going to have to wrap my head around is the vehicle squadron rules... Squadrons have to fire at the same unit. So if I have 3 LR's I can use them in seperate FO's and fire on 3 units using all their wpns (I Love the new Lumbering Behemoth rule) or I can 6 in squadrons of two and still only fire on 3 units or 9 in squadrons of 3 and STILL only fire on 3. Now in the last case I'm pretty sure that 3 LR's fully decked out will pound an enemy unit. But the fact that they all have to fire together just rubs me the wrong way.
Oh, and I had been hoping that with the addition of all the Special Characters they would act somewhat like the SM ones. Where for example by choosing a special character you can "unlock" certain units, now I had read a that was only a pipe dream, but it was still a dream, and shall remain a "dream".
And lastly and these are purely personal issue's. I'm going to have to remodel my Chimera's to add the Hvy Bolters because they are now standard kit. There's no way I can afford enough Valkyrie's to keep my army an Drop Troop army.
So I'm sorry for only putting negative waves in this post, my 2nd post on this subject is going to be what I LOVE in the new 'dex: Arty Batteries, Mortors as standard for Hvy Wep teams, 6x Veteran squads as troops, Special Characters and my thoughts on the future.
Hmmm - I was hoping the heavy weapons teams would get some sort of 'eternal warrior'-type rule. Ho-hum.
ReplyDeleteI'm also very disappointed in the potential redundancy of a vox network: not only because it was awesome for me in game terms, but also because it looked and felt right (fluff-wise).
I've resigned myself to the loss of the marvellous 'Light Infantry' doctrine and the awesome advantage it gave my Guard...but then, guard were never meant to have so great an advantage, I guess!
I AM however, VERY excited by the prospect of a basic Veterans squad in a valkyrie costing more-or-less the same as a modestly equipped armoured fist squad in the current codex!