Long-awaited Chapter Approved is finally released and we can see what it has changed. And, sure, share our thoughts with you. This can't be called a big review since there's no use to name all the missions and units details. We want to pay attention to the changes about the Matched play - anyway it's the most popular game mode today.
Almost no one liked scoring flyers. So, now they are gone. No flyer can hold an objective now. They are way too fast for it. This has always been and this was expected in the new edition.
Another logical change is ban to use command re-roll on the rolls which determine the game conditions. Missions, deployment, and the first player. A great thing, since there's enough random stuff in this game already.
The new edition let you take incomplete units. This, itself is quite weird and leaves a space for cheating and game-breaking tactics. So, now you have to take a separate detachment for those units, which also costs you 1 command point. No one prevents you from taking them (you might need to use starter squads) but a small penalty for it seems legit.
And the only change which seems illogical. Now you can't target a character even though you can't see the closest enemy unit. It lets you deepstrike somebody cheap somewhere behind the wall near the enemy and make them fight them instead of a character, marching towards them on the open ground. Well, playtests will show whether it's ok or not.
A widely discussed possibility to customize a land raider appeared to be open game-only. So, you have a chance to see custom land raiders only in Apocalypse or fun games with your friend. Speaking about the Apocalypse, there are also new rules for it, but unfortunately, they don't include assets, finest hours, formations and all the things we loved the Apocalypse for. You just take an army of any size you want and play several suggested missions. LeEt's hope that it's a temporary decision and soon we'll see full-scale rules.
By the way, there are rules for Stronghold Assault and Planetstrike in the narrative game section. Now you have all the game mods from the previous editions available. There's a lot of interesting stuff - missions, stratagems, detachments - so if you prefer narrative games to the sport, this book is a must for you.
There are also new rules for terrain and fortifications. The latter became less important than their counterparts from the 7th edition. For example, the famous Void-shield generator now gives only 5++ to the units COMPLETELY WITHIN 6 inches. OAnd fearsome vortex and macro-cannon are ruined by usual 8th edition randomness. However, if you liked fortifications before, you'll still find a way to use them now.
Speaking about new rules - there's a couple of stratagems, artifacts or warlord traits for each faction without a codex. Sure, it's now a full-scale lists. but it can make the waiting easier and gameplay more interesting. The balance is also corrected by the new prices for many units - so it seems like a topic for a separate article.
In general, the book will be useful for anyone no matter which game mode and faction they prefer. It's nice that GW adjusts the balance so fast. It will be even nicer if they do it annually like in AoS. Even the general primitiveness of the 8th edition can be forgiven for it since only it lets game designers change small aspects of the game without breaking it down.
