Many of the new rules in the new 6th edition of 40k have inspired a pretty large amount of nerd rage. Allies, purchasable terrain and possibly flyers (although not so much on the last one) have all done this. But one ruling that has done a similar thing that never seems to deserve its own thread on forums is the new rules for arriving from reserve. In a few words, you can essentially no longer charge the turn you come out of reserves. Now with deep striking you couldn't do this anyway unless a unit's entry specifically stated that you could, and with reserves arriving from your board edge you would rarely get to charge anyway. So, the one thing that this effects the most is outflanking units, and I believe that this is very important as a couple of lists which were arguably feasible in 5th edition have simply had their power reduced significantly.
Dark Eldar - Webway Portals:
5th edition has seen a couple of Dark Eldar lists based around the webway portal, although not as common as the standard VenomSpam lists (something which I shall come onto in a later post), they were still found knocking about in some areas. The inability to assault out of reserve has pretty much destroyed this build in my opinion, as well as poured cold water on any hopes of a 'Dark Footdar' build.
Simply because, Dark Eldar are flimsy, there's no 2 ways around it. So, you will deploy your webway, as you always have done, and your Wyches, Talos, etc are going to come piling out, and immediately get shot to pieces. The only way you can avoid this is to somehow make your units more durable.
Granted, Talos aren't bad for durability, but, despite their move through cover, they are not amazingly fast either, so I can just keep moving away from it snap firing while other, more heavy hitting shooty units finish the job. What I'm thinking more along the lines of is deploying it near terrain, so that squads can pile out of the webway portal and cower in terrain for a turn before bounding out and hitting units.
Large Wych squads for example could be good at this, they are after all a pretty fast infantry unit, and could reach enemy units. Although difficult terrain and the enemy units backing off could prevent the charge the new charging rules could allow them to reach the enemy unit. Mix a Farseer with Spirit Stones, Fortune and Doom into the mix and you have got a very nasty unit, which will get re-rollable saves (excellent for that turn in terrain) and give it a pretty nasty combat punch as well, although you'd probably want them to be stuck in combat, beating the opposing unit in your opponents turn, shielding them from shooting.
But there are so many variables to this, first off (in a very Dark Eldary way) you need a large amount of terrain, second, you actually need the carrier to make it to the terrain (in a 2 hull point open topped low armour vehicle, not easy) and you need to keep your units alive. I definately think that this build has to adapt if it is going to have any chance of surviving with the new rules set.
Tyranids - Genestealer Lists:
As lonely as it is to be a Tyranid these days, where you can't ally with anyone and your codex isn't great from a competitive standpoint, it gets worse when a new rulebook comes in and craps all over one of your builds making you essentially a mono-build codex.
Genestealer lists have taken an absolutely huge hit from this ruling. What you would do, is stick them in reserve, and run on the board hollowing and screaming, charging any units remotely close to you and eating them. You could also infiltrate them, getting them closer to your opponent in many occasions and setting you up for an early charge. Now, only the latter is available.
At the end of the day, Genestealers, like Dark Eldar, aren't exactly amazingly durable when out in the open, they're still only T4 with a 5+ save. Yes, you can outflank them into cover, but this just gives your opponent more time to move away from the board edge and is dependant upon something that is not in your control which is dangerous in tournament play.
So, you can infiltrate, fine. But what happens when you run into a Grey Knight list with servo skulls? What happens when you run into Space Wolves with Chooser of the Slain? You can't infiltrate where you would like, and so are kept at arms length while a rain of fire is poured down upon your Genestealers. Chooser is only a 10pt upgrade, and it gives anyone who takes it a huge advantage over you. These are in addition to bad match ups that you would already have as a Genestealer list such as Dark Eldar or Imperial Guard.
Again, this is a list that is going to have to adapt. If you're going to a tournament with lots of terrain, maybe outflanking is an option, it is still not as good as charging off the outflank would be if for some reason your opponent did deploy near the table edges, but you're mitigating the problem somewhat, especially if you manage to get Genestealers of both board widths, taking your opponent in a 2-pronged attack, although you're going to have to max out on Genestealers to make sure that at least some of them get to your opponent intact.
For infiltrating, you're going to need a bit of a distraction, something that you're opponent can't ignore and will have to shoot at. What I'm thinking at the minute is something like a big squad of Ymgarl Genestealers (fitting in with the theme) popping out of a building, or maybe something like the Doom of Malan'Tai in a Mysetic Spore, a possibly a bit more durable than the Ymgarls, cheaper and still pretty terrifying. The problem with these is that you will be taking away elites slots that you generally need for Hive Guard. Therefore, I'd go for either one big squad of Ymgarls or the Doom, so you're only taking up 1 slot, but you'll have to max out on Hive Guard in the remaining 2.
So, in short, there is a look through of how the new rules for reserves will effect some lists. Of course, there are probably more examples from other lists and even individual units such as a blob squad in an army with Creed or Space Marine scouts, but there are a couple of quick examples. Hopefully these will have given you some ideas and got you thinking about how this rules change will effect armies in your area.
Bye for now.
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