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I've played a little over half a dozen games under the new rules. (Only a couple of them with my dark angels though.) I'm finding the new rules fun and overall just add to what was already there. The true line of sight rules have yet to really cause any arguments in my games and the improvements to cover (and cover saves) have generally improved the way casualties occur and how people decide on their shooting. Blast weapons are seriously awesome and target aquisition more calculated. Massed fire is also more dangerous as wound allocation means if you can focus enough fire the special weapons, sergeants etc... will die before they can cause trouble.

I also got my first real try with a doublewing/black and white list, against Tyranids! The exclamation is justified because I reckon tyanids are one of the armies that most benefited from the new rules. (So many blasts.) His list was mainly focused on shooting and had rather a lot of it. A couple of carnifex, zoanathropes, tyrant, lots of gaunts of several types, gargoyles and warriors with deathspitters and rending. I was very worried.

However this is where the new rules really change the way to game plays. The missions being completely random for both objectives and deployment mean it's much harder to clearly set you mind for how best to deal with opponents. The objective missions are not as similar as they first look. One requires a mobile army to move onto and capture/hold objectives whereas the other really just needs you to hold onto one whilst clearing the other of enemy troops (a gunline is perfect). Lastly kill points which require more simply just requires you to wipe out the opponent so is probably the most familiar to everyone. Lastly knowing who'll go first along with the guy going second getting to see where the enemy deployed has a huge impact.

My tyranid game was a seize ground mission with table quarter deployment. The nids won the roll to deploy and he chose to go first. My bikes deployed and the game proceeded very entertainingly. I was quite lucky with my saves for the first turn which really swung the game. Although it got so late we had to call it at turn three because of the mission objectives it was clear the nids despite being in the commanding position in terms of what was left would lose.

Although some might see this as a flaw (the army that's wiping out the enemy losing) it does make for a much friendlier, more tactical and considered game. You don't have to wipe out the enemy to win. It's much harder to wipe out an enemy who's playing defensively. Objectives and missions require more mobile thinking when you write your army. Lastly the changes to the core rules hugely change how much people seem to be able to control the game separate from their opponent. Against a shooty army it's harder to hide in combat and vice versa.

My current opinion is a still slightly tentative two thumbs up.