40k Version 6.1 + Psy Phase

Reading through Kirby's increasingly long run through of the rulebook, which he has in hand, and I'm starting to come to the opinion that this is really Warhammer 40,000 6th.1 with the addition of a new phase and some optional missions / ways to build your army.

While tweaks such as FMC not assaulting the turn they change flight modes may seem substantial, they are no different from the release of new codices that change how models used to work ... especially since FMC are not all that common outside nids/daemons.

The nice thing is this isn't a major shift. A lot of armies are going to be "OK" and changes won't HAVE to be major. It'll still be the wild west of sorts for a couple months, but not as much as it otherwise could have been.

At the same time, there are going to be some understandably upset people at having to pay $60+ just so the developers could tell them what they really "meant" for 6th to be in the first place. I'm downloading my bought-and-paid-for rulebook tomorrow, but I wouldn't be surprised if pdf sharing on this particular book is more common than in the past.

GW doesn't read what I write, just as they don't provide direct support for one of the largest GW events run on the planet, but I continue to fail at understanding why they don't build their rules and releases for ALL customers instead of letting some dominant personalities within the dev studio hamfistedly force the game down avenues where without amendment it only works well for niche player group types (tournaments and social groups where both organizations, if you will, can pick and choose what to use and not use for clarity).

I ALSO wonder if they KNOW that their game works extremely well for tournaments. I'm not sure they do, b/c I think they INTEND for it to do the opposite. Either way, the change to 6th.1 from 6th is going to be smoother than the change from 5th to 6th by a substantial margin. This is good, because my concerns are allayed about people not being able to properly adjust and prepare for the NOVA Open this year.

What do YOU think? Check out Kirby's blog at the moment for what seems to be one of the more comprehensive live breakdowns.

Along those lines, the list of vendors showing up at NOVA from whom you can get sweet deals and awesome product continues to grow, now looking something like (with some tentatives still):
The Warstore
Grex Airbrush
Toledo Game Room
Culpeper Comics and Gaming
Atlantis Games
Tectonic Craft Studios
Greenman Designs
KR Multicase
Powered Play Gaming
Iron Heart Artisans
DeepWars
Folange's Ceramic Geeks

The Demo Hall is also starting to fill out, already including:
Dropzone Commander
DeepWars
Pathfinder Society
Angry Sheep
Forgotten King
This Is Not a Test