Converted Land Raider to Spartan WIP

 

(Sorry for the cell phone pic)

Just got some gap filling and minor adjustments to make.

Revised 40k 7th Edition and Real-Talk: Blast and Vertical Height, USRs

 Been a while. Life is distracting.

Anyway, I bring you some thoughts about 7th edition and some weird rules.

Revised 7^th Edition v1

Adjustments for streamlined rules to add clarity.

Blasts and vertical height:

After the final position of a blast marker has been determined; hold it vertically to see if and part of a model (including it's base) is seen through the marker.

Real-talk: This essentially makes each blast have a sphere of effect. If it can't be physically held vertically, i.e. something blocks your hand or its ground level; measure the radius of the blast with a tape measure to the best of your abilities. This stops players from targeting the top floor for the sole purpose/exploit of hitting everything below, even if the ruin has a height of over 12".

Blind-sided models:

These are models that use a USR in a specific way that were unlikely considered when the USR was redone for 7th and had their effectiveness reduced or made the rule have no actual effect.

Example 1: USR “Strikedown” and the melee weapon Teeth of Terra(and any weapon with this USR). Strikedown used to halve initiative if it was hit by a weapon with this rule as well as treat terrain as difficult for the next turn. So this functioned in melee as well as shooting should a shooting weapon have that rule. Now it only forces the model to treat all terrain as difficult. Thus making it non-functioning on any melee attack.

Example 2: USR Blind now is only 1 test per unit/model hit by a weapon with this rule at the end of the phase as opposed to every-time a unit/model is hit they take an initiative test.

Adjustment: Models with USRs that became non-functioning or altered their effectiveness in a non-logical manor use the previous edition rules. Thus Teeth of Terra will still halve enemy initiative.

Real-talk: The change to Strikedown makes no sense and the change to Blind was probably to streamline it with other rules that force tests.

Real-talk Example 2b. Eclipse Missiles are blasts that have Blind. They are used to blind opponents temporarily and used in the shooting phase. So taking a test at the end isn't an issue because your opponent won't be shooting/striking back at the end of your shooting phase. The problem lies with it being only one test. Eclipse Missiles fire twice because it is to double the chances of successfully blind the enemy. It went from logical and realistic to “I got flashbanged by two missiles, good thing I only have to test once.” It could be argued that that single test is to avoid all instances of blinding. But what happens when a single unit gets it with say, six Eclipse Missiles from 3 different units? If they passed that would mean they covered/averted their eyes at the initial blast and kept doing so during the entire barrage. Would they be prepared for an enemy assault seconds after? Unlikely since each units shooting has to be resolved sequentially after once another and remove any casualties. Thus they have endured numerous-I'm going to stop myself here because it's digging too deep for any side of the argument. Fortunately I have another example.

Example 2a. Corax's Panoply of the Raven Lord melee weapon has blind. His unique ability to use advanced hand-to-hand fighting stances to counter his opponent and keep them off balance is reflected through his “Fighting Stance” rule and the Blind rule attached to it. Because of his high initiative and ability to knock around opponents, keep them off their footing and not get hit it translated to the Fighting Stance rule and how old Blind functioned. Since he could have upwards of 10 attacks on the charge at initiative 8 he can have up to 10 chances to Blind an enemy. Essentially knocking them off balance and down to WS1 through his advanced hand-to-hand before they even got to swing back. Flavorful, fluffy and made sense. Now under new Blind his opponent only makes one test after they get to swing back at full WS. So they only have to counter one attack after they have already been hit.

Say they fail. That means that:

1. Corax attacks/wounds first if his oppoent has a lower I.
2. Opponent swings back if he survives.
3. Opponent takes one Blind test, fails.
4. Suddenly is knocked off balance after being hit and getting to hit first chronologically.

Real-Talk Blind-sided Models Part Two: It is likely these cases, as they are few and sometimes obscure, will get unique rules that give them the old version of their current rules renamed in updates. Such as melee weapons with Strikedown getting something named Knockdown that halves initiative, while shooting weapons retain Strikedown. Or old Blind in assault renamed to Stagger that forces an I test for every hit and fails reduce enemy WS to 1 while shooting weapons retain Blind(Though it should probably be a test for every hit, even at the end of the phase. Minimum of a test for each unit that hit.).

Thoughts?