No, seriously. It's time to actually read something and think about it.
DISCLAIMER - this is a first impression. More is INVARIABLY going to emerge after experience, games, and more reads. This is meant to be thought-provoking.
SCOPE
This is based on the rules leaked on 2 July - the core rules. It doesn't include all the detachments and all the missions or scoring. It includes the basic turn structure, though, which is a fair amount to digest.
Once we have those, we'll have an idea where 9th might go. I mean, we'll then need to see point values, and we'll have the stage set. Then people might play games if Nurgle isn't making the tallyman work overtime.
That being said, I'll take it from the top, and focus on changes from 8th.
Unit Coherency
This is going to be a change-up. Note that unit coherency now changes based on unit size. If you're 1-5 guys, it's the good ol' 2" between guys. If you're 6+ dudes, you now have to be in coherency with two guys. Also, if you're not in that coherency, you lose guys - but at least they don't count for morale purposes.
The short version - unit footprint is getting smaller.
The long version - screening units have a much smaller footprint. Combined with what we know about strategic reserves, life's gonna get interesting.
Dice Modifiers
Well, we got clarification here, but it's more or less what's expected - at the end of the day, you can't have more than +1 or -1 to a dice roll.
So, you can layer multiple -1s to hit to counter a +1 to hit, though - so it might be worth bringing multiple buffs/de-buffs in case you want or need to stack them, or spread them out. I'm not sure how practical it's going to be, though.
The question, of course, is going to be "What kind of buffs to do I want to bring?" which assumes, of course, that you've got a variety.
All in all, this is a hit to some armies, but probably a decent balance move.
Modifying Characteristics
Hey, at least we got an order of operations in the book - I'll take it.
Turn Phases
We now have a 'command phase' - you'll definitely get a CP during it for being battle-forged.
My follow-on question - there are a lot of "at the beginning of your turn" abilities, and some "beginning of the round" abilities. Are one or both of these going here? I suspect that "beginning of your turn" abilities will now be "command phase" abilities. Hopefully 'beginning of the round' abilities stay there - chaplains, etc. will feel a bit of a hit.
Move Phase
There are three standouts here -
First off, your unit chooses from one of four things - 'move', 'stand still', 'advance' and 'fall back' - which means you can't have some dudes shuffle and the heavy weapon guy stand still. I'm ok with this clarity, for the most part.
Falling back disables psychic powers this time around, though - that's gonna take some getting used to, assuming you had powers. Alternatively, you can lock up psykers in melee and make them wonder if they want to be there.
'Fly' no longer lets you fall back and shoot, which is sad. Or glad, depending on whether you liked Tau. Insert sad Riptide noises [HERE]
Reserves
Note that you don't have to come on by turn three - you only die at the end of the game. Kind of expected, given the changes to aircraft and the fact you can pay CP to keep dudes in reserve, per the leaks/previews we've had.
Transports
Now you can't hop into one if you're engaged. I'll admit I'm rusty on transport rules because I didn't see a ton of them, and I sure didn't see a lot of folks get back into them.
Aircraft
Pretty sure most of this already got previewed - but at least now flying off the table isn't a bad thing, and it might even be useful. Then again, removing a target means it makes the other guy's shooting phase that much easier.
Psychic Phase
At a glance, it looks like nothing really changed. It looks like they just codified 'you get to try each power 1x per turn unless it's Smite' and "Smite gets harder each time you try it."
Shooting Phase in General
A lot of this looks like housekeeping/codifying stuff - like "pick all your targets first" which just means "might want to think about math and odds."
The blast weapon buff is pretty nice - minimum 3 hits, max hits on 11+ - is going to help, and blast weapons are going to be at a premium since screening got a LOT harder.
Shooting Phase - Look Out, Sir
Character screening got a little more complicated, but again this got previewed. I'm largely ok with this. Mostly, you just need to be within 3" of another unit or vehicle - you can't 'screen' a character with that tactical squad that's a foot away. And you can't screen a character with a character, but I'm pretty sure that was already a thing.
Basically, bring a squad to hide behind. Bring two. Or hide behind a tank or two. Or just have more than 9 wounds and be sad.
Shooting Phase - Big Guns Never Tire
I think a lot of folks are psyched about this - even if you're not a big melee monstrosity, you can still defend yourself a little. However, -1 to hit from heavy weapons (and no blast weapons) is going to hurt.
You can always gamble and hope you scraped off everyone attached to you - but you have to declare all your targets. (So you can try to dump your backup weapons into some randos climbing on your hull, hope they die, and dump a battle cannon onto something else. Either you kill 'em and shoot someone else in the bargain, OR lose the battle cannon shot. Math is your friend!)
Ranged Weapon Types
Infantry take a -1 to hit after moving and shooting heavy weapons. That's the big change here. Note, though, that if you're already taking a -1 to hit at a target and you need to move, well, you're not losing anything else at least.
The big change here is blast weapons - they depend on the number of dudes in the unit.
1-5 guys - roll for number of attacks
6-10 guys - roll, but it's minimum of 3
11+ guys - max attacks
Can't shoot into Engagement Range if you're a vehicle, which is sad. Blast weapons can put out the volume of shots, now.
Making Attacks
Wounding, mortal wounds, and damage look pretty unchanged from what we knew.
Charging
The biggest change I see off-hand is the change to multi-charges. You either make all your charges, or none of them.
Overwatch has also been changed - you need rules or a stratagem to overwatch. Honestly I'm not too miffed about it; overwatch is either heavily influenced by army stratagems (IE - Tau, Iron Hands, etc.), weapon types (...why are you charging flamers again?) or lucky dice (Like that time a Hellwright on Dark Abeyant blew up a near-mint Knight Armiger on overwatch. Don't think about the odds.)
Elgibility to fight got a slight change (that will probably be easier to explain with pictures). You can fight if you're in engagement range, which is an inch. You can also fight if you're within half an inch of a friendly who's within half an inch of an enemy.
Morale Phase
Morale got a change as well, but the impact is a little more variable.
You still take a morale check based on casualties. Dead guys + 1d6 vs. leadership. If you roll a 1, you auto-pass. If you roll higher, one guy runs away, and THEN, attrition! Drop 1d6 per guy, and on a 1 they run.
Casualties are going to be more variable, based on the number of survivors. You're going to lose 1 guy per failed morale check, and could assume another 1 in 6 will flee. (It's not perfect math, but it's a reasonable enough guess for you to go with.)
So let's take a unit of 20 guys at Ld10. Kill 10.
8th Edition Ld Check
-straight dice - between 1 and 6 flee.
9th Edition Ld Check
- 1/6 chance to auto-pass.
-when you fail because your dice hate you, 1 dude flees, and out of the remaining 9, 1.5 flees, since you're above half-strength.
-Note that if you get lower than half-strength, it gets worse, since the combat attrition takes a -1 modifier. (so there's a 1/3 chance of fleeing, vs. a 1/6 chance. Ouch.)
Short version - math is going to be involved, and I think we'll probably still have the 2CP auto-pass stratagem.
Note that the coherency check occurs here as well, but doesn't count for morale.
On Objective Markers
The rules codify that an objective marker's a 40mm base, and spell out how close you have to be to claim it. I'm ok with this, since it puts everyone on the same page. There's nothing wrong with standardization.
On new table sizes
It looks like you still start 24" away from each other, so I'm not sure how much of a difference it'll be. At most you just use your old tables and mark off a couple inches on either side. Blammo, done.
In Summary
I remain cautiously optimistic. The biggest changes I see are as follows -
-unit coherency gets a vote on screens
-tactical reserves & widespread availability thereof
-level playing field of CP
-dice modifiers limited to +1/-1
-multi-charges are all-or-nothing
-vehicles/monsters get a little mobility back with move-and-shoot
Now I just have to actually, y'know, play some games and get ahold of new point values, rules, etc.
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