HoP Idol: Bright Lantz

First up for the final round of HoP Idol, Twin-linked Awesome's Lantz drops some Science on us.

Bright Lantz

5th And 6th Edition: Bridging The Gap - Part I

Hello HoP fans. Here it is, the final round. As I sit here with Eye Of The Tiger playing on my speakers and the taste of Taco Bell on my lips I've been going over in my head what matters to the vast majority of tabletop gamers. The fluff? Probably not. The models? Maybe. Necrons? It should, but probably doesn't. After much thought and a couple of glasses of gin, I've settled on what I think the answer is: the rules. No matter what game you're into that involves little plastic soldiers, it's the rules that brings us together. Without them, we'd all be sitting at home taking pictures of our conversion and painting work to share online. A wasteland of boredom and personal shrines never to meet the gazes of strangers that smell of hot pockets.

Now, I'm well aware that there is a community of artists that don't play any tabletop games, but enjoy the hobby aspect solely. However, the community would not be as large, diverse or vibrant and a lot of great hobbyists may not have even dipped their paintbrushes if the rules never existed. So where is all of this leading? Because I feel the rules are such an intricate part of the tabletop community I wanted to take a focus on what the future of the rules brings for my favorite tabletop game, Warhammer 40,000.

It's a tricky thing, rumors. There's no sure-fire way to determine if a rumor for 40k is true or not, especially if it's a ways down the road. Whether the writing is poor or structured, the ideas are crazy or sound; all kinds of rumors have proven themselves to be true. The latest buzz around the salt mines of 40k, aside from the greatest race that will soon own you all, Necrons, is the quiet chants that 6th Edition is just a few months away and some of the changes it'll be bringing to our futuristic wars. (Hopefully) over the course of the next couple of months I'll be bringing you, assuming a majority of these changes are true, what it means for the armies we currently have and the game as a whole.

As a somewhat quick entry for Part I, let's talk about the changes to the To-Hit Chart. According to the rumors here, this is what we should expect as a To-Hit Chart in 6th Edition (table courtesy of the BoLS forum):

To put this all in perspective, let's take the average Space Marine for example. With a BS of 4, he'll be hitting bunkers and stuff that sits still on a 2+. Seems fair, right? Arguably the unbeatable, hulking heroes of the 41st millennium can make their target 83.3% of the time. How about flyers way up in the sky with a 16.6% chance? Seems good. The broadside of a tank moving flat out at 50% chance? This gets a little more debatable, but still seems fair to me. So what about moving MCs on a 66.6% chance of success and Swarms with a 50%? This starts getting hard to justify in my opinion. While some MCs look pretty damn slow, others are quite quick. Several examples in the Tyranid codex come to mind (using video games and novels as a reference). And swarms seem like they'd be easier to hit considering they're a large swirling form.

All of this is subjective, of course. We can't just go out and fire a Lascannon at a Daemon Prince with wings (though the technology for this is coming along nicely.) Whether this all makes perfect sense or not isn't the point I'm trying to make, I suppose. What I want to find out is if this is a better concept than our current ruleset. As it stands now, a Space Marine has a 66.6% chance of shooting a giant bunker five feet from his weapon. The same for a stationary vehicle. This shouldn't be the case, and I find it hard to argue against this. Now other factors do come in when we add cover into the mix, but with 6th Edition this will supposedly be changing as well. That discussion however, is for another day.

As for future articles I have planned, here's what I'll be going over for bridging 5th and 6th Edition:

• Hit/Wound
• Phase Order
• Saves
• Special Rules
• Reactions
• Cover and Terrain
• Movement Phase
• Assault Phase
• Shooting Phase
• Preparation/Consolidation Phase
• Vehicles
• Infantry
• Turns
• Stratagems

Drawing to a close, I'd like to thank everyone who voted for me over the last couple of month whether you miss-clicked or not. As a side note; I realize some of you might still be asking, "What makes you think there will be a Part II?"

First, rude. Second, there will be a continuation of this series; it's just a matter of whether it'll be on the internet or in my head. It will all depend on the voting this week.

My balls...are in your court.