GW’s got some FAQs for us! The original article was posted over at the Warhammer-Community site.
With Codex: Death Guard and Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus now on shelves, we’ve had loads of feedback from the community on how you’re enjoying these latest books, as well as some questions on how certain rules are supposed to work. Today, we’re releasing some FAQs designed to make your games run as smoothly as possible.
Firstly, the updated thermal cannon profile found in Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus has been added to Imperial Knights in Index: Imperium 2 and Renegade Knights in Index: Chaos, allowing everyone to benefit from this newly improved weapon. Secondly, there’s a range of clarifications on reinforcement points and how various Stratagems interact with one another – Poxwalkers, for instance, can now grow above their original unit size with Curse of the Walking Pox, while Battle Servitors added to your army via the Fresh Converts Stratagems cost no reinforcement points in matched play (meaning that Agripinaa army is more tempting than ever!).
You can download the full set of FAQs here. We’re committed to making sure this edition is as awesome as it can possibly be, and if you’ve got any more feedback, questions or queries, let us know on the Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page. While we can’t provide immediate answers, we’ll be sure to add the most popular questions to our next round of FAQs.
Adeptus Mechanicus
Death Guard
Chaos
Index Imperium 2
What do you think about the FAQs?
Still operating on the BRB rules for things like the Imperial Guard Stratagem that SHOULD cost points, due to creating a new unit and not restoring a current unit, yes?
Haven’t seen this weighed in on yet. Forgive me if I missed it.
Nevermind, loosely answered in a previous post. I see it. Thanks.
I thought i liked it..then i read about Detachments not meeting requirements able to use stratagems so long as at least 1 of the armies detachments is legit. IE Death Guard detachment using tide of traitors because 1 small detachment actually qualifies and it opens the stratagems up to use on any of your units..sheesh..and here i was buying into the idea they were selling that delving deep into a specific faction would be rewarding../sigh…when’s 9th ed coming?
I am enjoying this edition, but on your point I agree- disappointing!-
Having a full army of Thousand Sons or Grey Knights gives you no advantage over having three random imperial detachments or Chaos Detachments…
Actually- it’s even worse tho- having the mono codex means you have a limited selection of relics, stratagems, and psychic powers (which is a serious issue considering Psychic Focus!)
I’m kinda floored they did this, honestly.
9th will be the most balanced edition ever! No more special rules through formations or stratagems. Every unit will come with its own Warformagem which comes in its own book.
The advantages of being able to “share” stratagems are fairly minimal, as only a very small number of factions can do it and of those only a very small number of stratagems are able to be shared. (Most of the ones that can be used on a DG unit, the DG already get.)
As we’ve already seen, stratagems and faction bonuses alone are not enough to push Imperial/Chaos Soup off the top of the pile. From the sound of things, other changes are in the works to do so and many tournaments are carefully considering whether changes to certain units are needed/useful in order to help keep the game balanced.
Those tournaments must be wrong. It’s the most balanced edition of all time.
Just be patient, guys. You’re not getting the whole picture, yet.
I think there are a few admech issues out there.
Litany of the Electromancer: RAW this is checked once at the top of the battle round when canticles are rolled/chosen. Lots of people fight this because the RAW on it is so pathetically weak (it can’t possibly trigger round 1). I have been playing it this way and it has always felt sad when you end up rolling this canticle. The way Geoff played it was that is more like a static charge buff for the round and triggers/expends if at some point during the round an affected unit gets within 1″ of an enemy unit.
RAGE OF THE MACHINES (and BENEVOLENCE OF THE OMNISSIAH): this strategem lets any admech VEHICLE ignore all penalties from moving and shooting a heavy weapon. RAW this is only 1 VEHICLE, even if the vehicle is in a UNIT of vehicles. RAW this means that in a unit of Kastelons/Ballistari, only 1 of them gets the benefit of the strategem. This feels like a place where RAI should be that the strategem affects a unit and GW just forgot that units can have multiple vehicles. As is, this strategem sucks and can’t be usefully used in the best case (when the kastelons move). Benevolence is the 5+ to ignore mortal wounds strategem, but it also only affects a VEHICLE, thus leaving units of VEHICLES out in the cold.
SCRYERSKULL: the RAW on this is pretty scary. “Use this Stratagem at any time to do one of the following: … ; or shoot with an ADEPTUS MECHANICUS unit from your army without the penalties to your hit rolls from the Dawn Raid, Low Visibility or Cover of Darkness rules.” RAI it is super clear this is not meant to allow out of phase shooting attacks ‘at any time’. But some guys are using the RAW to say at any time do one of the following … shoot with an ADMECH unit.
Secutarii models: FW said these would get some PDF rules at some point like they had in 7th. No rules yet, so they can’t be played in 8th.
Just curious, do the vehicle squadrons in Ad Mech operate independently (like they do in other codexes or the index), or do they move together and maintain unit coherency, etc?
I love the Scryerskull confusion… This obviously will happen to me at my next tournament 😉
Obviously not super familiar with Ad Mech…
In admech they are units. 3 dragoons or 6 kastelons need to be in coherency. It isn’t like a vehicle squadron that turns into multiple units after deployment.
Litany is definitely one of the weaker Canticles, but the ability for a shooting army to trigger free mortal wounds on assaulters isn’t a trivial thing, especially with being able to back out of combat and/or shoot while engaged. Since you’re never forced to roll for Canticles and there are multiple ways to affect it if you do, I wouldn’t feel too awful about it.
I’m not sure I agree about Rage of the Machines (and/or Benevolence), though. It does not explicitly specify unit or model, so I think it is reasonable to interpret it as affecting an entire unit, though it probably could use an FAQ to make this official. But neither interpretation is RAW correct- the rules simply don’t give us enough information to specify either way.
Scryerskull is for sure ridiculous RAW, but I think it’s pretty clear that it wasn’t intended to work like that.
If RAGE OF THE MACHINES affects a whole unit than it is really great. It would let you move your robots 8″ and fire without penalty.
Scryerskull is terrifying with a group of kastellans shooting 108 shots (group of 6) for 1 CP as soon as a unit moves in range.
So if you take a CSM detachment, you can use the Chaos Familiar stratagem to give Mortarion Warptime.
AdMech FAQ is obviously really disappointing as:
1. There were no points changes for the big 4 trash units:
Servitors(make their powerfist something different as it is terrible on their body and make it cost like 2 pts instead of 12)
Breachers(make their anti-vehicle weapon actually good against vehicles?(if against an ideal target: low toughness, multiwound vehicle, they are STILL worse than every other artilery piece we have, then what’s the point) Lower points of the model itself by like 50%)
Ruststalkers(need their pts cut in half. Plain and simple. I’ve done the math and if they were cut in half they’d still be less durable than conscripts, wouldn’t have obsec, would have orders on 4+, etc, would barelly do more damage(As they should melee vs ranged))
Destroyers(the price if way too high for the slow, squishy models)
2. People asked more questions that were not answered:
Litany of the Electromancer – when does it activate?
Multiple stratagems mention vehicle models instead of units and don’t make sense
Scryer skull RAW let’s us shoot twice every turn. Looks completelly broken
Scryerskull can be used once each phase RAW.
Movement
Psychic
Shooting
Charge
Assault
Morale
So a single unit could shoot 6 times plus their normal shooting in a single turn.
Sounds legit.
?
Awww shiii- Well, seems good to me.
lol, that thing isn’t even used in normal matched play apart from special missions, you guys are making a mountain out of a molehill on this one and intentionally reading it incorrectly, IMO.
Where does it say “this can only be used in special missions”?
All I can see it: choose 1 out of 3:
a) silly narrative/open play thing
b) silly narrative/open play thing
c) actually useful thing you would use in matched play.
Dude, come on, lol. You can shoot this 6 times during deployment? Every phase? That is obviously silly. The language is unclear, I get that, but apply some common sense to this. It’s fun to point out how it could read, but the last sentence is not meant to indicate you just shoot as many times as you want, it is meant to say you can shoot in missions that allow those narrative rules without penalties, it is just written poorly.
Well ofc I won’t use it that way. But people will definitelly try to do that. And you can’t say they are wrong per RAW. Why wasn’t this FAQd?
No sensible TO should allow this. It is a gross misreading of the rule.
I couldn’t say why this wasn’t FAQ’d but I would guess it is because the rules writers meant it quite clearly to be used in special scenarios where those rules are in effect in the first place, which is largely narrative play. It could have been more explicit, sure, but the contest of the entire rule is very clearly meant for Battlezone play.