Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: FAQ Winners and Losers
Goatboy here with a review of who got taken up or down a peg in the latest FAQ.
Heck I just thought it was a Power Level update and then noticed they had a bunch of FAQ changes. Overall the changes were good except for a few things that have me scratching my head a bit. After a bit of FB searching thought – I got the idea why it most likely got answered that way. Anyway – let’s get to the winners.
FAQ Winners
Fast Turnaround – The biggest winner is the players themselves. We got a quick FAQ a few weeks after the release that helps solidify the game. There are a few things left over – but I suspect an updated Marine book will fix that in the end (cough cough – objective secured everything wolves cough cough). I like this new GW willing to answer questions, change things that were wrong (Ork Mek Kustom upgrades), and make sure the game is working well. It is a nice overall set of changes and revisions that make things better.
Unit Tweaks – The power level update helps keep some of the reserve stratagem ability more useful as it gets things in better ranges. On top of the power level we also saw a lot of models all of a sudden come back that were initially forgotten in the points update as well. We did lose the basic Ork Warboss on a bike – but gained his Special Character in the process. The Taunar got put back into a more reasonable point cost and we saw a lot of still in print FW stuff come back as well. I think until we see a true new codex it will be hard to really gather the information correctly on how all these changes will be – but it could fun.
Missions – The missions got some rules updates as well – making sure we play the secondaries correctly. I am still under the opinion that the Secondaries could use some more work but I am thankful we got some things answered. I still get the feeling a lot of secondaries just won’t get used due to the lack of hitting the maximum level of points but will see. I am sure will end up having a plethora of secondaries to choose from as this game monster continues to grow, eat more peasants, and become the mini beast we always want it to be.
FAQ Losers
Oh damn, gotta run!
Hiding Characters – On the loser side of things – it really seems they want to dump on characters being protected by under 10 wound vehicles. The biggest army hit by this is the Harlequins as they don’t have a big old vehicle to hang around – meaning a few bullets hitting their smaller dancer squads can mean their Shadowseer gets shot by some out of LOS damage guns, massed bolter, or just punked out by a super cannon or two. This also hits Dark Eldar but with the rumored changes to the amount of wounds some troops might get I bet will just see more Raiders packing the Disintegrator heat to take care of those massed amount of Space Marine wounds.
This also hurts some weird little things like some vehicles not guarding ICs – dreadnoughts and other under 10 wound monsters. It feels odd that a dreadnought or daemon engine doesn’t protect its master/helper/friend. It feels like they should have just said something along the lines of Characters under 10 wounds do not protect Characters as it would eliminate the Daemon prince issue but at least keep the protection the smaller vehicles offer.
Smites – Eldar and other psychic armies took a hit when they couldn’t Machine gun smites. This was something we knew was going to get answered so it is good to see it. Could you imagine a Magnus throwing 4 smites that do d6 to 2d6 damage a turn? It is a bit of a lose but we all knew it had to go away. Will see if the GK and T Sons get back their ability to not have increasingly more expensive smites but it feels like they might not.
Fortifications – The Fortification change was a pretty big one as it basically invalidates some of the bigger terrain pieces. The Sisters Statue and Wall combo will be very hard to place – as well as any of the bigger fortification pieces. The Nurgle tree stays fine as well as any other “smaller” options. I know a few players were excited to try out the Crown from Chaos but I wonder if it will end up being too hard to truly place to be beneficial. Will have to see as 9th continues to grow.
Overall it was a pretty simple update. I think as we wait for true 9th books to come out will see how the game is supposed to work. Until then we are just playing with our 8th edition armies hoping to get some new love with the updated boxed sets, rumors of more wounds for my Marine body bros, and seeing how deadly Melta will truly become.
What did you think the FAQ got right or wrong?
