Goatboy’s Warhammer 40k : FAQtastic Loose Ends
Goatboy here with some unanswered questions from the 40K FAQ that we expect answers for soon.
There are a few things left hanging that we need some more information for in the current edition of 40k. I know there isn’t a ton of games going on right now beyond some basement madness, living room beat downs, and your garage’s pit-fights. We had some events go down using some mixtures of GW missions, ITC missions, and even combos of rules from both. I think we will all end up going with GW missions bar some thoughts on adding new secondaries. In fact – that is my one true compliant right now about this edition.
Primaries & Secondaries
I think the Primaries are fine as we move away from killing as a major factor of them. I think holding objectives and forcing your army to go do something is important so I think the Primaries overall are a big success. I feel some small tweaks could make them more interesting (maybe some missions that only X type of units can hold etc, or X units get Objective Secured etc) but overall they work the way you want them to. They force armies to be interactive as there are no player placed objectives so most of them are outside your base and need your to bring a unit to them. This also does lead to a lot of the players thinking going first is important due to the nature of how you hold the objectives – but I feel as we continue to move on the idea of beta striking opponents off objectives and using that movement to get further up the board might become more powerful – will see.
The missing piece I feel right now is the Secondaries need some work. I feel having each of them be different points means that competitive players will only look at the ones that either give the maximum points earned for that mission – or are extremely easy to get. This means a ton of these just won’t get used bar some try-hards seeing if they can somehow make this mission work for them. I am hoping we see more coming in the new codexes and even released as some kind of update whenever we get the “mission” update like we normally did each year. I don’t know if I can truly think of any new ones that are good – but I am sure we could all figure out something that is not too easy to do but still worth it.
Loose Ends
This leaves us with just some weird rules that need to be tweaked/faq’d etc. I know I have talked to some of pros so it sounds like these will come along as we get further along in this edition. I mean what – it has only been out a week or so and while we would all like to play by RAI we know that RAW is what a lot of competitive players live, eat, and die on the sword for. These are the left over weird rules that hopefully will get answered or at the very least tweaked as we get closer and closer to being release from the head lock that is the Corona virus beatdown.
Machine Gun Kelly Smites – Right now the rule for Smite is the only psychic ability that allows you to cast multiple versions of itself and without the clause it use to have where a caster can only cast it once. There hasn’t been an answer on this but most playtesters say this was not the intent. Currently the kings of Machine gun smiting are Magnus who can do 4 with a +4 to cast all at a d6 or 2d6 worth of damage if rolled well enough. Ahriman can do it with a +3 as well and even another T. Sons caster can get a +3 with enough friends along for the ride. After that the bigger scare is also Eldrad who can go ham on it to by throwing out a ton of damage. We all know that this is not going to be the case and we expect it to get an FAQ at some point.
Psychic Actions – Leading into that we also need a lot more information on Psychic Actions. There is a lot of people talking about how it isn’t a Psychic Spell like the others thus others can try it if you fail. Even though the Action is written like a Psychic spell that is just done a different time and can even be countered like a psychic ability. This is just one of those that thankfully the Secondary it is attached to is just not nearly as good as some of the others – thus it isn’t nearly as abusable.
Space Wolves Over-Secured – Space Wolves shouldn’t let everything in their army be Objective secured. I know this will be for sure fixed in October when the new Marine book comes out and the Wolves get shoved into the Codex Astartes kicking, scratching, and yowling at the Vet as they are taken in and neutered a bit.
Characters Shenaigans – Characters that are both monsters or vehicles protecting each other from being sniped. I think they meant that the Character keyword takes over any of the others – but currently you can have things like 2 daemon princes hold hands as they move up the field and even things like character dreadnoughts (SW and some Marines). I don’t see these guys currently wrecking the so called Meta of Quarantined 40k so who knows.
Table Build Instructions – Can we get some very distinct how to build tables for the game? As a lot of TO’s start looking towards next year and getting the event engine running I feel we could use some very distinct how to build tables options given out. These types of things as we look at terrain we need to shore up, differentiate, and just build more of. I’ve always liked more Terrain as it makes the game feel more immersive but it is such a bear from a TO perspective to try and get all these pieces built, looking good, and then transported.
Terrain Definitions – Can we get a basic thought on terrain people have based and when they are in it and not in it? Like – if the model’s base is fully in it then it is considered within and thus can be seen and shot out? Or maybe do something like declare that you are in it to win it and not in it to hide? I really like the idea of Obscuring but a ton of older terrain is based to allow for strong terrain pieces so it is just weird to see a model “outside the ground” to somehow get more protection then being towards the back of a wrecked building.
Diving Into the 9th Edition Deep End
I am sure there are other things I missed as we continue on – like is everyone going to get the Melta update – but those can wait as we get a few more things released in the coming months. I know I am really wondering what the new Marine book is going to do as I feel the army is a bit nutty right now. But again the game is really just in a brand new place and we all have to figure out how to play it again. A good buddy (Pj Pants) talked about the different stages of “40k grief” a player will go thru from “anger at the new edition” all the way to “Hybrid Armies are Cool” and I am seeing his point as I continue to read, arm chair quarterback, and build new models to try and play with.
Current Armies on Deck to try and finish up in the coming months
- Get a Monster Mash built (need to find a few Bloodthirsters)
- Primaris Wave of Death
Look for these list to show up in an article in the next few weeks.
What did I miss from missing questions? Do we need anything else explained better that the FAQ missed?
