FAQ 2: INFLATION IS A BITCH

Well it's here, the BIG FAQ 2 has released and we can all just calm our tits and stop getting all worked up.  Or can we?  I've had a chance to take a look at the changes made, so lets take a good look and I'll give you some of my thoughts on upcoming changes.

First up, the Battle Brothers beta rule has become official.  We've been playing with it for the last half a year so there's not much to unpack here.

Tactical Reserves has changed and they kept it a Beta rule as the change is quite large.  I guess they decided that they had it right in previous editions, because they have completely removed the ability to arrive via reinforcements on turn 1.  They have also switched the requirement of having half of your power level on the table to half your points as well as half your number of units.

This happened on Turn 2 or 3

This has some pretty big implications as quite a few armies tend to have some sort of reserve units coming via "deep strike".  Imperial armies with their "Slam-Captains", Eldar with their webway Shining Spears, and this now affects Genestealer Cult armies.  Even with the restrictions to arriving in your deployment zone (which GSC used to be exempt from) you could keep a shooting unit safe, or bring in assaulters if your opponent got a little aggressive and moved up.  I have witnessed a player bringing in a Bloodletter bomb in his own deployment zone and charging a unit 11" away.  Now, it's straight up "They can't come in till turn 2".  They didn't change that reinforcements have to come in by turn 3 though, so you basically have 2 turns to bring in your units.  Now this has been specified in that this only applies to unit that are deployed off the table during deployment, which means that Daemons can be summoned turn 1.  This is going to be a sleeper trick here, just wait and you will see it popping up in a couple lists.  This change also answers the questions of "Can ability X move units on the table to a location outside my deployment zone?"  I don't know why people still had those questions, but they were still being asked right up to when this FAQ came out.

Along side this, the stratagems that allow you to set up a unit before the first turn starts, the Alpha Legion "Forward Operatives" and others like it, have taken a huge hit.  They have now been changed to be a 9" move that happens before the first turn starts.  No more 120 cultists right in your face turn 1, which is probably a good thing.  Undoubtedly the community is going to cry foul that their Chaos Space Marine armies are totally useless now and maybe they are right, but they are going to have to put on their big boy pants and figure out something else.  Same as those guys who bought more than 3 Flying Hive Tyrants or Plague Burst Crawlers.
KEEP IN MIND THIS IS ALSO A BETA RULE, SO IT IS POSSIBLE THAT IT WILL NOT REMAIN EXACTLY AS IT IS.

Continuing on with the trend of changing up the first battle round, the player that has the second turn now has access to a stratagem that gives all of their units (except TITANIC ones) the benefits of cover, even if they are not in cover, for 2CP.  Think of that for a minute, Rhinos, Dreadnoughts, Carnifexes, all these things now get a 2+ save for 2CP if you get the second turn.  This is going to bring back a ton of units that are always threatened on getting nuked turn 1, and they all get a pretty solid boost for 2CP.  This is going to spark a bit of life for Marine based armies, and you will start to see them make a bit of a comeback and people start feeling out the new meta.

Another hard segue and we have slid right into the Command Point issue.  Only one ability can be successfully used per battle round to gain or have Command Points refunded.  This is really big as there were times where guys would spend nearly 50% more command points that what they started with.  I actually really like this solution as opposed to some of the other ideas that were being tossed around on the internets.  It covers every ability, and it still keeps them a viable choice as getting a command point back every battle round will still be a big thing.  However players will now be able to branch out and take a couple different relics or warlord traits as they won't have to double up on these abilities.  You will also likely see more abilities that just give you an extra CP.  Knights have one, AdMech have one, and this change has made them a little more important.

Lets continue to segue and talk about the increase in the cost of living...or the cost of stratagems.  Several of the prominent and powerful stratagems have increased in cost.  Upon Wings of Fire from the Blood Angels book, Oathbreaker Guidance System, Order of Companions, and Our Darkest Hour all increased by 1CP, and Agents of Vect increased to a whopping 4CP.  Vect took another hit in that there has to be a unit from the Kabal of the Black Heart on the table to use it and can't be used on stratagems that are used before the game or during deployment.

So, the big FAQ 2 was not the only changes to be made as many of the codexes and the main rulebook got some updates as well.  The first of which, and possibly the biggest is the changes made to unit with FLY.  Now, unit with FLY can move across models and terrain as if they were not there IN THE MOVEMENT PHASE.  This changes charging on and off of terrain, as you will now have to measure the vertical distance like some scrub without wings.  You can no longer charge over top of screening units.  This...is...big.  For myself, nearly every game I have played I have made a charge move over top of units for better positioning with Daemon Princes, Bloat Drones, and Mortarion.  Now you will have to charge into the front of the target unit making it much harder to pin it in place.

There was some speculation that Daemon Princes would get "The Bat" as well, making them the same data sheet when taking into account the "Rule of 3", but they remain independent from one another.  As well as squadrons which still allow you to take 9 Carnifexes, Leman Russ Tanks, or Armigers.  This was not that much of a surprise, but some people were thinking it would get hit.

The last FAQ bomb that I am going to drop off here is that Renegade Knights can now summon Daemons...

I think one is gonna be pretty big.  I've done a Tactics Talk on Summoning Daemons and to imagine that you can now swap any of those characters in that article with a Renegade Knight gives me tingles.  I already stated I think summoning is going to come back in a pretty serious way, this is going to enforce that as Knights are awesome no matter what allegiance.

So how is this going to affect the game as a whole?  Well that is a tricky thing to figure out.  We can see what gets hit by these changes but it doesn't really give a clear feel of how well balanced these changes made everything yet.  You can expect to see a drop in the 120 cultists in your face Chaos list, the BA/AM/Knights have also taken a hit but you will likely see a similar list just with some changes.  Perhaps Wolf Priests instead of Slam Captains, and possibly a little more AM in the list instead of the minimum 200 points of CP battery.  Eldar will climb in popularity again as many of these changes didn't single them out other than Agents of Vect, even with the change to FLY hurting Shining Spears.  Daemons took a little bit of a hit in that their bombs can't come in turn 1, as I mentioned I have seen guys "deep strike" big units into their deployment zone, putting them in reserve simply to keep them safe from shooting.  Once again I must mention summoning, which gets around that.  I mentioned that Marines are going to make a surge as Rhinos with a 2+ save become more durable, bring back Rhino rush and Marine combat armies.  That one round of increased save is a pretty big deal.  Assault based units that FLY took a pretty good hit to the junk losing a great deal of mobility, but most of the ones being used a lot will still be used as they are still really powerful.  Of all the changes, this one probably hurts the Slam Captains the most.

I hope you learn something from my ramblings.  Let me know what you think, maybe I missed something, maybe you think I'm wrong.  I look forward to reading your comments.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.