New OPR rules released (version 3.3)

[ccprince]

[Eilif]

Interesting.

I think the assault rule will be pretty terrifying for high quality units assaulting from Vehicles. Imagine a trio of Terminators jumping out of a land raider and still having a 50 percent chance of hitting you with 9 storm bolter and 9 power fist attacks. And that's before you consider the likely attached character.

[ccprince]

Yeah, the high-quality units get pretty terrifying. I don't think I'm going to get much use out of it. My high-quality units either don't have a lot of attacks, or they're Slow, so that half-movement thing really sucks. I mean, with a max move of 4 inches on an Assault, I'm really just close enough to club you with my guns, anyway.

[Eilif]

[JamesWrecks]

Stunned is great. Would've been nice for my Deff Dread/Ork Walkers last time. But not much to say about it. I'd rather be functional and stunned and use my turn 4 action to clear Stunned instead of being idle to just get stunned again the entire game.

===

Assault is really only good for units with -12" ranged weapons and with melee options.

You paid for the points for both, but at that range you only get to pick range or melee to fight once a turn, effectively making the points spent less effective.

With the new rules, check out the Prime Assault Brother. Equip a Flamer Pistol. Be within 6" departing from a transport.

Blood Assault Squad [5] - 190pts

Qua 3+ Def 2+
4x Heavy CCWs (A2, AP(1))
4x Heavy Pistols (12", A1, AP(1))
1x Flamer Pistol (6", A1, Blast(3), Reliable)
1x Energy Fist (A2, AP(4))

Just shooting, you're hitting 3 times on average.
Just melee, you're hitting 6-7 times on average.
With assault, you're hitting roughly 11.5 times on average even with the penalty and the Flamer Pistol.

I went through the other official armies, and you're trading less hits for more utility (Elite Snatchers from the Soul-Snatcher Cult as comparison), so having a more lethal unit at those specific ranges is very cool.

[Mattias!]

[Jackswift]

Interesting stuff to try. Assault might make my Sisters Seraphim units with flamers more viable again. They've been pretty useless the last few times I've run them.

[JamesWrecks]

[Mattias!]

Reviving this thread for a different question on these rules. I had always assumed LOS was strictly from the model's viewpoint, but I noticed this line just now (which I think changed slightly with the recent update):

This seems to indicate that "the perimeter of other units (friendly or enemy)" is considered LOS-blocking.

This reddit thread seems to agree: https://www.reddit.com/r/onepagerules/c ... cking_los/

I like this interpretation in the abstract because it makes positioning really important, and potentially reduces the effectiveness of some of the more powerful guns.

But should there be limits? Should a unit of infantry be able to screen LOS to a big tank or tall walker that's behind them?

I don't think so, personally. As someone who tends to run a lot of infantry and some big walkers, it would feel a bit cheesy to me if a line of little quar could effectively LOS-block a pair of dreadnoughts. But on the other hand, maybe that's balanced by the fact that the dreadnoughts and tank also wouldn't be able to shoot through the screening unit? Should "unit perimeter" be limited to the height of the models in the unit as well?

What do y'all think?

[Eilif]

I think we've played pretty consistently that other units of infantry block the line-of-sight of units of infantry regardless of friend or foe.

However, I think we've generally played that a larger vehicle can see over a unit of infantry and can be seen over a unit of infantry. It does appear that Rules As Written (RAW) would prevent this, but I think we've done fine with our own unspoken house rule.

I'm ok with varying sizes of infantry (from Haflings to terminators) blocking line of sight as intervening units. As justifications, infantry can crouch, so a taller unit isn't necessarily taller, the nearest infantry to you is generally going to be the threat to be dealt with first, and one wouldn't want to risk shooting through slightly shorter friendly infantry.

Also, RAW is less necesary as I tend to setup tables with more-than average cover, lots of infantry sized scatter terrain and I treat forest as line-of-sight blocking to units completely on either side. I think letting big things see over small things is less consequential when there are plenty of places to hide and plenty of things blocking line of sight.

Lastly, one scenario exception might be a last-stand situation where a disciplined force could be tightly packed and allowed to shoot through friendly units when they are in direct contact with each other.