I have had a little more time to digest the rules and picked up on a few things I had missed:
1. Flying Monsterous Creatures are not as bad as I thought. When I played my first game, my opponent and I overlooked the "Grounding Rule." That makes a significant difference in their survivability, because ANY hits (not wounds!) causes the FMC to take a 3+ test or be grounded. Tossing a few low-strength shots at a FMC can knock it out of the air long enough for the real firepower/assault to take it out.
2. I am still trying to figure out the Stormraven... I think its awesome, then find a new rule that makes me think it's crap, and back and forth. I initially thought it was a death trap, then realized I could use it as a Fast Skimmer which would avoid the S10 AP1 hits when it crashed. However, it must start in reserve and cannot disembark anyone if it moves more than 6", so the earliest anyone is getting out of it (barring the special deepstrike) is Turn 3. Land Raiders have similar issues but at least don't have to start off the board. I think the LR actually benefits from the new rules because the occupants slingshot ahead, hopefully leaving the LR outside of melta range.
3. Grenades, especially Melta Bombs are a lot more deadly to everything. S6 krak attacks can actually dent MCs and Walkers when hitting against WS. Combat Squads still get punked by MCs, but can at least force a few armor saves before they die. Also, hitting all moving on a 3+ is also a lot deadlier for grenades. Rhino walls still work, but you WILL lose the vehicle(s). Nothing ground-breaking here.
4. The new morale rules means sweeping advance is pretty huge. If a unit gets away, unless it has been brought below 25%, it can rally and shoot. That makes a huge difference for units like Terminators which really can't smash whole units, but can win through combat differential. Now their targets are going to rally and keep shooting.
5. Fearless is MUCH better now. No more blowing up multiple units with Fearless saves. I think this is a major boon to gribbly armies, especially Nids.
6. I was making allocating shooting/CC wounds a lot harder than it needed to be. I was keeping track of which shooters/attackers were closest to which models, but it is purely which model is closest to the attacking unit. This creates shenanigans for Warding Stave models. A Warding Stave Pally (or Draigo) can absorb ALL the PF attacks at I1 until he dies. I may have to take advantage of that in my army lists.
7. I see very few reasons to take a standard Rifleman Dread when you could instead take an Aegis Defense Line with Quad Gun. It basically trades mobility for Skyfire/Interceptor. Interceptor is pretty powerful, as it helps prevent an opponent's Flyer from entering from reserve and Alphastriking your Flyer. This is especially important against the Ork Dakkajets who are the guys to beat in air-to-air combat. The amount of S6 they can put out WILL drop any of the other flyers currently available.
8. I completely missed the fact that T4(5) is now just T5. That has a lot of ramifications. Nob Bikers will be back with a vengence. S8 no longer insta-kills and doesn't ignore their FNP, so weight of fire is the only way to slow them down. Attack Bikes are officially better than Landspeeders against everything but Railguns. Small-arms fire is significantly easier for ABs to shrug off.
9. Vindicare in a Bastion.... how did I miss that?!?! I just have to remember that he should only focus on vehicles and special weapons. Characters can LOS! any allocated wounds to random Joes, but special weapons are still fair game.
10. Someone pointed out that Sternguard are pretty awesome now, and I am inclined to agree. I see them as being a very solid choice with their 2+ wound ammo with Overwatch. With reduced cover saves, then maybe the AP3 rounds might come into their own.
My next post will be my list-building process and plans for 6th Edition, followed up by tweaks to my current lists.
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