6th Edition Leak Rundown: Fake or Real? If Real then What is in store for 40k

Hey all,  as everyone probably knows by now a possible leak of 6th edition with the codex revisions has released online in the now to be famously coined Pancakes Incident. So a couple of debates are popping up. One is of the possible changes as we see them unfold in front of us, some are drastic....the other is, of course, is this real or one of the most elaborate hoax's we have seen in the fake rumor mill.....So examining the document it is plagued by a lot of grammatical and spelling errors. Yet a lot can be credited to an early draft as we have seen to be leaked (The Grey Knights Leak for instance). Also a lot of rules, if read, kind of trail off without actually telling you what they do or how they work but this can probably be credited to rules not being linked together well with reference pages and page numbers. So can this be real? At first I highly doubted this being pragmatic yet the more I read the more I can see that it is possible. In reality if this is real it is probably the 2011 playtest edition from the begining of the year or last summer. So in reality if this is an early playtest it will be full of errors, changed rules, updated rules, and missing new ideas. So as was the case with the dreadknight from the GK codex take all of it with a grain of salt as all is subject to change. Be completely sceptical about it as well.....

So on to the leak itself. Lets pretend it is a playtest copy and go over what the content means for the new meta to be formed. All in all it seems to be a hodge podge of elements and mechanics from the current editions of 40k and fantasy, as well as a recollection of popular old rules from all previous editions of 40k.

One of the first, and most notable changes we see is a complete re-ordering of the turn sequence putting the assault phase before shooting like as in fantasy. This could be huge because with running being moved back into the movement phase different options can arise allowing units to assault a unit and then shoot another. This does however make it hard to blow up a tank, and than assault the contents.....yet that may not matter since models inside can take critical hits causing instant death with only invul. saves allowed. Also with more elaborate options available in the movement phase units can be a lot faster since running is now double your movement instead of a d6 extra inches...This can give a concrete ability such as with fleet beasts can now assault 24 inches in a turn. Now in general we have always had the same turn sequence through every edition of 40k. This would be the largest change to the game.

We also have some old rules coming back. Including the extremely popular Overwatch ability which alows certain units to shoot, in your opponents movement phase, if your opponent moves within 12"s of the unit. This was a hugely popular rule with certain terminator units way back from before my time starting in the end of 3rd edition. We also see a cool return of terrain that can block line of sight called dense terrain. In the past all terrain blocked line of sight regardless since TLOS did not exsist. Instead a unit could only see 6 inches through a piece of terrain yet some units could see through more. This could be cool as tournaments could dictate a few dense pieces of terrain on the table that blocks line of sight entirely which is a tactical asset.

Another new element is the inclusion of strategic assets, similar to the apoc varients. These add in a level of stradegy in a game where people complain that games can be bland with little to no stratedgy other than who can blast thier opponent off the table by winning the roll to go first. Now as we see with some fantasy items many of these, such as the bunkers you can build and such, will probably be banned....Also since I am talking about things that will probably be banned it seems that the rumors are true and imperial armor will be allowed including titans....so don't expect every army to be including a titan for one they will probably be banned in general at major GT's. Also superheavies, in fact will take up more than one spot. An example given was that a baneblade will take up 2 heavy slots so you would not see multiples of any of these units anyway and at a large cost....

Also being returned to us is the older version of wound allocation which is by armor type. Se expect again, as in the old games, to roll all the dice for a squad and always have the sarge, special weapon, and heavy weapon always remarkably be the last ones to die in every squad (so give me that meltagun you jerk I have a family and need to live!). Also it makes diverse squads useless without our current wound allocation system. Also with the new rules models with multiple wounds try to heal themselves, so you can gain a wound in your new consolidation phase, but also leave behind the most wounded by killing off one of your own models.....I don't think this rule will hold ground if these rules to turn out to be an early set.

Personally I like the way the pdf has changed reserves. It uses a similar mechanic to fantasy magic giving you a reserves "pool" of dice equal to the units you have in reserve. You can roll up to three of these dice for any particular unit and even combine reserves into "strike forces" to be rolled for all at once. Personally this adds so much tactical and strategic flavor to the game and the reserves game in general....

Now these are just a few examples of how the game will change if we see this rules set as real. Yet even if we do we will probably see massive changes in the final set of rules. So I guess it can be healthy to give these a look over yet I would'nt go changing entire armies over this pdf. The number one defense people have that the GW denial is just damage control since apperently the pdf has a custom font that no one can use.  Yet fonts can be made and there are similar fonts to the one GW uses available online. Still some people are getting very debative on the issue since these "leaked" rules seem pretty cool....more on this later....thoughts?