Sixth Edition Rules Leak

IT'S HERE! IT'S FINALLY HERE!

 

As you may have have heard from mumblings on the web, the rules for 6th Edition have leaked out. This stopped me in my tracks. Now, from what's been circulating around, the copy appears to be from May of 2011. Supposedly this is the file's creation date when checked with proper software. However, that does seem to correlate with Sisters of Battle and Necrons not being in the FAQ file as they weren't yet written.



It is my firm belief that the rules are real. There are typos and errors, but overall the set seems to work and from the looks of it, it's very balanced. On top of that, the section headings are written in Games Workshop's proprietary font.


Now, all of that aside, I am stoked for the release of the full rule set. Randomness is much less of a factor in games and there's infinite potential for new strategy; even with older books. Speaking of which, Tau and Eldar receive a large boost in effectiveness that I should think would see them equally competitive despite having older codexes.


If you want to look over the rules for yourself, a link is pretty easy to find if you look around for one. If you're not so inclined, check out this summary of updates from Frontline Gaming. These are only a handful of the sweeping changes to the game, but there are definitely some good highlights present.


HIGHLIGHTS SO FAR
This is a new stat line that works with BS to determine if hit a unit
Evasion (EV)
The Evasion Value indicates how hard it is to hit
the model. The smaller and faster, the better the
Evasion Value of a warrior. This characteristic is
not part of the model’s profile as it depends on
the speed of the model. A moving Tau Fire
Warrior has an Evasion of 3, a stationary Land
Raider tank only an Evasion of 1. This
characteristic is described on page 70.
Cover Save are now 5+ looks like for many things

• Wound allocation: Back to 4th ed we go! All wounds are distributed by armor type, multi-wound models count for as many models as they have remaining wounds. Sarge and his special weapon buddies are last to die.
• Running in the movement phase….most of us do this already!
• Instant Death, this is awesome! Instant death is totally changed, if your toughness is exceeded by 4 points of strength you take 2 wounds. By 5, 3 wounds, etc. Tyranids, rejoice!
• If you double your opponent’s WS, you hit on 2′s in combat! If their WS is double yours, you hit on a 5, triple, you hit on a 6!
• Rigid saves: sounds like FnP, but is ignored by AP 1,2,3 or instant death attacks. FnP is a 4+ rigid save
• Removed from play now just means removed as a casualty. Necrons get a break from JotWW!
• Preferred enemy: Shooting and HtH! But like 4th ed, always hit on a 3+, if normally hitting on a 3+, now hits on a 2+. If you choose to shoot at a unit that you have PE against, but don’t, you lost the rule for the rest of the game! Now Destroyers with preferred enemy: Everything! makes sense!
• Tiers of Eternal Warrior, still reading it, but if you have EW 1, you ignore ID 1, etc. level 3 ignores all ID
• If a unit can be singled out by an attack (JotWW) it becomes it’s own unit. Shielded (USR) ignores that rule.
• Falling back is now your movement + D6″
• some units can cause Terror which triggers a morale check
• Shaken applies to all units now, like pinning for infantry and shaken as now for vehicles
• Broken units automatically fail their morale if they lose a combat.
• Broken units automatically fail their morale if they lose a combat.
• Tactical Retreat: If a unit falls off the board, they are removed from play but does not count as destroyed. You can choose to leave the game and not give up a KP or VPs.
• Immobilized counts for all unit types. Immobile units EV value (evasion) is decreased, usually +1 to hit them.
• Tiered fearlessness: can be pinned or shaken. Nice! Fearless units are subject to rules but are better against them. Level 3 fearless ignores everything, though. Stubborn the same. Cold Blooded new rule allows you to choose to pass or fail. ATSKNF largely remains the same.
• Critical hits: this is a blanket rule that automatically wounds and ignores all saves but invulnerable, vehicles take a penetrating hit. Triggered by certain attacks and difficult terrain roles, which now are on a 6, not a 1.
• new Dense terrain type: can’t see through it at all. If a unit is in it, you ignore this unit for shooting.
• Cover saves now 5+ for all but fortified ruins.
• Skilled Rider now IGNORES difficult terrain checks.
• Airborne rule: units with this rule ignore difficult and dangerous terrain, but still gain a cover save form it.
• Move through cover: run/cruise through difficult terrain.
• Turn phases: Move, Assault, Shoot, Consolidate
• BIG! In order to control a mission objective, you must have it for an ENTIRE turn.
• Turns are defined, things that occur :at the beginning of the turn” are clearly defined.
• Cruise and Combat speed are for all units now, cruising or running for infantry, is a straight double movement, no more random roll.
• You cannot shoot before charging anymore. A Charge is a double move.
• Engage action: charge normal movement distance (not double), but can shoot in the following shooting phase
• Flat Out: triple movement
• Fleet adds 2″ to your movement value!
• Fast rule: shoot twice if stationary, shoot normally after moving or charging
• Rage: can’t remain stationary, must take -1 morale check to not charge enemy unit within 12″
• Alpha Strike: charging into terrain makes defenders I10, charging already engaged unit makes attacker I10
• In HTH, if a template deviates onto combat, each unit under it only takes 1 hit. Can’t target into HtH.
• BIG RULE: No Retreat is now a critical hit for every wound you lost combat by (ignores armor) but you can pass a morale check with a -1 for every wound you lost combat by. Wow, that levels the playing field, a LOT!
• Sweeping advance: if you lose combat and fail a morale, you roll 5+ and break out of combat or are destroyed. If your In is higher than the pursuing unit’s In, you break off on a 4+
• 3″ consolidation
• Hit and Run now only 3″, but can now shoot in the following shooting phase
• Hulk rule: can not attack in HtH
• Intractable rule: cannot be bound in HtH
• All models with a base (infantry, walkers, MCs) do NOT block LOS. They grant a 5+ cover unless the squad leader of the firing unit can not see the target unit, in which case the save is a 4+
• Look out sarge: a unit can force a cover save to a unit behind it, even if normally the target unit would not get a save, but the intervening unit takes a critical wound for every save that is passed
• Evasion: 3 base for all units. Massive: Tanks, MCs, GCs, bastions, walkers, super-heavies -1 Ev. Stationary -1. Jink +1, Swarm +1, Flyer always a 6, point blank (squad leader is within 12″) EV always 3
• Divide fire: if you have the divide fire rule, you can give up a shot to shoot all remaining weapons at different targets! A vehicle that holds still can do some serious work, but is easier to hit. Applies to Tanks, Battle Suits, jetbikes, walkers and aircraft
• Multi-Targeting: if you have this rule, you can double your shots if you hold still!! Wowzers. If you have multi-targeting(3) you can shoot three times. If you hold still, you shoot 6 times!
• Night Vision now lets you reroll your check unless their stealth is higher than their Night Vision.
• Overwatch! If an enemy unit ends its move within 12″ of a unit with this ability, they can perform a defensive shooting action at them out of sequence
• Relentless: can fire as if they held still, rapid fire to 18″ as opposed to 24″
• Tiered stealth: +1. 2. 3 etc.
• Swarms: eternal warrior (1), +1 evade, vulnerable to blasts
• veiled: tiered level 1, 2d6x3 to spot, level 2 2d6x2, level 3 2d6x1.5 to spot.
• Draw Back rule: performed in the consolidation phase, 2d6″ move after shooting: eldar jetbikes
• In the consolidation phase (after shooting) you can join or leave a unit, embark in a vehicle(!), move or regroup.
• You can oly regroup if you are not within 12″ of an enemy unit, but if you embark into a vehicle, you automatically regroup.
• Patch up: bye bye wound allocation tricks! If you have more than one multi-wound model with a wound, take a wound from one and give it to another until only one model remains with less than full wounds! Peace out, Draigowing!
• Defensive fire: you can shoot a unit that comes within 12″ out of sequence with this rule. Nice! shoot units as they assault you.
• Charge by Chance: sounds like over-watch but for assault. If a unit appears within 6″ of the unit with this rule, it can assault that unit. Sounds like shooting a transport, blowing up it up, then assaulting the unit inside.
• Rapid Fire: tiered rapid fire, if within 12″ you get one extra shot. rapid fire (2) gives 3 shots at 12″, 2 at 18″
• assault weapons count as a secondary close combat weapon in HtH
• Ordnance weapons take 2 fire actions to fire, ordnance barrage take 4 fire actions
• “bomb” type weapons are fired in the movement phase
• grenades can be used as weapons against massive type models (MCs!) or vehicles but WS is 1
• Directed Hits: attacker chooses what models take the wounds. Stopped by shielding units, or the shielded rule.
• Grenade launchers halve the WS of the defending unit when attacking them with grenades
• ID causes an additional wound even if the str value of the attack isn’t high enough to normally cause ID. Eternal warrior block ID if the tier is higher.
• master crafted rerolls a miss, multiple master crafted weapons of the same type in the same unit reroll one miss per model with the rule (speeds things up a lot)
• coarse weapon: only another coarse weapon may grant an additional attack and can’t be directed.
• Blast weapons. Wow! Hit with BS as normal, if you miss, scatter the number x 2 (always scatters). So if you hit on a 4, you can only ever scatter 4″ max!
• Template weapons: can shoot out 3″ from the firing model unless otherwise greater, if it hits the firing point of a vehicle or bastion, D3 models inside are hit! Can be fired in the turn you assault, hitting D6 times on the target unit at the weapons str and ap.
• blast weapons hit as described above. Any model partially under the template gets hit at full strength (even vehicles). If the blast hits a vehicle, full strength to armor in firer’s facing. If not on vehicle, full strength to armor facing the center of the blast but -3 on the damage table.
• Multiple blasts: fire one weapon as “lead.” Resolve where it lands, all secondary shots must touch the preceding template and hit as many enemy models as possible, moving towards the enemy unit if the shot missed. Wow. Faster, and much deadlier.
• Rail Weapons: awesome! Target a model within range, even if not in LOS. Roll to hit as with a blast weapon. After final point is determined, draw a line between point and firing unit. All units under the line take as many hits as models under the line. Holy crap, this can rape tanks! A Hammerhead could theoretically hit as many tanks as are in a straight line and in range! Models out of LOS get a 4+. Multiple rail weapons resolve simultaneously, indirect rail weapons only grant a cover save if the unit is in area terrain.
• Barrage: roll to hit as with blast weapon. If target is out of LOS you hit with BS, roll the scatter, on a “Hit” you hit. On an arrow you scatter double the die roll. On a BS miss, you scatter as normal.
• Bombing is a free action done in the movement phase
• AA weapons always hit target as if it were evade 3
• Entangling weapons cause target to be in difficult and dangerous
• pinning weapons cause cumulative morale checks to be pinned. -1 for each unsaved wound.
• Snipers are finally legit! All sniper weapons are pinning, rending, directed hits! Wow, they can choose who they can hit! Finally.
• Targeter: shooting unit makes target count as stationary for EV purposes.
• Twin-linked template weapons increase their range to 6″. Wow, twin flamers now shoot farther instead of rerolling to wound.
• Rapid fire weapons fire like assault weapons now, meaning they can always fire once out to max range, and an additional shot if within 12″. Nice!
• Force weapons cause ID(2) so they don’t own monstrous creatures anymore. Thank goodness.
• Power weapons now have the parry rule, which grants a 5++ in HtH! Awesome! A reason to take them.
• Monstrous creatures now hit with a weapon that is 2xS, ap 2
• All CCWs are ap6, which means Orks and Gaunts and such get no save from most HtH attacks.
• whitcblades are str7, and can be “chanelled” activated with a ld test, to allow the wielder to reroll any failed invul saves.
• Melta bombs finally have the melta rule and ap!
• Psychic Hood: roll a D6 if within 24″, add mastery level, blocker needs to beat defender to stop power. Can’t be used inside a transport.
• Unit Types:
• Infantry: 6″ move, 12″ run or charge
• Beasts or Calvary: move 7″, charge 21″, run 14″
• Jump Infantry: move 9″, charge or run 18″, deep strike
• Flying Infantry: airborne, move 9″, run or charge 18″, deep strike
• Jet Pack: move 6″, airborne, draw back, deep strike, 12″ charge or run
• Bikes: move 8″, charge or run 16″, fast, multi-targeting (1), jink, +1 toughness against shooting attacks only, more resistant to ID
• Jetbikes: move like bikes, plus airborne, and draw back for Eldar
• MC’s: massive, monstrous, multi-targeting (2), relentless
• Gargantuan Creatures: 9″ move, fearless (3) and a host of other rules
• Ground Vehicle: any vehicle not specified is a ground vehicle, move 6″, fearless (2), hulk, intractable, multi-targeting(1), relentless
• Skimmer: move 8″, same rules as ground vehicle but also airborne
• Fast Skimmer: same as skimmer but also: jink, fast
• walkers: vehicle, fearless (2), massive, multi-targeting(1), relentless
• artillery: same as above but also crew, crew members are markers that represent firing models. take one away every time the vehicle suffers an unsaved glancing or penetrating hit.
• Fortifications: same as above bu also hulk and immobile
• Characters
• special rule: covering fire: Character forgoes shooting to allow unit to have one directed shot if the unit rolls at least 3, 6′s to hit.
• Characters allow their unit to regroup in the consolidation phase. No mention to minimum unit sizes.
• Characters have directed hit rule in HtH and shooting!
• Characters can either be a squad leader or an IC.
• Squad leaders are really important. They determine characteristic tests, facing for shooting at vehicles, seeing if the enemy unit is in cover, point blank range, etc.
• If squad leader dies, another model takes his/her place.
• IC’s can not join vehicles or MCs/GCs unless they are of the same unit type.
• Psykers
• Psykers can perform one “power” type action per level of mastery. Mastery goes from one to 6. Humans rarely exceed 3, Eldar or Daemons rarely exceed 5.
• All psykers level 1 unless specified otherwise. 1 power per level, can’t be duplicate power unless otherwise specified.
• Perils on 2 or 12, critical hit. No mention of rerolling successful invul saves.
• Psyker squads are cleared up. One model counts as using the power.
• Any psyker can attempt to stop a power, works on a 5+ so long as the defender is not in a vehicle and within 24″
• Vehicles
• No vehicles can go up levels in a building anymore, even walkers.
• Terrain checks for every piece of terrain moved through.
• Hitting a Vehicle in HtH is different. If vehicle moves, they are WS10, if they hold still, WS0.
• “Tank” type vehicles get -1 to the damage table. Leman Russ, hoooo!
• Super heavies: -3 on the damage table.
• weapon destroyed is -1 to multi-targeting. Reduced to 0 can only fire one weapon. reduced to -1, can’t shoot.
• Immobilized 2 times = dead.
• Explodes is now d6″ radius. All units in range, or that were embarked roll a d6 for as many models as were hit. On a 6, the unit takes a critical hit. Exploded vehicles leave no debris behind.
• wrecks are a 5+, difficult, dangerous
• hull breach: for every additional stunned or immobilized result in the same phase, the damage is 1 higher. Ouch.
• skimmers that are immobilized hit the ground off their base, and models underneath move out of the way.
• Squadrons: any stunned, shaken, immobilized result ignored on a 5+ with +1 for each vehicle in the squadron. If test is failed, each vehicle in the squadron suffers the result.
• smoke=5+ cover
• dangerous terrain=roll d6, on a 6, vehicle suffers penetrating hit. only invul save to stop
• repair rules got WAY better: on a 5+, repairing model removes a shaken, stunned, immobile or weapon destroyed result. Or, can boost the vehicle with the same role to add a level of multi-targeting! Techmairnes and Techpriests just got waaaaay cooler. For squadrons, only works if he passes the roll for every vehicle in the squadron.
• Super Heavy and Titan rules in the book.
• Tanks are not what they were. Lots of old tank vehicles are no longer tanks. Tanks are -1 to evade, but -1 on the damage table, too. AV14 tanks get multi-targeting(3)
• units in a transport are now relentless!
• buuuuut, may only target units within 18″
• If an enemy unit is within 2″ or an exit point, the unit inside the transport can not get out.
• disembarking is the same as now.
• Embarking is huge now. If the squad leader is within 3″ of an entry point of a transport, the entire unit can embark. This occurs in the consolidation phase and nullifies any other conditions. Such as being broken. It also means the unit can avoid being wiped out if broken.
• Emergency disembarkation means the unit is stunned after the vehicle is destroyed.
• If all exits are blocked, the blocking units can perform a defensive fire or charge by chance move. Ouch.
• Transports that enter play via deep strike, can only have embarked units make a combat move after
• Flyers can no longer be assaulted! Only by jump or aerial units.
• Supersonic allows them to fly across the table like Apoc flier rules. Minimum 12″ movement.
• always hit on a 6
• Lots of rules for fighters, rapid insertion, gunship which modify their shooting characteristics.
• Fortifications
• Rules for buildings, basically immobile vehicles with av12-14 and some crazy rules.
• comm station: can shoot beyond 18″ for embarked units
• segmented: dangerous terrain to models that deepstrike or supersonic within 24″
• Missions
• 3 basic missions.
• 6 turns, no more random game length
• First turn is determined by a cool system. You secretly bid stratagem points. If you bet higher, you go first unless the other guy outbids you. You keep bidding until one of you gives up. The winner goes first, the lower gets the extra stratagem points. If the loser rolls a 6, he gets 25% of the points he bet (rounding up). That is what seizing the initiative now is. You can’t take the first turn unexpectedly.
• All missions use “victory points” although this is different than it was.
• Annihilation is in most missions: Kill Points for how many points a unit costs: roll a D6 before the game starts 1-2 every 40pts is 1 VP. 3-4 every 50pts a unit is worth is 1 VP. 5-6 every 70pts a unit is worth gives a VP. Randomly screws MSU or KP denial. Nice.
• For multi=player, the player that destroyed the last model of the unit gets the points.
• Objectives are placed like Seize Ground now, 3 for a 1K game, 5 for a 1-2K game, 7 for a 2K-3K game.
• To hold an objective, you must be within 3″ of it, outside of a transport, at the beginning of the turn, before reserve rolls, starting turn 2.
• A unit can only hold one objective at a time. Vehciels can’t hold objectives. Scoring units get 3 VPs per turn, and 6 at game’s end!
• Reserves
• Wow, this is awesome! For every unit held in reserve, you get a “pool” of dice. You can take up to 3 and use it to roll for any unit or strikeforce in reserve. You can choose not to roll for any units.
• If you roll the right number (same as now) they come one. A strikeforce can be any combination of units, but get a -1 to reserves. Units come in automatically turn 4.
• This is way better than what we have now. So much more tactical.
• Units that come in from reserve appear within 6″ of your board edge and may act normally, meaning they can shoot if they held still. Nice!
• Deep Strike
• If deepstriking out of 18″ of enemy models and not in impassible terrain or a transport, no scatter is made and the unit can only shoot.
• If within 18″, the unit scatters as normal and if it lands on impassible terrain or other units, it reduces the scatter by as many inches as it needs to miss the object and becomes stunned. If the first model lands OK, but the rest can’t be placed, they are lost.
• If you land within 12″ of enemy units, they may perform a defensive fire action.
• units in a transport can remain embarked after deep striking!
• If you have a beacon, icon or similar, units coming in within 6″ of it never scatter and don’t count as being in critical range.
• “Ambush” deep strike: don’t scatter if within critical range.
• “Heroic” deep strike means the landing unit can’t shoot, but also can’t be shot.
• Outflanking
• You choose what short table edge you appear on, and within 6″ of it. Nice! Reserve rolls for outflankers are made at -1.
• Scouts
• 12″ consolidation move after deployment for ALL units. No more turbo boosting scout moves. Allows Outflank
• Missions
• The main mission is Dawn of War, but different meaning. It is Seize ground and annihilation rules as described above. Reminds me of the Bay Area Open mission!
• Meant for 2 players, 1K to 3K points.
• Eye of the storm is the second mission: 3-5 players, same mission, alternate turn activation, alternate deployment. 1k to 1.5K per player
• random game length
• Massive attack
• 3K points or more
• 2 players
• alternate turn structure with players activating portions of their army in turn. So, you use a part of your army, your opponent uses a part of theirs, etc until all units have gone and then the turn recycles.
• same mission objectives.
• Stratagems
• These are bought during the first turn bid and are pretty awesome. They range from rerolling a single die per turn, to giving units twin linked, tank hunters, etc. Really cool mechanic, IMO, and one that adds a lot to the game.

There are a lot of these rules that seem accurate to rumors from last year. Hopefully the game is pretty close to these as it seems to be a vast improvement over 5th edition.