40K: Imperial Index FAQ Lessons
With the quick release of an FAQ/Errata for each Index and the Core Book there are a lot of subtle changes to the game now.
Here’s a look at some of the big takeaways from the Imperial Indexes. A lot of little changes that really make a huge difference. Some of these are things that just got overlooked, or that need a little clarification–things like the wrong attack values getting recorded on some of the units, or certain small (but incredibly key) words being left off of a sentence.
Oh hang on guys–it turns out we’re an AGRI-world not an AGGRO-world.
But other changes are much more impactful and don’t seem to be “just an oversight.” Hand flamers got a pretty huge nerf, for one. So, it’ll be important to keep this stuff in mind, especially as the Summer campaign starts to heat up while players battle to determine the Fate of Konor.
Here are some of the more important ones we found (in no particular order):
This clarification opens up a lot of flexibility for players–you can decide what Acts of Faith you’re going to use as they’re resolved, so you can keep your options open as they resolve. Not a huge change, but it can make a meaningful difference when you’re rolling up against an enemy where you sorely need the Emperor’s blessings.
I guess they just don’t make Acolytes like they used to anymore. They dropped from 3 wounds to 1 wound, which I guess makes sense–this was probably just a cut and paste error that got fixed. Hope you got in your acolyte cheese while you had the chance.
Probably just an oversight anyway–you just have to kill it now before it stops working, which is honestly where it should be. They also clarify that the unit has to be wholly within 6″ of the void shield generator to get that invulnerable save, unless of course there’s an enemy in there with them.
This one’s a pretty big nerf for hand flamers. Their effectiveness got cut in half–which is a big enough change that I’m not sure they were “always supposed to work that way.” Still, it’s a d3 auto hits that you can use in close combat, so it’s nothing to sneeze at–but this is a pretty drastic change.
Unfortunately this spells the end for my detachment of Celestines, but is honestly the way things should be. There’s only one of her, after all. More important, though, is the clarification about the Acts of Faith. Celestine can only use an Act of Faith on someone who believes in the Emperor enough to have an Act of Faith themselves–which again, brings her in line with common sense. No more Acts of Faith on a Necron Monolith or whatever.
This one I don’t get. It’s weird–because these are two similar bonuses from different abilities, so by all rights they should be cumulative. I don’t quite know why they’ve called this one out specifically. I mean, from a Lore perspective, they’re all blood chalices, with the Red Grail being the ultimate blood chalice. But it doesn’t jive with other instances of similar, cumulative abilities. But hey, they wrote the game and them’s the breaks.
Well the Blackstar is like all the other transports now. Makes me wonder if we’re going to see some special transports for Primaris models somewhere down the line. It’s gotta be something big enough to handle them–I’ve done a mock-up below.
Primaris “War Bike”
Hey! Assault Squads can take some weapons that they’ve always been able to take. Great! 
And your Sanguinary Priests can turbo-boost when they’re on bikes, which means they can pull off rad stunts.
If you get a bike going fast enough, you *should* be able to give it fly…at least for a turn.
These are just a few of the changes, but the game’s effectively gotten it’s first big editing pass since it’s been released. So if you haven’t yet, be sure and check out the full FAQs. It’s nice to see GW responding so quickly to their editions, and once the codexes come out, I’m sure we’ll have an even better appreciation of the game.
Index Imperium 1 FAQ/Errata
Index Imperium 2 FAQ/Errata
When will GW respond to *my* frequently asked questions–‘Does Guiliman like me?’ ‘Who do you ship?’ ‘Do Necrons (other than Pimpcron) know what it means…to love?’
