New guard FAQ.

 So the new guard FAQ is up and while there's nothing earth shattering in it, there are a few annoying points.

First on the list is that Cadian and DKoK can no longer take two of the same special weapons. It's not a massive surprise that this is the case, however, I was really hoping that it wouldn't change,as it did keep some of the Veteran Squads rules and playability alive. With this change it has completely removed any last bit of the old guard platoon structure.

The next few changes are simple clarifications or just cleaning up wording. Plasma cannons now do mortal wounds to units not individual models, thus no longer break the only one model per unit taking wounds rule. The Valkyrie charge \ being charged rules are brought in line with everything else, I'd have to check what it said but this is what I assumed it would be anyway. The third is changing the new aegis defence line to obstacle terrain rather than area terrain, which makes a lot more sense and is a lot more playable. 

The last change is to correct the wording for the tempestor's weapons options in the Militarum Scion squads. 

So nothing that going to significantly change anything for me, just annoying that I'll have to rejig some of my squads again to get them to fit the new 'new' squad options.

The questions are actually pretty sensible questions for once, although only two of the questions are really relevant to me. The first is the mobile command ability of chimeras and confirmation that you can issue orders when in the chimera and also the one when you disembark, which is nice. This means that you can get addition orders off from your command squads, which can be useful. The other question, or rather two questions, that is useful relate to the field promotion stratagem. Now this is how I viewed the answers but at least it's nice to have confirmation. So, with the stratagem you need to choose a completely new warlord for your new commander. In addition, there is little point in choosing 'old grudges' as it doesn't let you select a target for the grudge, as that happens at the start of the first battle round. 

One other question that might come up occasionally is about abilities that let you choose additional doctrines for units, such as Kasrkin. This clarifies that you can pick one of the doctrines, trophy hunters, even though it normally takes up both doctrine slots, so effectively you could have the equivalent of 4 doctrine slots on a squad or vehicle. 

The last question is about Creeds orders ability and basically states you can't have your cake and eat it. If the order that triggers the ability stops for some reason, so does the ability, which seems pretty straight forward to me and seeing as I don't plan on using her anytime soon, not something I have to worry about. 

Latest balance update

 As seems fairly common at the moment, there has been a small break in postings on here. There are various reasons for this, firstly we've all been down with COVID, which put a bit of a dampener on the school holidays. Luckily none of use were badly affected, just cold like symptoms and tiredness. Secondly, and this one is entirely my fault, I've got back in to playing PUBG mobile again. This means that a lot of my free time has been taken up by messing around in games, rather than spending the time writing on here. I need to get back to writing on here more, as I have half a dozen or more posts sat in my draft folder ready to write, including my army group pictures that I said I would publish ages ago. Anyway, back to the main point of the posts, the new updates.

There have been a couple of key updates and a couple more less important by still worthwhile updates. I will note here that this is the first draft of the update and does not include the updates regarding the scions and "hammer of the Emperor". Talking of which, here it is;

Now there are actually two new updates in here but I'll deal with hammer of the Emperor first. This is a pretty significant update and a huge boost for the guard as it increases our wound pool quite a bit, by a third actually. Most of the time were hitting on 4's, so making 6's auto wound means a third of our shots are auto wounding, which is huge for things like lasguns with there puny S3 shots. There have been many time I have pummeled an enemy unit with shots, hitting significantly more than I had any right to, only to fail almost every 5+ wounding roll. For things like battle cannons it's less important but still very welcome. The main downside to this is that Militarum Tempestus units are excluded from the rule. The was some discussion about it to start with but GW very quickly came out and said, no, they aren't included in this rule. Good that they were quick with the update, bad they didn't included them. 

The second update on the list above it at the bottom and concerns infantry squads. They have gone up in points again, to a total of 60, from 55 (originally they were only 50 points) but, and it's a big but, all upgrades are now free. This means that for me pretty much every squad in every army has dropped points, in my Hjaltland LI it's a total of 80 points dropped from the list but it should have been closer to 120 as I haven't included the vox casters that are actually modelled on some of the guys in my points. I can see what will happen now though, there will be a flood of heavy and special weapons in to the squads, most likely plasma and lascannons or missile launchers plus plasma pistols and power swords on the sgts, because why not! This will make the fire power output increase and tied with the 6's auto wound could make infantry squads a force to content with!

The last change to this update brings is to artillery or indirect fire weapons. Now in the guard we like our artillery so the little addendum on the end here is very welcome.  This rule takes us back a few edition to the BS modifier for firing indirect, as well as adding to the targets saving throw but removing the guard from these restrictions is great and continues to give us an advantage in an area where we should quite rightly have an advantage. With the changes also added for power armour, this could have killed guard artillery almost completely. 

So these three changes, along with all the previous additions and changes mean that we are slowly crawling out from.our pit of despair and disappointment, which given the next bit of new we received just added to the nice little role the guard are on.

In addition to the balance update we got clarification on which supplements are still valid and which are not, I think in part spurred on by the saga with the leviathan supplement and the crusher stampede. Anyway, we now have confirmation that the psychic awakening book is still in effect, so scions still get there doctrines, relics, warlord traits and other bits and bobs and we still get to use tank aces and the like.

We also got confirmation that the Cadian supplement is still active. This is good because it's probably one of the key reasons we are able to hold our own as much as we can, which isn't very much at all but it's better then nothing. 

There is however a problem with all of this and it's the fact that with all these new rules and keeping the supplement going, it might be a while until we see our new codex. Now, we know that Knights are next followed by CSM, which will probably take us through to July time. Then there is just us and Daemons left, but that doesn't include the League's of Votann! So if you put them in before the guard, which is entirely possible, it could be September before we get a codex. However, there is something else that may give us a clue as to when we'll get our codex, baring in mind that 8ts only us and Daemons left why did they need to put "Valid until January 2023" on the supplement update? They are not going to be bringing any of this back in, so why did they need to say that? They maybe just trying to give us a time frame for when it will all disappear but some of it is supplements to current 9th edition codices and I assume will remain valid until a new codex comes out for those armies, which won't be by Jan 2023 and will therefore need a new update to remove the other items that are no longer valid, which is mostly guard stuff or stuff for codices we already know are coming out and so will be ammended when that happens. So why put Jan 2023? Is it because that's when the last codex that will effect this list will be released? And as such the latest that anything on this list will be updated is then? I really hope that it won't be that long until we get a new book but it really is starting to look that way!

Kill Team Designers commentary

Now I was going to have all the kill team stuff in one post but after reviewing the length of the post, I decided to split it down in to two posts, otherwise it would have been a very long post.

The designers comments are basically an FAQ and the designers statement of intent all rolled in to one and as usual there are some really important questions answered and some really stupid ones too. Ok, I know that just because I think there obvious doesn't necessarily mean that others do but asking if you can use your tactical re-roll to re-roll an opponents dice really should be obvious.

Anyway, let's take a look at what has been said in the notes. Again, I'm not going to go over everything in detail, just the highlights and things that I think are important.

There were several points in the movement phase that stood out, chief amongst them was the point that confirms that if you start the movement phase in combat but your opponent falls back, your still limited to staying still or falling "back". There doesn't seem to be any restriction on shooting though, other than the usual, so staying still seems to be the better choice. This has been a bit of a debate at my club and this ruling lands where I though it should, as at the beginning of the phase your still in combat. Also, if you react with a readied model, it's no longer readied, which makes sense, along with the fact that you can't react and overwatch to the same charge. For charges we also got clarification that if you fail a charge and still want to move, you have to move the full distance on the dice, getting as close as possible to your opponent or you stay still. No half moves in to cover anymore. Also in the movement phase it now says that you can't climb up something if there is no climbable surface, ie you can't climb up to an overhang.  The last thing to mention which is quite funny, if you get knocked off a ledge and land near another ledge, you can fall again. It brings to mind some of the classic cartoon, of the bad guy falling over a cliff and hitting every ledge on the way to the bottom. I'm not sure it will come in to play very often but when it does, it will be amusing.

In the shooting phase there are some further silly questions and some that I would never have thought of, like a readied model being able to pass in the ready, fire section and fire in the fire at will section. That's quite a useful thing. Also, combi weapons are one weapon not two, so you have to follow the rules for shooting a single weapon if you want to shoot multiple targets. I've always thought of them as one weapon but I can see why there would be confusion. Also, no shooting pistols at all if you get charged or charge. This is one I though was obvious but apparently not. We also got definitive proof that in multiplayer games, you can shoot other models in combat, as long as one of them isn't yours. It also good to see the issues around random damage weapons and also mortal wounds has been dealt with. It's not something I've seen but there has been a bit of discussion online about it and finally, if you've a model on 3 flesh wounds, there doesn't seem to be anything (ie tactics) you can do to stop it dieing when it takes another. There is quite a bit more in there but again, most of it should behave been fairly obvious anyway but not it's down in black and white, people can't try and game the system.


The fight phase is fairly simple with just 3 questions. The only one that seems worth noting is that if if a charging model has all it's targets eliminated before it gets to fight, it can only pile in and not consolidate.

The moral phase is even shorter, with just two questions. Does the order of nerve tests matter and what can a shaken model do. Of course nerve test order matters, afterall when you go through each step in the process, it has the possibility of changing every time, depending upon the previous test and shaken models can basically do nothing voluntary.

I haven't actually read the missions, bad I know, so I don't really know if these are sensible question. The one about objective markers makes sense and the one about terror tactics sounds like someone is trying to game the system for there advantage by counting models that are off the table as dead.

The tactics section again sounds like some people are trying their luck but any chance of that has been shut down.

In the choosing a kill team secretion, I think some people havent been reading the rule book properly, as all the points lists I've used all say (does not include wargear).  Also why ask why they give you options that aren't optimal? Choice people, choice and because they sell models equipped in that manor and don't want to make it illegal for kill team. As for making things specialists technically you don't have to make any models specialists apart from a leader.

Talking of specialists, the next section is all about the specialists and there various tactics and abilities.

Up next are all the faction specific FAQs. Some have a lot, some have only 1. Well run through them all quickly, some quicker than others. The Astartes are first, and there's nothing of note really, just a clarification for the auspex. Also, it clears up the wording for Deathwatch when choosing primaris marines, which was a little confusing. The guard only had one point, which stops you issuing an order to yourself. For AdMech, you can chip and chance between choosing and rolling for canticles. Oh, and read the options for wargear.

For death guard, DR doesn't affect the number of injury dice rolled for multi damage weapons and you cannot re-roll it, it's not on the list afterall. On the plus side the flail of corruption explodes on a 6+ to hit! The 1k sons get a minor boost (I think) for the all is dust rule and there's is nothing listed for chaos proper.

For the space elves, the craft world boys and girls seem to have a few problems with their weapons platforms, the key ones seem to be that of you ready the platform, the firing guardian doesn't need to be readied but it must be able to legally fire itself to fire the platform. For the dark kin, drugs are chosen after you've picked your team and the quin's don't have fly, despite what people think, so no shooting after falling back and even players are are clumsy sometimes, so can set of traps.

The necrons question is a bit random and I'm guessing comes from a non-necron player, after all if you play necrons why would you not want to trigger Reanimation protocols? Oh, and even mind shackle scarabs can't break the shooting rules. For the Orks, the question is fairly simple. You shoot at the original target but the wound goes on the grot. For the tau, you now need to just declare everything is firing overwatch using the greater good before shooting anything, not as each one fails. Pulse blasters are pretty risky weapons, always have been and saviour protocol's are still over powered.

Nids and GSC are last on the list. The nids questions a=e mostly about flesh hooks, which have got quite a boost as they are now the only weapon that can fire if the model armed with them is charged. Not a bad bonus. The other issue seems to have been the tactic metabolic overdrive, which has a mini essay on how to use it! Plus there is no point arming your warriors with more than one pair of bone swords. For the GSC there were just a couple of points, including the fact that genestealers don't gain the cult ambush rule for GSC.

One of the largest section in the commentary is about campaigns and the largest section is about managing your command roster. Most of it is pretty straight forward and ready only clarifies the way the system works, although on the whole it's a pretty easy system to understand, apart from 2 bits, both of which are cleared up here. Firstly, new models in your fire teams still cost the same as the rest of the team, so adding in a new recruit To a level 2 fire team means that you pay the level 2 cost for it, not the base level 1 cost until after the first battle, even though it doesn't gain any of the bonuses from the fire team. The other point of not is that you cannot change the wargear of a model once it's on your roster. Not a massive problem for most armies as you can just take several different variations in one roster.

All in all there are not many big changes to the game and nothing that jumped out at me as being unexpected. The errata and commentary both lean towards clarifying and tweaking the rules slightly to make play more streamlined and give us players a greater understanding of the game.

The Kill Team Errata

So, with the release of the Big FAQ 2 2018 we also got a Errata and designers commentary for Kill Team. Now I will admit I was quite surprised when I scrolled down to this on the list of updates, I didn't expect to see an update for kill team in this lot. I was expecting to see one at some point but thought that it would be done separately. This make me wonder if we will get anything for kill team in Chapter Approved 2018.

Anyway, what is in the errata and designers commentary? We'll start with the errata and the move on to the commentary. The errata is mostly clearing up some of the wording and options.

The first couple of changes are to clarify the injury roll system and also how invulnerable saves work. The next couple are clearing up issues around the terror tactics mission. I haven't looked in to the changes, so don't know how much of an impact they will have.

We then move on to a couple of updates for specialist. Again most of these are clearing up the wording and intent of the rules. The leaders ability has been reworded to.make it clearer and the  Comms ability has been changed so that it can no longer affect itself. The scouts ability has been simplified, 5o just give a 2" movement boost.

The rest of the errata is concerned with updating the various data sheets in the book. I'll not go through each change, as there's quite a few minor changes.

The first few are updates to the space marines and update tactical sergeant and intercessors data sheets along with adding the Medic Specialism to tacticals and intercessors, meaning you can add in a jazzed up apothecary model now.

Deathwatch and grey knights also got updates to there sheets to clarify weapon options. A big change comes to the chaos Flail of Corruption, as it is reduced to a damage 1 weapon now, making it less of an auto include. Chaos marines also got the option for the combat specialism. tzaangor's also got a wargrear clarification, although I have no idea what it clarifies as I've never even looked at the rules for Thousand sons.

The Xeno's also got a few updates. Eldar heavy weapons platforms automatically pass nerve tests, which makes sense, it's a mobile weapons platform afterall. The Harlequins got hit hard by this FAQ though, with two changes. The first, removing the special rule for fusion pistols, which is sensible and I believe brings them.in to line with 40k, like everything else. The second and probably biggest need in the whole FAQ, is the change to flip belts, clearing up the fact that you can't just 'flip' through terrain. Previously it said to ignore it, which 2qs silly, as it's still there. Now you just don't count vertical movement, which makes far more sense, both fluff and rules wise. Oh, and the neuro disruptor got bumped from S3 to S4. Nercons got a change to Tesla carbines, changing a hit of 6 to 3 hits. Again, don't know what this was before but seems very normal for Tesla weaponry. The GSC also got some updates, mostly changes to the Acolyte wargear options but also a rewording of the heavy rock drills ability.

The Tau got the most changes by a long way, however a good few of them are basically the same change. The original bonding knife ritual rule ment that any Tau unit could support any other tau unit, now it has to be aosrl from the same data sheet, ie breachers can only support other breachers. There were also some changes to the keywords for both versions of fire warriors. Drones, already good units , got some upgrades as well, with a 4+ save now and gaining extra abilities for shield drones and marker drones. While it may look like tau have taken a hit, in reality I think the changes mean just the opposite and overall tau just got stronger. There have been some changes to the specialists options,

Lastly for the Errata, we have the changes to the guard. I left these until last as I will spend a bit more time on them, as they are my main faction. With guard squads gaining the medic specialism, special weapon squads loosing Comms but gaining medics and scions getting clarification that Comms specialists need to have a vox caster. To start with the addition of medics makes sense, your not (fluff wise) going to send a squad off without some form of medic around, even if in reality the medic is useless. The changes to Comms also makes sense, afterall, why would your Comms specialist not be the one with the vox caster? It also brings all the squads inline with each other, with all the specialities being the same across the board, as they should have been from the start. The final change to the guard is a minor change to the Scion wargear options. Now, this is a two part change and the first part is quite funny, as I'm pretty sure we went through this exact same change for 40k proper when scions were first released. The change relates to what weapons the vox caster can have as the kit tells you to build it with a hotshot laspistol but the rules only give you the option for a hotshot lasgun. The changes means that you can have a pistol or both a pistol and rifle. I'll be going for the latter, as the pistols only got a six inch range! The second change is one that, in hindsight, was an obvious change and is the addition of grenade launchers to the scions list of special weapons. This was the only weapon on the scions sprue that wasnt an option for them to take. I'm glad they've included this now, as I'm quite a fan of grenade launchers, as they have quite a lot of versatility.

So that's the changes from the errata, most of which are just clarifications and minor tweaks to rules to make there intent clearer. All in all it won't change the game much and is a nice little update. It will be interesting to see if there are more adjustments in Chapter Approved 2018.

The big FAQ 2018 no.2

So, last time I looked at the Codex FAQ and Erratas, this time I thought I would look through the big FAQ itself and pick out bits I thought were relevant or interesting.

As usual there are some new Beta rules and some of the old beta rules have been made permanent. This time is slightly different, as one of the beta rules has been re-written and put back in to beta. We'll start with the beta rules that have become finalised. Battle Brothers is confirmed and the two other rules, Psychic Focus and the Targeting Characters rule continue as pretty much everyone thought it would.

The big change is to the Tactical Reserves Beta rule, which has been re-written and there have been some key changes. This wasn't what I was expecting but it does it make sense. I know that alpha strike units were a powerful force in 8th and were dominating the game some what. The previous beta rule meant that units could only drop in there own deployment zone first turn, now you cant drop at all. The other big change is the change form power levels to matched points. The first change seems to have come about as several armies, such as Genestealer Cults and Ravenguard had ways and means around the restrictions. There were also some changes to these abilities but I'll get to that below. As a result of all this, the new beta rule has been proposed and I think its not quite right. I understand that alpha strikes are not great for the game but I think banning all reinforcements turn 1 is not a good idea. I don't really have an idea of how to fix it apart from maybe restrict the points limit further but I don't think that's really the solution. We'll see how this rule plays out and if they change it again. I really like that they didn't just make some changes and go with it, putting it back through beta is a really good step in my eyes. On a final point, changing over to match play points is good, I know power levels are GW's new thing but very few people seem to use them and no tournaments I know of do, so it seemed to just be there to complicate things plus there was a lot of room for abuse.

Related to this beta rules are changes to a number of Stratagems, namely all the ones that allowed you to place units in reserve that normally wouldn't be able to, such as "strike from the shadows" and "forward operations". These have all had huge changes, meaning units now actually have to deploy and then can move, usually 9 inches. There are two things I don't like about these changes. Firstly, the standard move distance. Each unit should just get a move, what ever it's normal, data sheet move is. Thus still means each unit acts as it should, instead of giving some units a movement noisy and others a nerf. Secondly, I think having to revel the stratagem when you deploy a units is wrong, as it gives the opposition a chance to counter something that in theory you shouldn't know about. I think it would be better to play this stratagem after deployment but before the first battle round, meaning it retains its element of surprise and the intention\fluff of the stratagem.

There are also changes to two eldar Stratagems that are related to the tactical reserves rule but I don't know what the original said, so don't know what the changes are.

We then move into the new beta rules and this is going to have a pretty big impact on the game. The first, the "prepared positions" stratagem is a nice bonus and is going to see a lot of use. It gives the second player a chance to weather the storm. We'll see if its too powerful and means that everyone wants to go second but I doubt it. I will no doubt be using this for my guard as there is little chance of getting every unit in to cover! I can see this going straight into the main book without any changes.

The next rule, Tactical Restraint, is one that I hope they don't implement as it is now. I see the need for this, as with some combinations, such as the guard warlord trait and relic alongside the Blood Angels relic, were very powerful and I have in the one game I have used that combination, ended with about the same command points as I started with despite using lots of them. I do however, think that this has gone a little to far the other way. Only being able to get one point back per battle round I think is very restrictive. I think that it should be limited but at most I think it should be limited to being able to get one point per option or at most never being able to gain more than you started with. I think the intent is right but the execution is wrong and besides, all that will happen is that people will start including small Battalions, such as Guard ones costing as little as 180 points, to gain the 5 command points. two battalions will net you an extra 10 command points for just 360 points and in a 2000 point games that still leaves 1640 points for a main detachment and the possibility of at least 14 command points or potentially over 20.

The next section is just an adjustment of stratagems to balance the game out. Mostly its about command point increases. The Imperial Knights got quite a few price hikes, as they were some very potent stratagems, while the Chaos stratagem  got a cavate that means that you can no longer get a save better than 4++. The two of note are the increase to the Blood Angels stratagem, "upon wings of fire" upping the cost from 1cp to 2cp's. Not a great problem, even at two command points its still a good stratagem and has multiple uses.

The last change on the page is actually in two parts, firstly the price hike, up to 4cp, making it one of the most expensive stratagems in the game but its also one of the best. The second part is a long awaited clarification on its use. The stratagem in question is the Drukhari "Agents of Vect", seen by many as the best stratagem in the whole game, able to shut down an opponents play and alter the course of a whole game in a moment. To be honest I have no view on the price increase, as I've never played against a DE player and have never seen the stratagem used. However I have seen numerous discussions around who can use the stratagem. There was a lot of debate about the wording, as it didn't specifically say that it could only be use by the Kabal of the Black Heart, even though it was titled as one of there Stratagems. I think it was one of those cases where RAI and RAW really came in to force. It was clear it was intended to only be used by the Kabal of the Black Heart detachments but as it didn't specifically say that in the text, it could be used by anyone. Now however it has been cleared up and it now states that at least 1 unit of Black Heart must be in the board to use it. This brings the RAI in line with the RAW and makes it as it should have been in the first place and stops all the people who were clearly bending the rules to there advantage. It has also now been stated that it is only an in game stratagem and can't be use before the first turn starts. I wonder if the changes will see a reduction in the use of the stratagem or not. With the clarification that you need a Black Heart unit for the stratagem to be used, your now enforcing a tax on it for a lot of people, either through the auxiliary detachment and it's -1cp or through the use of a patrol detachment and the associated unit costs. Also, remove the Black Heart units and the stratagem is stopped. Maybe this along with the price hike is too much?

Which ever way you look at it, the big FAQ is another step in the right direction, although I'm still unconvinced by the Tactical Restraint rule. We will see what the Chapter Approved 2018 brings in a couple of months as well.

The big FAQ - Rules erratas

The big FAQ dropped the other week and while it didn't contain many big changes, there were a few little changes that might have a big impact on the game. I'm not going to go into every little change, just the few that I see as interesting or relevant to me.

In the main FAQ there were a few points of note, the first change and the one a lot of people are talking about is the first one on the Errata. The changes to the FLY keyword have pulled back some of its power and I am not sure that it is the best change to the rule but it will stop some of the shenanigans that we currently see, such as 0" charges. I think that it will change again, as I think that stopping them being able to jump over models when charging is a bit silly. Stopping them ignoring terrain or vertical distances is a bit still and I've always thought that measurement should have been measured diagonally from start to finish position or just to ignore intervening terrain or models. I'm not sure how I would have changed this rule but I don't think this is the answer.

The next change is to one shot weapons and brings in the options in the rules to enable you not to shoot a one shot weapon if you want. It was always silly to have it that if you shoot you must shoot with all the weapons, wasting a one shot weapon or not shooting at all. This is a good change, although I suspect that most people have been playing it this way from the start.

There is little else new in the way of actual rules changes and none that I think will really make any difference to the game itself. After the rules errata's ae the FAQ's and as usual there are a few that I thought were pretty self explanatory but apparently not. It has been confirmed that you cannot skip a phase, which I though was obvious, the phase doesn't not happen just because you have nothing to do in it, it just passes very quickly.

We also have another example that stratagems from different codices  with the same name are considered the same stratagem and there for only one can be used in a phase. I though this had already been cleared up but maybe not.

Next up is that using stratagems to shoot units that come in from reserve and how it interacts with characters. If they say "as if it were the shooting phase" that's what it means, so all the rules for it still apply. I know lots of people have tried to get around it by rules lawyering but now its set in stone. The same can be said for Heroic Interventions, no you cant do it in your turn, you never have and now its there in magenta and white. Oh, but you can in your opponents turn even if they didn't declare any charges.

There is also a bit clearing up the "Rule of Three" at the end but I've not bothered to read it as I never use the rule.

The blood Angles errata didn't change much apart from increasing the cost of the stratagem "upon wings of fire" which is understandable, it is a very good stratagem and even a doubling in price doesn't dent it's usefulness. I'll still be using this one regularly. The only other new thing is just the clarification that you can't use narthecium to bring back an armonium cherub. Makes sense, it's busy flying off to get more ammo and won't be back for a while.

The main changes in the Astra Militarum errata are centred around bullgryns and Stratagems. The wording of slab shields has been changed so it only affects armour saves, which makes sense. Two Stratagems have also been changed, "jury rig" has become a once a turn stratagem, which is ok, I'm not sure it was needed but apparently it was, not that I've used it much. The second stratagem to get changed was "take cover" and was modified so that it can only be used on infantry units, which seems sensible, being able you use it on a bloody great tank was a bit silly but useful nonetheless. Now it's just on Infantry, although there the ones that usually need it most.

That's it for the rules errata's, nothing major and nothing that's going to change the way that I play the game. I'll have s s lo at the big FAQ itself next as there are quite a few things to mention from there.

How the Big FAQ will effect me.

Well, we've had a few days to digest the new FAQ and look at the repercussions to our armies. While most of us who are not tournament players will probably find that there has been very little impact, there are a few tweaks that no doubt will need to be made.

First off, I will not be including the "rule of 3" in to the equation, as I'm not a tournament player and neither are any of the other players at my club. Were currently discussing the rules but it looks like most people are happy with the beta rules but we still won't be including the organised events rules, even in our ladder system. I will however be including the new beta rules, as these will become permanent rules in the next FAQ, which will probably be Chapter Approved 2018, although I suspect that they will be altered slightly, especially the reserves rule.

I'll start with the easiest army, namely the Stone Dragons as they haven't even been built yet and as such don't have a list. I have an idea of how I want to run them, namely elite infantry (non-TDA) but I'm still waiting for the Space Wolves codex before I finalise anything. So the Big FAQ will have no effect here.

The next list to look at is the Hjaltland LI. This list will also not be effected very much, apart from the points saved from the commissars. There are no tactical reserves in this list as everything starts on the table, therefore the list will remain unchanged and the play store of the army will continue as is.

The Hrossey Yeomanry will also continue as is, although if we were using the rule of 3 I would have some problems as I have 4 vets squads. Luckily were not and so there is no need to change the list.

Now we get in to the lists that will be seeing some changes. First up are the Dark Guardians. This list is based around bikes and termies. At present there are 4 terminator squads and two terminator characters forming 6 drops for a total of 66pl and 4 bike squads and a bike character for 5 drops and 27pl. Now the original plan was to just throw a random character in to make up the extra drop. Now however, I also have to make up 39pl. There is some good news however, as a friend of mine has offered me some extra bikes, including some attack bikes, boosting me to 5 bike squads and an attack bike squad. When including the bike character, it puts me to 7 drops and 61pl. This means that I am only 5pl short of the target. I'm still  not sure how I'm going to get around this problem yet, but it gets me closer to the target. Unfortunately I'm also right up against my self imposed 2000 point limit. Right now though the army is still in the unpainted and unplayed stage, so I can have a think and come back to it later, probably after CA18, so the problem may well have even sorted itself by then.

Next up are the Dagr Ormr Militarum Tempestus force with Hildasay PDF support. Now this is also going to prove problematic, as the idea is similar to the Dark Guardians, in that the PDF heavy weapons teams sit back and the scions drop in. At present the scions for 42pl and 10 drops, where as the rest of the army forms 42pl and 14 drops. So things are balanced on a knife edge, so to speak. I want to add in some transports, some Taurox Primes, 4 to be precise, 2 with Gatling cannons and 2 with battle cannons. This will push up the number of non-deep striking units and also the pl for these units, which should put me in the clear for running this list at 2000 points. Obviously dropping the points level will be require some calculations rather than just dropping units as I feel like it but on the whole this list does a lot better than I expected it would.

The last list to look at is the Eagle Knights chapter. Now these guys were originally conceived as the full on drop army, in the classic descent of angles style, but have been through several modifications, with the 7th BA codex and 8th index and now the 8th BA codex. Although there have been a lot of changes, one thing is for sure, I still have a lot of jump pack units. In my last game at 1500 points, I dropped 6 units on the board with 6 in reserve but that meant 32pl on the board and 64pl in reserve. Now 27 of the pl off the board were in the 15 man death company squad, which is about a third of the total points in total on unit! Even more so when you consider that they always drop in with a chaplain. To place it off the board I would have had to deploy 5 units on the board and completely had to rethink the rest of my deployment. One get around would be to take 6 man tactical squads, as this takes the squad from 5pl and 83 points to 9pl and 93 points each (running the same load out), a big jump in pl for a few points, 12pl for 39 points across 3 squads. It is a legitimate tactics but it feel like cheating, as I'm fudging the numbers somewhat.

The basic issue is though, that the army does not work as intended now. I can get around a few of the problems with stratagems and such but it really is no longer a descent of angles list anymore. I have always been planning more units, a second devastator squad and a sternguard squad, possibly even a non-jump pack assast squad. Now these units will become  even more essential to forming a valid and viable list. I will still be playing the knights as my main army for the moment as I have a lot to learn about them, sonin some respects it's good that these changes have happened now, rather than further down the line when I've got use to the current force!

I'll update my thoughts after I've played a few games with the new rules, which at the current rate shouldn't be to long!

FAQ updates - guard and marines

So were on to the final part of the FAQ updates, were going to look at the Guard and Marine updates. This could be a long one, as there will be quite a few bits to cover, but first up I will cover the Marine FAQ. Now, I will be taking a brief look at the Space Marine FAQ, as there isn't a Blood Angles one, one of the few codices that hasn't been updates, along with the Dark Angles.

There is not a lot to really say with the marine codex, the only ones that are of note are related to stratagems. You can now use Auspex Scanner to strike at units redeploying on the battle field but not for units that can set up before the first battle round. So some good news and some bad. 

In other news, if you choose to use the Armorium Cherub after you have played the Flakk Missile or Hellfire Shells stratagem, you get to keep the benefits for the second round of shooting. This is quite a big bonus really as it can double the damage quite easily. Oh, but you cannot use the Flakk stratagem on cyclone missile launchers.

And that's it. While there is nothing much to write, there are some implications for the Blood Angles, as they share the same stratagems its mean that the rulings will apply, as in the main rulebook FAQ states that the stratagems with the same name in different codices can be considered the same stratagem. So, if the rules apply to a marine stratagem then they will apply to both the BA and DA ones.

So, we finally get to the main event, the Guard FAQ and there are a lot to go through. So where do we start with the three pages of goodness.

The first change is a good change and undoes a number of issues that the previous update did. Summary Execution got a tweaking, removing the word "must". This changes the whole rule and gives you the option to use it or not. This means that failing a test by 1 will not result in you loosing at least 2 (one for the rule and one for the reroll) men. A very good change. In addition to this, there have been some points changes in the Chapter Approved update, dropping down the cost of a Commissar and Lord Commissar. This is a double benefit and really does make Commissars viable again.

The next change is that Heavy Weapons teams across the codex have been brought in to line with each other, arming all of them with a lasgun and frag grenades, alongside their heavy weapon. In other wargear options upgrades, the Militarum Tempestus Command Squad get the option to take there lasguns or not when they upgrade to either a Vox-caster or Medi-pack. 

Baneblades and there brother variants got an update, mean that it can not longer fire overwatch with its guns when within 1 inch of an enemy unit. Which brings it in line with every other unit in the game. Well, you've got to take the good with the bad I suppose. In a similar vain, the stratagem "crush them" has been amended so that you can only use it in your turn. It makes more sense this way round. 

The next change is to the Cadian stratagem, although i'm confused as to why the change has occurred and what it is designed to stop. It seems to me that they have just added in a bunch of words to make the stratagem longer but it still has the same effect. The only thing that I can think is that the original stratagem says "an unsaved wound" but the update says "one or more wounds", thus stopping people playing the "its taken 2 wounds, you cant use it" card. Apart from that I don't really understand it.

There are 2 changes to relics as well, the Aquila can only be used now when the bearer is on the field and the Cadian relic has finally been restricted to a once per game only item, which is what I always though it should have been and that was always the intent.

There is a fun one with the Grand Strategist warlord trait, as it has been clarified that you roll a D6. Now I would have thought that this was fairly obvious but as it didn't say, so I suppose there was nothing wrong with rolling a D20! Chances of rolling a 5+ on that would be a little bit easier!

So that's the rules updates. Some good ones, namely Summary Execution, which makes Commissars useful again, and there are some not so good ones, like Crush Them, although there really aren't any bad ones. 

In addition to the updates there are the standard questions. The first one relates to the Catachan doctrine, clarifying that the rule applies to each individual weapon and not just ones to the vehicle. This will help some vehicles, such as Plasma Executioners, but I cant think of many others that will. 

The second new question is rather confusing and you can see why it needed an explanation. The question refers to the interaction of the Laurels of Command (LoC) and the Cadian warlord trait, Superior Tactical Training (STT). Now both of these give the ability to issue extra orders. So in theory issuing one order could result in 4 orders! How, well, issue you original order, and then using STT that order (on a 4+) will affect another unit. Then using LoC you can (on a 4+) issue an additional order and as you've issued an order (on a 4+) you can use SST to have that order affect another unit! Ok, so it requires you to roll a few 4+'s, so it's not going to work everytime, but of your using Creed, there is the possibility of turning 3 orders in to 12 orders! Which is pretty powerful. Ok, you'll need units around to actually take advantage of the rules and it won't work all the time, so your really only likely to get around 6 orders off.

So while there are not a lot of changes, there are some really good amendments to the guard codex and some clarification to the BA codex. After the nerfs we have seen in the past, it's good to get some love. Ive a few other posts waiting in the wings, then I'll have a review of how the various changes will affect my armies.

FAQ updates - main rulebook and chapter aporoved

So here is the second part of the FAQ review and in this part we will be looking at the changes to the main rulebook and chapter approved 2018. I'll start with the rule book and then go on to chapter approved. I will only be looking at the new information and not all the previous updates and information. There will be the occasional overlap with the Big FAQ review from last time and when there is I'll just gloss over those sections.

The main rulebook has had a few changes outside of what we saw in the big FAQ. The first change noted on the update is about ignoring wounds, which we've already talked about. The next item is changes to the embarking process. It is more of a claificlarifimore than anything, as the actual process hasn't changed, you still need to be within 3", it's just confided to the movement phase now. I guess with things like Eldar "fire and fade" or similar, you could have embarked at other times. Not so any more, although I can think of at least one time you can get around this, with the armageddon mount up order.

Next up is an odd one for me, as it's an update to the warlord rule. Now I thought that this was fairly simple, but there seems to have been a few bright sparks out there who have been bending the rules slightly and nominating a fortification as there warlord! Ok, so that old rules just said a model, so the fortification counts but it's not exactly very realistic now, is it? The update specifically says it can't be a fortification, so that loophole has disappeared. I just wish I'd though about it!

The next two and final updates for the main rulebook are about the organised events box, which i covered last times and also the changes to command points for battalion and brigade detachments, also covered previously.

That's the sum total of the changes to the rules in the main rulebook, however there are a few questions that I wanted to highlight.  Now I'm not going to go in to every question in detail, just go over the bits that I find interesting.

First up they cleared up the issue around being able to kill things you cant see, as in, you measure and check ranges before shooting and you keep shooting until you run out of shots, not until you run out of visible targets. Second up is a very interesting one, if two squads are in terrain and fire pistols in close combat, then they both get the benefit of cover! Also, when shooting the pistols, you have to shoot at the closest enemy models, on a model by model basis, whether your within one inch of them or not.

We also got the proper clarification that you can use stratagems from other codices as long as they meet the criteria on them and also stratagems with the same name from different codices  are considered the same stratagem. I don't think that this comes up very often, outside of the marine and chaos codices.

The modifications that advancing makes to movement characteristics can only be modified once in the movement phase, so if you get to move a second time, such as with a stratagem, you cannot advance again but your movement characteristics stays as the modified value. Also in regards to movement, you can never move if you are deployed from reserves and you cannot use any stratagems that you are required to use in the movement phase.

There was also some clarifications on the charge phase. A charge is only successful if you actually make the charge, if you fail the distance the charge is failed and you cannot do anything that requires you to have charged. The next questions answers the question if with the FLY keyword can measure charge moves diagonally. Now we know that they can and measure directly from base to base. Lastly, is you cant place a model within one inch of a enemy model at the end of a charge then the charge fails. So all those models hiding on to of a ruin, wobbly model syndrome doesn't seem to come in to effect and if there really isn't space to fit the base, then you cannot charge.

The next section covers reserves and starts off with what I am assuming is a change to previous versions. It now appears that you can now no longer make a unit bigger then it starts as, without paying reinforcement points. There is now also no argument for saying that you cannot move after deep striking, its now in black and white that you can, but you cannot use any ability to move, such as psychic or stratagems. So, no more warptime. The last two points clarify that using a stratagem to shoot at incoming deep striking units still follow all shooting rules in regards to characters and that a unit that drop pods in cannot be targeted but the drop pod can, however, you can shoot at the drop pod before the unit disembarks. So get those stratagems working on those heavy weapons.

The next section is about transports and we find out that aura abilities don't affect open top transports and all embarked units count as having moved if the vehicle has moved. Also embarked units count towards your deployment total, so deploying a Rhino with 10 characters in still counts as 11 units deployed for the purposes of the tactical reserve rule. Also they have put a stop to embarking in any phase other than the movement phase, which makes the Armageddon Steel Legion order more effective as it means that the ability is quite rare now.

There are quite a few questions answered in regards to units and weapons. Firstly, you can definitely use abilities such as Gate of Infinity and I guess the BA Upon Wings of Fire, to jump out of combat, which could be very useful. Also if something says fight again then that's is what you do, repeat the entire fight phase for that unit. The downside to this is that if this happens in the turn that you charge, if you destroy your chosen target, you cannot use your "fight again", as you cannot pick a unit you didn't declare a charge again. For abilities that allow you to shoot twice, you can select a separate target for the second attacks and you complete the first attack before starting the second. There are a few other questions that were answered but several are ones that I would have though were pretty self-evident but I guess nothing really is.

The last section is all about the missions. Distances from objectives are measured in all directions, including diagonally. Also any abilities that must be used before the battle must be used before deployment starts and that deployment is not a phase. Also if you deploy units in a flyer, you had better make sure that you have other units on the ground because they don't count for the sudden death rule. The last thing to note is that vehicle squadrons, once deployed act as separate units and each counts for first blood.

I'll go over the Chapter Approved changes here, as there are very few changes. Firstly there is some clarifications on the Skyshield landing pad, don't know what this means, as I don't have one. There are also some points updates, I'll go over the guard changes later, but the ones that interested me are the Eldar ones. The points increase to Dark Reapers is good as far as I can see, they are very powerful. Why the Death Corps changes are here I still don't understand.

There are a few questions answered but there is only one that caught my attention. It refers to weapons that don't require line of sight, such as mortars, and how they interact with the character rules. As many thought, the "does not need line of sight" bit does override the character requirements for being the closest and VISIBLE model. So, as long as its the closest, you can hit it even if its not visible. So bring on those mortars!

Next up is the last part of my look at the new FAQ's and its probably the one that will take the longest as its all about the Guard, with a little bit of marines thrown in for good measure.

FAQ Updates - the big FAQ

So, finally we have the spring FAQ or as GW have called it The Big FAQ 1. There are many FAQ's that have been updated, somewhere in the region of 25 or more and all on one day, which really is phenomenal. However, despite there being so many updates in one day there are really only 3 updates that I am interested in and one that doesn't seem to have been updated! These are the Big FAQ itself, the Main Rulebook FAQ and the Astra Militarum FAQ. The BA FAQ has yet to be updated and while it maybe that it isn't getting an FAQ at this time, there are some updates in the Marines FAQ that will be applicable to the BA codex, so I imagine that it will be updated soon. I will go in to these updates as well at the end, just for completeness.

Edit: the original plan was for one post but as I've been writing this it's been getting longer and longer, so I'll split it down in to at least 2 posts.

Now, there are a lot of changes within the FAQ's and I'll not be going in to all of them, as some of them have nothing to do with my armies, as such this review will only cover the bits that I think are relevant and anything that I found interesting.

First on the chopping block is the main FAQ itself, the BIG FAQ 1.

The first thing that you see in the FAQ is the implementation of the Psychic Focus and Targeting Character Beta rules, although with some subtle changes.

Psychic Focus has bee altered to get rid of Smite spam lists. This simply changes the Smite rule so that the number required to cast Smite increase by 1 every time you cast it. So it will still be fairly easy to cast 2 or even 3 times, but after that it will get a bit harder, requiring an 8 or more to cast a 4th time. This rule doesn't affect Grey Knights or Thousand Sons, as their Smite rules work slightly differently and they would be affected significantly more by the new rule than a lot of armies. This seems like a good idea to me, it nerfs Smite Spam, but doesn't stop players from casting Smite with a couple of pyskers. I usually run 2 psykers in my armies and this ruling means that I can still do so and not be penalised. The only issue for guard that I can see if for Wyrdvane Psykers, who cast on 1d6 rather than 2d6. While you can spam these guys, as there quite cheap, 24 points for a min unit, in order to cast smite repeatedly now, you would have to max out the units, and even then, you could only cast smite a max of 4 times before they could no longer cast it. So if you do spam Wyrdvane Psykers, you'll have to use them first.

The character targeting rules have also be updated to take account of some people breaking the system. In the old days, as in the early days of 8th, people took advantage of the fact that the character had to be the closest VISIBLE unit. if you made it so nothing else was visible, you could shoot any character you wanted. Now, you have to be visible AND closest, a small change but in means that as long as one trooper is closer, even if its hidden deep in a ruin, you cant shoot the character. This makes quite a difference, as it means that you characters can almost act with impunity, apart from snipers of course! The other change is minor but important, in the other characters effectively no longer count for determining if a character is closer, meaning you can't hide a character behind a character.

Next up is the new rules for tactical reserves. This is a huge change, by far the biggest change in my view and will be game changing. There are 2 main changes to note, firstly that not only does half of your total units have to start on the table but those units have to equal half of your power rating. Secondly, you can only drop units in to your deployment zone turn 1. The sum total of this means,, no dropping in half a dozen big nasty assault units while leaving 6 cheap as chips characters hiding in your deployment zone. The first part of this rule is going to get abused a lot I think, infantry already see lots of 6 man tactical squads and the like. The second part is going to nerf alpha strike armies. For me this seriously damages my Blood Angles force, as the while point is to drop in and assault. Granted it's not the end of the world, but I'm going to have to think hard about what to do with the likes of my death company. Don't wait until turn 2 or do I deploy and hope I get to go first, playing the forlorn fury stratagem? This ruling is really going to need mento sit downdand think hard about what changes in need to make, i thunk for starters that I'm going to have to paint my sternguard vets a lot sooner than I though! Now most of my guard armies it won't be a problem, as the scions are there for late drops and objective grabs anyway, so generally don't come in turn 1, the only issue could be the Dagr Ormr Militarum Tempestus force as they are based around the scions but there should be enough heavy weapons teams to soak up the damage and survive. As for my Dark Angels, well I'll deal with all those terminators when Ive finished my guard armies!

The new Battle brothers rules is next on the list and is a bit of a surprise. Granted, Imperial soup is a thing and I'm sure that Chaos and Eldar have similar things but I guess I didn't realise it was such an issue. I would have thought loosing the various detachment benefits would have been enough to off set any benefits you might gain from running a soup list but I guess not. At the end of the day however, this change is not going to effect me at all as I either run Astra Militarum or Blood Angles detachments.

Talking of detachments, these have seen some changes and while most people think it's a good move, most of my regular opponents have other ideas! With the increase for battalion to 5cp and brigade to 12 CP, my 1000 point guard list goes from 14 to 17 cp and my 1500 point list goes from 17 to 22 CP! That's a whole lot of command points! I still think that patrol detachments should have got a CP or two. If they had 1cp like the other detachments it would be better, but I'll take the other rises too. My blood angles will benefit from the rise, as they struggle with command points, usually having between 4 and 7, the extra 2 points will be very useful and enable me to use some of the stratagems that I don't use as I lack the points, like death visions of sanguinius.

The next bit that caught my attention was the changes to ignoring woulds. I feel that this is a good change and how it should be. Having an extra save is fine, having two or even three is silly. I don't have this issue, as the most I get is one on my death company and the BA command trait that give you one, calls out the death company save and replaces it. I also haven't come across multiple saves in my games, so it won't make much difference but I still think it's a good move.

The last two sections are the organised play section, which again won't have much of an impact on my games, as we don't play competitive and not many people spam units anyway, and the points section. The points section is interesting as there are some significant changes, most notably for me, the dark Reapers points increase. These are an excellent unit and are dirt cheap at the moment. The drop in points for commissars is good and will be covered in the guard review bit, because it's the rules updates to commissars which is more important.