Space Rangers Lead the Way! 8th ed 40k.

Chris has been very excited about the release of 8th ed 40k. I was less so- the novelty wears a little thin after you've seen the first few editions. But he wanted a game, and I was keen to let my sci-fi scenery get an airing and to actually use my Space Ranger army, as I'd never before commanded it in battle!  Chris declared we would play to 70 power levels.  This is a simplified points system for people who can't be bothered adding up the cost of every bolt pistol and frag grenade. In our case 70 PLs appeared to equal about 1300 points.  He would of course bring his Khornate Loonies...I decided to bring my Space Rangers!  

These hadn't been out since the Raid on Research Station 217 and I'd umpired that. On toting them up I found the two squads and a tank only came to about 30 odd Power Levels, so I put in an order to EM4 for more!  This added another 2 tactical squads, and I used two spare Sergeants to make a bodyguard for the Captain. I then remembered I had some Mechs in the loft in a box from Em4 as well, and wondered if I could find a use for them. Scanning the Marine List on BattleScribe I found something called a Centurian- Slow but tough and with lots of weapons I felt this was a close enough fit- I added a pile of spare flamers from the Bits Box and called them Sentry Robots! This little lot was painted in the two days before the game!

Also for this game I managed to paint a few Sci-fi Civilians whom you'll see in the following photos- these are the metal magic figure now made by Moonraker miniatures. old school, detailed and characterful. I'll try and get the rest finished soon. 

A space thug and a pilot waiting for the pub to open.

Technician and Barber-Surgeon.

Another Techy chap.

The scratch built tractor.

The local plod!

So, on to the game:  

I took the following Patrol force.

Captain Coruscant- Thunderhammer, plasma pistol

Bodyguard of 2 veterans with Plasma pistols and Power Axes.

3 Tactical Squads with Flamer, Heavy Bolter, Sergeants with a mix of Plasma Pistols and various swords

Devastator Squad with 4 plasma cannons.

Sentry Robot Squad of 3 , all with flamers and mining lasers, and one with hurricane bolters,

Vindicator tank with hunter killer missile.

Chris took a Battalion consisting of

Kharn!

A daemon Prince

some Harpies/furies

about 20 berserkers in 3 squads

A Rhino, and  a Landraider with all havoc launchers.

We used the basic scenario and ended up with one objective- the Grox and Firkin Pub!  Clearly it was getting on for Beer O'clock!

I split one squad into combat squads but kept the rest together. 

My Deployment- Vindicator, one Tac squad, one combat squad, HQ and Robots
behind the pub.  Tac squad, Combat squad2, and Dev. Squad on left.

My plan was to shove the Tac Squad into the path of the enemy attack
as a speed bump, and then counter attack with HQ and Robots...

...While everyone else gives covering fire! These chaps on my left easily dealt with the
Furies, and a stray Khornate combat squad, and pummelled the Landraider.

 

1st Wave of Khorne hits my flank- the Tac squad goes in to slow
them down a bit. Everyone else gets ready to pile in. Vindicator Scratched
the Landraider. 

Tac Squad was overrun in short order- HQ led the countercharge-
Captain felled the Prince with his Thunderhammer, Robots and combat Squad1
chewed up and spat out Kharn and his loonies. Landraider is being ground down by overcharged plasma
cannon volleys into its flanks, and Demolisher cannon from the front.

Devastators and Tac squads keep up the covering fire from the flank- Landraider gets desperate and
tried to run over Captain Coruscant- unfortunately it skewered itself on his Hammer!

Rhino tries to outflank my position again, containing the last Khornate combat squad, and
runs into trouble. At this point I found out that Granades have no effect in melee! Arrgh!
Oh well,the Thunderhammer worked just fine!

The Berserkers within came out fighting, and thanks to some awful dice on
my part managed to take down two Robots!  However the last one wasn't having any
of that nonsense from some squishy emotional types and pulled their arms off!

Khornate forces were utterly annihilated for the loss of the Vindicator, 2 Robots, and about 11 Rangers.

So, how did I feel about the rules ?  Not bad-  Certainly a lot more Streamlined than they used to be ( as point of reference here I last played during 5th ed!) which will make big games easier. Leaving aside the fact this was our first time playing and we hadn't read the rules it didn't take long to get to grips, and nothing really seemed to bog the game down.  Interesting that some things form 2nd ed, like save modifiers and wound multipliers are back, but I feel it lacks some of the Character of 2nd.

On balance I'd say there's nothing revolutionary here at all, and not a huge amount to get overly excited by- its only doing what practically every other ruleset out there already does! But with all the dead weight gone you can now easily put all your figures on the table and have at it without having to book a week off work first! You don't have to worry about micro-managing so much, which is all good for a big game, so we'll probably be trying it again!

Thanks for reading!