Warhammer 40K: Can’t Hide From The Blade of Sanguinius
The Blood Angel FAQ has one change I’m really glad to see – The Blade of Sanguinius got a nice boost this go around.
If you’ve been living under a rock (or just out of the loop) you might not have known that Games Workshop dropped a massive FAQ update this past week. Like most 40k players, I was looking for any changes that directly impacted the armies I personally play. Out of those, the Blood Angel FAQ got a few things cleared up but one thing in particular struck a chord. The additional change to Blade of Sanguinius was a welcomed addition.
Above is the original text from the End Game Objective. Personally, I thought this was a cool and thematic End Game Objective. The Blood Angel player gets to issue a challenge and the opposing player gets to nominate a character (or, if they don’t have a character, their warlord) to accept the challenge. Then, the BA player has to attempt to destroy the challenger. You can score up to 15 points based on how you destroy the character. For the BA player, the best case is to destroy the challenged character in Melee with the issuer of the challenge.
There is a reason the Sanguinor has this particular pose
However, one unscrupulous tactic that was theory-crafted about this was “well, what if I accept the challenge with my cheap character that’s off table in reserves and just never bring them on?” Which, actually, yes – was a thing you could choose to do. And it’s denying the BA player 15 Victory Points at the end of the game. So while I never had any opponent take advantage of that, it was actually a “legitimate” way to cause a 15 point swing against the Blood Angel Player. That was until the FAQ came out:
HA! Take that you cowardly character! So now, instead of denying the Blood Angel player 15 points by not actually playing with your toys, you just straight-up hand them 15 VP for keeping your chosen “champion” off the table. Seems like a great change in my opinion.
Now you must ‘Come At Me, Bro’
Again, while it was might have seemed like a smart tactical play to deny points to your opponent, it sure felt cheap and “gamey” in regards to actually engaging in the game. At least now, players will have to hide their chosen characters on the tabletop and attempt to protect them instead of off table just to deny points. It also doesn’t penalize the Blood Angel player for attempting to choose an army specific objective.
Other than that, the BA FAQ put another limit on the Sanguinor’s Aura of Fervour ability (less great). And it cleared up some more things about the Death Company Intercessor Wargear Options…which really just means you can load them up with all the close combat gear you can find the bits for:
Seriously going to need to swap some bits with folks…
Anyhow, if you haven’t done it by now, go check out your own army FAQs. You might just find some great changes for your own army, too!
Points Denial. It’s a thing.
