Overall the new rules are far more precise than the previous rule sets I have read (4th edition and 5th edition). They address a number of open issues (Get Hot! inside a vehicle comes to mind) and are far more structured than previous editions. I appreciate the consistency of AP on all types of weapons, as well as, including special rules to cover power fists (unwieldy) or rerolling wounds (shred).
The addition of Snap Fire is interesting, although it favors armies like Orks, Tyranids and Guard with a high quantity of low quality (with respect to Ballistic Skill) shots. Overwatch is going to be annoying as it can potentially mow down some troops before assault and the new flamer rules encourage a weapon I usually do not like to run into (d3 hits on an assaulting unit).
I like the changes to vehicles to treat them more like multi-wound monstrous creatures with Hull Points and the disparity between Shooting and Assaulting a vehicle has been narrowed significantly. Also, preventing units from assaulting the turn after they disembark (like when a vehicle is wrecked) is a good change to provide actual trade offs for vehicles.
A lot of attention has been paid towards the changes to Flying Monstrous Creatures. I think the new rules (can only be hit on a 6 and cannot be assaulted) make the Lord of Change, Bloodthirster and Flying Daemon Princes stronger overall - in fact it might make the Lord of Change playable. They are able to do some damage with a flyby attack (vector strike) that can hit other flyers for d3 + 1 AP 3 hits at their base strength, but I do not see these individually doing enough damage given their 200+ point cost. They will provide a good way to deal with flyers for Daemons - although in many cases you can probably just ignore the flyer or move around them given their fairly restrictive movement requirements.
An overall buff for all Daemons is the addition of Fear (WS 1 on failed Leadership Test) which will help against large units of low quality models (think Guardsmen) and the elimination of Fearless saves for combat resolution - which also hurts a bit for large units when you need to multiply your efforts across many units.
Four other great buffs are the change to Preferred Enemy to only reroll 1's, the softening of the Deep Strike Mishap table and reserves coming in on a 3+ and then automatically Turn 4 (rather than 5). The inability of enemies to reserve their whole army is also a nice bonus - although losing for having no models on the board means you better hide at least one unit.
There are a number of other changes but the big Daemon winner from what I can see is...
Slaanesh Daemons in general (go figure)! Looks like my excellent instincts to form a largely Slaanesh army have finally paid off on this one. Here are the reasons I think Slaanesh Daemons win big - starting with the relative weakening of some gods and moving to the strengthening of Slaanesh abilities.
Power Weapons @ AP 3 - Fiends/Daemonettes just became much better at taking down 2+ saves than any Khorne unit other than a Daemon Prince. I think this change is overblown a bit since you do not see that many terminators on a regular basis - but it also lets a Necron Lord, Sanguinary Guard or Artificer Armor captain tarpit those Crushers for a while
Furious Charge only +1 S - This is a bigger hit for Bloodletters than Bloodcrushers - but it hurts both. The enemy will get their hits in against these units now.
Vehicles easier to wreck via glances/in assault - This makes a lot of those mediocre Bolt units less valuable - although I think they are still going to make an appearance. Also, shooting is less relevant when Daemons all hit in assault at worst on a 3+ and 4 glances kill most vehicles.
Why did Slaanesh win big?
Pavane of Slaanesh is now awesome. What does it do for you?
-Move models to the front you want to kill in shooting
-Spread out models that you do not want to deal with so that you can clear the combat zone at high Init
-Move characters playing Look Out Sir! tricks
-Replace Fleet in the movement phase to extend you charge range another d6 - and avoid terrain
The rules that enable this change are:
3" pile in move at Initiative order
Remove casualties from closest to furthest
I plan to run Pavane on just about every unit I can put it on - specifically on Slaanesh Heralds riding on Seeker mounts joined to Fiends (or to Seekers) that enable Look Out Sir! wound allocation on Fiends or to push casualties back in my Seeker unit - not to mention the fact that the Slaanesh Herald now grants Hit and Run to her unit, making Seekers and Daemonettes scary fast!
With Pavane the new Max threat range of this unit is...
12" move + 6" Pavane + 12" charge = 30" It takes some luck but you will pull this off (with the re-roll from Fleet) 2% of the time. Actually you do end up with Fleet getting the 12" charge off 10% of the time which is not bad at all - note for the future to make a table of these charge probabilities!
Rending did not get a direct buff but it did not take any hits like Power Weapons did and is now more effective with the changes to hitting vehicles.
With all this in mind, I am going back to my roots for 6th edition to a purely Slaanesh army to see how it plays. I want to emphasize speed, and wound manipulation with this list - I will not bother with allies or fortifications for now until I understand what the new Daemons really need to be effective. That list is in the next post!
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