Finally trying Warhammer 40,000 8th edition

So, before I went on holiday I headed over to Dark Sphere Waterloo to try out the 8th edition of 40K. My opponent was bringing his newly painted Salamanders, while I dug out my old Tallarn. We went with 100 power level each so there was plenty to do. Unit wise, I just picked a wide selection of different units to see what they were like.

It's been so long since I played 40K that I am hard pressed to remember what's new and a change and what's really different. I know that tanks having wounds is new, but is alternating deployment a new thing? I've only really been deploying troops for Infinity for so long...

While we were both still trying to get the hang of the game, we were both using nearly completely painted armies, on painted terrain on a nice board. It's certainly something that adds to the whole experience.

I didn't get much of a chance to see what Leman Russ can do, as the Salamander Predators were deathly afraid of it and shot it an awful lot.

The Salamander bikes made the mistake of getting a little too close to the Hellhound, which shot up the table and burnt most of them to a crisp. Hellhounds still good, then.

An angry Space Marine with a Thunder Hammer took revenge, though, and soon the Hellhound was no more.

The Land Speeder and the Hydra had a disagreement, but the Land Speeder definitely came off worse.

Ratlings remain a useful, fun unit, but probably shouldn't get into quite as much of a stand up gun fight as I put them into...

The bikes then charged into my guard squads.

I was pleased to discover that while the Commissar's execution ability is . . . not great, the bestowed leadership is incredibly useful and helped hold the squads together.

Rather than try anything clever with pulling back and shooting, I counter-charged with a priest and a Commissar Lord and pulled them down with weight of numbers.

My Scout Sentinels on the left flank got 'jumped' by an assault squad. I've retroactively made that pun intentional, and I'm not sorry.

A hail of anti tank fire caused one of the Salamander predators to back the hell up behind a bunker to get better cover.

Overwatch fire and big stompy robot legs started making a difference in the assault squad / sentinel fight.

I finally remembered I had a bunch of Storm Troopers in reserve and air dropped them all in.

Inconveniently, many of them were then set on fire by some big robot suit Marines with big flame throwers. Aggressors?

I finally looked up with Tallarn's special rules are and started moving forward quickly.

I also got in a cheeky use of the "Grenadiers" tactic as the surviving conscripts all lobbed frag grenades at a nearby tactical squad.

The Commissar Lord managed to use his power sword to cause a bit of damage on the dreadnought...

While the Scout Sentinel - Assault Squad match ground on, and on, and on . . .

Initial Thoughts

I'd been thinking about giving up on my Guard army and starting something new. But I enjoyed this game with my guard so much that I am absolutely going to rejuvenate them and get them back into play for 8th edition.

40K is still a big tabletop game that takes a bunch of time, so I won't be playing it as often as my skirmish games, but I definitely love the new edition. The stratagems are characterful, the rules work pretty smoothly, and it all seems to hold together well. I am definitely very impressed.