First Game of 40K 6th Edition!

Well, it's been a long and crazy week.  I actually played my first game of 6th edition 40K last Monday night, but am just now getting to write about it!  We played a 1250 pt. game, since it was my first, and nobody locally really has many games under their belts yet.  We figured that would help us get done in a reasonable amount of time.  Not sure that worked; the game took MUCH longer than I expected it to.  Not just due to the newness of 6th edition.  For the first time in about 11 months, I fielded my Tyranids.  I spent more time than normal looking things up on my army list to check stats.  I guess that's to be expected when you move from army to army.  Fortunately Kirk, my opponent, also plays 'Nids sometimes and he was able to help keep me on track!  He played a fairly generic list out of Codex Space Marines.  He turtled up behind his Aegis defense line, and I tried to get across the board to give him some Tyranid style loving.  I lost. 

Now that we have that out of the way, what are my impressions?  Good and bad.  First, Tyranids are really slow in this edition!  Not being able to assault after running hurts a lot!  I'm sure there are those out there that will yammer about being able to charge 2d6 inches instead of 6.  Who cares?  I only had one charge go over 7 inches in the game (even with the Warlord trait giving a bonus inch) and that one was termigants assaulting a Rhino!  Yes, I had bad dice rolls for charging.  Still, losing any meaningful benefit to "Fleet" is another good sized boot to the teeth of the bugs.  A boot that hurts all other armies that utilized fleet in the past as well.  The "no assaulting the turn you outflank" rule is another kick in the the teeth.  I thought the previous rules for deployment, outflanking/infiltrating, and assault worked pretty well, and I don't always play bugs!

On an up note however, I like the new hull point rules!  A lot!  Over the years I have drawn, or lost numerous games because I was unable to roll better than a 2 on the vehicle damage charts.  I'm talking with multiple armies here.  Now, I still get some gradual benefit from those crappy rolls!  A unit of free, spawned termigants can charge and destroy a rhino.  A lone Genestealer can (with miraculous dice rolls) pull off the very "cinematic" attack on the hovering Stormtalon and drag it from the sky. Hull points is definitely a rule change for the better.

Good and bad, I still have hopes for this newest incarnation of my favorite game.  Every edition people talk about the "pendulum" and how the game swings back and forth.  Why, like an actual pendulum," does it never seem to slow and achieve some middle ground?  Why am I feeling more and more like the rules are pigeon-holing me into a specific style of play?  Why, for the first time in over a decade, am I looking seriously at other games?  I know all of these questions make it appear that I'm down on Games Workshop and 40K.  I'm not really.  I am less willing to give as freely of my time to aspects of this hobby that are not as fun as they used to be.  These days, I generally have less fun playing the game, and more fun modelling and painting.  I'm actively trying to get all of the models I "need" for existing armies bought before the next price hike.  I'll focus on getting it all painted then.  My HOPE is that negative aspects aside, 6th Edition 40K starts to turn the situation around some and I start to enjoy playing the game more again.  Fingers crossed!  I know I can't count on my dice!