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4th Edition Assault Rules There has been much excitation in the 40k community about the 4th Edition Assault rules recently published in White Dwarf. As with most rule changes GW releases, there are many opinions, often with few facts to back them up. I will give you my take on these new rules as a general gamer, and, where appropriate, I will also add comments indicating the effects on both my Dark Eldar Kabal and my Tyranids. I will take each of the important points of the new rules one at a time, to give the best information on them.
This is the Chapter Approved way of saying that they feel the rules have a good effect on the game, but will change the balance of power and the way some armies work. It means that it is not a complete changeover, and that you should ask your opponent’s permission to use them. As a gamer, I am of mixed emotions when it comes to this. It means that some tournaments and groups will use them and some will not, which makes it harder to be well-prepared for a game.Ultimately though, I appreciate them not making it an immediate, direct rule change requiring everyone to buy the new copy of White Dwarf (the GW magazine) to figure out how to play their game. Theoretically, this gives us some time before the rules become fully official to both get used to the new rules, and to find any grievous errors in them that can be fixed prior to setting them in stone. My armies will be fine playing with these rules, though there are a few clarifications that would be nice. Right now I’ll just have to ask my opponent before a game how they want to handle certain situations that are vague in the rules. (See Below)
These rules seem to be much cleaner than the old assault rules, which may speed up the assault phase. In addition, many things that were implied but not stated in the old rules, or written in other parts of the book, are actually written out now, so there is less gray area. This should cause less confusion and make the game better, since Assault may well be the most complicated thing in the game. As an example of some of these things, Consolidation into combat was something not found in the Assault section of the Main Rulebook, but rather seemed to be a house rule or convention in the very back section, The Secrets of the Universe Revealed. In addition, units with mixed armor saves (some high, some low) have been handled several different ways previously, and not all armies that had mixed armor save units had rules about them. Now they are all handled identically, which will make things much more clear than the old way. (“No wait, those rules are for the Space Wolves, these guys are Black Templars!”)
Gone are the days of damaging a unit in close combat, then having it fall back and chasing it down, zipping across the board like a hyena on crack. Now, when a unit attempts to fall back, the enemy unit will attempt to Lock it in combat. If successful, the losing unit does not go anywhere and continues fighting. If unsuccessful, the enemy unit may make a 3” consolidation move, possibly bringing it into contact with another unit. Ultimately, it seems like a fair enough trade for me. These rules are supposed to tone down assault armies a little, and this seems to do that, without completely overdoing it. I'm disappointed to see Crossfire be reduced to almost nothing, it always seemed like a great idea and something that would reward good tactical maneuvering. On the other hand, since most of my opponents are marines which made it impossible to destroy them by sweeping advance, and I’ve only on the rarest of occasions seen crossfire work, it’s not really a big loss. I think this will barely have any affect on my Dark Eldar Kabal. Those of Kabal Rillishelwe Mor use fire and assault together and haven’t really used sweeping advances much even in the standard rules. Although I’ve always felt Crossfire was sort of a Holy Grail of tactics, I almost never achieved it, so it isn’t a tangible loss to me. This will directly affect my Tyranid Assault Swarm, however. My Tyranids have often used their Sweeping Advance movement to penetrate deep into enemy lines and cause havoc in the backfield. On the other hand, my Tyranids have often died to Sweeping Advance fire, which will be limited in the new rules, since I have a better chance of keeping squads locked in combat with my fast assault spawn, thus keeping the combats going for longer, giving my slower spawn time to move up and make the kill.
The larger combat area (the Danger Zone) allows more models to participate in the fighting, rewarding large units by giving more of their models a chance to attack. The fact that they have also removed the closest casualty starting with base contact clause makes squads with special weapons more effective, since they won’t have to take the casualties from base to base first. This should make assaults more decisive, since more damage will be done on a given turn. I appreciate the fact that they have rewarded larger units, as it brings the emphasis on manpower (creaturepower?) as opposed to individual specialists. Both of my armies have mixed feelings about this. Although I generally outnumber my enemy in close combats, which will give me more of an advantage, both of my armies also have relied on their high initiative to take out the front line of an enemy unit before it can attack back, thus lessening my casualties in return. This isn’t much of a possibility now, except with completely overwhelming attacks that wipe out the entire enemy unit right away. This seems to greatly reduce the benefit of high initiative units, such as Wyches or Genestealers that have made up for their lack of armor with their speed. Without that speed being as important, I see these units as being much more fragile, though this is really only a concern where there are special weapons present, so it isn’t a complete handicap.
Independent Characters are now always treated as a separate squad in a close combat, meaning that they cannot hide even in a Retinue or Command squad. In addition, they can no longer allocate attacks to specific models in base contact, they must allocate only to units in contact, which makes them much more vulnerable to enemy models in a squad with special weapons. This and the next point are the ones that most directly impact my armies. My Dracon and my Hive Tyrant are much weaker now in close combat, since they can no longer take out special weapon models with surgical strikes, then wear down the rest of the squad with little chance of return damage. On the other hand, this adds to the power of the basic troops, which is something I’ve always been in favor of, so I'm not entirely opposed to this one. I will certainly have to adjust my tactics for this change, and I may even end up changing my army selection because of it. This one will take more time to see just how far the change goes.
Characters in squads can no longer be specifically allocated against, meaning that Veteran Sergeants with Powerfists or Sybarites with Agonizers are much more effective now, since they can be base to base with an enemy, yet use the rest of the squad to take damage. This makes them much more powerful now, both versus Independent Characters and versus basic troops as well. This is the other big point that directly impacts my armies. This makes armies that have character upgrades much more powerful, while weakening armies that cannot. My Dark Eldar benefit from this, since my Sybarites will be much more effective now, but my Tyranids lose out on this, since we get no character upgrades.
This point is one of the few sections that needs clarification. Under the 40k rules, transports are sometimes considered to be part of the squad they were purchased for, and sometimes are considered entirely separate from the squad. What happens if you blow up a transport with shooting? Can you charge the squad that was inside, or is it considered to be a separate unit, meaning you cannot charge them? Aside from that unclear part, the rule as a whole seems fine. It prevents units from shooting one unit and charging another, though I’ve never really seen that as being unbalancing. Some people are saying that this and the next point makes all-purpose squads much less effective, which is true, but I don’t think that it’s crippling in any way. This has almost no effect on my Tyranids. Tyranids aren’t generally big in the shooting phase, and only my Monstrous Creatures can effectively shoot and assault. I suppose that means it makes them weaker still, but I usually fire at the target I'm about to assault anyway, so it makes little difference. With my Dark Eldar, there is little effect as well. I typically have several squads concentrating on a single target anyway, so I’ll just have to pay more attention to what squad shot which target, instead of firing willy-nilly.
Before this rule, it was a given that a unit would fire and then charge into close combat, if for no other reason than to take the additional attacks away from the enemy. This means that players will have to consider their options slightly more closely than before, and it may have the designer-stated effect of producing more short range firefights, we’ll have to see. There are some exceptions to this rule. Any unit that can move and still count it’s weapon fire as stationary can ignore this rule. This mostly applies to bikes, Terminators and Walkers. While this increases the value of these units, it is not to an unbalancing degree. It does seem to limit units that have short ranged weapons such as flamers and meltas, but most of these will probably prefer to take their weapon shots, then charge as normal. As above, this will have little impact on either of my armies. Aside from my Monstrous Creatures, there is little or nothing in my Tyranid Army that shoots anyway, so I’ll just have to decide if one shot from a weapon is worth more or less than a close combat attack for my Tyrant or Carnifex. With my Dark Eldar, I’ll almost always take the shot, since I have strong special weapons that will make much more of an impact than the few extra attacks I’ll get in close combat. Final Wrap upUltimately, I see that some armies are weakened, but not by so much, while other armies are strengthened, but not by so much. The new rules seem simpler and cleaner, which bodes well for future rules, and makes things easier now. I believe the new rules work with the stated goal of weakening assault, to bring it more into line with shooting. They also strengthen armies that have large units and armies that have character upgrades in squads, while weakening armies that rely on powerful Independent Characters. All in all, I’d say that this is a positive change. If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |