Today I am going to go over some of the big things covered
in Friday’s FAQ update as well as a very quick rundown of my performance in
four RTT’s over the last month. The rest of this week I will be posting my list
and strategy for the Midwest Massacre GT this weekend as well as the final
three rounds of the Golden Throne GT (always best to finish writing about one
big event before running off to another).
An update on my pre-ordered copy of the Limited Edition Dark
Vengeance box; as of this posting it still is not here. I called GW customer
service and was treated as though the idea that a preorder would arriving the
day (or week for that matter) a product is released was an obscene request. In
fact they informed that if I wished to buy something the day it came out I
should just go buy it from my local GW store. Considering there are literally
zero Games Workshop stores in the state of Minnesota that is super fantastic
advice. I personally will be taking the small portion of my business that was
with GW’s website and moving it fully into local stores.
In the FAQ department I must say that I found GW to be spot
on. Many of the questions people had were answered and there seemed to be very
few outlandish questions and answers listed. Here is the FAQ items that I found
most important to the game…
First and foremost is that paladins, nobz, and wolf guard
are no longer characters. This means no more ridiculous levels of precision
strikes, as well as limiting look out sir games deathstar armies were playing.
It is worth noting that nobz and wolf guard are characters if they are leading
a unit.
Page 16 – Shooting
Phase, Look Out, Sir
Change the second
sentence of the second bullet point to:
“Determine which model
in the unit is closest to the character, and resolve the Wound against that
model instead.”
This is huge. Now when a character leads a multi-wound unit
they can not hand out wounds until everyone has one, the nearest model will
take them until they die.
Page 49 – Flying
Monstrous Creatures, Grounded Tests.
Change the second
sentence of the third paragraph to read “A Grounded Flying Monstrous Creature
is treated as if it is in Glide mode with immediate effect, and can therefore
be targeted normally and charged in the following Assault phase. Furthermore, the
model automatically loses the Jink special rule (if it had it), but can
otherwise revert to Swoop mode again in its next turn.”
We can say so long to the monstrous creature bouncy ball
argument. Though in some senses this ruling weakens flying monsters, it does
make logical sense and should help against things like the Daemon Circus.
Page 71 – Vehicles,
Difficult and Dangerous Terrain.
Change the final
sentence to “A vehicle that fails a Dangerous Terrain test immediately suffers
an Immobilised result from the Vehicle Damage table, including losing one Hull
Point”.
While mech is not dead, this is another nail in the coffin.
I expect to see more dozer blades in the future.
Page 83 – Skimmers,
Special Rules.
Change this sentence
to “Skimmers that are not also Heavy Vehicles have the Jink special rule”.
Do not let your opponent jink with their monolith. And to
think, I had dual monolith Necron army all ready to post up next week.
Q: Can the BS1 of a
Snap Shot ever be modified by special rules that modify the BS of a model’s
Shooting attack (such as Tau markerlights, Space Marine Signums or Sergeant
Telion’s Voice of Experience)? (p13)
A: No.
Q: How do maelstroms,
novas and beams – or indeed any weapon that doesn’t need to roll To Hit or hits
automatically – interact with Zooming Flyers and Gliding Flying Monstrous
Creatures? (p13)
A: Only Snap Shots can
hit Zooming Flyers and Gliding Flying Monstrous Creatures. Therefore, any
attacks that use blast markers, templates, create a line of/area of effect or
otherwise don’t roll
to hit cannot target them. This includes weapons such as the Necron Doom
Scythe’s death ray or the Deathstrike missile of the Imperial Guard, and
psychic
powers that follow the
rule for maelstroms, beams, and novas.
Q: If a Psyker uses a
beam power on an Infantry unit in front of him and the beam proceeds to pass
over the base of a Zooming Flyer or Swooping Flying Monstrous Creature, is it
also hit by the attack? (p69)
A: No.
One of the things these FAQ’s did was stop people from being
able to make silly arguments about how to not be effected by snapshots. Two
examples of that are on display here.
Q: Can psychic
shooting attacks be fired as Snap Shots (assuming that the Psyker has enough
Warp Charge available and requires a roll to hit)? (p13)
A: Yes, but only in
your own Shooting phase. This means that psychic shooting attacks cannot be
made when firing Overwatch.
It seems like this was coming up at every event I played in.
It is good to see it resolved.
Q: Do models that
ignore difficult terrain when moving or charging still fight at Initiative step
1 if they charge through difficult terrain?
(p22)
A: Yes.
This clarifies how Necron wraiths interact with terrain.
Ignoring the effects of terrain now clearly does not include striking at
initiative.
Q: In a multiple
barrage, do you determine all of the hits and all of the Wounds separately for
each blast, or do you resolve all of blasts in one go? (p34)
A: Work out the total
number of models hit by the multiple barrage, then proceed to allocate Wounds
and remove casualties all in one go.
This is less of me posting a big change and more of me being
confused. The barrage rules state wounds are allocated from under the hole of
the blast marker. If there are multiple holes then how can I do both this and
remove casualties in one go?
Q: Can the Feel No
Pain special rule be used to resist a Wound suffered from the Perils of the
Warp? (p35)
A: Yes.
The next question then is how this interacts with a psychic
power which gives you FNP. For example, if I roll double ‘1’ when casting
catalyst, can I use the FNP I receive from passing the psychic test on the
wound from the test? I posted this on a local groups forum and received solid
answers from both sides of the argument.
Q: If a model has the
Eternal Warrior and Feel No Pain special rules, can it still make Feel No Pain
rolls against Wounds that inflict Instant Death (Eternal Warrior states that
the model is immune to the effects of Instant Death, after all)? (p35)
A: No.
This is a great example of GW being astute about what people
were interested in finding out how to play their armies.
Q: When a model makes
a Vector Strike or Hammer of Wrath, do these attacks benefit from any special
rules (such as Furious Charge, Poisoned or Rending), or any weapons or other
wargear it is equipped with? (p37/43)
A: No.
This makes unholy might a much less attractive upgrade for
Daemon Princes.
Q: Flyers are entitled
to choose whether or not to use the Skyfire special rule at the start of each
Shooting phase. Can Swooping Flying Monstrous Creatures also do this? (p49)
A: Yes.
Yes. Yes. YES! The night before the FAQ’s were released I
played against a four flyer Necron list. Oh, how that game would be different
now. Each Tyrant would average downing an AV11 flyer each turn by itself with
their shooting.
Q: Can a vehicle Tank
Shock a Swooping Flying Monstrous Creature? (p49)
A: No. If a Swooping
Flying Monstrous Creature would end up underneath the Tank Shocking vehicle
when it reaches its final position, move it by shortest distance so that it is
1" away from the vehicle.
I do disagree with part of this call. While it makes sense
that a swooping monster can’t be tank shocked, it is bad that you can
essentially push FMC’s by tank shocking them. Because these models reply on
their movement, a tank shock can be a powerful took against flyer lists.
Q: Does a Flying
Monstrous Creature that arrives via Deep Strike count as arriving in Swoop
mode? (p49)
A: Yes.
Notice here that there is no choice, the model must be
swooping.
Q: If passengers
disembark from a Transport that has suffered a Shaken or Stunned result, do
they still suffer these effects in their next Shooting phase? (p80)
A: Yes.
This is self explanatory and continues the trend of negative
changes in regard to transport vehicle mechanics.
Q: Can a character on
a Chariot that is also a Skimmer make a Sweep Attack against a Zooming Flyer?
(p82)
A: No.
This is a good start, but I would like this same restriction
to be put on sweeping flying monstrous creatures.
Q: To score a Victory
Point for achieving the Linebreaker Secondary Objective, you must have at least
one model from one or more scoring or denial units within the enemy’s
deployment zone. Does such a model have to be completely within the enemy’s
deployment zone, or do they still count if they are only partially within?
(p122)
A: The base of the
model in question must be wholly within the enemy’s deployment zone.
This will require an intentional change to how I at least
get line breaker. In many games I simply place part of an MC base in their zone
for the point. This is not as much of an issue for infantry armies.
Q: Do units that are
transported in a vehicle that MUST start in reserve count towards the number of
units that can be placed in Reserves? For example, must I count the units in a
Drop Pod or Valkyrie towards the 50% of units I can place in Reserves? (p124)
A: No.
There is some discussion over whether this includes all
transports that must be put in reserve, such as storm ravens, or if it is just
dedicated transports. I feel based on this working it is clear that it is all
transports.
Lots of words and few images in this post…but fear not! You
can look for tons of pictures this afternoon when I give a brief report of the
four events I have played in since the Golden Throne GT.
What codex specific FAQ updates do you feel are the most
game shifting?
Today's FAQ release is quite a doozy! Everything from a confirmation of the reported Necron flyer rule, to Mycetic Spore changes that make Doom even more dangerous, plus some new game mechanics. Here are the top changes I found when reading the updates this morning;
