40K Big FAQ 1 2018

So after being pushed back for over a month we have the 1st big FAQ for Warhammer 40K.  All the FAQs can be found on the Warhammer Community Page.  Most of the FAQs for each armies codex were updated as well, so was the main rule book and Chapter Approved.

I wanted to discuss some of the changes that were brought in with the new FAQs a little.  I haven't read every armies FAQ, only really Guard since that affects me and Blood Angels weren't updated in this run of changes.  Obviously everyone is talking about these online and some people are positive about them and some are very negative.  I just wanted to give my opinion.


Psychic Focus
So the first big change is the Smite Beta rule from a few months ago has been finalised and included.  This basically makes it harder to cast Smite multiple times in your turn and stops Smite spam.  I think this is a good change since being able to throw out mortal wounds so easily was really powerful and it was especially hard on armies that don't have much psychic defence like T'au and Dark Eldar.  It was too easy to include lots of cheap psychic units and throw multiple Smites each turn. 

I am glad that they took community feedback into consideration though.  The Beta version of this rule really hurt armies like Thousand Sons and Grey Knights that have lots of psykers but already had a nerfed version of Smite to balance them.  In the Beta rule their nerfed Smite was nerfed again making it pointless but now GW has excluded them from the new Psychic Focus rule so they are back on a level playing field.  I will be mentioning this again when we get to the current Beta rules later.

Targeting Characters
I am not a great fan of the new Targeting Characters rules but they aren't that bad.  You cannot target a character unless they are visible and the closest unit.  That bit doesn't make sense to me, if another unit is closer but I can't see them it seems stupid that I can't shoot the Character if they are the next closest.  It can also mean that if the only unit you can see is a Character but they aren't the closest unit you can't shoot at all and that seems pointless.

I do however like that characters are ignored now when deciding the closest model for another character.  This means you can't use cheap characters to block your more powerful ones as if they are the closest two models you can pick which to shoot at.

Tactical Reserve - Beta
This is the rule that seems to be causing the most fuss online.  It has been put in to stop Alpha Strike armies winning turn one but a lot of people don't seem to like it, probably people that play Alpha Strike armies designed to win turn one and don't want to play a fun game instead.

Facebook Graphic put out on the Warhammer Community Page

Basically the change is that any units coming in from Tactical Reserve on turn 1 can only deploy within your own deployment zone.  They can no longer appear anywhere outside of 9" from enemy models like they used to.  This is only turn one, so turn two onward they can come in anywhere same as they always could.  There are some exceptions, Stratagems and Abilities used after deployment but before the 1st turn can still be used as normal and Genestealer Cult's Cult Ambush is not affected, which is good because that is random and can be worse than normal deep strike anyway.

Now I play a very Deep Strike heavy Flesh Tearers list normally so this does have a big impact on me.  I didn't always drop everything turn 1 so I can carry on and just drop turn 2 instead but it does remove that option from me.  I understand the need to put a change in, deployment could be tedious measuring every distance to make sure that Alpha Strike units aren't able to get close to important units and it isn't fun losing turn 1 (this is a game after all) but I think it could have been handled differently.  9" was already a difficult charge to make reliably so close combat deep strike units were already held back.  I think the main issue was shooting deep strike armies that didn't need to worry about failing a charge and being stuck in the enemies half turn 2. 

I am glad Alpha Strike is being dealt with but think it could have been done differently, maybe a limit to the number of units brought in per turn instead with any over that limit having to be deployed in your deployment zone.  I don't think it is a bad rule but it does negatively affect armies that have a lot of deep strike options, like Blood Angels, and players that don't play them as win at all costs.  Like a lot of changes to games it seems that WAAC players have been abusing something and those that play a similar style in friendly games suffer as well.

At the end of the day I think sometimes it is better to deep strike turn two anyway, enemies are more spread out and it gives you a chance to move other units up to support your deep strikers anyway.  You also get to see where your opponent is going and what their plan is and use turn 1 to kill any screening units.  This isn't the end of deep strike as some over dramatic players are screaming on the internet, but it will change how we use it.  It's important to remember that until 8th Edition Reserves were rolled for randomly so you couldn't drop everything turn one anyway.  If overly competitive players can't adapt their plans as rules change they can't be that good anyway.  Plus I'd rather have a good game than wipe the board turn 1 so any change to Alpha Strike being so powerful is a bonus.

The rule is a Beta though and as I said when talking about the Smite Spam nerf, when it is put in for real other changes might be made.  This is a change that benefits Gunline armies more than close combat armies though.

Battle Brothers - Beta
Another Beta rule I have mixed feeling about.  Basically a Detachment has to share more than just the Imperial, Chaos, Aeldari, Ynnari or Tyranid keyword.  This stops detachments being made up of all the best units from a whole faction without stopping you including allies.  Now you just have to have a whole detachment of Ultramarines if you want to include Big G in your army.  It doesn't stop me mixing my Guard and Flesh Tearers into the same army because the army can have the Imperial Keyword but I need each in separate detachments.

With more and more armies getting a codex I think this was becoming less of a problem anyway.  The only way to get Chapter/Regiment/Legion/Hive Fleet/etc bonuses and use the codex Stratagems was to have the whole detachment share those Keywords already so it wasn't a problem since most players wanted to include a full detachment to get the bonuses it would give you anyway.  I think making this rule is great because it makes people play an army not just the best units from a whole faction without stopping people using other armies as allies.

My problem with it is that some Imperial armies can't be run by themselves really.  Sisters of Silence, Assassins, Inquisition and Legion of the Damned don't have full lists available and as I have talked about how I like these smaller groups.  Rules have been put in place letting them be taken in Vanguard Detachments without a HQ in the case of Sisters, Assassins and Legion of the Damned which is fine but it does mean you can't just run a single Assassin any more without losing a CP so I think we will see less Assassins being used.  I don't have a problem with this but it worries me because if these units are being played less and less I worry that GW might slow down support for these smaller factions.  Inquisition are another that now instead of taking a single Inquisitor you either have to take 3 in a supreme command detachment or 1 and 3 units of acolytes in a Vanguard.   Maybe when these groups finally come out in a Codex (either their own or as part of an Imperial Agents style Codex) they will have more options (my preferred choice) or special rules making it easier to add them to other armies.

Again this is a Beta rule so things might change but I think overall it is a good rule and GW clearly thought about groups that couldn't run themselves already because rules have been included for them.

Interim Balance Review
This section is just a lot of small errata that add a bit of balance so I will do them all at once.  Most are sensible changes that I have not got a problem with, or not enough knowledge of the faction it affects to comment if it is a massive change.

Battalion and Brigade Detachments now give more command points.  I really like this change, 1 because I almost always run at least a Battalion anyway (and I have started Imperial Guard who can get the cheapest Brigade) and because it rewards players for taking Troops, which I think make much better, fluffier lists, without stopping people taking fully Elite or Heavy Support armies.

Tide of Traitors was made single use per game because it was too effective and Word of the Phoenix was given a higher warp charge value for the same reason.  Both seem fair from what I know as they were really good but I don't play either army to made a proper opinion on if that was too harsh.

Abilities that ignore wounds have been changed so they don't stack with each other.  I think this is fair and works the same as it has in other editions.  It means that models can't get something like Disgustingly Resistance, fail that save and then roll to ignore the wound again with Tenacious Survivor.  I have no problem with this especially as most of those rules already had an added line like "if this model already has a way of ignoring a wound this ability has no effect".  All this does now is bring all of those abilities, even if they didn't have that line, into a level playing field.

Organised Play
Another big change that seems to have divided people online.  When playing Organised games GW have added a recommended number of times you can use the same Datasheet as well as recommended max number of detachments depending on points level.  The detachment thing was already including but the Datasheet limit is new.  Troops and Dedicated Transports are exempt which makes sense.

I thought a change like this was coming.  The recent T'au Codex limited Commander Spam so I expected all other armies to receive the same treatment considering Flyrant and Dark Reaper Spam have been really popular recently.

I have always hated spam army lists, it just ruins the fun for me so I am in favour of this change.  It also means that points changes don't have to be so drastic to stop spam lists, a unit can be powerful and not open to abuse any more which is a good thing.

Interim Points Review
Again this section is just some updated points for a few units.  I am not going to go through all of them because I actually don't know if some went up or down without looking it up and don't know for all of them if it was needed or not.

The big change that affects me though is Commissars have dropped in points.  After suffering because of the Conscript Spam nerf they were basically pointless in all Guard armies but the lower points and other changes (mentioned later) do make them usable again.

The other noticeable changes were Dark Reapers and Roboute Guilliman going up in price.  That is probably fair since they were both two of the best value units in the game.

Other Changes
That was everything in the main FAQ document but like I said other FAQs were updated as well.  I won't go into everything for them but I thought I'd lump them together and mention some notable changes in the FAQs I've read.

Summery Execution has been changed so it is now an optional re-roll rather than being forced to re-roll if a unit fails a Moral Test.  This is good because before if a unit took enough casualties to auto-fail a moral test you would still have to kill a troop and re-roll even if you rolled a 1 (the best possible outcome).  Combined with the points drop and Commissars are useful again for Imperial Guard armies.

Guard also got a few other changes like Steel Behemoth rule not being usable in Overwatch (I never think it was meant to be used that way anyway so this is just clarification) and the Relic of Lost Cadia being single use, again it was implied in the wording this was the case but rules as written meant you could use it every turn making it super powerful against Chaos armies so it is just a clarification.

Finally the last change I'm going to mention is for some reason the rule book FAQ had to be updated to say that your warlord couldn't have the Fortifications battle field role.  I have no idea what maniac was playing with a warlord Bastion but well done to them.

Final Thoughts
This isn't all of the changes so I would suggest looking though all the FAQs to see what has changed yourselves but I didn't have time or the knowledge to talk about all of them. 

Overall I think it is a good update.  There are rules I am not a fan of, or think could have been handled differently but nothing that has been changed that I don't think needed a change at all. 

It is important to remember that some of these changes are Beta and might not be the final rules released.  GW seems to be making a real effort this edition to get players to help balance the game and include changes the community wants based on feedback.  They can't please all the people all the time but I think they are doing a good job and actually trying unlike previous editions where there was clear an obvious power creep with each new Codex.

Games Workshop have asked for feedback on the Beta rules so if you have any sent it to 40KFAQ@gwplc.com