40K Rules Conundrum: Drukhari & The Stacking Kabals
Get ready for a lesson in unintentional consequences. The Kabals are back and their Raiders are going to give folks nightmares – and it’s not just because they are scary. The Iconic Drukhari Transport is back and it’s going to let you stack Kabal traits.
Now, we’ve had the book for only a short time, but we’ve gotten some games in with it on our Twitch Channel. Plus we’ve been going over a lot of the units and options – mostly because we don’t like it when we get dirty tricks pulled on us. But we found one that had us scratching our heads – Kabal Obsessions that can stack.
Here’s the deal – and you don’t need the codex to follow along – First, here are the two Kabalite Obsessions you need to make this work.
via Games Workshop
This one is pretty straight-forward. It’s the “re-roll wound rolls of 1” for poison weapons we care about – so remember that part.
Edit: Just for Clarification – Raiders and Venoms get the benefit of the Obsessions, too – and that’s why this is a question that we have.
And here is the kicker – “enemy units do not receive the benefit to their saving throws for being in cover against attacks made by models with this obsession that can Fly, or are embarked upon a Transport that can Fly.”
So the question is if I have a Kabalite Warrior unit from The Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue ride on the Raider from a Kabal of the Flayed Skull, do those abilities stack?
Is it a model embarked on a Transport that can Fly? Yes. Yes it is.
“Oh but Raiders only allow matching [Kabal] units to ride them, right?” WRONG. The only limitation is Drukhari Infantry (or Incubi – but that’s not the point). They have pretty much the same wording from the Index entry:
Raider Entry from Index: Xenos 1
Venoms, too. Oh and don’t forget to toss on those Splinter Racks either:
Is it THAT broken? If you’re using a basic loadout of all Splinter Rifles and you’re in rapid fire range, that’s 40 shots that re-roll 1’s to hit, 1’s to wound, and every 6+ to hit generates 2 hits instead of 1. I’ll let you judge for yourself. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that volley.
And by the way, if you’re thinking “Oh that’s not likely to happen – who’s going to mix and match units from different Kabals…” I have to question if you’ve been paying attention to the direction 8th edition has been heading. It’s as simple as taking two different Detachments – sure, only the Raiders from one will get the benefit, but that’s still enough. The Flayed Kabal stays on foot to hold objectives while they let their buddies in the Poison Kabal borrow their rides and go murder things. It’s not rocket surgery here.
These guys on foot are Flayed Kabal , and the guys in the transport are Poison Kabal, but their transports are from Flayed Kabal. Simple, right?
Well that should be an easy Errata/FAQ, then. No sweat. Except it’s not. The problem is that the limitation probably needs to stay at Drukhari Infantry because of the Drukhari Characters. Raiders and Venoms have a transport cap of 10 and 5, so you can’t pair a Character with a ‘full’ unit. Which means they are probably going to have to ride solo in a transport. Which, again, means that limitation needs to remain unchanged. Plus the wording on that would get weird and cause Raiders and Transports to not function realistically.
This Venom is Wyches ONLY. Get out you stinkin’ Haemonculus Coven guys.
It’s a rare instance to see Chapter Tactics Obsessions stack like this – but we don’t see RAW anything preventing it from happening. It’s the incredible case of the Stacking Kabals!
What do you think of this one? Open and shut case, or do you see an issue with these Kabal Obsessions stacking?
Writer’s Note: Hey All. I got this one wrong. Oops. I’m human and misread the rule. I do apologize for getting this one wrong. However, instead of deleting this post we’re leaving it up with this note. Thanks for reading.
