My 1st foray into 8th ed 40k

o/

Rather than post my usual attempt at a play-by-play battle report, I'll instead just give my general impressions thus far. No doubt these will evolve as more games are played but my initial reaction is: its pretty good! I don't like everything that was changed, but the pros outweigh the cons at least early on.

WAAAAUGH!! Sadly, I'd forgotten my Tankbustas (aside from the one with ROKKIT PISTOLS!!!) and had to proxy the mob with every spare boy I could find in my case! Its a shame, as they were my undisputed MVPs. Still, this made for a cool pic.

I played a 1k game using my Orks vs. Kushial's Lion of Harlech spess mahreenz. Da boyz have been so fa behind the 8-ball for so long now, they'e more or less going to be my make-it-or-beak-it army for 8th ed. 

Here I've already moved my slugga boyz via 'da jump' psychic power. Whilst that didn't really move em closer to da beakies, it did get em away from all of those dreads!

The Lions arrived fielding 4 Dreads, 2 of them venerable...how typical of Kushial. In prior editions, this would have filled me with dread (yes, that pun is intended) as my Orks have always a fared poorly vs. enemy armor. However with vehicles all being essentially monsterous creatures of old, they'e easier to take down. 

Da good ol' Matilda (Battlewagon), resilient as always. 

Of course it was only my big mek Fix-a-flat who kept it alive. Honestly, he fired once and spent the rest of the game repairing Da Matilda. As such, this game was different from any other for him. 

True, the few grot blasta and slugga rounds that I fired the dreads at were as pointless as before, but the rokkits were quite deadly and eventually, I took down three dreads and the 4th was on its last legs by game's end. Victory points be damned! I'm calling that a victory!! (Kushial won btw, 5-6 VPs.)

Da hill iz mine! Also note, Da Eleet Grot Mountin Duvishun was down to the last dregs by this point...

Da boys on the far side, hit like a trukk in close combat! swinging 1st, they tore a tactical squad to ribbons! I haven't see regular Orks grunts do so well in years! I'm used to them jumping out of a trukk, charging (invariably space wolves) and being torn to ribbons before ever getting to strike!

WAAAAAUGH!!!

Charging units hitting 1st is a MAJOR improvement for the Orks! previously, we went last vs. damn near everything! Likewise, challenges are gone, and good riddance to them! I never liked those anyways. 

Da Grot Duvishun, dying in droves as usual...

I do miss my templates though. My Ork lobbas were damn near useless. Heavy D6 = 1 to 2 'shots' per tun. I use the old WHFB Katapult krew grots, but instead of lobbing 'rocks' they were instead flinging 'gravel'. As much as this sucked for me, I'd be livid if I still had all of my old IG Leman Russ tanks!

Because this looks like a fair fight...

Also the number of wounds on everything...dunno, something about that just seems off to me. Can't quite place it yet, but I'd rather still have vehicle facings and armor values instead. I can see the need for dreads to be MCs, but everything? 

In konklushun...

Overall, 40k had so much bloat of rules that something needed to be done. Not sue if this was what it needed though. Overall the game (close combat aside) felt like much the same old 40k, but simplifying (dumbing things down?) too much could make it all seem too generic. Dunno, time will tell I guess. 

The other big part of the game is the fluff. Thus far I've stayed away from that as from what little I've read, its just flat awful. That in and of itself is troublesome, as fluff is what hooks us into the game in the 1st place.