40K Editorial: FAQtastic!

Reecius here from Frontline Gaming again, to discuss the recent FAQ. Games Workshop has given us another FAQ, and now we’ve had a bit of time to digest it, what to make of it?

The Rulebook FAQ doesn’t change much, as the changes are how most players I know played the game anyway. The only big one was that special abilities that must target a unit can not be used out of a vehicle. This doesn’t affect many units, but the Traveler is pretty bummed.

As for the codex FAQs, there were some fairly important changes. We won’t cover everything, only those points that change the way an army plays.

Marines can Combat Squad in reserves again. About time. Why they ever worded it to indicate that they couldn’t was silly. 

What this means is that Descent of Angels is back in a big way. I still don’t feel that they are a truly competitive force when taken in a pure DoA list, but it does mean that this army is back to being a menace against parking lot style mechanized lists. This is a significant boost to the army and it makes them much, much more flexible. 

Equally, this also makes all Marine books with the ability to combat squad better.

You no longer need to hit with Jaws of the World Wolf. They flip flopped on that one again!

Chaos Space Marines got hosed, unfortunately. Why? I couldn’t say, honestly. It wasn’t as if they were overpowered, and I fail to see the logic in changing some of these rules, but it is what it is. Thousand Sons, those “overpowered” boys in blue, can’t move at all if their Sorcerer is dead when affected by an ability that reduces their difficult terrain roll. Haha, poor 1K Sons, GW hates you! Hopefully in 6^th ed we really do see those cover saves go down to 5+ and FNP being negated by AP3 or better, as that would make these guys so much better. 

Fire Frenzy got a little better for Dreads, limiting their targets to what is in their arc of fire (45 degrees). Still not a great unit, but it does clarify this issue.

Lash needs to roll to hit. Bummer, that was one of the only great things in the book these days. It’s still excellent, just not as good. It was a tad ridiculous with the previous FAQ though. And the last biggie: Warp Time got mega nerfed. It is no longer reroll failed to hit and to wound rolls, but all or nothing. Ouch. No more Nurgle Daemon Princes with Warptime, looks like it’s all Lash Sorcerers, all day. Too bad. Chaos got even more bland.

Grey Knights got some clarification. The Vindicaire’s Turbo Penetrator is as ridiculous as we feared. A D3 for EVERY 6 rolled on the penetration roll. That’s an average armor penetration roll of 16 on a model with BS8…..yeah.

They also benefitted from combat squading in reserves which will be very useful for a lot of their units including Strike Squads which can Deep Strike, a fact many miss.

Imperial Guard got the language cleaned up on reserves for Platoons. They all come on as a single unit with a single roll of the dice. Great for Power Blob armies or for Al’Raheem builds. Weaken Resolve can be used on units in HtH, which may be useful if you IG assault units or are locked with a very weak enemy unit. And, finally, the Manticore’s weapon systems have been defined. All of the missiles are 1 weapon system. Nicely done.

Necrons got revised as well for some much needed changes. All spawned models must be placed in coherency with models that had not been spawned. This goes for the Ghost Ark and Spyders. This is how we were playing it anyway and it needed to be put in place. Conga line Scarabs were just ridiculous. However, the change to not spawning anything on a 1 is pretty harsh, although it does reign in the Scarab Farm list a bit, which honestly, is fair. 

The language for reanimation Protocols was cleaned up. If you are spawned, you can’t come back. Ever-Living functions the same way in practice and benefits from Res Orbs. They also clarify that if a model with Ever-Living is in a unit (such as an attached member from a royal court) that gets wiped out, only the model with Ever Living can get back up. 

Entropic Strike does indeed affect vehicles before the unit with the ability hits the vehicle. For squadrons the armor reduction is split between vehicles. Scarabs just munch metal boxes in a big way.

Whip Coils got nerfed. They reduce Initiative BEFORE any modifiers. Therefore, a Grey Knight with a Halbred will strike at I3 against a Wraith with Whip Coil. That’s too bad as Wraiths were great they way they were, IMO. Not too good, not too bad. This isn’t a terrible situation, but it does stink. Furious Assault means that most units will strike simultaneously with Wraiths. 

They clarified Writhing Worldscape to indicate that any unit that moves with any kind of difficult terrain modification to take the dangerous terrain test. That was a silly argument, IMO and am glad to see it cleared up.

Imotekh remains a boss. His abilities work if he is not on the board and a Chronomitron does affect the reroll for his Night Fight ability. A member from two different royal courts can be attached to a single squad, which is how most people I knew were playing it any way. Due to the main rule book FAQ, The Traveller can no longer use his Mind in the Machine ability from inside of a Command Barge (or any vehicle). All the more reason to take a generic Overlord.

Tyranids got some interesting rulings. Lash Whip verbiage was clarified to indicate even more strongly that they function in the same manner as Whip Coils. 

An interesting one was IC’s joined to Termagants could benefit from Brood Primogenitor. FnP and Furious Assault for free, essentially….not so sure when it would come in handy but it is good to know. Flip side is that the IC is also subject to damage if the Tervigon is destroyed. Acid Blood can cause a glancing hit on Walkers. Woot.

The biggie though, is that Hive Guard ignore ALL cover apart from terrain. That means smoke, KFF Meks, or going Flat Out does not affect their weapons. That is huge, and Hive Guard got even better.

In all, a good FAQ and even though I don’t agree with some of the rulings, am glad that GW is getting these out faster. 

Have at it gang.  It will be interesting to see how this rearranged the meta come time for Adepticon and Wargamescon.  Who do you think came out looking the best post FAQ?