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| Death from above. |
For about the last two years I've been pretty focused on building, painting and playing the 30K legion. There's a lot to like about Horus Heresy. The game has a balance to it because all the legions have access to the same units for the most part. And the wide range of marine variations makes for a lot of fun. I found it a welcome refuge during the height of 7th ed. formation hell.
Then comes 8th edition.
I can say after playing several games now, I really enjoy the direction they have taken the game. I'm still making my way through the missions but so far there is a lot to like. I've come around to the removal of armor and templates. No templates means a quicker shooting phase, plus the scatter die was always an inexact science. And I feel like the removal of armor has in a way, further balanced the overall game. Instead of a weapon being anti-armor or anti-infantry, because all units in the game are measured off the same basics (a toughness and a save) a weapon can deal a wound to both.
GW also introduced two features to the game that I really like. Mortal Wounds and Command Points. It seems to me so far, that mortal wounds are the great equalizer, no matter how badass a unit is, most have no save (save the occasional ability that allows something to ignore a mortal wound on a +5 or +6) against mortal wounds. +2 armor saves and +3 invulnerable saves were once a bane of my existence, no longer!
And who hasn't had a close game come down to one dice roll? I can think of plenty of games were a failed charge or to bad hit roll on a big gun cost me victory. The Command Point system seems a lovely addition to the game of 40K that could at the very least reduce the chance of defeat because of the dice gods lack of support. If the game got simpler in rules with 8th edition, a bit of the flavor of each army has been removed, then that is helped by stratagems. The new Chaos codex has several interesting little tactics or abilities added in by stratagems. More decisions for a player is a very good thing and adding flavor to race or faction only adds to the uniqueness of your gaming experience. Do I use Command Points when I sense an important roll or do I use them to enact stratagems? As I said those kinds of choices are good for the game.
This brings me to the split of 30K and 40K, with Horus Heresy staying (for a time) in 7th. I have to say, I don't want to play 7th edition right now. My heart is firmly with 8th so that's where I will sit. One element I missed while playing the legion was time. I play games largely against my fellow D-Company members, and most of their armies exist in the framework of the 40K world. I could not have a running story for my army because it wasn't in the same time frame of many of my friends. With 8th, I now turn back to my 40K Night Lords warband and can play games to expand the story of my army in the 40K D-Company universe. I basically had to put that element of enjoyment on hold while playing the 8th legion. Konrad Curze would never have met the Marines Errant of course.
The D-Company campaign is about ready to go, if you care to follow it, here is the link to our map.
http://ultrasmurf.net/mayhem/
Our campaign leads up to this years Big Game.
I'm very excited for this, I love the idea of prolonged battles and I'm a sucker for maps and story. So to kick things off for my faction, my next few posts on the blog will be to introduce my 40K Night Lords warband and it's main characters. Each post will have the story and some background of each named character I currently use. After some bios expect the story line as to why we head towards the planet on the map. Then some reports of battles fought of course.
So that is the direction my blog and hobby will go, the 8th legion sleeps... until Horus Heresy converts to 8th, maybe....we'll see.
Ave Dominus Nox.
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