Warmachine/Hordes: July 2013 Errata Document
Privateer Press just dropped a new errata document on the community with a few interesting balance changes and some minor quality-of-life adjustments. What exactly does it bring to the table?
I’ll leave the less-impactful stuff out, save that I will quickly point out that there is a welcome clarification to how Whites of their Eyes works and a nice, more-clearly explained definition of what a frenzying warbeast can and cannot do when it activates. There’s also a minor change which now causes Gargantuans and Colossals to suffer slam damage, even though they can’t be moved by them.
Jumping into the meat of the document, I feel that there are three important rules changes to be aware of.
First, we have Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard and his feat, Tide of War. The new rule states:
When one or more friendly Faction models are destroyed by an enemy attack while in Vyros’s control area anytime except while advancing, immediately after the attack is resolved a friendly Faction model in Vyros’s control area can make a full advance.
Previously, the rule stated “When a friendly Faction model is…” and not “When one or more faction models are…”, meaning that single attacks that killed multiple models yielded multiple moves. For example, if a Vanquisher shoots and kills three Mage Hunter Strike Force with a single attack, that would allow for three models to move via the feat. This is now reduced to only a single model being able to move.
While this may seem like a targeted debuff, my understanding is that the wording was changed to bring it in line with other rules that share similar triggers, like Warpath for example.
In terms of how this will affect Vyros2, I feel that the change will have a pretty small impact. Vyros2 has never been particularly well-known for his feat, save for particularly infantry-heavy builds, which are far from his only viable built type.
Second, Taryn di la Rovissi, the Mercenary Gun Mage, has received a huge boost in terms of her applicability to non-Mercenary armies, specifically Cygnar and Protectorate. Taryn’s Shadow Fire shot now does the following:
The model hit does not block LOS this turn.
All told, a pretty simple change. Previously, Shadow Fire only allowed other Mercenary models to ignore the model hit when determining LOS. Now it can affect Cygnar and Protectorate models as well, which is huge for the particularly ranged-heavy lists that these factions can run.
Where Cygnar is concerned, it gives even more threat to ranged assassins like Captain Allister Caine, Captain Kara Sloan, Major “Siege” Brisbane, or Commander Coleman Stryker. Caine2 and Sloan will benefit in their ability to apply direct damage to enemy warcasters or warlocks that are hiding behind hardy, large- or huge-based screening models. Siege and Stryker1 gain additional strength at removing models from line of sight where they already had decent options, like Siege with Fox Hole or Stryker1’s Earthquake. I feel that Stryker1 in particular will find Rovissi a welcome addition due to the influx of models with immunity to Knockdown, specifically Colossals, Gargantuans, and Battle Engines.
For Protectorate, the last 18 months have seen a rather interesting evolution of their ranged metagame, focusing around Reckoners, Redeemers, Vanquishers, and Vessels of Judgment. These models are all capable of hitting extremely hard at range, particularly with the benefits of abilities like Hymn of Battle or Eye of Menoth. Now this ability can be applied against screened warcasters or warlocks. Warcasters that can run solid ranged lists, like Grand Scrutator Severius or High Exemplar Kreoss, will most certainly find Taryn making her way into their lists.
This rules change was honestly not expected at all, and consequently people’s heads are exploding with the possibility. I’m personally in preparation for an upcoming convention where I’m planning to run at least one ranged-heavy Cygnar list, and now I’m thinking hard about trying to fit her in.
The last, and arguably most expected, rules change is to Lich Lord Asphxious’s feat, Spectral Legion, which I believe marks the third time that it’s been changed since MkII was released, the first time limiting the feat to non-large-based models, then changing the effect from Incorporeal to Ghostly, and now changing it again as such:
Return up to ten friendly destroyed non-warcaster small- or medium-based Faction grunts to play, placing them within 3 ̋ of Asphyxious. Returned models gain Undead and Ghostly, become solos, and cannot be attacked or damaged for one turn. Returned models must charge during their activations and leave play at the end of this turn. (A model with Ghostly can advance through terrain and obstacles without penalty and can advance through obstructions if it has enough movement to move completely past them. A model with Ghostly cannot be targeted by free strikes.)
Advertisement
I’ve bolded the relevant change, specifically that Spectral Legion can only bring grunts back to play, which are non-leader members of units. This denies Cryx players from returning to play models like Bane Lord Tartarus, the Bane Thrall Lieutenant, the Blood Hag, or General Slaughterborn.
While I can’t necessarily articulate the reason for this change, I can certainly discuss what the new change removes as an option. Models like the ones listed above could have such a huge impact when brought back under the feat that the threat of abilities with Remove from Play would often drive Cryx players to kill their own models so that they could be available on the feat turn, indicating, to me at least, that Spectral Legion was far too out-of-whack if it would push someone to those lengths.
If the opposing player lacked RFP abilities, the Cryx player could use those models to setup such a ridiculous and arguably heinous attrition swing that it gave an incredibly tremendous advantage to an already solid warcaster with the ability to deliver Bile Thralls to precise locations via Excarnate for infantry clearing, strong anti-armor capabilities with Parasite stacked with Dark Shroud from the ever-present Bane Thrall unit, and remain extremely difficult to assassinate thanks to Teleport for post-movement placement, Hellbound for localized rough terrain creation and charge denial, and Caustic Mist for easy, on-demand cloud placement. This is, of course, all on top of the fact that he can gather souls at range with Soul Reaper and hit pretty hard in melee at P+S 15 and Reach. He is effectively the perfect storm of low risk, high reward.
Lich Lord Asphyxious has been a common sight on the convention circuit since MkII began despite the fact that his feat had been nerfed twice, and is arguably the most ubiquitous character in the game. Opinions of many a competitive player are that Asphyxious2 bends the metagame so hard that you must specifically plan at least one of your lists to deal with his circus. I appreciate that Privateer Press’s design team recognizes this even after repeated attempts to tone him down.
In spite of these changes, I think that Asphyxious2 will continue to have a strong presence on the competitive scene. His feat still allows players to wreck several heavy targets in one turn, and the ever-present threat of the long-ranged Excarnate will always induce the gag reflex in unexpecting victims.
That’s it for now. Will Asphixious2 still dominate tournament play? Will Taryn enable ranged “God Mode” for Cygnar and Protectorate? Sound off!
