Games Workshop just put out the movement rules for 8th edition. Come see what’s changing and what’s not when it comes to moving your troops.Warhammer Community just gave us a preview of what we can expect from the movement part of 8th edition. Let’s take a look at what they had to say.
Movement in the new edition will be very familiar to players of the game today, but the rules team have taken the opportunity to improve a few elements.
In the new edition, every model has its own Movement characteristic. This means that, rather than every model moving 6″ unless specified otherwise – things like Terminators will advance slowly and inexorably, while Harlequins leap and bound, and bikes and speeders zip across the battlefield.
Some units will have a minimum move too – this mostly applies to flyers, who can’t stop. Again, this is much like the rules today, but every flyer will have their own minimum and maximum move value, to represent the fact that swift fighters will naturally be quicker than a lumbering bomber.
Running has been rolled into the Movement phase now, too. You can “Advance” when you move by rolling a dice and adding the result to your Movement to go a bit faster at the expense of shooting.
This applies to all models – infantry, vehicles, bikes – everyone. By including this roll as part of your move, the game speeds up, as you no longer have to move models in both the Movement and Shooting phases.
Oh, there was one last thing.
If you’re in combat at the start of your turn, you can Fall Back by moving away from the enemy. You’ll lose the ability to advance, shoot or charge that turn, and crucially, enemies will be able to shoot at you! This does, however, open up a vast range of tactical options for armies like the Astra Militarum, who will now be able to effectively deploy in firing lines, with each row falling back from any assaults in good order (if they survived) while the unit behind them fires at the attackers. It goes both ways though – if you have a dedicated assault unit that specializes in killing infantry (like Warp Talons) your opponent will find it much harder to pin them down in combat with heavily armoured units for the entire game.
Combining the movement and running into one phase should speed things up a little. The 90 minute time window for a 1500 point game is starting to become a little more believable. All units will now have independent movement speeds, but they will still not be allowed to pass through other units or walls. Flying units will now have a minimum and maximum movement value, keeping with the idea that it’s not as easy for them to stop.
What do you think about the new movement rules? Do you like the idea of combining the run and normal movements into one phase? What about the different movement speeds for different units? Games Workshop is changing a lot of things up in 8th edition, and we’d like to know what you have to say, please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Make sure you check back in with us tomorrow when Games Workshop is going to reveal the Psychic Phase!
