A BIG batch of 8th Edition rumors are doing the rounds this morning. Take a cautious look.

Ok, some points…

This is a LARGE list and fairly detailed. Proceed with caution and cross index these with KNOWN good information coming from GW. That will give you a blueprint to determine the trustworthiness of this set.

This rumor set deals with both the core rules and has a lot of detail on individual units, pointing to either a leak from the finished product, or the playtest group.

Latest 8th Edition Rumors

One of Faeit’s readers sent in this list:

– Assault 2d6”, multiple units

– Split fire: any unit can target as many targets as they want

– Normally the unit don’t have to target the nearest unit, but there are lots of abilities that have this restriction

– Invulnerable saves simply ignore armour penetration up to the given value. They are not that common, wave serpents and Canoptek wraiths have one

– Most power fields, etc. are separate saves that are taken in addition to other saves just like FnP of today, they may or may not ignore mortal wounds on a case by case basis

– Dodges, camos, etc are now to hit modifiers

– Characters cannot join units

– Characters can only be targeted if nearest target or within 12”

– Larger models are seldom characters, Gulliman is not for example

– Deepstriking units can be placed anywhere. Every unit with deep strike has a value. Have to beat it to land on target, otherwise opposing player can move unit the rolled distance

– There are no mishaps anymore

– Overwatch shooting against deep striking units within 9” at -1 BS

– Summoning is not a psychic ability anymore, normal deep striking with psyker as homing beacon instead

– There are spells that replenish or add wounds to demon squads

– Most vehicles have a single attack with high S, but no AP, some have considerably more like the battle waggon

– Vehicles and units fighting against vehicles usually can fall back without penalty, they cannot move in the charge phase when they have moved or shot in the same turn. Most walkers don’t have this rule

– Terrain enhances armour in assault phase for the defender, or both in consecutive turns, is negated by grenades

– Assaulting units get +1 attack

– Vertical movement does not count against the allowance but a model cannot go higher than the movement value in a given phase. Lots of exceptions for jumping, flying, etc. of course

Ranges are measured on the ground level from base or model to base or model, whichever is nearer

– Units are deployed within 3” of a transport, cannot move, but can charge in the charge phase

– No more firing from a transport, though some vehicles, especially open topped ones have extra firing points weapons if they transport enough (and sometimes eligible) models. But they use their own BS and the kind of weapon is fixed. For example Raiders have 5 fire point splinter rifles, but only if they transport kabalite warriors

– No challenges

– Hidden power fists viable again, wound allocation by owning player, any model in squad, but wounded ones first

– There are some precision weapons that let the firing player choose the wound allocation (always or on a 6)

– Units have always the same T and Save now. There are some models that have T- Sv – and adapt like drones and grots, most of the other combined units have matchings stats now, Black templar neophytes have a 3+ now, for whatever reason

– Command points allow to reroll saves, hits, wounding or charge distance, reroll any single dice throw, negate all terrain in 12” of one of your models, alter the attack sequence, boost psychic block rolls, allow additional reserves and allow units to get another charge phase after wiping out an enemy

– There are some models like Ghazghkull that have their own abilities that are triggered by command points

– perils of the war: snake eyes on the test, d6 on table, d3 mortal wounds and losing a spell are the worst cases

– Player can spend command points to choose who goes first instead of rolling, whoever spends more

– Matched games have a fixed number of turns, 5 or 6 rounds depending on mission, 18” is starting range and turn 1 charges are completely legal

– Reserves are not random, except for rounding: second turn half the units are deployed, third turn half of the remaining, fourth turn rest

– Flyers have an individual to hit modifier, mostly -2 or -3, a 6 is always a hit as usual, depends on the flying mode for flyers that have more than one

– Flyers are affected by heavy weapon malus, but most flyer weapons are assault,

flyer weapons have often a shorter range and a different name, but are otherwise identical to their ground counterparts

– Terrain does not influence movement distance per se. Some citadel terrain pieces half the movement or do other things.

– There are no warzone rules in the core rules

– True line of sight is used to establish line of sight to a model, but otherwise models count in or out of cover depending if they are in a piece of terrain or if they are touching it and the firing – line goes through the terrain

– In matched play, models have a fixed base size specified in the General’s Handbook. In the two other game types, they can use any base they want

Previous Rumors (Compiled by Blood of Kittens)

Release Schedule & Product Information

June 10th launch, they’re going to drip feed us rumors for the rest of May. Expect to see full Space Marine datasheets sometime around the end of next week, with a couple of fluff pieces talking about how the galaxy got ripped in half and how all the marines got taller.

About 1-2 weeks beforehand all 7th edition exclusive products are being pulled from stores for good. Codex’s, Rulebooks, Dark Vengeance, not the new campaign books such as Gathering Storm sense those are still fluff pieces, but expect those to become much harder to find.

On Day One: 5 new, free soft cover/PDFs launch with all the core 8th edition rules.

The Rules: Containing your prophesized 12 pages of core rules, plus outlines for open play and the 14 universal FoC, ranging from 1 HQ and 1 Troop choice 1 command point allies to massive 20+ slot charts that grants a fist full of command. The new force org charts are pitched as a great way customize your army, one of them is a big guns esqu 1 troop/HQ 5+ Heavy support, but really they’re just designed to scale command points to game size.

The free PDF version of the following books will be sectioned up among faction lines, but the paper ones are going to be the mashups listed below.

Armies of the Imperium: Exactly what it says on the cover, a splash of lore and datasheets for every imperial unit in the game.

Armies of chaos: The spiky version of the above.

Armies of Xenos: Split up among proper faction lines (Eldar, Tau, Necron, Nids), and containing datasheets and rules for the rest.

A galaxy in flames: Art and fluff book. Brings everyone up to speed on the setting, pushing the story forward by a few weeks and setting up the opening of a AoS style narrative campaign.

Starter Set & Codexes

The starter set goes live the 17th and is going to be Death Guard Vs. Ultramarines, $120 box. Chaos gets a blob of cultists, a few terminators, a few plague marines, a lord, and drones. Loyalists get 2 tactical squads, a devastator, an assault squad, plus a librarian and a captain. Comes with dice and rulers as well.

In addition, there will be the standard soft cover core rules booklet and a small campaign book. The campaign book has the stats for all the dudes in the box, plus a series of narrative missions that set up the ground floor for the first real story arc of the new edition.

AoS was very much a test kitchen for what to expect of the “New Warhammer 40k”. AoS had a rocky start, but they learned from their mistakes, and recently even AoS has surpassed 40k in some regards.

The battle tome will become the template for the codex, not the other way around. Each dex will get the special army wide rules, 6-12 relics, 6 warlord traits, and 6 psychic powers, only now it’s written that you can chose to ether select or roll on warlord/psychic charts. It will also contain full rules and points for all the old and new units in a given army, and special rules for things like warbands, campaigns, narrative missions and the like.

Formations are back, but they cost points now, and so are decurons, but they will be a lot more flexible and take cues from their AoS counterparts.

Black library is going to do a soft reboot for some of the new 40k lore books, with a gimmicky “New Warhammer” type flagship launch to, as I said before, laydown a ground floor for the upcoming 8th edition.

~ Do you believe?