GO FAQ YOURSELF

Welcome to a new age of Warhammer ladies and gentlemen, an age where the company we know and love, Game Workshop, pays attention to the meta and works their teams around the clock to try and balance Warhammer 40k.  Regardless of what I think of their changes and rulings, which I elaborate on further down, I really appreciate the work that these guys are putting in to make this game fun and balanced.  I hope they can keep up the pace, and not get discouraged with all the rage that is the Internet.

There were plenty of changes made, but there were 3 really big ones that will change the shape of this game and how it is played.  You may not agree that they are the biggest, but you can't deny that they are super important.

First up is the limitations to "deep striking" on the first turn.  GW seemed to think that armies that took advantage of this were too powerful and beginning to dominate the meta so they decided that if you wanted to "deep strike" on turn 1, you had to land in your own deployment zone.  This does not apply to certain units that are "set up after the first battle round starts but before the first turn begins". This applies to Genestealer Cult units that Cult Ambush, Alpha Legion Forward Operatives, Eldar Rangers, and the like.

This makes sense from a thematic perspective, your army has not really had time to establish a safe zone to land in other than amongst their own army.  Added to this is that the power level has been added to restrict the number of units that can go into reserves as you now have to have half of your units and power level on the table at the start of the game.

This seems like a really big deal for some armies, Chaos Daemons with a Bloodletter bomb come to mind as do Blood Angels and Tempestus Scions.  I think that these armies will be able to adapt waiting for the second turn to come down and being able to take advantage of the turn 1 movement that has now spread the enemy thin, or if the enemy decides not to move out it has pinned their opponent from take board control.

This seems to really benefit static gun line armies who can wrap their powerful units in layers and layers of cheap troops, Astra Militarum and some Space Marine "all the re-rolls" death balls come to mind.  Yet as you will see later in this post, very few of those types of armies are making it to the top tables, so it may not be such a big deal.  And even then, some of those gun line armies will be affected by this next change.

Not a beta rule, but a suggested limitation on the number of duplicate units in an army.  They have added a column to their "suggested serving size" box that recommends how many detachments and size of table for a certain size of game.  This column limits the number of times each data sheet can be included in an ARMY.  Now keep that in mind, because some units have multiple data sheets, but some data sheets make up multiple units.  The Bloodthirster variants from the Daemons book come to mind, 3 different data sheets for 3 similar units, while the Astra Militarum have a single data sheet for the Hellhound, Banewolf, and Devildog.  This limitation does not apply to units with the TROOPS or DEDICATED TRANSPORT battlefield role.  This also does not affect unit that are summoned to the table using reinforcement points.  So Daemons can take 3 units of Seekers of Slaanesh, and summon a 4th and 5th even before the first 3 are killed.

I think this is a great addition.  Yes, there are many players out there who have half a dozen Hive Tyrants, or Plague Burst Crawlers, or you name it, but that is very clearly not the intention of what GW wanted their game to look like.  This change, while it may screw over a bunch of people who bought and/or converted more than 3 of anything, will add another level of tactics to the game other than "take the good thing lots of times".

The last of the big 3 is the very poorly worded and examined ruling that if you charge a unit in a ruin(or any upper level really) and you don't have room to place your models then the charge has failed.  This is, maybe, not such a big deal with regular sized models, even if the unit in the building is completely hogging the floor above, you can shoot one model dead and pop right up there.  Monsters and larger models with FLY are going to have a tougher time of it.

There is the actual FAQ.  Now looking at the expanded rules for ruins, as mentioned in the FAQ, VEHICLES, MONSTERS, and BIKES, cannot end their move on one of the upper floors unless they have the FLY keyword.  This essentially allowed Daemon Princes and the like to assault units that were hiding in ruins.  However, due to the actual terrain piece, it was very rarely possible to actually place said model on the level that it was assaulting and thus we had the Wobbly Model Syndrome rule that says if it doesn't fit because of modelling reasons, just pretend it's there.

"Hey guys, do you think you could scoot over a bit so I can murder you all?"

"ERRMEGHERRRD! I can't get you!?"

In the examples pictured above, neither the Daemon Prince nor the Great Unclean One(I use a Glottkin model, they are about the same size except for the back hunch and spikes) are now able to assault and kill the cultists on the second level of the ruin.  This is plain old bullshit.  GW has made a huge mistake in the simple answer that they gave for this complicated question and have now left the door wide open for blatant abuse of it.  This has not only made ruins far more popular, but once again has shifted the game away from assault and more towards shooting.  If you have units that can ignore cover, take more of them to clear out the cowards huddling in the upper levels of the ruins.

Slow down there champ, cause I'm not done yet.  While those were the big controversial ones, there are a bunch of little nuggets for us to discover that you may have over looked.

For example, you may have noticed the new Battle Brothers beta ruling, but you might have failed to notice that this leaves out units like Assassins, Legion of the Damned and Null Maidens.  Since they don't have a second faction keyword that matches anyone, and they don't have any HQ's there is only the garbage Auxiliary Support Detachment for them.  Well, now you can include them in their very own Vanguard detachment and you don't need to fill the requirement for an HQ.  It seems you still have to have 3 units though, and you don't get a CP from it, and it also takes up one of your coveted detachments.  Damn.  I wonder if you can take one assassin, one unit of LotD, and one unit of Null Maidens in one Vanguard Detachment?  JUDGE?!?!?

Battalions got increased to granting 5 CPs and Brigades went up to 12.  I'm not sure on this one, the GW guys said it was because elite armies were not able to field as many detachments and thus not get as many CPs and thus not use as many cool stratagems.  All this is true, except that non-elite armies can abuse the shit out of this and get a ridiculous amount of CPs.  A better solution would have been to increased the number of CPs granted by the Vanguard, Outrider, and Spearhead detachments as long as the army also did not contain a Battalion.  OR, if they didn't like that the game was beginning to become "Take as many Detachments as I can to maximise CPs", just set a standard number of CPs for the size of game the same way they set the number of detachments.

GW also put a bee in my bonnet when they ruled that you can only use one ability that "ignores wounds" even if you have 2.  That sucks for the Iron Warriors Slaanesh Daemon Prince who could get 3 FNP rolls.  How?  It doesn't matter anymore does it?

Units that arrive via reinforcements cannot be targeted by abilities that can make them move like the Warptime psychic power, the Swarmlord's Hive Commander rule, and Soul Burst.  This will hurt a few Ynnari lists that used the webway to deliver a big unit of Shining Spears then move them in the psychic phase with the Soul Burst power.

There are a bunch of other generic FAQ answers in the main rulebook and most of them make sense, but the main rule book wasn't the only one to get FAQ'd.

Now lets take a look at a couple other Codecies that I have already reviewed and see if there is anything crazy in there...

First up, Astra Militarum, and Commissar's Summary Execution now only works on the first failed Morale test within 6" of them, and it only allows a re-roll of the Morale test.  I know there was a previous errata on it, but I can't remember what the ruling was so I'm not sure if it was nerfed further or if they just cleaned up some wording.  They did drop pretty drastically in points though so it's not so bad.
Baneblade variants can not fire overwatch if there are enemy models within 1" of it.
Kurov's Aquila now only works if the character is on the table, and the Relic of Lost Cadia is only once per battle.

AdMech got Skryer Skull all cleared up, it only works in your shooting phase and it doesn't give you an extra shooting attack.  The Refusal to Yield Dogma can save your models from dying to supercharged plasma which is pretty damn amazing.

Chaos Space Marines see a really great boost for Chosen, ALL of them can take a melee weapon.  Not upgrade something to a melee weapon, take one.  Those same ones can still upgrade to get a special weapon.  So you can have a unit of 5 Chosen all of them equipped with plasma pistols AND power fists.  I think I'm gonna have some fun with this one.  Tide of Traitors gets a nerf and is relegated to once per battle.  I personally have never used it more than once a battle, by the time I want to use it again I'm usually out of CPs.

Death Guard get hit with a pretty hard, but very necessary, nerf to Poxwalkers having to pay reinforcement points for models that exceed it's starting number.  This does apply to all units that can "grow" units above it's starting number, but I can't think of any others who are likely to do it with the number that poxwalkers could.  The Daemon Prince can take a Plague Spewer!  Although it looks like he is stuck with the sword if he chooses to take it.

Unstoppable Ferocity for Khorne Daemons gets a solid boost, changing it's +1S to the weapons in the unit instead of the model.  This will affect things like the attacks made by Bloodcrusher's Juggernaughts, bringing their S up to 8 the turn they charge.  And Feculant Gnarlmaws get a points increase and some deployment limitations.

That's about it for the book's I've covered.  They also put out the FAQ's for the newer books like Tau, Necrons, and Drukhari.  I would not have a clue as to what they are referring to so I won't touch on them.

What does it mean?  Well, lets take a look at how some of the top placing lists from a couple of major events from the last couple months will be affected.

Check out LVO 2019 HERE

Lets start with the LVO as the top 3 lists were pretty close to each other.  Nick, Tony, and Brad's lists were nearly identical, each sporting 4 units of Dark Reapers and a big unit of Shining Spears which they would then put into the webway and typically use them to assault out of it.  They also took advantage of the cheap Kabalite warriors from the Drukhari to fill the troops roles in the Ynnari Battalion.  Their lists get affected on a fairly limited basis but it would have pretty drastic consequences.  First off, the 4 units of Reapers have to get dropped down to 3.  Doesn't seem like much, but you have to remember the Exarch's Tempest launcher is the big deal in the small units, being able to target units he can't see.  With the savings from having to drop a unit of Reapers they will be able to afford proper troops for the Ynnari detachment, which will now have to be from the Craftworld Eldar book.  Finally, their usual use of the Shining Spears will have to be adjusted as they can no longer cast movement spells on them after they come in from the webway, nor can they deep strike them outside of their deployment zone turn 1.  This will not hurt too badly though as with the Spears movement and the stratagem that lets them advance and charge, they can reach just about anywhere on the table without the webwey.

Check out Adepticon 2019 HERE

Next up lets look at Adepticon where top guy Andrew had Blood Angels loaded up with Sanguinary Guard and Primaris Agressors who were supported with a Battalion of Catachan Guardsmen and a Spearhead of Cadian Mortars.  This list is going get hit twice with losing half of his mortar teams and the Sanguinary Guard having to wait till turn 2 to bring the pain.  I don't think this will really hurt this list in the long run, swapping out some mortars for Wyverns or Basilisks and changing the target priority using the artillery to open up some room for the Sanguinary Guard to drop in on turn 2.

The next 2 lists are both Tyranids and are quite different from one another.  Matt has a whole list of just Flyrants, Mucolid Spores, and Mawlocks, more than 3 of each.  This list has been ravaged by the changes, from the deep striking limitations to the 3 max each unit and is essentially unplayable.  Stephen's Nid list actually doesn't get affected at all.  He does have 3 Flyrants, so he will have to wait to drop them in, if he decides to drop them in at all.  His list centres around 3 units of Hive Guard and 3 units of Biovores with a whole host of Termagant broods and a Malanthrope followed up by a trio of GSC Magus's.  His list should be good to go with some minor alterations to take into account the point increase of Tyrants and Biovores.

Now because I have the information right here in front of me, lets keep going down the list and look at Nick's Black Legion/Death Guard/Thousand Sons list.  The premise of this list is to grow poxwalkers, and if you paid attention to his games that he was streaming live on Facebook you have seen that in one of his games he had a conga line of over 100 poxwalkers that stretched across the entire table.  This list has only really been affected by the ruling that if the number of models in a unit increases over the starting number, you must pay reinforcement points for them.  The poxwalker farm  has been killed, which is fine by me, but replenishing a big unit of poxwalkers is still a viable tactic.  Nick will not likely hit those number again, but if you keep a couple reinforcement points open you can maximise the units growth, then focus on growing it when it drops back down below it's starting number(20).

Check out more info HERE

The Wetcoast GT was won by a Ynnari focused list, but this one is only hurt by the Battle Brothers beta rule as it used the cheap Kabalite warriors as troops.  Second place was a pre-codex Tau army with only 3 Commanders.  I guess the reserves coming in turn 2 will hurt this army, but it's not breaking any of the limitations on quantity or composition, it's also pre-codex, so all sorts of things changed.  Third place goes to a IG/Blood Angels list similar to Andrews from Adepticon except all his mortars are in the Guard squads, so while he has fewer mortars, his list is within the max 3 limitations.  Again, the Sanguinary Guard get hit with the reserves change, but other than that this list is still good.

Check out more info HERE

Josh landed the top spot at the Barrie Bash, and it looks like his list doesn't get hit at all.  Daemons supported by Death Guard, everything is in it's own detachment and he doesn't have more than 3 of anything.  There may be some set back because he has 2 large units of poxwalkers and a big unit of pink horrors, so he will not be able to use them to grow the poxwalkers over their starting number, however, unless I'm missing something, his list comes in a couple hundred points short of 2000, which he probably uses to spawn Blues and Brims, growing the poxwalker horde even more.  Now he will have to split them between the poxwalkers and the horrors.  Second place Dan's list is Nids full of Flyrants and Mucolid spores, which is now impossible to use.  Devin's 3rd place list has Robute and 3 Fire Raptors as his main punch each taking up a detachment.  The rest of his army has some some issues with the new Battle Brothers beta rule as he has some assassins and no spare detachments to use.  He could drop a Fire Raptor and only take 2 in his Battalion, take a vanguard with 3 assassins, and spend the rest of the points on UM heavy weapons to take advantage of Robute's auras.

At the end of the day, I think that most of the new changes are going to be good for Warhammer.  Balance in the game is something that we all want to see.  I looked at around 20 armies from the top placings of some pretty big events, and when over half of them are 1 of 3 armies, it's time to make changes so that we are not stuck playing with and against that same list over and over again.  Change is good people, let it happen.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.

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