Warhammer 40,000 6th edition

This page is in need of cleanup. Srsly. It's a fucking mess.

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The fact that the Space Marines are on the cover is no surprise. The fact that it's the Dark Angels instead of the Ultramarines is.

Warhammer 40,000 6th edition was released in June 2012. As with 4th and 5th Edition before it, it's essentially an extension of the 3rd Edition ruleset. However, it's even more like Warhammer Fantasy Battles than ever before...

And not even two years later (May 2014), Games Workshop released Warhammer 40,000 7th edition.

New Army Codex

As with any edition there have been new codex coming out of the works. It seems that Games Workshop is changing up the style again; all of the codices are hardcover, with the entire cover dominated by a full-color image. The "Warhammer 40,000" logo at the top is substantially smaller than it has been in editions past, and the title of the codex is much larger and at the bottom of the cover. Each Codex has an armory section and a warlord table too, and some have psychic powers tables. Surprisingly, none have been written by Matt Ward (although a lone Codex Supplement was, and another had him on it, if only in passing). codices are also getting supplements, a "new" addition to the game similar to the mini-codices from 3rd and 4th Editions. They build off of a parent codex with new rules, artifacts, and warlord tables.

The list is ordered oldest to newest, except for Supplements, which are listed in order from oldest to newest beneath their parent Codex.

• Chaos Space Marines by Phil Kelly. Introduces Heldrakes, Helbrutes (although they're just updated Chaos Dreadnoughts), Forgefiends, Maulerfiends, Warpsmiths (they're different from Iron Warriors Warsmiths), Dark Apostles (which are apparently just Chaos Chaplains now), and Warp Talons (oh, and Mutilators, but they're so shit nobody cares), as well as the Champions of Chaos special rule and table. It's generally considered terrible, with issues too common to mention. Examples include: the worst internal balancing this side of Robin Cruddace (everybody takes Heldrakes!); the worst external balance this side of Matt Ward (everybody takes Heldrakes to win tournaments by default!); the introduction of Mutilators, which are absolutely pointless; the introduction of Warp Talons, an awesome concept with terrible execution; the lack of any rules (or even much fluff) for the Traitor Legions; and the Champion of Chaos rule, thoughtlessly ported from Warriors of Chaos with no real regards to how it would operate in 40k. It's telling that Dark Apotheosis, in which your Champion becomes a Daemon Prince, is actually one of the worst things that could happen to him (unless it's just a random Aspiring Champion - and not your expensive HQ-Lord - which has happened to me and is amazing).
  • Black Legion: The first Supplements started dropping and Chaos players everywhere were excited. Were their prayers to the Dark Powers being answered? Would Legion rules be coming or, better yet, an extensive suite of rules for a single Legion? Would Cult Terminators and Cult Dreadnoughts return? The answer to all these questions... was no. Instead, they released a fairly controversial supplement for the Black Legion, widely considered the blandest, least interesting, most generic Chaos force. And the rules? Well, you can take Chosen as Troops (which doesn't really make them any better), but everybody has to take Veterans of the Long War (meh), and there's a couple new Relics which are okay but not really worth giving up the MURDER SWORD or the Axe of Blind Fury. That being said, Abaddon actually comes across as a competent, intelligent Chaos Lord that knows exactly what he's doing, and all of the Black Crusades are fluffed out with fairly interesting goals. Still, it left most Chaos players asking whether it was really necessary to make a Supplement for the "cover Marines."
  • Crimson Slaughter: After the disappointment of the first Supplement, rumors started leaking that the second Supplement would be about the Veterans of the Long War, giving detail on what all of the Legions were up to and providing Veteran Skills for units with the VotLW special rule. Not what Chaos players wanted, but it would still go a long way to making the book more customizable and interesting. So what did GW put out? A Supplement for the no-name warband from the Dark Vengeance box set. It actually sounds like it will turn out okay (making Possessed worth a damn for the first time, as well as a bunch of really neat Relics), but it was still a bitter pill for most veteran Chaos players to swallow. It appears this is an appeal to new players whose first army was the Dark Vengeance box set.
• Dark Angels by Jeremy Vetock. Brings back Asmodai the Interrogator-Chaplain. Introduces Deathwing Knights, Ravenwing Black Knights, Ravenwing Dark Talon, Ravenwing Dark Shroud, Land Speeder Vengeance, and Nephilim Jetfighter. It's generally considered well-balanced, even though some of the new units (specifically Asmodai and the Nephilim) are duds. However, it's also a little bland, with most of the "new" units are simply "super-duper awesome" versions of existing units.
• Chaos Daemons by Phil Kelly (and Robin Cruddace, although it's not clear where Kelly ends and Cruddace begins). Introduces Blood Throne of Khorne, Skull Cannon of Khorne, Burning Chariot, and Plague Drones of Nurgle (not to be confused with Forge World's Blight Drones). Heralds may take Psyker as an upgrade, except Khorne's ones. Including a Random Table known as Warp Storm, each result changes how the battlefield behaves, double 6's summon a randomized amount of basic daemon troops(Pink Horrors, Bloodletters, ect...). At the very least, it's better than the previous book.
• Tau by Jeremy Vetock. Introduces Darkstrider (also known as Pathfinder Sub-Commander Shigeru Miyamoto), Longstrike (also known as Shas'la T'au Sha'ng), Cadre Fireblade, the awesome Riptide battlesuit, Sunshark bomber, and Razorshark strike fighter. Brings in new abilities to Marker lights, including an ability to increase the effectiveness of overwatch. No Psyker table for Tau, instead their Ethereals now have the ability to pick army buffs.
  • Tau: Farsight Enclaves by who the fuck knows (which means Matt Ward) explains everything about Farsight, what happens to him and why he broke away form the Empire. Crisis suits as troops, additional wargear and seven special characters (Okay, they're really the same price as normal models with there wargear and IC, but most of them can't be legally taken with the weapons configuration they have normally. Plus, they only take up one HQ slot for all of them!).
• Eldar by Phil Kelly and Adam Troke. Introduces the way too big, totally awesome Wraithknight, the Wraithblades, the Hemlock Wraithfighter (which is a bomber) and the Crimson Hunters, new Aspect Warriors who pilot fighters. Also every Elder Infantry aside from Wraithbone can now run and shoot in the same turn and gains Hatred: Slaanesh.
  • Iyanden: The very first Supplement released, there was much angst because of its author: Matt Ward. It's heavily Wraith-focused: Wraithlords and Wraithknights can become Warlord (although they stay in the Heavy Support slot), five Spiritseers can be taken per HQ slot, the Runes of Battle discipline gets a new Primaris power that gives Battle Focus to Wraith units (run and shoot!), and some new Relics (which are meh, but that's not much worse than the Relics in the main book). Fluffwise, it ended up pretty good (surprisingly good, even, given Ward wrote it). Overall, decent if you like the Wraith units or Iyanden, unimportant otherwise.
• Space Marines: The last Codex with a listed author (in this case, Robin Cruddace), non-Ultramarines players had high hopes after the disaster that was Matt Ward's fifth edition, Ultramarine-worshipping Codex (this one is still guilty of Ultra-wank to a degree). The result? Actually, pretty good. The Codex had roughly equal "screen time" for each First Founding Chapter, as well as a paragraph or two of fluff for the major Successor Chapters. Most of the Chapters (with the exception of the Iron Hands, who got some shitty fluff changes) had pretty decent fluff. Each Chapter also gets its own Chapter Tactics (mostly consisting of two extra special rules), which vary widely in quality but are largely pretty good. The Black Templars got rolled up into the Codex, but they kept their Special Characters (including the Emperor's Champion) and the Crusader Squads. There's also grav-weapons (pretty cool), a few new anti-air tanks (the Hunter and the Stalker) based on the Rhino chassis, and a Space Marine inside of a Space Marine. So, all in all, a pretty good update.
  • Space Marines: Sentinels of Terra, by Matt Ward. Surprisingly, the first Space Marines supplement to be released will focus on the Imperial Fists- specifically, their 3rd Company. If the preview is any indication, it will introduce a new SC (Sergeant Garadon) and fluffs out the circumstances leading to Darnath Lysander's demotion to Third Company Captain (being suicidally stubborn to the point where it all but wiped out the 3rd Company). Against all odds, there is no Ultramarine wank in sight (in fact there's a JAB!).
  • Clan Raukaan: Yet another completely unexpected choice for Supplement, this one focuses on the Iron Hands clan famous for their role in the Purging of Contqual (that's Wrath of Iron). The special rules are barely worth mentioning (more Dreadnoughts, more Techmarines, a pretty decent Warlord trait table), except one of the relics, the Gorgon's Chain, which is like an even better version of the Armour Indomitable and Shield Eternal together. On the fluff front, it's considered pretty good by non-Iron Hands players, and absolutely terrible by most Iron Hands players (especially thanks to the continuation of the skubtastic fluff changes from the Codex).
• Sisters of Battle by Robin Cruddace. With the dubious honor of receiving the first digital Codex, the Sisters got the bare minimum of updates this time around. Mostly Tweaks to update the army to sixth Edition, this book should help bring some sisters players out of the woodwork. But probably not considering their models are more expensive than a non-illegal kidney transplant. New Warlord table and Acts of Faith have become one use only. 99% of the images are reused from previous material in other codex and roleplaying games. One image of the models, whereas other codex have at least one model of each
• Inquisition, by REDACTED. A surprise addition to the established Codices. Stated to be the first codex design to be use as allies rather than a full army, and it shows- it only consists of HQ and Elites choices, as well as some Dedicated Transports. Mostly its an update of what was in the Grey Knights Codex. However, they are unique in that they can be used as a second allied detachment (in addition to the "primary" allied detachment), and their units can be used as a Warlord instead of one from the Primary Detachment they're attached to.
• Tyranids, written by "GW Design Studio" (so fuck knows) White Dwarf ratted him out; it was Cruddace again. They get a couple new units this time around, some of which haven't been seen since Chapter Approved 2001- the Exocrine (an overgrown Biovore-like creature), the Haruspex (an assault specialist with a mouth that makes it look like it belongs in a hentai), and the Hive Crone (a new FMC armed with a flamer and Haywire Missiles). On the other hand, they lost virtually everything that made them usable- no Mycetic Spores(*cough* lost lawsuit backlash *cough*) means no deep-striking, and former standbys like the Doom of Malan'tai and the Parasite of Mortrex are gone as well. Virtually everything else which hasn't been cut has been left untouched or nerfed even more than they already have been. The fact that a good number Tyranid players can say that they liked the 5th edition Codex better says a lot about its quality. As of writing, the general opinion of this Codex is that while it's passable in a more casual setting, competitively it's a poor monobuild sack of crap.
• Legion of the Damned: As with all the recent releases, the author is unknown, although it might be Simon Grant (based on the interview in White Dwarf). This is the smallest Codex yet, with only one unit (one copied almost directly from Space Marines, no less). Still, it has a Warlord table (in case you wanted to take some Legion of the Damned units as a primary detachment, except you must take something else as well, as the Legion can't start on the table) and a single relic (the Animus Malorum, a soul-eating skull), as well as an Apocalypse formation (... which is just two or more Legion of the Damned squads) and a couple new battle types. More importantly, however, it lets you use the Legion with all Imperial armies (...and Eldar, for some reason) just like the Inquisition (that is, they don't take up the Ally slot, which is nice).
• Imperial Knight, written by GW's Crazy Design Team of Badassdom. New army, as before they only appeared in the specialist games. In essence, knights who pilot mini-titans, known as Imperial Knights, designed for one person to pilot. Each is a super heavy, and can be taken as either a primary detachment from 3-6 Knights or as a secondary from 1-3 Knights. There are only two types Knight Errant and Knight Paladin, they have no upgrades and are static points. All have D-Weapon close combat weapons. When taken as a Primary Detachment one is designated as a Warlord with a Warlord Table, all other Knights roll if they are either normal knights, squires, or veterans; giving penalty for squires, bonuses for vets, and nothing for normal. This looks like a push to merge Apocalypse and 40k proper.
• Astra Militarum, written by fuck knows (again, probably Cruddace). The IG now have a completely different name for some incomprehensible reason, possibly copyright related or for aethetics. Just like in 5th edition, virtually everything got buffed into the stratosphere. More Divination-capable psykers than any other army? Check. Hotshot lasguns now affected by FRFSRF? Check. Move a whole squad of Russes into the HQ slot? Check. An improved Ogryn variant that acts like walking cover? Got you covered. A new transport that comes with TL autocannons? Sure, why not?
  • Militarum Tempestus, if you REALLY like Stormtroopers and want to field a whole detachment of them. That's it. It's another "made to be allies" codex. It doesn't even have relics. Despite this, it hasn't stopped some players from fielding them as a primary detachment.

Major Updates

With the new push for new specific units and special rules, here is a list for the returning player looking to gauge the game:

• Flyers - Every new Codex (except Sisters of Battle and Inquisition) has some form of flyer that feels overpowered (or as with Dark Angels, underpowered and worthless). Psychic shooting powers cannot hit flyers and a lot of abilities that can hit them are being errata'd to not be able to. So far the only thing that can hit flyers reliably are guns with Skyfire and other flyers.
• Monstrous Creatures - Since the inclusion of the Dreadknight for the Grey Knights, every Xenos army that hasn't had one has been given a Monstrous creature in 6th edition. Tau and Eldar have equivalents which, while badass, are a major point and money sink. The Eldar Wraithknight on release is over 70 quid/100 dollars/90 euros. Currently waiting for Ork Equivalent piloted by a Nob. While cool looking, most of the units are only good in Long Range or Melee against a single model. Swarming them can cause problems.
• No Author - In order to stop their writers from rage quitting, GW decided that instead of highlighting the writer for each codex that they will no longer have an author singled out. This can be seen as a good move and a bad. Good in that we no longer have a scapegoat to point at for ruining our favorite armies. Bad in that we no longer have a scapegoat to point to for ruining our favorite armies.
• Super Heavies - With the conception of Escalation and Codex: Imperial Knights, it is apparent that Super Heavies are slowly pollinating Warhammer 40k 6th edition. Rumors point to the next edition change to make the Escalation rules the Core rules. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up for debate as being able to field titans in 40k is awesome, but D-Weapons destroy everything. Shifting the focus from lets have our armies fight it out to have to kill the titan turn 1.
• Renaming: Both Sisters of Battle and Imperial Guard have had their names change to their High Gothic ones. While Adepta Sororitas does sound less silly, there is no word on why the Imperial Guard are now called Astra Militarum. Most think it's because after losing a few trademark law suits GW has decided to rename their more generic named factions so its easier to trademark (though they still have their "Space Marine" hard-on, when they could've changed them to "Adeptus Astartes" and TM'd that without incident).
• Allies Codex - Seen more prominently with the Imperial Knights and Legion of the Damned Codex, there have been a few "Codex" designed around having allies. Essentially they are very limited or can't be used without an allied detachment backing them up. Legion of the Damned for instance has to arrive from reserves, since all of their units have this rule you will lose turn one for not having a single squad on the table. The main issue is that these Codex are called Codex when really they should be something else like Allies Supplement, because they aren't built to be standalone armies.

Game Supplements

• Apocalypse - Updated to 6th edition inclusion new battle formations and a couple new Super Heavies.

• Escalation: Adds Super-Heavy Vehicles to normal 40k, as an unique "Lords of War" Force Organisation slot. No, it's not an expansion. It's part of regular 40k. Enjoy playing against an Eldar Renevant Titan with D-Weapons at 1000 points! Expect Tournaments to advertise that they exclude or include this.

• Stronghold Assault: Adds more Fortifications to the game. Still doesn't have any non-Imperial ones.

• Codex Supplements - Additions to existing codices that cost, as expected of GW, the same as regular codices. They won't add any new models to use, but they do give existing ones some extra rules or a couple neat Warlord Traits and relics. As per the new Allies Matrix, a supplement-using army can ally with its parent codex as Battle-Brothers.

• Warzone Supplements - Another attempt to pluck your wallet clean of bills, are warzone supplements. Think of campaigns with special rules. Current campaigns present are Death from the Skies, which has a three-way with White Scars, Orks, and Necrons (As well as some flyer-based missions), and Crusade of Fire, where the Imperium, a Chaos legion and some Dark Eldar got into a major scrape-up.
• Apocalypse Warzone Supplements - Yep, the Apocalypse book gets its own set of supplements, called Warzones. It kicked off with Warzone Damnos, a book of Ultramarine and Necron Apocalypse formations with some Inquisition in there somewhere; Warzone Pandorax, which is the same, but with Grey Knights, Dark Angels, Chaos Space Marines, and Catachan Jungle Fighters; Warzone Damocles, with White Scars and Raven Guard up against Tau; and Warzone Valedor with Eldar and Dark Eldar against 'Nids (GASP:A 40K supplement that doesn't involve Space Marines! It's about time a 40K faction got the limelight without having to share it with Space Marines).

• Mini Lore Books - Penny pinching books on the iBook store. Essentially bits of lore that you can probaly find either in a codex or on a wiki site in a little one to five dollar book. Mostly comprised of diagrams of specific equipment associated with the topic at hand (Typhus' Blight Grenades, Jump Packs, Dante's Power Axe, etc.)

• Digital Codex - Love Sisters of Battle? Love the Inquisition? Well now you can love them more with new digital Codex, that will never be available in physical forms. Equivalent of White Dwarf Codex without the issue of not being able to find them.

• Dataslates - To cash in even more on the e-book craze, GeeDubs has made Dataslates, e-books that allow for the use of special characters (Cypher, Be'lakor) or unique formations (Tyrannic War Veterans, An Eldar detachment full of Wraith units, A Tau formation with Broadsides and a Riptide on top, a series of Tyranid formations). Admittedly, the characters are rather nice, and the Formations are okay, though situational in use as they are non-FOC, but with hefty costs.

Crunch Updates

Anything we don't talk about, assume that it's the same as it was in 5th edition (for example, Cavalry/Beasts still have Fleet even though we don't outright say so in their section below).

Game

• You may pre-measure to move and shoot. (p 12)
• Snap Shots- Heavy weapons that are not blast or template may shoot after moving at BS 1. (p 12)
• Wound allocation - Wounds are allocated against the closest model to the attacking unit. (p 15)
  • If there are 6 models that have the same save which would receive the first allocations, before a model with a different save, roll up to that many dice and remove the failures. Repeat until the buffer of same-saves is depleted, then change the save and roll individually. (p 16)
  • If a target unit is in partial cover (some models take cover saves, some do not), you may declare focus fire. Declare you wish to focus fire before rolling to hit. Then declare a cover save amount (from 2+ to 6+, or no cover save at all). Wounds will only be allocated to models that have that cover save or worse. Go to ground does not alter which models may take wounds. You can not hurt any model whose cover save is better than the value you declared. (p 18-19)
  • Template weapons ignore focus fire restrictions. (p 52)
  • Wound groups — you may choose the order in which wound groups from different weapons are allocated. I.e. you may choose to allocate plasmagun wounds (S7 AP2 wounds from two different plasmaguns) first, then bolter wounds. With clever positioning this allows you to kill off specialists more easily.
  • Line of Sight and Range Limits - If a model part of a unit is out of sight or out of range from those shooting wounds cannot be allocated to them.(Errata)
• Character models (Sergeants etc.) may use the "Look out, Sir!" rule when allocated a wound. A 4+ is a success — you may reallocate the wound to any model (even not within range or LoS) within 6" of the character. (p 16) the closest friendly model to your character (since latest FAQ)
  • Independent Characters make "Look Out, Sir!" rolls on 2+. (p 39)
  • "Look Out, Sir!" also works in assault. (p 26)
  • You can only make "Look Out, Sir" roll BEFORE you roll to save. No, you cannot fail a save then attempt to Look Out. This has just been FAQ'd as true for anything even same armor saves. The reason is that if you roll everything at once (for equal saves) and fail enough saves to kill a character or IC, then you can allocate them using LOS! With the FAQ now you don't know if your character or IC will fail the roll or not so you have to take a risk. Either LOS! or save.
• If a model is 25% obscured from the point of view of one model in the firing unit, it receives a 5+ cover save. (p 18)
• Area terrain grants 5+ cover instead of 4+, but you receive +2 to cover save when you Go to Ground. (p 18)
• After declaring an assault, the unit being charged may take an "overwatch" shot at the charging unit. This shooting is a snap shot, and follows all rules for those. Overwatch may not cause pinning or morale checks. Blast and ordnance weapons may not participate, Flame templates get d3 auto hits. (p 21)
• Assault range is now 2d6, not 6 inches. (p 21)
• Models pile in before they attack (at their Initiative). Note that currently Unwieldy weapons and charging through cover don't change your Initiative, so models suffering from these penalties pile in at their "normal" Initiative. This is likely to be FAQd, though. Unwieldy weapons reduce the model to Initiative 1 (p 43), and charging through difficult terrain DOES reduce Initiative unless you have assault grenades. (p 61)
  • Pile in moves are 3". (p 23)
• If a unit's weapons cannot damage the unit it is in combat with, it may choose to auto-fail its morale check at the end of the combat. (p 26)
• Multi-assault negates +1A charge bonus. (p 27)
• (this next sentence is gonna be really awkward) Having two different "special" melee weapons, as 5th edition called it, no longer takes away your +1 attacks for having two weapons. Note you still have to choose which weapon's profile to use in each fight sub-phase. (p 51) If you don't know what this means, don't worry; it never came up in 5th edition and 6th edition's rules already bypass it entirely.
• Can no longer take any saves against Perils of the Warp. (p 67)
  • You CAN take Feel No Pain against Perils, though. (FAQ p 4)
• Deny The Witch: an enemy targeted by a psychic power can roll a d6. On a 6, the psychic power is canceled out completely. Psykers add +1 to their Deny The Witch rolls (or +2 if the target psyker is of higher Mastery Level than the attacking psyker). (p 68)
  • Psychic Hoods now have a 6 inch range, and instead of rolling off and adding Ld, you just make a Deny The Witch roll. (p 68)
• Vehicles now use a Wounds system called Hull Points. Glancing hits do not roll on the vehicle damage chart; the vehicle simply loses a Hull Point. Penetrating hits both inflict a Hull Point's worth of damage and roll on the vehicle damage chart. Vehicles with no hull points left are wrecked. (p 72-4)
  • Immobilized result from failing a Dangerous Terrain test does subtract a Hull Point.

Universal Special Rules (USR)

Rules in italic only require one model in a unit to work on the whole unit.

• Acute Senses - The unit may re-roll to see which table edge they enter from, should they be arriving from a random one (usually due to Outflanking attempts).
• Adamantium Will - The unit receives a +1 bonus to "Deny the Witch" rolls.
• And They Shall Know No Fear- Now a universal rule instead of exclusive to Space Marines. Automatically pass all regroup tests, can move-shoot-assault normally after regrouping, and grants immunity to the Fear rule below.
• Assault Vehicle - Units disembarking from transports with this USR may assault on the turn they do so, even if their disembarking was caused by the vehicles' destruction. All Open-topped transports are Assault Vehicles. Orks will be pleased.
• Armorbane - Models or melee weapons with this USR rolls 2d6 to pen vehicles. Straken should have this.
• Blast & Large Blast - These old standards work pretty much the same as 5e. It's noted however, that a Blast which scatters so that its central hole is off the table misses regardless of what's under the rest of it. Additionally, Blast weapons cannot fire Snap Shots (including Overwatch).
• Blind - Shooting USR, target takes an initiative test, if failed, WS & BS are set to 1 until the end of their next turn. Do note, that models without Initiative value (i.e. vehicles) fail this test automatically (unless they are immune to blind)
• Brotherhood of Psykers- Resolve Perils of the Warp against the character if he is alive/exists, or if not against a model in the unit if he is not. Use the character's LD if he is alive/exists, or the unit's if he is not.
• Bulky - Counts as 2 models in transports.
• Very Bulky - Counts as 3 models in transports.
• Extremely Bulky - Counts as 5 (0_0) models in transports.
• Concussive - Any model that's taken an unsaved wound from a Concussive weapon is reduced to Initiative 1 until the end of the next Assault phase.
• Counter-Attack - The unit may make a Leadership test whenever they're assaulted. Should they succeed then the unit receives a +1 Attack bonus as if they charged themselves. They don't receive any of the other bonuses for charging (Furious Charge etc.) and can't use this ability if they were already locked in combat.
• Crusader - Roll an extra d6 for run, and take the highest. Add d3 to sweeping advances total.
• Daemon - The scions of the Warp get a 5+ invuln and the new Fear rule. Pity about Eternal Warrior though.
• Eternal Warrior - Character with this rule is immune to the Instant Death rule.
  • He still can't take Feel No Pain (see below) against anything that would normally cause Instant Death.
• Fear - In combat, before any blows are struck, the unit without this rule takes a leadership test. If it fails, it is reduced to WS 1 for the remainder of that assault phase. Fearless provides an immunity to this of course, as does And They Shall Know No Fear. It's worth noting that having the Fear USR does not make one Fearless by default however.
• Fearless - Still provides an immunity to Pinning and Morale tests along with the new Fear rule and automatic passing of Regroup tests. However, Fearless unit cannot Go to Ground or choose to fail a Morale with "Our Weapons Are Useless!" No Retreat wounds are no longer taking which makes facing down large Ork mobs even scarier than before.
• Feel No Pain - 5+ instead of 4+ (by default anyway, specific units may have different values). Only instant death ignores it (i.e. power weapons do not).
• Fleet - no longer allows you to run and assault, it now allows you to re-roll your rolls to run and charge.
• Fleshbane - always wounds on a 2+ against non-vehicles.
• Force weapon - Works the same way, but you expend one warp charge to use it. This means more potent psykers can use their force weapon and cast a power.
• Furious Charge - +1S on the charge.
• Gets Hot - Same as before, except it now effects weapons on Vehicles as well. Infantry take their armor/invul save as before, while Vehicles take a 4+ save against it or lose a Hull Point.
• Hammer of Wrath - Units with this USR get 1 auto hit when they charge into combat, at AP-, the model's unmodified S, and I10.
• Hatred[_______] - In the first round of combat against the named foe, re-roll to hit.
• Haywire - When shooting vehicles, Armor Penetration rolls are resolved differently: guaranteed Glancing hit on 2+, guaranteed Penetrating hit on a 6.
• Ignores cover - Self Explanatory.
• Instant Death - Unsaved wounds by this weapon caused instant death regardless of victim's Toughness.
• Interceptor - At the end of the enemy movement phase, this gun may be fired at any unit that arrived from reserve, and is within Line of Sight and range, instead of firing during the next turn of the player who owns it.
• It will not die - If the model has less that its full wounds or hull points, roll a d6. On a 5+ that model regains a wound or hull point.
• Jink - 5+ cover save if the unit moved, 4+ if it moved flat out or turbo-boosted.
• Missile-Lock - d6 scatter instead of 2d6.
• Monster Hunter - A unit containing one or more model with this USR rerolls failed to-wounds against Monstrous creatures and Flying Monstrous creatures.
• Move Through Cover - now ignores Dangerous Terrain.
• Night Vision - Ignores night fighting.
• Poisoned- Same as before, but with new additional benefits: now Poisoned CC weps must reroll failed To Wound rolls if the wielder has equal to or higher S than the target's T. Additionally, Poisoned guns default to 4+ when unspecified, and have a default S of 1.
• Power of the Machine Spirit- Now a universal rule instead of exclusive to Land Raiders; vehicles not moving flat out can fire 1 additional weapon, and it doesn't have to be at the same target as the other weapons.
• Preferred Enemy[_______] - When shooting or assaulting the named enemy, any To Hit and/or To Wound rolls of 1 can be rerolled.
• Rage - now a good thing for some reason. Gives +2A on the charge in Assault, and doesn't make you move towards the nearest enemy.
• Rampage - if a combat has more enemy than friendly models, the model(s) with rampage get +D3 attacks.
• Shred - Reroll failed To-Wound rolls.
• Shrouded - +2 to cover saves, counts as having 5+ cover save even when standing in the open.
• Skilled Rider - Automatically pass Dangerous terrain tests, +1 to Jink saves.
• Skyfire - Uses full BS against flyers but BS1 against non-flyers and non-skimmers. Interceptor rule negates this penalty.
• Slow and Purposeful - No longer counts as in difficult terrain. Identical to Relentless, but can't Run or Sweeping Advance. For vehicles, replace "can't run" with "can't Turbo or Flat Out". Also can't fire Overwatch.
• Smash - All close combat attacks are AP2 (except hammer of wrath) and can halve attacks to double strength and re-roll armour penetration rolls.
• Sniper - Now allows to allocate shots that scored a 6 on a To Hit roll.
• Split Fire - One model can shoot at a different target than the rest of the squad (if it passes a Leadership check first).
• Stealth - +1 to cover saves, cumulative with Shrouded.
• Strafing Run - +1 BS to hit non-flyers and skimmers with assault, heavy, rapid fire or salvo weapons. Shots count as pinning, too.
• Strikedown - Causes models hit by attacks with this rule to move as if in difficult terrain, and halves Initiative.
• Stubborn - Affects Pinning tests along with morale checks now.
• Supersonic - Vehicles with this rule must Flat Out at least 18 inches, and up to 36. Supersonic Flyers can't Hover.
• Swarms - Blast and Ordnance inflict two wounds instead of one. Swarms have Move Through Cover except they still test for Dangerous Terrain.
• Tank Hunters - Allows rerolls of failed penetration rolls, no longer a +1 pen. Also doesn't provide immunity to tank shocks.
• Torrent - Weapons with this place a template within 12".
• Twin-Linked - Now a special rule, provides the same effects.
• Two-Handed - Weapons with this special rule allow no extra attacks from using two CCW's.
• Unwieldy - Strikes at Initiative step 1, unless a walker or monstrous creature.
• Vector Dancer - Allows a 90 degree pivot at the end of the movement phase. Making the pivot disallows flat-out moves.
• Vector Strike - Flying monstrous creatures can make d3+1 ap3 hits on a model they passed over while swooping. Counts as shooting one weapon.
• Zealot - Give the Fearless and Hatred USR's.

Unit Types

Bikes

• Bikes/Jetbikes have Hammer of Wrath, Jink, and Relentless (see above). As of the FAQ they also have Very Bulky.
• The +1 to Toughness a bike gives now applies to Instant Death. In other words, Space Marine Bikers now only suffer Instant Death from Strength 10 weapons, not Strength 8 as before.
• Turbo-Boosting is now done in the Shooting phase. Bikes turbo-boost 12 inches (including the Movement phase, that totals 24 inches per turn) while Jetbikes turbo-boost 24 inches (total of 36 inches per turn). Eldar Jetbikes turbo-boost 36 inches (total of 48 inches per turn!!) Turbo-boosting does NOT give you the 3+ cover save anymore, but due to Jink gives you 4+ instead.
• Bikes/Jetbikes can't Go To Ground anymore, which also means they can't be Pinned.
• Any "can move 6 inches in the Assault Phase, even when not assaulting" rule is now 2D6 inches.

Artillery

• The Artillery Gun models themselves are now T7, W2 and have 3+ armor. All gunners also have T7 when shot at (but not when assaulted) as long as at least one gun is alive.
  • During wound allocation, wounds are allocated to the closest model as if the gun models were regular infantry.
  • "Look out, Sir!" must be resolved amongst the crew (unless you have a gun that somehow counts as a Character).
• Artillery guns cannot Snap Shot.

Jump Infantry

• Jump Infantry is now Bulky (see above).
• If a unit uses their Jump Packs to charge, they may re-roll their charge distance, and gain Hammer of Wrath (see above).

Jet Pack Infantry

• Jet Pack Infantry are now Bulky and Relentless.
• Any "can move 6 inches in the Assault Phase, even when not assaulting" rule is now 2D6 inches.

Monstrous Creatures

• Very streamlined. All MCs have Fear, Hammer of Wrath, Move Through Cover, Relentless, and Smash (see above).
• MCs no longer roll 2D6 for armor penetration in Melee (see Smash's rules for exactly what they can do).

Flying Monstrous Creatures

• This is a completely new unit type, and it takes up a whole damn page (p 49). No damn way I'm reprinting all of that shit here.
• If you want an easy visualization, Gliding FMCs are literally "Monstrous Creatures with Jump Packs". Swooping FMCs are more complicated, but for the most part are "Monstrous Creatures that move like Flyer vehicles".

Cavalry and Beasts

• They move 12 inches in the Movement phase now. Both ignore Difficult Terrain (including while charging), though Cavalry takes Dangerous Terrain tests and neither counts intrinsically as having Frag Grenades.
• Beasts have Move Through Cover, Cavalry have Hammer of Wrath (see above), both have Fleet.

Characters

• Characters have Precision Shots and Precision Strikes. All rolls To Hit of a 6, both Shooting and Assaults, are allocated by the Character's controlling player instead of "randomly, closest to furthest".
  • Precision Shots/Strikes are still subject to any "Look Out, Sir!" rolls the target chooses to make.
  • Snipers also score Precision Hits on a 6.
• Characters may issue Challenges to each other. This is complicated and takes up two whole pages (p 64-5), but it basically forces two Characters to only allocate wounds onto each other.

Weapons

• Models with two Pistols can fire both in each Shooting phase.
• Models with Rapid Fire weapons now fire one shot at max range or two shots at half range (15" for Pulse Rifles), regardless of whether or not they were stationary in the Movement phase.
• Grenades can now be thrown in the Shooting phase:
  • Frag Grenades are 8" Assault1 S3 AP- Blast weapons.
  • Plasma Grenades are 8" Assault1 S4 AP4 Blast weapons.
  • Krak Grenades are 8" Assault1 S6 AP4 weapons.
  • Haywire Grenades are 8" Assault1 S2 AP- Haywire (see above) weapons. They can also be clamped onto vehicles like Krak Grenades.
• In addition to their old effects, Defensive Grenades now grant Stealth against all shooting attacks. This only applies if the unit with Defensive Grenades hasn't Gone To Ground, and is within 8" of the unit shooting at them.
• During Assaults, Krak Grenades and Melta Bombs can now be clamped onto Monstrous Creatures as well as Vehicles.
  • Krak Grenades are S6 AP4, while Melta Bombs are S8 AP1 with Armorbane and Unwieldy (see above).
• Generic "Power Weapons" no longer exist. Power Swords, Power Axes, Power Mauls, etc. have different statblocks.

Vehicles

• Defensive Weapons no longer exist.
• Vehicles moving at Combat Speed fire one weapon at full Ballistic Skill, and all others as Snap Shots. Vehicles moving at Cruising Speed fire all weapons as Snap Shots.
  • Fast vehicles fire all weapons at full moving at combat speed BS and TWO (not one) at full BS moving at full cruising speed
• Vehicles that fire an Ordnance weapon can only make Snap Shots with all other weapons.
• New Vehicle Damage Table:
  • 1-2 = Crew Shaken, 3 = Crew Stunned, 4 = Weapon Destroyed, 5 = Immobilized, 6 = Explodes.
    • If already Immobilized, 5 = Lose a Hull Point (on top of already losing one for a Penetrating Hit).
• During Assaults, non-Walker Vehicles that moved last turn are Weapon Skill 1. Otherwise, all non-Walker Vehicles are Weapon Skill 0.
  • Immobilized counts as "didn't move last turn" even if it did, and is thus WS0.
  • Flat outed vehicles count as WS2 (it matters only against Tau)
  • You are not allowed to declare assaults on vehicles you cannot actually damage (yeah, they actually make a point of specifying this)
• All vehicles (except walkers and heavy) can flat out 6" instead of shooting
  • Fast vehicles flat out 12"
  • Fast skimmers flat out 18" (if even this not enough, buy star engines or œthersails)
• Vehicles in cover is now:
  • Less that 25% hidden = no cover
  • 25% or more hidden = 4+ cover
  • An entire facing is hidden from the shooter, who is shooting around the cover altogether at another facing = 3+ cover
• Vehicle squadrons:
  • Immobilized vehicles are no longer auto-wrecked, but simply detach from the squadron.
  • Stunned vehicles are still immobile for that turn, rather than counting as shaken.
• Transports:
  • You may not disembark from vehicles moving at cruising speed, but the disembarking unit may move up to six inches after disembarking.
  • You may NOT assault after disembarking unless you were disembarking from an Assault Vehicle.
  • A vehicle may not declare Tank Shock or Ramming in the same turn a unit embarks on it.
• Flyers:
  • I am not retyping all that shit here.
• Chariots:
  • Oh fuck you.
• Open-topped vehicles automatically gain the Assault Vehicle rule.
• Heavy vehicles:
  • Can never move faster than Combat Speed, which means no Flat Out.
  • Always count as stationary in the shooting phase.
  • FAQ sez: Skimmers that are also Heavy lose the Jink special rule
• Walkers are now forbidden from declaring Death Or Glory when rammed.

Terrain

• You may now take armor saves against Dangerous Terrain.
• Area terrain now automatically grants Infantry and Bikes/Cavalry 5+ cover saves, regardless of whether or not it actually obscures them.
• Going to ground in area terrain gives +2 to your cover save instead of +1.
• Getting a cover save from being "obscured" is now defined as being literally blocked from the shooter's perspective; instead of being "intentionally generous" you have to make a judgement call as to what constitutes 25% of the model.

Buildings

• As entering buildings follows the rules for entering vehicles, any changes there apply here.
• Buildings now have their own penetrating hit damage chart instead of the same one for vehicles.
  • Scoring a glancing hit on a building instead causes a wound to one random model inside. This would has the Ignores Cover rule.

(This list is not yet complete)

Fluff Update/Business as Usual

General

Disclaimer: In no way has the Fluff deviated from the 5e, as of yet. Anything specific will most likely be changed in that faction's Codex (e.g. Heldrakes, Helbrutes...). This is just highlighting points of interest that may or may not have been in previous rulebooks.

Craptons of fluff. Explanation on daily life in the Imperium, how the Imperium is governed. The Imperium is even more almost-doomed than before. Timeline mentions vast swathes of the Imperium falling to rebellion, alien attack and Chaos rape. Lots of detail on stuff not usually mentioned. It appears that those that wrote about each army are fanboys of that given army. As such you will not find too much negative comments in a race's description. Pages 166-177 are mostly filled with old lore, nothing new at all in those pages. As such expect to see a lot of copy and pasting from previous codices, giving not even the Lexicanum anything interesting to write about in 6th edition that already hasn't been written about.

• The Golden Throne is failing and the Techpriests say it is impossible to repair. As usual. I wonder if they've tried kicking it.
• 13th Black Crusade is still underway as it was apparently back in 3rd edition. Against all odds, Abaddon has managed to take half of Cadia and is continuing to gain ground.
  • Possible Update - Abaddon has nearly captured Cadia and rumors have surfaced of the Daemon Primarchs leading the charge through the Eye of Terror. Though this could be a typo.(Codex: CSM)
  • Possible Update - Dark Angels have decided to move their Fortress towards the Eye of Terror with every successor chapter of theirs headed in the same direction as one gigantic mega-fleet. Codex Astartes be damned.(Codex: Dark Angels)
  • Possible Update - Creed's current tactic is keeping the chaos forces at bay until reinforcements come, in about a week, which includes every single Cadian Guard Regiment that's available.
  • Possible Update - Abbadon's "keep throwing daemons at Cadia" strategy seems to be working, as the increased psychic energy is causing the pylons to resonate unusually; closer inspection by Techpriests reveals numerous cracks beginning to form.
• The Time of Ending - Basically boils the entire 40k universe into a retelling of the Rapture. Humanity is in decline, and every alien race is trying to kick their ass, yet all evidence points to them failing to do so.
• Ultramarines and Tau dislike each other.(pg 177) Two times it is pointed out that the Ultramarines regularly fight Tau, with one reference stating "After killing a bunch of Tau, the Ultramarines...".
• Squats and furries on page 405.

Space Marines

• Arguably more favoritism to Dark Angels as they are one of the factions in Dark Vengeance. Ultramarines are still used in crunch diagrams, but other than that the Dark Angels minis and illustrations are slightly more numerous than the other chapters (Dark Angels get almost no fluff, though).
• Six Marine Chapters are given little summaries. Ultramarines, Dark Angels, Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Imperial Fists, and Grey Knights.(pg 187)
• Deathwatch still Ordo Xenos specialists.
• Grey Knights still Militant arm of the Ordo Malleus.
• Primarchs given a page dedicated to them. Not much detail, though it does say "One by One they Disappear..." (pg 186)
• Astral Knights kick some Necron Ass, destroying a Necron World Engine.
• Ultramarines have some connection with Necrons, many of their relics are made with living metal, may have fought them during the Heresy.
• Imperial Fists giving more background, like their successors chapter are a crusading chapter Sentinels of Terra also has their Chapter Master, Vladimir Pugh, killed while punching a Norn Queen, and then be replaced.
  • Sentinels of Terra also gives more background for Darnath Lysander, as well as more information behind the circumstances of his captivity and introduces his archnemesis, Warsmith Shon'tu. Additionally, the Phalanx has been invaded by an Iron Warriors strike force seeking to hijack it. The Imperial Fists (with the aid of the Legion of the Damned) are putting up heavy resistance, but the battle could still go either way for them.
• Iron Hands given a Chapter President. They're all a bunch of tsunderes now as well.
• Luther is still alive thanks to a stasis field kept in his prison. Interrogator-Chaplains have tried to get information from him, but he's too batshit insane to be helpful most of the time.
• "Cypher" is in fact a title instead of an actual name, so it's possible there may be more than one of him. It's suggested that he's not actually aligned with anyone and may even be testing the Dark Angels' resolve on behalf of the Emperor.
• Lion El'Jonson has fully healed from his injuries and is waiting for the Emperor to send him the signal to wake him up.
• Legion of the Damned sort of refluffed-apparently the Fire Hawks origin is only one theory (albeit the one favored by the Space Marines). Others include the possibility that they're actual ghosts, the Imperial equivalent of Daemons, or time travellers from an alternate future sent back to alter history in Humanity's favor.

Astra Militarum

• Don't be fooled by the new name- it's still the Imperial Guard.
• Now it sucks more than ever to be in the IG. Apparently so many Catachans were thrown at the Tau during the Damocles Gulf crusade that they almost ran out of laser-bullets.

Sisters of Battle

• Actually presented as a competent military force. Otherwise nothing new.
• Given one page dedicated to them. (pg 185)
• Codex gives a page describing each of the most famous Orders.
• Section dedicated to their retrieval and protection of Artefacts, both real and fake. Implying that even when faith is misplaced in something it is still enough to piece the toughest armor.
• Sanctuary 101 is talked about. All Sisters are killed and even though no evidence is left, everyone figures out its the Necrons.

Orks

• Waaagh! Grax. Took over a bunch of Forge Worlds and moons. Also the Crimson Fists are now hurting because of it. (pg175)
• Waaagh! The Beast. Nearly took over the Galaxy... One sentence long description. And it can't be Thraka, "the Beast of Armageddon," since the description says this warboss is "known only as the Beast," which obviously isn't true in Ghazghkull's case.
• Octarius Empire and the Tyranids have had their stalemate broken by Eldar purging all planets in their general vicinity; Eldar are still preservers of the status quo, though less than before.

Eldar

• Necrons got their chocolate space ships inside the Eldar's peanut butter Webway, but the webway is still under Eldar control.(pg 205)
• Eldrad is no longer dead as 6th edition has been retconned back to the beginning of Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade. (Codex: Eldar 6th ed.)
• A New Challenger has appeared in the form of the "Crimson Hunters" Aspect Warriors/Pilots. Basically a cop-out to give Eldar another aspect while not really giving Eldar another aspect (they would have gotten fliers anyway). Like most fliers in 6th edition codices, their use is debatable. (Codex: Eldar 6th ed.)
• Small(ish) versions of Eldar titans are introduced as a model that is even larger than the Riptide. This "Wraithknight" is crewed by a living Eldar and the spirit stone of their deceased twin. Fluff implies that to make more of these extremely rare constructs, Eldar twins occasionally meet with "accidents" in which one of them will perish, making the pair a perfect candidate to fuel the needs of their desperate and dying race. Apparently they use Wraithknights collect Spirit Stones from Crone Worlds. (Codex: Eldar 6th ed.)
• The new codex features mountains of Saim-Hann miniatures, despite most of the forces not made up of a stereotypical Saim-Hann force (jetbikes). Iyanden seems to come in second in terms of painted minis, while most of the other Craftworlds are left a picture or two each. (Codex: Eldar 6th ed.)
• Expanded fluff for the minor Craftworlds (Altansar, Il-Kaithe, Lugganath, Iybraesil, Yme-Loc, and Mymeara) including what they specialise in and what their world-rune means. Otherwise, little new fluff other than a bit of expansion on what already existed and a couple battles thrown on the timeline. (Codex: Eldar 6th ed.)
• Iyanden is given more fluff other than "nom by nids" and retcons the reason they were nommed so badly to nids from inexperience to overconfidence. The Harlequins were apparently involved with Yriel's return and his taking up of the Spear of Twilight.

Dark Eldar

• Nice artwork, though that is not fluff.
• Black Library description is there.
• Imperium is racist enough to not be able to tell the difference between Eldar and Dark Eldar.
• Dark Eldar are Battle Brothers with the other Eldar, but are not good friends with anyone else, including the Grey Knights, even though *Dark Eldar don't use Psykers for fear of Chaos (Of course, the fact that the Dark Eldar are so selfish they'd rather perform atrocities like upholster their chairs with skin from flayed humans rather than deny their desires is why Slaanesh noms their souls in the first place).

Necrons

• Allies of Convenience with Grey Knights (Guess the Xenophobia towards "monkey upstarts" isn't quite so prominent).
• Tombs upon activation send signals, it doesn't appear to be to attract prey as Necrons are weakest in this state.

Tau

• Imperium still doesn't know why Tau are able to convert people so easily. The idea that a generic hippy/communist/socialist attitude is part of the reason is not brought up.
• Hive Fleet Gorgon heads towards Tau and the Imperium does nothing to warn them.
• Multiple implications that the "Greater Good" is a lie or at least heavily skewed in the Ethereals' favor.
• Ethereal's use of mind-control on the Tau outright stated and confirmed.
• A full backstory for Commander Farsight. He apparently fought Daemons on Arthas Moloch, and realized that the Ethereals had deliberately concealed the existence of Chaos. While he still believes in the Greater Good, he fears that revealing what he knows to the Empire as a whole will lead to a second Mon'tau. And yes, he's the same Farsight- while he doesn't realize it, the Dawn Blade extends his life for every living being he kills using it. Also some fluff on "The Eight"- Farsight's retinue and closest companions.

Tyranids

• Hive Mind believed to be a single host organism that the Tyranids originated from. (pg 215, The Hive Fleets)
• At least 9 Hive Fleets known about or worth mentioning.
• Doom of Malan'Tai is no longer a Zoanthrope, but instead some other soul-eating Tyranid. Overall a pretty flimsy excuse as to why he's no longer a model (*the real reason is due to GW's model-making dispute with Chapter House) .
• Parasite of Mortrex has vanished from the Tyranids Codex with no reason given in lore (see * above for the reason).

Chaos Daemons

• Still have the Big 4. (pg 222)
• Eye of Terror is still there.
• Any time a Chaos God has majority control those outside of the warp feel it. I.e. Khorne brings war, Nurgle brings disease, Slaanesh brings hedonism, and Tzeentch brings mutation and warp-related FUN * (fluff changes?)(pg 221)

Chaos Space Marines

• From the BRB:
  • Get a fluff piece detailing the traitor legions and the forces that took part in the 13th Black Crusade.
  • Chaos renegades known as The Purge kill billions. Now for the weather.
• From the Codex:
  • Helbrutes are the new Chaos Dreadnoughts. They're still basically mutated Loyalist Dreadnoughts where the confined Marine went a bit crazy, but they're significantly more mutated-looking now (although, if you want old-style Chaos Dreads, Forge World still sells the Legion-specific ones, and it's easy enough to mod Loyalist Dreads).
  • Warpsmiths are basically just Chaos Techmarines that love merging daemons and machines; they're responsible for all of the Daemon Engines made by the Chaos Marines, although it seems that the Chaos Gods aren't particularly fond of them, since they kidnap so many daemons. It's not clear whether the Iron Warriors Warsmith still exists or not, but they serve a completely different role anyway.
  • Dark Apostles are back, although now they're just super-charismatic Chaos Chaplains without as much emphasis on the Daemon summoning; it's not clear whether they're still Word Bearers-exclusive.
  • The 'Fiends (Mauler and Forge varieties) are big, dinosaur-esque Daemon Engines. Maulerfiends are fast and melee-oriented, focusing on destroying vehicles and fortifications (and they're apparently sometimes called "stalker-tanks," which might be a retcon of the Stalk Tank of Blood Pact fame). Forgefiends are slower, but very, very shooty.
  • Warp Talons are Raptors that went crazy in the Warp and act more like attack dogs than Space Marines; they literally cut into a battle from the Warp with their lightning claws.
  • Speaking of which, Raptors are just Chaos Assault Marines now (and they have Heresy-era jump packs now). No Raptor God, no animalistic instincts... that's all Warp Talons now.
  • Mutilators are melee Obliterators, although it's apparently more complex than that, because Mutilators are just Terminators that became obsessed with melee weapons to the point they merged with his body, whereas Obliterators have the Virus... or something. It's not really clear anymore.
  • Heldrakes are a new type of Chaos flier. They were originally Space Marine fighter craft, but they became possessed by Daemons and turned into giant metal dragons (with the crew trapped inside for all eternity). They're surprisingly Awesome.
  • Cultists are back in the book, although there's nothing really new about them.
• From the Black Legion Supplement:
  • Abaddon's Black Crusades have not always targeted Cadia, nor have they all failed. (Codex Black Legion)
• From the Be'lakor Dataslate:
  • Be'lakor has been introduced from the WHFB continuity. Still the first Daemon Prince, and obsessed with killing all other champions of Chaos to prove that he's the only true Chaos Champion.
• From the Crimson Slaughter Supplement:
  • The Crimson Slaughter warband is introduced, and is apparently one of the most feared warbands around despite the fact that it has never even been mentioned in the fluff until now.

*The Chaos Gods do not guarantee fun. Fun subject to early termination at Tzeentch's discretion. Fun is to be taken in context of Dwarf Fortress.

Allies Matrix

Conceptually, the Allies matrix is a nice addition. In practice, the Allies Table is an Emperor damned mess that shoots itself in the foot a bunch of times:

• Black Templars don't like the Battle Sisters much, even though there's a number of fluff examples of them fighting together and the Codex directly states that the Black Templars are adherents to the Imperial Cult. Even more egregiously, the merging of Black Templars into Space Marines gave GW a chance to fix it... and they didn't!
  • On a related note, Black Templars have a better relationship to Tau and Eldar than Adepta Sororitas... even though they're zealots that hate all xenos.
  • On another related note, the Black Templars' relation to the allies table is... odd. On the one hand, the Space Marines Codex directly states that Black Templars still use the Black Templars allies table... but then that doesn't appear in the newer mini-codices, implying that Black Templars should use Space Marines allies table.
• Imperial Guard are Allies of Convenience to Chaos Marines. This angers players that wanted Traitor Guard (who should be Battle Brothers) and players that think Imperial Guard is loyalists-only (who should be Come the Apocalypse).
• The Necrons are friendlier to the Grey Knights than the Blood Angels, despite the whole Rainbow Pony Princess Best Friends Forever controversy. But on that note, why are Necrons friendly with Grey Knights at all? How do they even know the Grey Knights exist?
• Tau are Battle Brothers with the Space Marines. Apparently a squad of the Emperor's finest will take orders from some no-name Cadre Fireblade.
• Eldar and Dark Eldar are Battle Brothers, even though they've usually been written as disliking or even hating each other (and, at the very least, they don't trust each other at all). This has been justified by a number of fluff additions where the two fight together (and it will probably be elaborated on in the next Dark Eldar Codex), but it was an odd sight to see when 6th first dropped.
• Tyranids have no allies. Yes, this makes sense, but it stings even more given their shitty Codex.

The mini-codices (Inquisition, Legion of the Damned, and Imperial Knights), meanwhile, just ignore this outright; they can all be taken in addition to an allied detachment

On the whole the allies chart is full of fluff violations, making the whole system a bit silly. Why GW did this is unknown but there are a few suspects (especially how the allies chart really favors Space Marines).

Pros

Allowing for team ups is a great idea that many people have probably experimented with already. For example you can have Chaos Imperial Guard now, along with Blood Axes working together with the Imperial Guard. The Rule that even Battle Brothers can't use your transports helps stop other armies from using Drop Pods when they shouldn't. All in all will allow for a lot more different army combinations, such as having Orks act as muscle for the squishy Tau instead of Kroots.

Cons

For the most part it seems that the Allies table is written from the viewpoint of one of the two races instead of both races together. As such you have alliances like Grey Knights and Necrons, because Necrons are not affected by Chaos. Even though Necrons hate every other race (actually, knowing the Grey Knights, this alliance still shouldn't work, but that's a discussion for another article). Also Tau are so peace, love, and friendship that they are best friends forever with everyone except Dark Eldar and Sisters of Battle. For some reason Tau are able to see past the cold inhuman exterior of Necrons and reveal that they are puppies needing a good hug, or GW is still trolling us with the suggestion that Farsight is under Necron influence. Tau would be allies with Tyranids if they could just get past the language barrier... and of course the constant eating of their diplomats.

Allies Matrix

• Space Marines - Battle Brothers with every Space Marine Chapter, including Tau and excluding Grey Knights. Rumors says its because Tau are the Emperor's artificial race, because they are not affected by Chaos, though whenever Tau is mentioned in passing Space Marines are killing them. Dislike Sisters of Battle for some odd reason, probably because part of inquisition. they are Sons of Rawboat Girlyman Matt Ward Sisters and Marines never liked each other, for Sisters its because Marines are transhuman (therefore going ageist the Imperuim's "purity of the human form" ideal), and Marines consider the Sisters' zealotry to be pointless for a man who proclaimed himself as NOT a god.
• Black Templars - Same as Space Marines, though they hate the Tau and for some reason hate Sisters of Battle, and will never work with Orks. They will work with the Eldar though (because the Black Templars are so renowned for working with Aliens and Psykers...How many roleplayers had to die to make this possible, we do not know). The new SM Codex that they've been merged into paints them as best buds with the Sisters of Battle, and they no longer show up in the allies matrix of the newer codices, so they're possibly the same as Space Marines' allies options now after the merge.
• Blood Angels - Same as Space Marines, though hate Tau and will never work with Eldar or Orks.
• Dark Angels - Same as Space Marines, though dislike Space Wolves and Tau.
• Space Wolves - Same as Space Marines, though dislike Dark Angels, Necrons and Tau.
• Chaos Daemons - Battle Brothers with Chaos Space Marines. Will never work with anyone else, except Imperial Guard. Sometimes they work with Dark Eldar (WHAAAAAAAT?!?) Orks or Tau but they hate them.
• Chaos Space Marines - Same as Chaos Daemons, though they are better allies with Tau, Orks, Necrons and Dark Eldar for some no discernible reason.
• Dark Eldar - Battle Brothers with Eldar, because as long as they are close to the same race everything is cool. Hate everyone, but especially Necrons, Blood Angels, and Dark Angels.
• Eldar - Generally dislike everyone, but will never ally with Necrons and all of Chaos. Also hate Orks and Sister of Battle. Battle brothers with Tau for some reason yet again.
• Inquisition - Battle Brothers with any and every Imperial force (Anything else would be outright retarded), Allies of Convenience with Eldar, Desperate Allies with DEldar and Tau (They like the manipulative pricks BETTER than space commies - kind of strange, but there are several instances in the fluff where the Inquisition and the Eldar worked extensively with one another). Everyone else can go suck Exterminatus (Which means no Freeboota Inquisitorial warbands for you!)
• Legion of the Damned - Battle Brothers with all Imperial Forces, Allies of Convenience with Eldar (I guess Idharae's not supposed to exist for some reason?), Desperate Allies for Tau and Dark Eldar. If this sounds fishy to you, then yes, GeeDubs was too lazy to make a new allies chart for the Legion and just copied from the Big I.
• Orks - Neutral to Imperial Guard, Necrons, Tau, and Chaos Marines. Hostile to Black Templars, Blood Angels, and Sisters of Battle. Desperate Allies with everyone else.
• Tau - Overall Neutral to everyone except Tyranids. They're even Battle Brothers with Space Marines and Eldar... this probably has more to do with the Tau themselves rather than the Marines/Eldar. I guess all that Greater Good idealism is contagious.
• Necrons - Before you ask, yes: Necrons and Blood Angels can be Desperate Allies. So can Necrons and Black Templars, so take it with a grain of salt. Otherwise Necrons pretty much dislike everyone except Orks and Grey Knights. Also, they're hostile to Chaos Daemons, but Neutral to Chaos Marines... yeah.
• Sisters of Battle - Battle Brothers with Imperial Guard, Hostile to Chaos and Orks, and different shades of Neutral with everyone else. They dislike the Black Templars and Tau, though.
• Grey Knights - Same as Space Marines, but with all Battle Brothers replaced with Allies of Convenience. Oh, they're also friendlier to the Necrons than the Blood Angels.
• Imperial Guard - The village bicycle (slut). Everybody gets to ride, except Tyranid cause six legged bugs can't ride bicycles. Battle Brothers with (almost) all other Imperium forces, neutral to everyone else. Yes, they're even Neutral to Chaos(actually makes some sense because it allows for Chaos Militia to be played with official rules, that of the Imperial Guard, alongside Chaos).

• Tyranids - ALLIES WITH NO ONE!! EVER!! OM NOM NOM!!! (Updated: Can ally with itself as per new Codex rule)

Current Rules Debates

• Character Squads - Because Characters are described on a page as sometimes being Sergeants of squads, there is beginning to form a group of people who believe that certain Squads made up of only Characters should not be considered such on the table. Examples:
  • Ork Nobs, since the Nob statline is used for both the leaders of Ork Boy squads and for every Nob in a Nob squad. As such all Nobs are considered characters, even though characters are defined as either sergeants or independent characters.
  • Space Wolves' Wolf Guard, since a Wolf Guard Pack Leader is considered a character by the FAQ, which some think mean that since its a character the others are not.
  • RAW - Errata'd. At one point they were all considered characters as long as their statline said so. That meant that the Character Type was non-conditional, meaning that Character Type did not disappear if in.
  • Resolved - Nobz, Wolf Guard etc who were considered characters are now listed as Infantry. Only the Sgt upgrade is considered a Character. Paladins are also no longer considered Characters. On a related note, Look Out Sir can only be given to the closest model to the Character, meaning no more distribution of wounds.
• LoS! and Perils of the Warp - The Use of Look Out Sir with Perils of the warp. In RAW LoS! is only mentioned as being possible for Assault and Shooting. But because there is nothing written in the Psyker section, some people believe it is possible, because its still a wound. Even though the book states only for shooting and assaulting.
  • Resolved - Perils cannot be LoS!, but it can be saved using Feel No Pain instead.
• Mad Dok's Gift - Ork HQ Mad Dok Grotsnik is allowed to give Cybork bodyparts to any model in the army. Does that extend to Allies? Could Imperial Guard take Cybork bodyparts? There is no limitation of it for Orks only.
  • Resolved - Allies of Convenience(Highest Allies Orks can have) cannot be targeted by Abilities of the primary army.
• Template Weapons and Swarms - When using an insta-kill template weapon on swarms does it cause double the number of insta-kills? If the weapon is AP as well do said swarms die horrible horrible deaths? eg. 4 scarabs hit with 8 insta-kill attacks?
  • Resolved - It deals an Instant Death wound to each swarm wounded by the weapon, and then doubles them. 4 Scarab Swarms hit with a Flamestorm Cannon, if wounded 3 times, will lose 3 bases. Essentially, the wound-doubling is lost unless the Swarm in question has Eternal Warrior. (Nurglings) 6e codex.
• Tau Multitrackers - Can they be used for Overwatch?
  • Resolved - Tau multitrackers can only be used in the shooting phase as per the new codex under multitrackers.