New Cover Rules The new cover rule is pretty crazy. Minus 1 to ballistic skill when the target is in cover. This will stack with stealth or any other minus 1 to the hit roll, essentially making models minus 2 to hit! This is wild. It is a good thing that the current rules make a critical hit of a 6 always hit, other wise there would be some data sheets that couldn't hit anything because they would be hitting on a 7. Hidden Mechanic This new mechanic will make it so that infantry, swarms and beasts are not able to be targeted while they are within terrain unless they shooting unit is within 15" unless they have already shot and if I read it right that resets each turn. I could totally be wrong about that but that is my interpretation of the article that GW put out on the matter. It does say in this article as well that the range will "typically" be 15" which I expect to mean there will be other interactions that nullify that rule. For one thing, I am betting that sniper style units such as eliminators will be able to see these units outside of 15" After all that is a sniper style roll, right? This mechanic, as described so far does not stop working when a unit fights. Everything has said that it is when the unit shoots, so could a melee army potentially keep this the who game? New Terrain The new terrain rules are also pretty interesting. Most notably that the terrain will be objectives and of course GW is planning to sell us more over priced plastic for their official terrain. However, they did post what the terrain dimensions are on their Warhammer community article so at least their terrain is not the only terrain that can be used in the upcoming 11th edition of Warhammer 40k. Plunging Fire Plunging fire is changing as well. It is changing to plus 1 to hit instead of plus 1 to armor penetration. Most people never used the current plunging fire rules because the terrain rules were terrible and no one ever got onto higher levels of terrain because all it did was open you up to getting shot from across the table.

SO in 9th edition the Vanguard vets were jump pack veterans that had several weapon options for their melee. My favorites were the lightning claws and the thunder hammers with storm shields. Then 10th edition dropped and they got 1 mediocre weapon option and like 10 mediocre pistol options. They gained lethal hits on their profile but for the most part they were just fast moving trash units that cost way too many points to field. Now they are pretty much the exact same kit as the assault intercessors with jump pack. Unless they add in their old weapon options this is still going to be a terrible unit option. GW is just releasing the same models and saying to paint their heads a different color. Completely lazy trash.

New tactics and strategies are going to have to be created for this new edition. Move blocking units will matter when fighting some armies but won't matter at all when fighting others. For example, a purge the foe army in isn't going to care too much of you're standing in their way, they want you there so they can destroy models and move into the next unit. Whereas if your playing a take and hold army move blocking will matter a lot! We could see whole games where no one even has to shoot or fight beyond just trying to get the opponent points denied. 11th is gonna be a wild world because Khorne screaming blood for the blood god is gonna be something that matters, meanwhile Tau can be working for the greater good and be on diplomatic missions doing their best to stay alive in a war torn universe.