The modifiers section addendum is the most worrying change I see in any of them and it's the first one. This addendum doesn't allow Initiative to fall below 1. To correct for the horribly written and never playtested Daemons 'dex. What this tells me is that GW does not review their products before release. This is to prevent future shenanigans if other codex writers try to add Daemon-esque rules that lower stats.
There's a new entry for Invuln saves that changes nothing that I can see nor for Blast. Apparently people were playing that AP1 ignores invuln and blasts that scatter out of line of sight disappear. We'll they'd have been wrong before and are even more wrong now. Blind no longer effects vehicles or fortifications without Initiative. I didn't know that it could in the first place. Split-fire is nerfed heavily as you can't fix the most stupid part of GW's rules: shooting at someone who's vehicle just got destroyed. So now you have to blow up a vehicle and then look for another target other than the no longer armored troops within your range. Dumb dumb dumb. Flyers can't be brought in early by special rules that move units out of reserve now. They must declare which mode they are using just like FMCs too. Meaningless Battlefield debris change. Allies of Convenience now capture objectives for you. Don't know who was playing that otherwise before. Models drop the relic where they break if they fail morale or insta-die instead of at the end of their movement.
Models can no longer move through friendly intervening models even if there is room to. Gotta post the next in it's entirety:
Q: If a model is ‘removed from play’ due to such effects as failing
their Initiative test against ‘Jaws of the World Wolf’, does this count
as being removed as a casualty? (p15)
A: Yes.
That needed to be answered? "If a model dies is it a casualty?" "Yes. Duh."
Small change to blobs means you don't have to kill off a ton of them if a blast hits just one and causes instant-death. Not a big change. Bikers and Jetbikes and vehicles can now all move at Turbo-boost or Flat out after deepstriking. Huge change. Gunslinger doesn't allow you to 'gunsling' witchfire powers. Duh?
This one is huge and not good:
Q: If a vehicle suffers the effects of a Crew Shaken, Crew Stunned,
Weapon Destroyed or Immobilised result from the Vehicle Damage
table, does this automatically mean that it loses a Hull Point? (p74)
A: No, unless it specifically suffers a Glancing or Penetrating
hit, or some other effect that specifies that a Hull Point is
lost.
So now vehicles are super-strong against penetrating weapons. Meltaguns are slowly being shelved. Not sure why this change was included. Oh wait, to sell more vehicle models that's why. The next rule doesn't allow a vehicle to move Flat-out if passengers fired. Never ran into that discrepancy so okay. Can't repair Zooming flyers unless you're onboard. Not a big change. A reiteration that you can punch a Chariot instead of the rider. Neat? Rider is usually easier to kill though. Heavy Vehicles can deepstrike and fire all their weapons. Not a big change again. Confusing change to fortification emplacements means that if you mount separate units on 2 emplacements (Fortress of Redemptions 2 guns for example) they have to fire at the same unit RAW. Strange change. Warlord traits don't work if someone isn't your Warlord. Obviously? Who is asking these questions? Weapons that automatically effect enemy units automatically effect Allies of Convenience. A good change in my opinion as that's how the rules are written and should be played. Not saying Allies of Convenience is a good rule but there you have it. You now roll-off to see whose pre-game effect works first. Just like you normally would if you were playing a person and not an asshat. Fortifications don't count towards your board not being wiped. Obviously? As the opponent can take those fortifications for themselves if they wish.
That's it for main rulebook. The big ones are penetrating hits no longer take off HP and GW proving they don't playtest anything. Possibly they don't even read their codexes before release anymore.
Daemons
Answers none of the questions we have nor changes any of the stupid rules. Thanks GW. You really suck sometimes. Did it really need to be stated that Khorne can't take Psychic powers? Jesus.
Chaos Space Marines
Obliterators realllllly can't fire the same weapon twice now. So, no change. Abaddon can't get Spawnhood of Daemonhood which is pretty damn awesome. No more Aba-spawn crap. If you become a DP or Spawn you also lose all your previous Boon Rolls. Making Daemonhood look like a really crappy option for HQ's and dedicated units that have specific roles like Havocs. Helbrutes got changed but no one takes them so woo. If you take Scrolls of Magnus and aren't a Psyker you get to be one after wounding yourself for a power. Game-breaking change...for exceptionally stupid players. Who takes a psyker super-buff on a non-psyker? I have no idea.
Dark Angels
Sweet warlord trait no longer affects Battle Brothers. Bad change. Stasis anomaly fixed so they can pretend they playtested it. Big change here: Power field doesn't work if you're embarked. There goes those armies that are based entirely around the Power field. Asmodai now has a bolt pistol (they really don't edit this shit. It's not even a joke anymore it's true.) Then a ton of forgotten bullet points. Holy Shit GW. What the hell are you doing? Deathwing Assault gets nerfed because you can't keep everyone in reserve and have to follow normal deployment rules (I think it's half your army, could be wrong). Standard of Devastation applies to what everyone who thought about using it thought it applied to. Some bitching online about it applying to Heavy Bolters and Bolt Pistols was wrong and those people are bad and should feel bad. Sorry, haven't had my tea this morning.
Dark Eldar
Lelith Hesperax ignore armor saves. This doesn't mean she has AP2 though so you can't use this against vehicles. Sad. Neat change to reavers has them kill the unit closest to the final position they are at instead of the position where they first hit. For example you can drive over a screen of MEQs across the Devastators in back and the devastators and not the screen are what get hit. Nice change. And that's it, short and sweet for the denizens of Camorragh.
Eldar
Mind War now allows cover saves and Look Out, Sir rolls. Hilariously stupid change. I'd go so far as to ignore it in non-tourney settings. How can another dude take your brain fight wound? "Oh jeez looks like the sarge is fighting that Eldar cortex to cortex, I'll jump in front of him an absorb the brain blast." Dumbbbbbbbbbbb.
Grey Knights
Grand Master's ability only applies to Grey Knights now. Derrrrr they don't even have Battle Brothers so it wouldn't apply to anyone else anyways Herrr de Derr. Aegises don't stack which only makes sense. Other wise to Dreads standing nearby make you take your Ld test a -6. Suck it psykers. Going back to the main rulebook update you can't use Mordak to bring in Flyers early. And done. Good changes for Grey Knights balance-wise but nothing interesting. You can still take Nemesis Greatsword Dreadknights and use the effect of Greatsword and Doomfist at the same time (S10 re-roll hit, wound, glance/pen), hilarious.
Imperial Guard
Their flyers can no longer Scout. I didn't think they could due to Flyer rules but Codex does trump main rulebook but no longer I guess. Camo Cloaks add 1 to your cover save so if you already had stealth or shrouded you can easily get a 2+ cover now. GW completely gives up on the strategy of Al'Rahem getting 'Send in the Next Wave' to arrive via Outflank and just says 'roll for it'. Also Psyker battle squads are Mastery 1. Who cares.
Necrons
Dimensional Corrider is used during the shooting phase so you can now use it after deep-striking. Cool? Some change to some unit that no one takes. The change also seemed obvious. Imotekh's Lord of the Storm ability now hits every unit. Not a whole lot changed.
Orks
Zzap can't target Swoopers or Zoomers. Sad. Bigbomm changed to anyone the Kopta moved over can get the template. Kinda neat and makes bombing interesting. Old Zogwort can re-roll shooting powers but still loses warp charge for the power? Take something else because this went from bad to bad and confusing. That's it for Orks.
Space Marines
Change to drop pods that I didn't know was an issue. Ahh well. No other change for Space Marines. Move along nothing to see here.
Tau Empire
Fixed a bunch of forgotten rules that made it past the 'editor'. You can totally take 3 weapons on your battlesuits too so fun times with 3 flamers is possible or 12 burst cannon shots per dude is possible as well. If only you could take more of them. No change to Tau other than to clarify or correct.
Conclusions
Overall it just shows how little editing and play-testing goes into these codexes. They just don't pay attention and let things get to print before doing a single review. The most obvious two being Daemons and Dark Angels where the main rulebook had to be changed because of the idiocy of Daemons and Dark Angels have 1/3 of their codex options in the FAQ. Seriously, some units entire options page is in the FAQ and some units have been completely rewritten online. That shows a blatant lack of any final polish assessments going on at GW.
Regardless the big change is power field is no longer godly and vehicles don't lose hull points if penned. The second is a horrible change that I dislike a lot as it encourages glancing vehicles to death instead of trying to blow them up. Like in real life right? Shooting a vehicle with an AK 'til it gets glanced into submission is how it works right? Silliness.
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