Well this was my first game in 10th edition (Astra Militarum), Jordan (Genestealer Cult) had already played one and Alex (Tyranids) had also played one. Despite being dedicated to our Alternative Rules, we are naturally very curious to try 10th out. A few things stand out as a problem from a game developer point of view, but I will save those for the Weekly Post 6/25/23 being typed up later today (6/25/23).
Jordan and I teamed up with 1000 points each. We wanted to play a dumb army to learn the rules and just relax and have fun. It was decided that each of our super snipers needed to have a drag race. Best way to do this naturally was the Stormlord.
Jordan built an aggressive Stormlord, loaded with Heavy Flamer sponsons, the special sniper, a twenty man squad of hybrids with hand flamers, and two random advisors with pistols because points. A Saboteur had bombs to explode and just existed to die.
For myself, I ran all Heavy Bolters on the Stormlord. In the back I had three Heavy Weapon Squads with Lascannons, 3 Platoon Command Squads with Lascannon, Sniper Rifle, and Plasma Gun each. The Vindicar was also onboard, and a Enginseer and Ursula Creed were intended to hide behind the Stormlord to boost it.
A couple of VERY important things with how these interact. First off, Heavy Weapon teams take 2 space each out of the Transport 40 per the Stormlord datasheet. Second, Firing Deck does not care about the space models take up! But, each firing model may only fire one weapon, even if multiple were allowed. So a total of 12 Lascannons teams only takes 12 of the Firing Deck 24! I did also notice that the Las Weapons for the heavy weapon teams are considered pistols with extra range now, so no more stacking weapons on the offense.
As far as onboard units go, when they fire from a Firing Deck the weapons are not fired by the unit (i.e. Heavy Weapon Teams DO NOT Overwatch on a 5+, the Stormlord would be Overwatching with the weapon profiles assigned to the Stormlord itself). This also means that if all twelve passenger Lascannons hit on a 5+, and the Stormlord must remain stationary for the Heavy rule to let them hit on a 4+. This also gimped the Vindicar hard, but we were doing it for the memes. Lastly, the Order that grants +1 To Hit stacks with Heavy because it has different wording for how it applies to the rules. Overall, so long as Stormlord sits still, all guns will hit on a 3+! All weapon targets must be declared before starting to roll by the way.
Alex tried to bring as balanced of a list as he could with his Tyranids. If you have been following the current news on players, Tyranids are under powered for their points. By a lot. So keep that in mind going forward, and there will be plenty of commentary in the afore mentioned weekly news letter.
Alex won Initiative, meaning he had to go first. No choice in 10th. He deployed his first unit. We dropped a Stormlord full of Genestealers. He dropped more Gaunts, and I dropped a Stormlord full of Imperial Guard. And then two characters behind it as we alternated. End result, we were facing a Brood of two Carnifexes with Old One Eye and 2 Haruspex as the main threat. Three Hive Guard ran with a Hive Tyrant as the next biggest threat with a unit of six Zoanthropes providing the last threat to the Stormlords.
First Turn, Alex opened fire with a moderate amount of Wounds inflicted on the GSC Stormlord. My Stormlord was nicked for 2 damage. The Carnifexes got close to the Saboteur, resulting in four Mortal Wounds getting through their Feel No Pain before Gaunts murdered her.
Our first Turn saw the GSC Stormlord move up and kill a Haruspex. My Stormlord sat still and blew the other one out of existence with eight Lascannons, before turning the next eight over and injuring a Carnifex. Full spread of Machineguns (by the way, Sustained Hits do not count as 6s for the purpose of Devastating Hits, they add dice to the To Wound pool of dice) tore into them as well but only finished off the injured Carnifex. Both of our super snipers failed To Hit.
Second turn saw the Tyranids close in. Death was surely coming for my Stormlord (fully repaired by the Enginseer, and grants a 4+ Invulnerability Save until your next Command Phase). The Carnifexes twitched, and I fired a full broadside at them with Overwatch, dealing only one successful wounding with Yet, the Carnifex failed their 6″ Charge, even with rerolls, and the far less likely Charge from the Hive Tyrant failed. The Zoanthropes did a pretty solid number on the GSC Stormlord, though, reducing it to thirteen Wounds.
Our second Turn, the GSC moved closer and proceeded to obliterate most of the Zoanthropes with its Vulcan Megabolter, Heavy Bolters, and Lascannons if I remember right, leaving only two remaining. Heavy Flamers melted a Lictor and 20 Hand Flamers in two directions burned a bunch of Gaunts to death. Jordan then decided to have fun and Tank Shocked the Zoanthropes, hurting one.
The IG Stormlord, repaired to its full glory, sat still and blew away the last Carnifex and Old One Eye with about fifteen extra damage using just Lascannons. Full machinegun and secondary spready killed the Hive Guard and wounded the Hive Tyrant.
Alex was doing the best he could with the situation. Zoanthropes fell back, so could not fire. A unit of Gargoyles dropped behind the GSC Stormlord, and another behind the IG Stormlord. The GSC was reduced to eight Wounds by small arms fire, and the IG one took one Wound. The IG Stormlord Overwatched again from movement, because why not? Extra low Quality Shooting go brrrt. It is also important to note that no modifiers or rerolls affect Overwatch, this includes Sustained Hits and like rules. He did go ahead and trigger Shadow in the Warp, causing my Stormlord and Ursula Creed to fail Battle Shock tests through my fabulous rolling.
The GSC Stormlord finished the Zoanthropes, Gargoyles, and all but four Gaunts from over thirty. For the only time this game the GSC super sniper finished off the Neurothrope.
The IG Stormlord annihilated the Warriors with Lascannons, used various guns on the last Gaunts in its sector, then destroyed all but two Gargoyles with other small arms. This was the only time the Vindicar did something, killing a Gargoyle. The Enginseer eradicated the last two in Melee, leaving nothing for Ursula to do.
With FOUR terrifyingly underpowered Gaunts remaining, Alex did no damage to the GSC Stormlord.
The IG Stormlord yoinked the kills with Lascannons, having never moved the entire game including the last round (Turn 4, total annihilation).
Victory points was 40 to 20, which in reality works out to be 10 to 5. Apparently some VP earnings will be less than four at some point.
The Party Bus army wins the game! Thoughts on tenth, the formulas I have attempted to unravel, and more will be in the weekly newsletter.
Alternate 40k Rules 