You've got questions, I've got answers!
With a new edition comes uncertainty. Will my army gain or lose power relative to other armies? Will I still be able to use my favorite units or models? Will my favorite tactic become useless? In addition, there is the uncertainty of how the new rules work, and players will often expect things to work the same way that they used to in the old edition of the rules. (As an example, Steve and I continued to take Target Priority tests in our game, but they no longer exist in this edition of the rules.) To help ease the transition into 5th edition, I've compiled a list of some of the major changes to the game. There are many rules not covered in this list and discussion, and you will need a copy of the rulebook to play the game. Most of the rules that I am leaving out are things that are easily found and understood when going through the rulebook. The ones that I am discussing are the ones that are more likely to trip up players that are used to 4th edition. I am also going over some of the details that may be confusing. Again, buy your rulebooks, folks. Not only does it keep GW in business and producing more of our wonderful models, but you get a handy reference book and all sorts of great pictures and fluff.

I'll break down my discussion roughly by what part of the game is effected. (In other words, I'll handle movement changes before shooting changes.) If you already have the rulebook, you may want to open it up and follow along...

Army List selection:
There are only two changes here, but they are pretty important to the makeup of your lists.

Only Troops can count as Scoring units. This means that, although any unit (including ICs) can _contest_ an objective, only Troops (from the Troops section of the FOC) can actually claim it. This may lead to including either more Troops or more resilient Troops in your armies.

Independent Characters no longer have any rules that prevent them from being targeted unless they are part of a unit. This means that you may want to includea retinue for your ICs, or plan on some sort of bodyguard unit.

Setup:
roll off. Player that will have first turn must set up their whole army first. Player that will go second then sets up his army accordingly.

Note that with True Line of Sight, there is much less need to discuss what different terrain pieces count as, but it still should be done to agree on Difficult or Impassable terrain, as well as any that might count as Dangerous.

Movement:
All units can now Run instead of shooting. Basically, you can move an extra d6" closer during your shooting phase, but you cannot assault that turn. Gives slower units a big boost. (I know this is technically during the Shooting phase, but it concerns movement, so give me a break!)

Outflanking: Units with Infiltrate or Scout abilities can choose to be held in reserve and can come in on the short board edges in later turns of the game. Even knowing that it was coming, I was still surprised when Steve's Broodlord and Genestealers showed up on top of my Broadside Team and FireWarriors!

Note that there is a specific mention of moving through walls as difficult terrain (unless, of course, you have qualified them as impassable.) A player on Advanced Tau Tactica was surprised by this when a unit of Bloodletters assaulted his Broadside unit through a solid wall!

Shooting:
First off, no more target priority. If you can see the unit and it is within your range, you can shoot it.

True Line of Sight means that you will be able to see more units, since you can now see through area terrain and even through holes in walls. In addition, if they can see even a single member of a unit, they can still target the whole unit. It used to be that if you had one model peeking around the corner, while the rest were behind the wall, only that one model could be taken as a casualty, regardless of the number of unsaved Wounds the unit suffered. Now, because that one model can be seen, the entire unit can be killed! (If you have a hard time with the real-world mechanics of how this might work, consider explosive ammo that impacts the model and then sends shrapnel into the others. Consider also high-powered weaponry being able to fire right through the wall, as long as they know something's on the other side to shoot. If you still have a problem with it, get a grip and remember that it's just a game :) )

Most cover is now a 4+ save, and almost everything, including friendly or enemy units that even partially obscure your target count as cover. In my game against the Tyranids last week, I think there were perhaps a handful of shots all game that did not get a cover save. Obviously, this has a bigger impact on low-AP weapons such as Lascannons or plasma weaponry.

Casualty Removal has changed a bit, and it's an important change. Any difference in models within a unit constitutes a different model type. That means that a 5 man squad of Space marines with a Lascannon, a Plasma Rifle, 2 Bolters and a Sergeant with Terminator Honors has 4 separate groups when it comes to Wounding. When you receive wounds (but before saves are made) you take all of the Wounds from a single unit and allocate them to the models in the squad. If this squad received 8 Wounds, each model would receive one Wound, then the extra three would be allocated, possibly 1 each to the Bolter carriers and 1 to the Sergeant. Then you make any saves with each group at a time. Note here that the Sergeant might fail both armor saves, but it would still only kill off the Sergeant. The only time (in this example) that a wound would "carry over" would be on the Bolter carriers. The two of them would take 4 saves total and if they missed any two of those saves, would both die. This mostly comes up if you have a large number of Wounds inflicted on a small unit, and only if that small unit has multiple types of model. A small number of Wounds won't cause much wrap-around. A large number of models in the unit will have the same effect. It can be a double-edged sword. It gives the potential of keeping some of your "more important" models safe by having multiple unsaved Wounds on other models. It also gives the potential for that unlucky armor save to be on one of your important models. (Much like the old "Torrent of Fire" rule from 4th edition.) That might mean that you pass your armor saves on the Bolter carriers and the Sergeant and the Plasma Gunner, but you fail the save on the Lascannon, and nobody else can pick up that weapon in this edition! Note that this allocation occurs before _any_ models are removed, thus those Plasma or Rending Wounds can be allocated like any other Wound, and might even be allocated to a model that potentially has other Wounds allocated to it. (Using the example above, let's say that 2 of the 8 Wounds are AP2 weapons and will thus ignore the Space Marines' armor saves. Allocate the 2 AP2 Wounds to the Bolter carriers, 1 regular Wound to each other member of the squad, then another regular hit to each of the Bolter carriers and 1 regular hit to the Sergeant. Both Bolter carriers are killed, the Sergeant takes 2 saves and the Lascannon and Plasma Gunner each take one save.)

Weapon Types: There is a minor change and a couple of major changes in weapons.

Pistols are now Assault 1. While you can't stand still and shoot them twice, they do count as close combat weapons in the assault phase.

All Blast weapons now use the scatter die and 2d6 rather than their firer's Ballistic Skill. You place the center of the Blast marker over the base of an enemy model in Line of Sight and roll the scatter die and 2d6. If it hits, that's where it stays. If it scatters, add the 2d6 together and subtract the firer's Ballistic skill to get the distance it scatters. This means that ballistic skill is a little less important for models firing these weapons, but it does still come into play. In addition, there are no more Partial hits. If any part of the model's base is covered by the blast marker, it is hit. Note that Wounds caused by a Blast weapon may still be allocated to any member of the unit, even if that model is not under the marker. Note that it is possible to scatter into close combat with a Blast weapon, but your target must not be in close combat.

Rending Weapons now all Rend on a 6 on the to-Wound roll, not the hit roll. There has also been a minor change to the way rending damage effects vehicles. Sniper Weapons are now Rending as well, so be warned!

Assault:
There are two truly major changes in assault for 5th edition, and I'll handle them in phase order as well.

Countercharge: when a unit is assaulted, every model must move (up to 6") to attempt to get into base contact with a model in the assaulting unit. You don't get any bonus attacks for this, but you will get more of your models to make attacks now. It also means that you won't be able to limit close combat casualties by keeping your unit spread out anymore.

Winning the assault: Now the Wound differential (how many unsaved wounds you received versus how many the enemy receieved) makes a difference in the Morale check if you lost. In other words, if combat was pretty close, but they managed to do just one more unsaved Wound to your unit, you get a -1 on the Morale Check. If, on the other hand, you slaughtered them, causing 7 more unsaved Wounds than they caused you, they'll have a -7 on their check. This means that combat can very quickly swing in one side's favor.

Wrap-up
Remember that these are not all of the changes from 4th to 5th edition. These do cover many of the larger changes and the more potentially confusing ones. (As an example, there are some changes to the way missions are scored, but that is a very easy to understand section and I don't think covering them here would serve any purpose aside from allowing people to play 5th edition without having a rulebook.) Again, I encourage everyone to buy a rulebook. It keeps GW around and building wonderful models and codicies for us and it gives you a great reference and sourcebook for your games and imagination.

If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know

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