Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Avalanche of FAQ Changes
Goatboy here to talk about the Dataslate, Points, and a ton of FAQs that dropped late last week.
Overall the changes are pretty good and while I might not agree with all of them it does create a big shift in the game. I am all for shifts in the game, as it refreshes events and makes you rethink your army list.
Biggest FAQ Changes
We’ll start with the FAQ’s as there are 2 big core changes. The first one is the ability we’ll see happen more as the rule of Ignoring the Ignore rules abilities now ignores damage reduction. This is pretty nutty as, again, these sorts of rules really are set up to say – you are going to take this damage in the face and take it hard. CP is a lot more relevant now. So expect some “characters” to be designed to be super blades of doom.
The other change is how you dictate Wound Allocation for those units that are made of multiple units. Suffering wounds happen in the order of how wounds are allocated to the unit – so like say the Saint takes some wounds and then brings a Geminae back the Geminae now will still take the wounds first even if the Saint has wounds on them. So again, it doesn’t matter to a lot of armies. But it will show up from time to time for things like the Saint or the Silent King.
Battle Focus
Next up in the FAQ side of things – GW sided with some other FAQ’s and allowed Swift Strike Far-Flung Craftworlds Attribute to allow you to Battle Focus after a unit advances. To give you an idea, take those rules that say you count as stationary in the shooting phase. It now means you get to use all rules that would activate in the shooting phase if you didn’t move. This doesn’t invalidate how GW ruled the Salamander rules interacting with coming out the Primarus assault tank – as again this is only in the shooting phase. Still, I think this isn’t the best, but those Swooping Hawks at least got a point increase.
Dark Angels
Along those lines, Dark Angels got a lot of changes in how they build armies to match the new Arks of Omen detachment. This gives you ways to make full-fledged Deathwing and Ravenwing armies. We’ll see how much of this will be a thing or if the whole Marine update is a real game-changer for all the armies.
Thousand Sons
The Chaos side of things sees the Thousand Sons get a simple update that says only Thousand Sons units can use the Cabalistic Ritual. This is of course, an attempt to prevent a Tzeentch Daemon recasting one of their powerful spells. However, most of the time it was just Ahriman casting it again. I am not sure that is what they wanted, but it at least leaves them a cool rule to smash stuff with psychic might.
Grey Knights
Oh I love how the Daemon Slayer warlord trait for Grey Knights allows you to ignore Daemon Saves. This is a cool fluff thing and could be good if Daemons continue to be a pain in the butt. I wish they had done something to remove the whole needing each Grand Master in an army to be a different brotherhood. But alas – my dreams of 5 Dreadknights remain dead.
Knights
Both Knight Varieties got some info on how they can build their armies now. This is just to clean up the Ark of Omens detachment and a nice little help to ensure the builds are the same. I think the whole starting with 6 CPs and 12-13 War Dogs is a huge help for the army. They seem poised to do very well. While they lost Abaddon, they are still very good.
The FAQ Verdict
Overall the FAQ is a little bit light when you compare it to the Dataslate and the points adjustment. This isn’t a bad thing as it means the armies are somewhat the same from an FAQ standpoint versus what changes happen in the Dataslate. The Dataslate changes are designed to create a Season for matched play instead of a ruling to change how the army functions in all versions of the game. It is an interesting thought as you look at this and think about, say some Narrative events and other options that I am sure will pop up more as people figure out a way to create a cool and successful event.
~What did you like and dislike about the FAQ?
