Rules lawyering for 6th - Taking RAW to the max

6th ed has been out for a short while now and already there has been some face-palming moments with "loop holes" by taking words literally as they are written. And these arguments are correct in their points of view although all sense of logic says wtf!

Here is 3 examples.

The first one that came to my attention is the Dire Avenger exarch power "Bladestorm", the key wording in the rule says "may not fire in the subsequent shooting phase". Thus it is entirely legal to bladestorm in your own turn, then if you get charged in your opponent's next turn you can bladestorm again as it isn't the subsequent shooting phase.

The next one that came to my attention is via Stelek at YTTH:

Main Rulebook, Page 45:

“Bike and Jetbike riders benefit from the
protection offered by their bike, which
increases their Toughness characteristic
by 1. If the Bike or Jetbike is part of the
model’s standard wargear, this bonus is
already included on its profile.”

While one can argue that Eldar Jetbikes are not defined for Warlocks or Farseers, the rules have been upgraded to define Eldar Jetbikes (aka Guardian Jetbikes) so these apply. Note that Shining Spears are not Eldar Jetbikes (read the unit entry, they have jetbikes…nice fail still going on years later, thankfully, no one uses them so who cares, and this does NOT apply to them because the bike IS included in their standard wargear).

Eldar FAQ:

“These have twin-linked shuriken catapults;
they increase their rider’s Toughness by 1
and confer a 3+ armor save to the rider.
Finally, they change the rider’s unit type to Eldar Jetbike.”

Hmmm. Regular Guardian Jetbikes remain T4.

However, since Eldar Jetbikes are not part of my model’s normal wargear on the farseer or warlock, I get both bonuses.

This means Warlock squads on bikes are T5, as is my Farseer on a bike.

Finally I heard this during a batrep from Frontline Gaming. To shoot a flying MC you can only fire Snap Shots unless you have Skyfire. Assume the MC gets hit and wounded they now must take a "Grounded Test" where they have a chance to fall out of the sky and become "Grounded" (not the use of capital letter). It then details the Grounded rule which explains how it moves in subsequent movement phases, losing jink and may be assaulted, the rules make no mention of losing "Swooping" or "Hard to hit" Thus by RAW you may still only fire Snap Shots at it unless you have Skyfire... whilst it's on the ground.

All these arguments are correct even if common sense tells you otherwise.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

So I've only had one game of 6th edition and that was a practice for a doubles tournament, but times have changed and my main list needs to make its next evolutionary step. So here's what Im thinking so far.

Farseer
Doom
Guide
Spirit Stones
Runes of Warding

Farseer
E.Storm
Mind War
Guide
Spirit Stones
Runes of Warding

Fire Dragons x 6

Wave Serpent
TL Shuriken Cannon
Shuriken Cannon

Fire Dragons x 6

Wave Serpent
TL Shuriken Cannon
Shuriken Cannon

Dire Avengers x 10
Exarch
Bladestorm
Dual Catapults

Wave Serpent
TL Shuriken Cannon
Shuriken Cannon

Dire Avengers x 10
Exarch
Bladestorm
Dual Catapults

Wave Serpent
TL Shuriken Cannon
Shuriken Cannon

Dire Avengers x 10
Exarch
Bladestorm
Dual Catapults

Wave Serpent
TL Shuriken Cannon
Shuriken Cannon

Hornet
Pulse Laser x 2

Hornet
Pulse Laser x 2

Warp Spiders x 5
Exarch
Dual Spinners
Withdraw

Warp Hunter

TOTAL 2000

So it's spammy but what's the point of not running optimal builds? Speaking of optimal I would like to upgrade all my Avenger exarchs with Defend and PW/SS but not really sure where I'll get the points from, I could drop the chin cannon's off all my Serpents but that is a big loss of fire power for something I'm not sure will be that useful. I also would like to take a nightwing but that'd require dropping something very large to afford.

So I'll try this list out and see how it goes, see how effective vehicles are. My theory is after a while people will stop taking so many vehicles, and anti tank weapons will drop in number thus armour saturation will be a viable tactic (or is it strategy in this case?) still.

Unit break down after initial 6th ed read

This is how I see things after reading the rule book, this is all just theory from reading the rules I’m not going to comment on vehicles as I’d like to test them out in play first.

Avatar – I think this guy will do okay

Pro: Fear, it’s in writing he ignores flamestorm cannons, smash attack, Hammer of Wrath, challenges? (Say you’re fighting TH/SS termies you challenge the serg, either he buggers off or you don’t have to fight the other average joe’s at the same time), Warlord trait

Con: Random charge range (Like scorpions this will generally help more than hinder I just don’t like randomness)

Farseers

Pros: Best psychic defence in game, improves Deny the Witch to squads they are in, Warlord trait. I’ll be running 2 Farseers (RoWarding still stacks and there’s no range nerf) one using codex powers the other Divination. Doom + Misfortune = big lols!

Cons: Witchblade nerf

Autarch

Pros: Warlord trait, Hammer of Wrath if taking wings/WJG/JB, Precision shot

Cons: Can’t think of much.

Warlocks

Pro: Bonus to Deny the Witch

Con: Witchblade nerf

Scorpions

Pros: … can throw plasma grenades?

Cons: Overwatch, Random charge range (admittedly their charge range has the potential to be a lot higher, it’s not like the fleet nerf but anything random is bad IMO) Disordered charge, Cover generally lower, Wound allocation (think shooting casualties when advancing), Challenges mean Claw Exarchs may die before being able to attack or be useless.

Fire Dragons

Pro: Fusion guns still own

Con: Melta bombs are unwieldy – this hurts for when you’re assaulted by dreadnaughts

Wraithguard

Pro: Fearless is buffed, Overwatch

Con:

Banshees

Pro: Challenges (Exarchs go Sergeant head hunting) CC wound allocation may prevent retaliatory attacks?

Cons: Overwatch, fleet nerf, random charge range, disordered charge, power weapon nerf, cover generally lower, shooting wound allocation

Harlequins

Pros: Rending AP still good, CC wound allocation may prevent retaliatory attacks? Shadowseer improves Deny the Witch

cons: VoT nerf, Overwatch, fleet nerf, random charge range, disordered charge, power weapon nerf (troupe master), cover generally lower, shooting wound allocation

Avengers

Pro: Overwatch, Shooting wound allocation (keeping assault units out of range) cover saves generally lower means more killy vs orks etc

cons: (if you’re one to use them as an assault unit add in all the cons banshee’s have)

Rangers

Pro: Precision shot, overwatch, cover saves generally lower means more killy

con: Nothing?

Guardian

Pro: Squads w/ a warlock have improved Deny the Witch, overwatch, Cover saves generally lower, heavy weapons able to remove hull points when glances used to be kinda useless

Con: Lower cover saves for yourself?

I don’t use Storm Guardians so got no real comments

GJB

Pro: Jink, Hammer of Wrath, wanna race? Seeya in 48”! Shuriken cannons remove hull points, Warlock improves Deny the Witch

Con: I don’t play Saim Hann I don’t have enough jetbikes! witchblade nerf, Random Assault movement (generally will be higher but I don’t like random)

Shining Spears (I think these guys get the most buffs)

Pro: Jink, Hammer of Wrath, ludicrous speed, Skilled Rider

Con: power weapon nerf

Warp Spiders

Pro: Hammer of wrath, Deep Striking is safer, hull point shredders, overwatch

Con: power weapon nerf (I’m clutching for something)

Swooping Hawks

Pro: Hammer of wrath, Deep Strike is safer, can throw various grenades, shreds hull points with haywire, overwatch

con: fleet nerf, power weapon nerf (this is clutching more than with the spiders, but I do fleet with my hawks often)

Shadow Spectres

Pro: overwatch, cover generally lower, may be able to rip off hull points well?

con: Random Assault movement (generally will be higher but I don’t like random)

Support weapons: I skipped these rules I don’t like artillery

Reapers: move and snap shot, overwatch, cover is generally lower

con: Can’t overwatch the tempest launcher

Wraithlord

Pro: Easier to gain cover, Fear, Smash, Hammer of wrath, Overwatch/Wall of Death

Cons: Krak grenades/melta bombs

Did I miss anything? Overall I'm not liking close combat for my Eldar (my Wych Cult is crying on the shelf) however I think shooting is where it's at and that's how I'll be rewriting my lists.