The Big FAQ

[pretre]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/09/28/28th-sept-warhammer-40000-big-faq-2-the-low-downgw-homepage-post-1/

 

Warhammer 40,000 Big FAQ 2: The Low-down

Since the launch of the latest edition of Warhammer 40,000, we’ve been committed to making this the most balanced and enjoyable version of the game ever. Working with our playtesters, tournament organisers, and you guys (hey!), we’ve been able to declare Exterminatus on loopholes and unintended interactions, leading to a more varied, interesting and fun game than ever before.

However, since our last balance update, we’ve had a whole load of new releases and a bunch of events to provide us with data – not to mention your feedback online!

Today, we’re pulling the covers off the highly anticipated Big FAQ 2. We wanted to wait until the dust had settled from the NOVA Open tournament to properly analyse our findings, and our aim has been to refine the balance of the game while making sure that all the army lists and units you love are still functional and powerful.

Anyway, let’s get into what you came here for – the new rules. We’re covering 3 main areas in this Big FAQ update:

• New Matched Play Rules
• New Beta Rules
• General FAQs and Errata

You can download the latest Big FAQ  and the various errata right now – but if you just want the key headlines, read on…

In the first Big FAQ, we introduced Battle Brothers to the game – shiny, new and ready to be tested. Having seen this rule weather a number of major tournaments and having gathered loads of feedback from around the community, we’re happy to confirm that:

1. It works pretty well
2. It’s leading to more interesting lists
3. You guys really like it!

As such, Battle Brothers is now a fully fledged official rule for matched play, legal as of RIGHT NOW. We’ll also be printing it in this year’s Chapter Approved (alongside a whole bunch of awesome stuff we can’t tell you about just yet).

While Battle Brothers is the biggest change to the rules in this FAQ, we’ve also taken the chance to make a host of balance tweaks and adjustments to units. With Chapter Approved coming in December, we’re not making any points changes in this Big FAQ – instead, we’re looking at Stratagems and Command Points, as well as providing some errata and answers to your most commonly asked questions.

Stratagems have been a core element of the current edition, offering a rich tactical layer to the game and bringing the unique abilities of each faction to the tabletop as never seen before.

When attending major competitive events, we noticed a few combos based around certain Stratagems dominating, like the so-called “Smash Captain”* or Imperial Knights using the Order of Companions. As such, we’re upping the Command Point cost of several Stratagems in order to limit the number of times they can be used in a single game and to balance their use.

You’ll still be able to use these powerful Stratagems, but you’ll have to commit more of your precious Command Points to doing so, making them a more interesting and meaningful choice in your games.

When looking in on tournaments, we noticed that the way the Fly keyword interacts with charges was resulting in some cases where Assault Marines and other flying units could stand above (or below) their foes and make 0″ charges. Now, even if you can fly, you’ll have to measure vertically like everyone else when you’re getting stuck into close combat.

You’ll be able to find the changes to your codex (if indeed, there are any) in your relevant FAQ and errata – including the first update for Codex: Space Wolves. We’ve made all manner of small changes that’ll improve your games, like confirming just when you can make a Heroic Intervention to officially allowing Renegade Knights to summon Daemons. What could be more fitting for the 41st Millennium than a massive war machine sacrificing its own soul-essence to summon horrors from beyond the veil?

We dispatched our rules team to one of the world’s largest Warhammer tournaments as judges and observers, talked non-stop with our partners in the competitive scene and relentlessly playtested the latest rules. Now, we’ve got a brand-new set of beta rules for you to test and try – plus an adjusted version of an existing one. We’re welcoming you to try all of them out and let us know what you think – this feedback will inform future Big FAQs and printed publications.

Based on your feedback, we’re making Tactical Reserves a lot simpler – basically, now, you can’t have ANYTHING come in from Reserves on the first turn. Because we’ve changed this rule from its earlier beta iteration, we’re keeping it as a beta rule to gather your feedback. As a beta rule, it’s not official yet – but we’d like you to try it out and send in your thoughts.

We’re also changing some Stratagems slightly so they still work with the new rule – options like the Alpha Legion’s Forward Operative and the Raven Guard’s Strike from the Shadows now take the form of a free move at the beginning of the game.

Don’t worry, Genestealer Cults players – we haven’t forgotten about you! While you’re no longer exempt from this rule, rest assured that we’ll be taking it into account during the development of your codex.

That’s not all! If you end up getting the second turn in a game, you’ll get access to a new Stratagem designed to blunt the impact of your opponent’s first-turn attacks – Prepared Positions.

Costing a couple of Command Points, this Stratagem puts every unit in your army in cover on the first turn (provided they’re not Titanic). If you’re willing to give up a couple of Command Points, you’ll be able to avoid getting caught on the back foot, while armies with cover-ignoring mechanics like the Imperial Fists and Iron Warriors now have a neat tactical niche.

The final beta rule we’re adding to the game is designed to put some tighter controls on generating Command Points mid-game – the only thing you should be farming is the skulls of your enemy!

Tactical Restraint limits the number of NEW Command Points you can generate or refund throughout the game through popular Warlord Traits, Relics and Abilities, like Kurov’s Aquila. In matched play games using the Tactical Restraint beta rule, you can only ever generate or refund one new Command Point each battle round – with the exception of Stratagems that specifically gain or refund a set amount of Command Points, like Feeder Tendrils and Agents of Vect.

The benefit of this is threefold – for one, you’ll still be able to benefit from these Relics and Warlord Traits, but they won’t be exploitable through stacking. For another, it’ll cut down on Command Point generation without harming players who’ve carefully constructed their lists, and finally, it allows for new builds using a wider variety of Relics, Warlord Traits and Abilities – leading to a more diverse playing field for everyone.

You can use these rules for yourself by download the FAQS – and we’d love to hear what you think! Let us know what’s working, what you think needs adjusting, and any other feedback you have by emailing us at 40kFAQ@gwplc.com

* For those of you unfamiliar with the term, “Smash Captains”  are Blood Angels Captains with jump packs and thunder hammers. It’s as awesome as it sounds – although a mite too strong in its current form when combined with the Upon Wings of Fire Stratagem.

[pretre]

Ha. No more first turn reserves.

[pretre]

Kill team faq!

[happycamper]

Damn it,  was hoping my question would get addressed, should bunkers be allowed to get a cover save

[Ish]

And my Deathwing army takes yet another solid kick to the codpiece. 

[pretre]

13 minutes ago, happycamper said:

Damn it,  was hoping my question would get addressed, should bunkers be allowed to get a cover save

Do they meet the criteria for cover? If so, yes.

[Guest]

Never even considered the idea of Renegade Knight Characters Summoning. So obvious now that I think about it. 

[happycamper]

1 hour ago, pretre said:

Do they meet the criteria for cover? If so, yes.

Yes they do because the are consider a vehicle. But whole thing feels like a loop hole.  I mean it’s bunker, it’s can’t “take cover”.  

[pretre]

1 hour ago, happycamper said:

Yes they do because the are consider a vehicle. But whole thing feels like a loop hole.  I mean it’s bunker, it’s can’t “take cover”.  

It's not entirely taking cover, it's also things preventing a clear shot.

[InfestedKerrigan]

1 hour ago, pretre said:

It's not entirely taking cover, it's also things preventing a clear shot.

This. Dust in the wind. Falling debris.

[Dusldorf]

Prepared positions I think is the most game changing thing in the faq. Essentially provides a big incentive for going second, since many units in one's army wouldn't otherwise be able to get cover, and having the bottom turn helps a lot for tournament objective scoring.

Also means that one can deploy aggressively AND get cover, which will otherwise never happen.

Think about the implications of prepared positions for things like mech lists and rhino rush. Normally chimeras and rhinos have a 3+ save that's difficult to improve, but this rule means you can deploy aggressively going second and have a 2+ save on a horde of T7 vehicles. This is huge!

[Guest]

52 minutes ago, Dusldorf said:

Prepared positions I think is the most game changing thing in the faq. Essentially provides a big incentive for going second, since many units in one's army wouldn't otherwise be able to get cover, and having the bottom turn helps a lot for tournament objective scoring.

Also means that one can deploy aggressively AND get cover, which will otherwise never happen.

Think about the implications of prepared positions for things like mech lists and rhino rush. Normally chimeras and rhinos have a 3+ save that's difficult to improve, but this rule means you can deploy aggressively going second and have a 2+ save on a horde of T7 vehicles. This is huge!

Though it doesn't really address the same issue if your opponent already ignores cover (like via Mortal Wounds or via Iron Warriors/Imperial Fists) or if your Invulnerable save is already better than your armor save (like via Daemons) or the opponent already has the AP to effectively ignore cover (some of the FW weapons in particular, have really high AP).

I like the stratagem as an attempt at game balance, but I feel it falls short of balancing all the armies. 

[Dusldorf]

Sure, but no single rule will ever balance all the armies. I think it's a great step in the right direction.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, happycamper said:

Damn it,  was hoping my question would get addressed, should bunkers be allowed to get a cover save

Buildings get cover saves. You can even deploy them in cover, since in this edition, they are not terrain pieces, rather, they are just immobile models. They have the same limitations for deployment as non-flying vehicles, but that's the only limitation.

And realistically, you can build a wall or fence in front of a building, or camoflague it. They protect buildings to some degree. Just because the game has you deploy the terrain first, then the models, doesn't mean that in game fluff, the bunker wasn't built first. A bunker in a ruin could represent a concealled fallout shelter in the basement of a destroyed building - it doesn't have to be that the bunker fell from the sky or anything.  

That said, the building rules are terrible in this edition (Tau ones might be an exception). There's some ways to exploit them, but they are usually too pricy for what they do.

[Dusldorf]

Faq says buildings can hold objectives though, which is pretty cool

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Dusldorf said:

Faq says buildings can hold objectives though, which is pretty cool

I've been doing this all edition. The weak point is that they aren't objective secured, even if their embarked unit is, so you can just stand in the front yard of a building and take their objective from under them. That, and the combined point cost of the building and the embarked unit never seems to exceed the value of just buying a better vehicle to objective camp. 

[spagunk]

"If the datasheet for a model says it can FLY, then during the Movement phase it can move across models and terrain as if they were not there."

Well okay then. Thanks.

[Dusldorf]

3 minutes ago, spagunk said:

"If the datasheet for a model says it can FLY, then during the Movement phase it can move across models and terrain as if they were not there."

Well okay then. Thanks.

Not sure if you're being sarcastic since it's a huge nerf no longer being able to do so in the charge phase lol.

[spagunk]

Just now, Dusldorf said:

Not sure if you're being sarcastic since it's a huge nerf lol.

I play BA so it was sarcastic.

[Prophecy]

How will an Autarch from Ulthwe work?

[Dusldorf]

2 minutes ago, Prophecy said:

How will an Autarch from Ulthwe work?

What do you mean?

[Prophecy]

11 minutes ago, Dusldorf said:

What do you mean?

His regen of command points is the whole point to taking him but they are limiting such abilities so does he continue to farm points or no?

[Dusldorf]

One per battle round is the new restriction

[Prophecy]

Well then someone doesnt get to be in charge anymore lol.

[Guest]

I did think the regening/stealing of command points just bogged down the game. Sucks for the armies that liked it, but I'm happy to see the restriction added. I also felt it added insult to injury if the opponent already had a substancially higher number of starting command points, to also be regenerating command points in-game (looking at you, Astra Militarum).