Now, as they made the terrible joke several times that this was going to be an annual thing, they promptly fell flat on their face and the 2004 edition will be the last one we see until now.
Once again this book is full of new armies, rules, erratas, Q&As whether they be trial or official changes. This is the spored place of the Feral Ork army list, the Kroot Mercenaries, and a set of Trial Assault Rules. These trial rules clarified some things and made some changes to others, but were not official until the 4th edition of the rules were released.
As the years went by, several of the rules, FAQ's, and errata would remain the same as this was a compilation of all the changes before the internet was a widely accessible thing. Many articles would be repeated with possibly slight revisions to the Q&A or errata section.
You may be asking yourself "Why is this old todderring fart taking about ancient times when this is the 21st century? Get with the times grandpa."
Well, I mentioned the previous editions of the Chapter Approved because these were my keystones of comparison for what I am about dive into, and it will give you some insight into my thoughts and feelings. Ugh, feelings...
I want to start my review by saying that this book is necessary, or at least a couple pages of it are necessary, to just about every player in the game. Except for Blood Angels and Dark Angels players whose books came out shortly after this one. This is not really an uplifting thought because only 2 or 3 pages will be necessary per player per army. I will only need to reference about 2-3 pages in this book in order to play my Chaos Space Marines and Death Guard armies. Not exactly a great return on investment. If it was not for my love of missions and narrative play, I would not buy this book and just get the required rules in a less savoury way.
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| Thanks to my wonderful sponsor, I didn't have to buy the book at all! |
As with most of my other posts, I try to keep the conversation to a somewhat competitive nature, so I will not be talking about the missions, except to say there over 1/4 of the book is dedicated to them. From Planetstrike to Apocalypse, every play style got a boost in how you play the game. The 2 big things that have added actual value to the game, and some of the codex less players are the new faction specific rules and the points adjustments.
In the errata department there is very little they actually changed. They have a paragraph about targeting characters, understrength units, boots on the ground, and the limits of the re-roll stratagem. Which can now no longer be used on anything "mission specific", this includes rolling for first turn, when the game ends, choosing deployment zones etc etc. I assume that this would include rolling to seize the initiative which is something that several you tubers are missing as I still see re-rolls on seizing. With the exception of the last item, none of these are all that surprising. We all knew about them well in advance and no one likes the 5 Stormraven bullshit anyway.
There was one thing that I noticed that was introduced in a very different way. Everyone has known that the Chapter Approved was going to introduce a +1 to your roll when rolling for first turn if you finished deploying first instead of automatically getting the first turn. This is not a general rule that they implemented for matched play, but something they added to the 12 matched play missions that are in the Chapter Approved.
All right, all you guys without codexes now have a couple extra rules to throw around, so lets take a closer look at that.
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| Nuns with guns and boob armour. I can't believe that is still a thing... |
Adepta Sororitas get a kick-ass blade, the Blade of Admonition, a +2S, -3AP, and 3D. It replaces a power sword, and I would say it's nearly as good as Celestine's blade. Their warlord trait is very underwhelming though, re-rolling failed morale tests. This is sort of pointless since you can take a Dialogus for the same results. Plus, you may want to take a bunch of extra characters because when one dies, you can use a CP to activate the new Martyrdom stratagem that will let a unit in your army preform an act of faith at the end of the phase in which the character died. Keep in mind each unit can only use an act of faith once per turn. This look pretty good with a large brigade army fully loaded with heavy/special weapon toting Retributors/Dominions, tons of elite characters and tons of CPs. Finally, their Shield of Faith just wasn't cutting it when it came to psychic power defence, so they got a stratagem that lets them deny a power on a 4+.
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| Soo angry |
The Deathwatch warlord trait really depicts their hatred for big baddies, giving him a re-roll on failed wound rolls against vehicles and monsters which is not limited to any particular phase. They also get a stratagem that deals D3 mortal wounds to a vehicle within 1 of the watch master, on a 2+, at the start of the fight phase. Their second stratagem gives them an extra attack on a hit roll of 6+ against vehicles that don't have Chaos, Imperium, or unaligned keywords. This could make your Watch Master an absolute vehicle slayer. Watch out killer kans. Their relic is a fancy teleport that can move a unit from anywhere on the table to a spot wholly within 6" of the bearer, but still 9" away from enemy models.
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| Pointy poisoned pokers probing private places |
The Drukhari find themselves with 3 new warlord traits. Wych cults get 3 hits for each hit roll of 6+ in the fight phase which makes them absolutely deadly in combat with a fancy combat weapon, Haemonculus regain D3 wounds at the start of each turn, and the rest get to re-roll hit and wound rolls of 1 in the fight phase. The stratagem they get is to put 1 unit (1CP), or 2 units (3CP), of infantry, bikes, or beasts, in reserve and "deep strike" in. Pretty good for keeping certain units alive while getting close to assault, and great for peekaboo mass-blaster Trueborn units. Their relic replaces a splinter pistol with a 2 shot pistol that wounds on a 2+, has -2AP, 2D, and gives a wound back to the wielder when it kills a model. Not bad when wading through chumps and staying alive.
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| An extra arm? Now I can play video games AND jerk off! |
The warlord trait for the Genestealer cults is an interesting one, very flavourful though. All infantry units within 6" of the Warlord can perform a heroic intervention. This can really come in handy if you happen to get pulled out of position and get your warlord assaulted while there are still some nearby chumps. They can fling their bodies into the fray and hopefully eat up some of the attacks that were intended for your warlord. Return to the Shadows is pretty much like it was except it now costs a CP, and for another CP you can roll 2D6 when rolling for that Cult Ambush. Then to top it all off, you can give an Iconward a fancy icon that gives friendly genestealer cult infantry within 6" +1S, which could work pretty well when combined with heroically intervening infantry. All in all, a pretty good set up of abilities added to the cult's roster.
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| Cool guys don't look at explosions |
The Harlequin warlord can re-roll all to hit rolls of 1, while they also get the webway stratagem that the Drukhari got. They can also get a 3+ invulnerable save for 1CP on a unit that advanced that turn. Their relic is sort of garbage though, boosting their Ld by one while handing out a -1Ld penalty to enemies with in 6". While the relic might be a little meh, the rest are a pretty welcome set of abilities. Anything that can get these guys in your face is a scary prospect as they will absolutely tear you a new one once they hit your lines. They are already really fast, being able to put 2 units in deep strike and get them right in your face with our having to buy transports for them will save you a couple hundred points.
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| Say hello to my little friend! |
Well, I guess these guys are a faction too. For a warlord trait, they can get an extra attack. That's good I guess, but really Knights don't really hurt from being able to kill stuff so an extra attack is not really going to break the bank. Their stratagem gives them a plus 1 to invulnerable saving throws for the phase. If it was for the turn, or for all saving throws it would be better, but as a knight army already has limited command points, this doesn't do enough for knights. As for their relic, they can re-roll hit rolls of 1 with their giant ass chain sword, which no one takes, and this with titanic feet a thing, this does not really do enough to make it a must. Not that knights are much of a stand alone army anyway.
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| beep boop beep beep boop |
The Necron warlord trait is a bit of a double edged sword. On one hand, it reduces the damage that a weapon deals to him by 1, but on the other hand, no one is going to supercharge their plasma at you again. I always liked watching enemy models die to their own weapons 01101000 01100001 01101000 01100001 (HAHA). Both of the new stratagems cost 2CP, one lets you give reanimation protocol to a Canoptek unit, the other lets you re-roll ALL reanimation rolls of 1. Those are pretty good, especially if you happen to have a handful of beaten up units. Of course if that the case you're playing a moron, you need to target Necron units till they are dead. No offence. Lastly, their relic is the good old Veil of Darkness which lets you pick up your non-C'Tan character and a unit within 3" and "deep strike" them as per normal means, with the second unit fully within 6" of the character. You can only do it once per game, but damn is that some serious sneaky shit right there. A pretty good set of rules making them more mobile and even more durable.
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| WAAGH MOTHER FUCKER!!! |
Orks got a bit of love, their warlord trait give them +1S, which I believe will put them at S7, meaning S14 with a Klaw. This is awesome for smashing down some of the bigger monsters and the majority of vehicles. But in all honesty, you don't want a Klaw, you want Headwoppa's Killchoppa at +2S, -2AP, and d3D this thing is wrecking face. It replaces a big choppa and in addition to it's souped up stats, it changes it's damage to D3 mortal wounds on a wound roll of 6+ and does not incur a -1 to hit rolls like the Klaw. Now for the stratagems, and I love these. First off, for a single command point you can "mob up" and join 2 units of infantry together, as long as they are chosen from the same data sheet and one unit has 10 or more models and the other has 10 or fewer. These 2 restrictions are super smart keeping units simple and from getting to be 60 boys large then jumping them across the table. The other stratagem is also 1CP and the infantry or biker unit of your choice can make an extra attack for each hit roll of 6+. Now this one isn't going to break the game, but if you have a big unit that is going to pump out a shit ton of shots, it's worth using the 1CP. Orks doing what Orks do best, roll buckets of dice.
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| Love that old artwork |
Space wolves get the Emperor's Children treatment and their warlord can always go first in combat, unless there are other "firsters" in which case you take turns starting with the player whose turn it is. At least you'll get to swing your cool sword that's +1S, -4AP, and 1D. Yeah, 1 damage. I sincerely feel that unless you deal mortal wounds or something, a relic needs to be a weapon that does multiple damage, you can re-roll failed wounds, so that helps I guess. Back in the day Space Wolves had a rule called True Grit that let them use their bolters as an extra close combat weapon giving them an extra attack, now you can pay a CP and your bolter (and various other bolt type weapons) become pistol 2 for that phase. That is pretty damn awesome, especially if you happened to get tar pitted in some cultists or orks. For another CP you can set up an infantry unit in "outflank" and it can join the battle at the end of the movement phase holy within 6" of a table edge and more than 9" from the enemy. Cunning but brutal... or is it brutal but cunning? Space Wolf players hate it when I say that.
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| Coming in hot! |
Tau get 2 warlord traits that are pretty good but seriously depend on how you build your whole army. You want static firepower, your warlord can re-roll all failed hit rolls as long as you have not moved this turn, if you moved you lose it until the start of your next turn. That's so that you can't use it during overwatch if you moved in your turn, cause you don't move during your opponent's turn, pretty smart GW. The other allows you to advance and shoot as though you have not moved. Staying away from that guy with the shiny sword is a good thing, being able to shoot while doing it is a great thing. They only get a single stratagem, but if you hit with a marker light you can spend 1CP and it counts as D3+1 marker light hits. Their relic is ok, giving the bearer a re-roll on a few specific rolls once per battle, but it also allows you to regain a CP on a 6+ each time any player uses a stratagem. These items can be huge in a game as both players will likely use several stratagems throughout a game. Getting back 1 or 2 CPs can make a big difference at the right time.
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| Walk like an Egyptian |
So the Thousand sons get some goodies too, first being able to re-roll failed deny the witch tests. That is a pretty good one with how prevalent smite spam is becoming. Speaking of psychic powers, something they seem to be pretty good at, they get a new one. Tzeench's firestorm has an 18" range and a casting cost of 7, roll 9 dice and the target suffers a mortal wound for each 6+ rolled. Now, if you're worried about getting denied, just take the new relic. If you roll any doubles, your enemy cannot deny that power. Top off the psychic power bonanza with a 1CP stratagem that give the caster +2 to psychic tests if he is within 6" of 2 other Thousand Sons psykers. There seems to be a theme here, but I just can't figure out what it might be...
Finally there are the points changes. Things went up, things went down, I'm not going to go over everything but I will talk about a couple big changes and some particular ones that affect me personally.
First up, just about every Primaris unit got cheaper, Inceptors dropping by 20 points each. Robute and Celestine each increased in points which everyone seems to be so proud of GW for, but both of these are a joke increase and let me explain. While Celestine went from 150 to 200, her min-me's that follow her around dropped from 50 -25. So a unit of the 3 did not change in points cost overall, and I have NEVER seen Celestine without the 2 sidekicks. And Guilliman's increase of 25 points is completely negated more than twice over by taking a minimum sized unit of Inceptors. Even a couple units of intercessors will make up the point increase. With the amount of army boosting goodness that Guilliman does, combined with the fact that you can't target him unless he is the closest enemy, and his bitch'n ass sword, he should be closer to 425 and you would still see him all over the place.
While somewhat pointless, as it turns out, none of those changes are big surprises, but I am surprised that the Primaris Psyker in AM only increased to 38 points while the Malefic Lord is now 80 points. They are fairly identical in their ability to spam Smite, and with the proper arrangements are not a danger if they die from perils, which is not as prevalent as you would believe. I don't really see what makes up that 32 point difference.
Some of the big things like Tzeench's super chicken and the Tau supremacy suit doubled in points, but again, not really shocking. These things were wiping out armies single handed.
Defilers dropped nearly 50 points, and a Helbrute's second fist now only costs 10 points. Making both of these much more viable. Vindicators also dropped in points to 125, and Deathshroud terminators to 35 points each. I know that will make my buddy Donny happy to see.
I'm gonna to leave it here, have a look at the book. It's definitely worth the investment if you love to run campaigns and have a variety of missions you would like to choose from without writing your own. There is a ton of content in here, but I feel for the competitive player, it's mostly just the last couple pages you will be interested in.
Until next time, keep them dice rollin.
I already mentioned it above but I gotta plug dat sponsor!
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| https://maxxcollectibles.com |
Maxx Collectible is currently running one of those leagues that increases in points as it goes along. ESCALATION! That's what it's called! Players are required to play games once a month in the shop and hand in the results. There are also some bonus points to be earned for painting stuff and taking part in some of the hobby events that the shop hosts.
Most of you probably won't ever set foot in the shop but if, for some god forsaken reason, you find yourself in Winnipeg this winter...
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| God have mercy on your frozen ass! |
...you should just lay down and die. It will only take 20 minutes or so. But do that AFTER you stop in a say hi to Garth, owner of Maxx Collectibles.
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