Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: FAQ 1st Impressions
Goatboy here to go over my first impressions of the biggest 40K FAQ updates, just out for the new year.
Thankfully we got some new 40k info to chew over as we wait for some streaming events to come out (Las Vegas NoPen with my lovely art for the logo comes to mind). Overall we got a pretty simple set of rules updates to clean some things up, points to get excited about, and even some “previews” with the updated points. I won’t go over everything as there are other people digging into each one and bringing some knowledge to the starving readers. Instead, I want to gloss over some changes.
Well, start at the top with some points as we get to see some early info for both the Dark Eldar and the upcoming Death Guard. This is pretty interesting as a lot of stuff didn’t get too crazy expensive. This means losing Feel No Pain – while painful – will still mean I get a lot of bodies on the dance floor. I like this as it also lets me work on some point lists to figure things out. The Dark Eldar and Eldar in general got some nice tweaks to their troop choices and I hope we see some other abilities and options come out as we get closer to their release. Beyond the new units and points we also saw some nice stuff come for the Tyranids as well as some Chaos Space Marine tweaks that could be potentially good if we get updates to our rules soon.
“I am sad”
Oh and Tau drones got kicked in the teeth a bit more again. I just – they need to rework that book in a way to make them interesting again. I think I agree with some of the chatter online – make the suits good, make the jump up and shoot and hide good, and just make them move fast again. All of these things are needed to help that army out. Guard got some weird point changes too – which isn’t as good for them but they are another book that needs their identity worked out. Custodes got some nice point changes too as bikers got cheaper and other point stuff got rolled in.
The other big thing I find interesting is the overall change to how missions are played and scored. First – if you win the roll to go first you have to go first. This is pretty huge as it will force armies to be set up to move in both directions of the game – alpha strike/move or beta strike/move. This is important as it is another push in the direction of making things a bit more balanced in your army design. It also means you should always think of how you build your lists now too – usually including some kind of movement shenanigans you could exploit quickly as needed. This is still a game about movement so I still expect armies to get involved in a more balanced split of move options and damage options. Or they could just be like me and play fast beat sticks.
The other interesting change is how going second now scores at the end of the last turn. I like this a lot as I think it will help out those players who are going second. It gives you a final chance to respond that last turn in a way that mirrors how the going first player can start the game off. There were also a few tweaks to some missions and the number of points scored as well which is important – especially when playing that faction that just bleeds those points – Psychic armies and vehicle/mc armies. Overall I think this is good and my only annoyance is again having so many extra books that are not needed.
This is the other frustrating thing – the FAQ is good but at this point, we have to ask ourselves should just the main rule books be free with the ability to buy the codexes and minis etc? Should we just look at the App’s monthly fee to cover this need to update and change rules quickly? I love having books in hand but I barely got any games of 9th in so now having to reshift what I sorta remember is rough to work thru.
Overall it is a simple set of upgrades and rules that just makes me excited to see Death Guard in a week or so. It has been a while and I want me some stanky boys. I am just happy I can try to throw together a list to see how it would all work out. Plus with the FW update we had – I might make some cool-looking Nurgle Raiper Weapon Platforms.
I’ll be deep diving into the FAQ and talking to you more on Monday.
