40K: Specialist Detachments Bring The Relics
Vigilus has been out for a couple weeks and players around the world are still just scratching the surface of what this supplement brings – and it brings a LOT of Relics to the tabletop.
By now, I hope you’re familiar with the Specialist Detachments. They have been added to the game with Vigilus Defiant and Games Workshop has already hinted that there are more on the way. A lot of players got really wrapped-up with all the Stratagems and CP tricks you’ll have to pull to take full advantage of them. But there was one thing I think that has been overlooked: Relics.
After chatting with Abe about this, we’ve come across some interesting things about the Relics from Vigilus. But first, let’s just take a look at an example so you can see what I’m talking about:
“If your army includes any Tempestus Drop Force Specialist Detachments, you can give the following relic to a Tempestus Drop Force Character from your army.”
Pretty much all the Specialist Detachments have that same phrasing. What the relic does is irrelevant. That text is saying, “hey did you pay the CP 1 to get a Specialist Detachment? Cool, then a character from that detachment can also get this relic as well.”
Oh – but what about the Relic Rules from Vigilus, doesn’t that limit the number of relics? Not exactly:
To us, that Relic rule means you can’t stack two Relics on the same character – one from Vigilus and one from the Codex/Chapter Approved. That’s been how the Relics have worked since day one. So, no surprises there. But if you’ve ever wanted more Relics, you’ve had to pay extra CP, which hey, you ARE paying CP for when you buy access to the Specialist Detachment.
Specialist Detachments are giving you a lot of keywords for 1 CP. But those keywords don’t inherently give you anything by themselves. If anything, the “free” Relic you’re getting helps to justify the cost – and if you can’t stack two Relics on the same character, then you’ve still got to make a choice.
You can also pay that 1 extra CP to allow a Character to get access to the Warlord trait for the Specialist Detachment. We think this is pretty fair as you’re really going to have to spend a lot of resources (CP) to get all those extra rules. Plus, you’ve still got to spend the CP on those stratagems if you want to use them, too.
Did GW Just Break The Game?
Because you’re still spending a resource to get the benefit, we don’t think it’s any more “broken” than anything else in the game. The current relics are nice and having more than one relic per army hasn’t “broken” the game yet, has it? Not really. And you can’t even stack them on the same character!
“How Many Relics in this sector? All? Yes, that seems correct.”
While we think that this is fairly cut and dry, we’d still like to see GW clarify the wording on this just a little bit more. Maybe in the next FAQ they will answer the questions:
“Can you have a relic from the Codex/Chapter Approved and a relic from a Specialist Detachment on the same character?” (No.)
“Can you have a relic from the Codex/Chapter Approved and a relic from a Specialist Detachment in the same army, thus giving you two Relics?” (Yes. They still have to meet the other requirements as per the Specialist Detachments.)
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So…when is that FAQ due out for Vigilus Defiant?
What do you think about the new 40K detachments? Will having an extra “free” relic break the game or is it no big deal? How do you interpret the rule for the extra relic? Let us know in the comments!
