We all know 40k has been shooting dominated for a long time now but it’s not always clear why. Particularly important are the changes from 5th to 6th which have not only reinforced this but hammered it into your face. A lot of people continue to be upset by armies which are billed as combat armies (i.e. Tyranids) which come out and don’t actually allow an effective combat army to be fielded where other armies quiver in fear. This isn’t an issue of the individual armies (they come elsewhere) but of the game mechanics. Unless an army gets around those mechanics, you’re not going to overcome the paradigm developed by the ruleset.

That’s not to say the ruleset doesn’t ignore combat – it’s still a very important part of the game but it’s generally always a very distant second fiddle to a competitive army’s shooting capacity. While combat has a lot of uses which will determine who wins games, it has become harder and harder to effectively do this and a lesser tool one usually has access to. It’s still a tool though and that means it can do things.

Anyway, now that we have hopefully headed off the blinding rage of “combat is still useful” let’s take a look at the rule mechanics. Before we go into the changes from 5th and 6th, let’s make sure we understand the core mechanics which are still in place from 5th that assist the role of shooting in this game.

Consolidating into combat – Doesn’t exist. It’s a major reason Deathstars had such issues in 5th edition when MSU was rolling around in every other army and why combat armies were so stupidly, mind numbing easy to run in 4th edition – run at enemy and stay in combat for the rest of the game. Vehicles can effectively stop combats – you don’t get consolidation moves from them. This isn’t as serious in 6th edition given hull points and one’s ability to hit moving vehicles however; cheap transports are still effective deterrents and layers of defense against combat. Continued restrictions on assaulting from transports and assaulting after using Rapid Fire weapons. It’s not something new but its compounding. Level of shooting has gone up. Rate of fire weapons are cheaper. Blast weapons are more accurate. More models, etc.

There are several other things but are no longer relevant. The durability of transports for example not only stopped assaults with their bulk but also protected you against assaults (and shooting) for extended periods of time. It basically assisted to capitalise on the alpha strike.

And now the changes from 5th to 6th which impact upon shooting being so good as well.

The shooter controls what is removed. This is so huge and people still haven’t fully grasped this yet. I see countless games with people shooting at each other across a table with very little movement and the “important” models just hiding at the back. I’m going to pound on this over the coming posts but when a simple mechanic like Focus Fire as Matt explains in detail is just part of a multi-faceted approach that allows the offensive player to dictate where models are removed from is huge. Focus Fire, movement, LoS blocking, movement of other units in conjunction with LoS blocking and Focus Fire, utilisation of terrain, Precision shots, range bands, etc. are all ways you as the offensive player gets to remove models you want to remove. Pre-measuring – you are never out of range again when you should be in range. Cover is less. Your average cover save is 5+ these days and although there are still ways to increase cover saves (i.e. Night Fight) your average cover is less. It’s easier to get for the big guns (vehicles and monstrous creatures) but there’s no net gain here. Deployment. Spearhead was the “shooting” deployment in 5th edition. Now there’s two – Vanguard and Hammer and Anvil. Pitched battle is still your “neutral” but there’s nothing like Dawn of War where an aggressive army can put a lot of pressure on you early (or at least having shooting very strongly mitigated with old Night Fight). Increased assault restrictions. You cannot assault out of a vehicle. Ever. Unless it’s open-topped or an assault vehicle. This may seem minor but is a pretty massive change which has been another nail in the coffin of the guntransport (outside of the super good ones). Transport effectiveness is greatly reduced – you can still get a ton of use out of transports like Wave Serpents (duh), Rhinos and Chimeras but they are no longer the super awesome defensive weapon they were to protect against shooting which means your guys are getting shot more regularly and the difference in cost doesn’t make up for this. You can no longer assault from reserve – Outflanking assaults weren’t a major thing but it forced your opponent to be mindful of them, particularly with stationary vehicles, but much less so now. Same with things coming on from your board edge – a great tactic in Spearhead was to utilise a reserve unit and come on from the weak flank without fear of them getting shot. No can do now baby doll. To cap this off, if you Infiltrate / Scout and are going first, you cannot assault either. Model removal – Even if you complete ignore point 1, model removal is a closest to closest concept which means assault armies are require to travel further more often than not to actually make combat as models from the rear cannot be chosen by the controlling player. Overwatch – some armies take advantage of this better than others but I’m sure people have a variety of stories by this point where Overwatch has stopped really short range charges or when armies like Tau have wiped out entire units in the assault phase. It’s not reliable, it’s not going to stop assaults regularly but it’s another whack when you actually get there and mitigates a lot of the advantages one could gain from Random Charge Length (RCL) by attempting 9″+ charges. Pulling punches is harder – RCL and Overwatch mean you’re often unsure what models are getting into combat at a much higher level than previous editions (where you were often charging through terrain). More shooting – to top it all off from 5th edition, shooting weapons got better. Rapid Fire can now move and shoot and with book releases we are again seeing models getting cheaper which means more guns (and yes, more attacks) on the table.

A bonus comment gets thrown towards the increase in Ignores Cover weaponry we are seeing as well. This isn’t something that’s part of the main rules however; and is something seen in previous editions but with 6th edition, this has been noticeably increased. Terrain is also something which needs to be mentioned as poor terrain leads to a heavy favour in the shooting phase as it becomes a matter of placement and target priority over the ability to get somewhere and see something along with placement and priority. At the same time, terrain which blocks half the LoS on a table (very rare) is going to make assault armies who can take advantage of this shine.

Furthermore, something that has always been a part of the shooting versus assault debate is shooting can commence from Turn 1 – assault cannot. Assaulting has a lot more potential to destroy in combat thanks to sweeping (though that happens rarely these days with ATSKNF and Fearless everywhere) and with generally a greater number of attacks (3A or 4A on the charge for models is quite common yet getting four shots in one go from a squad of models is quite rare). Shooting also happens without reprisal in a turn – always an advantage to know at a given time even if dice fall flat on their face, you’re not about to get poked with a stick (or chainsword).

Now that being said, assault has gained some improvements. Disordered assault can often be a good thing – you want to stay in combat more often than not and this helps with that – of course when you want to try and wipe more, less attacks can often not be what you are after. RCL improves threat ranges – this is always a good thing even if we see the percentages aren’t always the best unless you have Fleet and are somehow avoiding terrain. With the improvement of shooting, bubble-wraps are also easier to break which means they are less of a threat to assault based armies or units however; they are still an effective strategy (just not so all encompassing as previously). Also, the options one uses to improve shooting can be used to limit Overwatch and improve assault reliability my allowing a certain a number of models into assault / be shot through Overwatch. Model removal also works both ways – closest models are generally removed but with again use of the shooting mechanics, you can keep the closest models alive when shooting at a unit you are preparing to assault. Less applicable but important to note. Fearless is also greatly changed which makes fast tarpits a lot more attractive if you can get this going – it’s not as good as some people are making out through new Tyranids (because they could already do that previously and better with buffing Tervigons and other armies have been able to do it for some time including Orks, Necrons with Scarabs, Zombie Chaos, etc.).

What you generally see is a reduction in options and capacity for assault combined with improved shooting options not only from 5th edition but stacked on top in 6th edition. The biggest changes outside of ones seen in army books are the reduction in vehicle efficiency and the command the offensive player has over model removal. They have the last move before shooting and therefore get to dictate the most what gets removed and as people start to grasp this, their shooting will become even more efficient. The end result however; is you want to be in assault for an even number of turns and you therefore want to remove your option of winning the assault the turn you charge. That’s not a change from 5th edition but the ability for you to do that has been reduced and your ability to destroy the opponent through shooting has been greatly improved.

In the end, if the only thing you remember is the following line, we’ll be happy.

The shooting player controls the removal of models during their movement and shooting phases.