BALTIMORE GD reps (poached from DAKKADAKKA!)
Posted by .. BLOODGOD7M

(Reading the 40k4 rulebook ... )

...and it rocks. I spent sometime studying it a Games Day. I have this strange ability to all but memerize rules after reading them once, so I got a lot of stuff. I also talked for a while with Gav Thorpe and Andy Hoare and various things, which I will get into to first.

I asked about a Sammurai army for Fantasy, and they said the would really like to do one, but not any time soon as too much stuff is already lined up. They then told me that there is a limited amount of Armies that GW can make, simply beacuse stores don't have the shelf space to hold them all. So they are looking at ways to "phase out" the older less popular armies, but not get rid of them. I specifically asked about Chaos Dwarves, and Gav said they have no plans for them currently, but the army list will remain official. I assume the DoW are mail order only for a smiliar reason.

This then lead into the Dark Eldar and how they fit in. For those that don't know, I'm a big Eldar player, so I was very keen to hear this. He said there are two design stages to an army. First is the concept stage, then the actual rules/models stage. Eldar are currently in the concept stage. They are moving away from DE being "bad", and into all Eldar just being survivors. So Craftworld Eldar may appear good sometimes, but other times quite evil. Eldar just do what they need to survive. They both liked the idea of a mixed Eldar army. One including Harlequins, Dark Eldar, and regular Eldar. They still have no idea of how this will turn out, but this is their current intent.

Now for what you are all waiting for....... NEW 40K RULES!

Terrain
I just scanned it, but now all terrain types are defined as sizes 1,2,3. Each one confers a particluar type of cover save, and blocks LoS or gives cover to certain models. As an example, I believe size 1 terrain (small piles of rubble and such), did not block to vehicles. Don't quote me on this one.

Movement
As far as I could tell, exactly the same, except for one big change. All bikes, including jetbikes, now have the DE Turbo Booster ability. They may move 24" in the move phase, but may not shoot, assault, or go in difficult terrain. Their save becomes invulnerable. Go bikes.

Shooting
-The rumours are true. Heavy, pistol, and assault weapons stay the same. Rapid Fire weapons may move and shoot twice at 12", but may not assault.

-You must pass a LD test to shoot at anything other then the closest target. This applies to Fearless and Troops that auto pass LD. However, the book defines large and small targets. As such you can ignore small targets in favor of large ones, and not have to test. However, if you wish to shoot past the nearest large target, you must test against LD. As an example, if you had a squad of marines in front of you, a Rhino behind them, and a Land Speeder behind the Rhino. You could ignore the Marines to shoot at the Rhino, but would still have to take LD to shoot the speeder, because it is not the closest larget target.

-Mauleed was dead on, Vehicles may ignore the LD tests.

-Plasma now overheats on the number of shots fired. So a Rapid Firing plasma gun will overheat on a 1 or 2.

-Ap1 weapons will always penetrate, even if they equal the targets armour value. Ap- weapons will only ever glance.

-Hull down is now gone. If a vehicle is wholly or partially in cover (but you still need LoS), roll a D6. On a 1-3 it penetrates. 4-6 it glances. Similar to a cover save for vehicles.

Assault
-Mostly the same as the TAR, and as rumoured. Every model now has leaping. Wiepout is back, but changed. You roll a D6 + Initiative value, if its less the enemy gets away, if equal or greater then the enemy roll, you destroy them and may consolidate. Makes High Init troops pretty darn useful.

-Certain models count as more wounds, as in the TVR. This is important for two reasons. The first is the above wipeout rule, more models = easier to outnumber = minuses to the break check. The second is the no retreat rule. Certain troops, Fearless ones, Orks with 12 or more models, and Marines with ATSKNF, can not be wiped out, but if caught take more wounds, based on the outnumber ratio. So if they are outnumbered 2:1, they take two wounds. 3:1 is three wounds and so on. As far as I could tell these are saveable.

-Didn't look at characters, but Andy said they are mostly the same as TAR.

-Mixed Armour/Toughness and what not is in effect for all armies. I did not read that part, but I assume it is as WD said, Majority rules.

Vehicles
I only skimmed through this section, as Andy said it is mostly the same as the TVR. As far as I could tell it was. I forget to check if fearless troops are still pinned when falling out of a vehicle. Considering that everything else in the book seemed to be worded rather well, I assume they clarified this.

Missions
-All the special rules are defined here, including True Grit, ATSKNF, infiltrate, and so on. I didn't really read the wording, except ATSKNF, which is mostly the same. Infiltrate is changed a little, you must be 18" away, but can be seen, or 12" away, but out of LoS. A big change for Raptors. No more Double One's destroys you on Deep Strike either.

-There is a chart that tells you exactly what counts for victory points. At half or above below and so on, and how much it counts for. I just scanned it.

-Andy said (I did not read this), that for troops that buy a Transport as an option (Rhinos, Seprents), if the squqad is below half, the vehicle can not hold a table quarter. Also, vehicle squadrons count as below half if they lose enough models. So a Vyper squad of three will count as under half if it loses two models, even if the last one is undamaged.

-There is a VP chart, just like in Fantasy, the describes the type of victory based on the points difference. Something like 250 is a tie, 500 a win, 1000 a victory, and 1500 a massacre. Something like that.

-There are only 6 missions (fine with me), I did not read them.

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That's all I can remember. I'm 99% certain this stuff is right. I didn't read everything, so some other minor things may be changed, I only covered the big stuff. Overall I was impressed with the wording and clarificatio of Grey areas. Its easy to be cynical and say GW still f'ed up somehow, but considering how well done Fantasy is, I have hope 40k 4th will be much better of a game. We'll see. Soon enough we will have a chance to pick the rules apart.

Commence crying ..... wait for it..... now.

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Posted byBROTHER_CPT

Well as im stuck fighting the evil hordes in the Middle East I called my friends whom are @ Baltimore Games day...Here is some second hand info. Its something.

1. Bikes get turbos...24 inch move if you dont shoot or assault. Dont know if theres a modifier or risk.
2. All races get a specific preferred enemy they get a +1 to hit in HTH ie Swolves vs. Tsons.
3. FW is making 2 CCW armed Dreadnoughts for all SM armies.

Just rumors Im sure someone in attendance will have more.

Arifjan Kuwait...it sucks.

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Posted by .. dienekes96

Not much info. I wasn't terribly impressed with GD this year. Beyond FW and the gaming, it's a bit tamer than in year's past.

I only attended 2 seminars:

Forge World:
They will be doing the other Greater Daemons, about 1 per year. Next year will liklely be the Keeper of Secrets. The GDs will have their own rules and names.

There is a Chaos fighter aircraft in the works. Similar design to the HellTalon.

They want to do a Titan for each of the races. Simon Egan is working on the Hierophant right now, and it looks rather cool.

More Kroot beasties - smaller, riding ones. They look cool, like all the FW Kroot beasties. They are planning on a flying Kroot beast.

Chaos Steeds (fantasy) are in the pipeline. They showed art only. The evil horseheads were quite cool.

"Mortis" dreadnaughts - primarily for DA's. Basically, left-handed weapons (autocannon, bolters, lascannons) to match the right-handed ones.

They are hot on dreads...a Slaaneshi sonic weapon armored one is close to release. They want to do a lot with dreads (I also imagine the dreads sell VERY well for FW).

More dragons - a chaos one is planned next.

IA2 very soon, followed by campaign books (one with the Tau first).

Pre-heresy marines MIGHT get a release, but there were NO details.

More warhammer scenery.

Daemon Engines for 40k...no details.

A very cool (and huge) Imperial fortress/fortifications...basically the front gate, towers, and supporting walls. They showed a few pics. Great for terrain nuts, though not very cheap, I'd imagine.

Some looted Ork vehicles area while away, but still planned (a LR looted kit, and IG looted kit, plus some more vehicles).

More Tau BFG

More Epic, including some pretty detailed Grey Knights.

The put together Aquila shuttle that will be terrain in the starter set.

And a bunch of stuff in the ether. FW seems very "in the moment", and their plans change whenever they get a cool idea. Essentially every question was answered with a "maybe, we're thinking about that." Which I think is pretty cool...seat of their pants models

40k Seminar (I also skipped the Q&A, so I am missing a lot of details):
Not much here.

40k4

Showed some plastic snap-together Marines - they looked good.

New Marine assault bike.

Not much more.

They showed the "Existing stuff still works in V4" slide 4 times.

That's all I got out of it. I am sure others have more details.