From the Warhammer-Community page, GW talks to us about the future of FAQ releases. And, as I know folks will ask, the Beta rules are in effect for LVO.
An update for all you matched play gamers out there…
Warhammer 40,000 is great.
We believe that the current edition is the best one ever. And that is, in large part, thanks to all of you. From the outset, playtesters, players and Warhammer 40,000 community members alike have been giving us feedback and offering up suggestions. This has allowed us to provide regular updates to the game in order to keep things balanced, exciting and, most importantly, fun!
However, we know that for some of you, these updates have been coming thick and fast (when you’re balancing a game the size of Warhammer 40,000, turns out there are a lot of things to consider), especially with the sheer number of codexes we’ve put out in the last 6 months! (10, if you’re counting…)
So, we’ve been thinking long and hard about how to keep providing updates, but in a more structured and clear way, so that all players know what to expect and when.
Our new approach is broken into three parts: 1) regular, corrective updates through codex errata, 2) twice-a-year ‘big’ FAQs to deal with larger issues and address balance in the game and, of course, 3) Chapter Approved.
1: Codex Errata
A couple of weeks after the release of every codex and Chapter Approved book, we’ll review all the questions and comments we’ve received to see if there’s a need for an errata. If that’s the case, we’ll get one out quick smartish! These will address any ambiguities or issues that might have cropped up, such as how new rules and Stratagems might interact in certain edge cases, or when there is a genuine error in one of the rules that stop it from functioning as intended.
Speaking of which, we’ve just uploaded this errata for Chapter Approved 2017.
2: Big, Twice-a-year FAQs
Major game-wide questions will be answered on a biannual basis each March and September when a wider set of FAQ updates will be released. These will be focused on anything that might emerge as more codexes, and thus more unusual interactions, make their way into the game and will address issues across multiple factions and publications. We’ll also use these to address balance issues in the game, so these might include a few changes to rules for overly powerful, or underrepresented units.
3: Chapter Approved
As new codexes arrive, and certain styles of army come in and out of fashion, the relative effectiveness of certain units in matched play will change. So we’ll be using Chapter Approved as a chance to reassess the points values of all units across the game (just like we did with the first Chapter Approved).
Of course, Chapter Approved is far more than just these updates and will continue to include loads of new rules for every type of gamer and all three ways to play.
So that’s the process for official rules updates, errata and FAQs.
Occasionally, though, we’ll want to test a small number of new rules before we enshrine them in an official book or update, and we might use some of the world’s biggest tournaments and events as testing grounds for these potential changes. But don’t worry – if we do trial some rules at an event, we’ll also make sure they’re available for everyone, so even if you’re not attending the event in question, you can still try them out and send us your thoughts.
To make this is super-easy, we’ve created an email inbox just for Warhammer 40,000 rules related feedback.
Catchy.
All feedback will be read and factored into the twice-yearly FAQ updates.
Now then, with that in mind, here are the first “beta” rules we’re looking to test at the Las Vegas Open and AdeptiCon (two of the largest Warhammer 40,000 events in the world) in 2018, so do let us know what you think.
1: Targeting Characters
This rule means that characters can no longer be used to block characters, meaning Culexus Assassins are more likely to be used as the horrifying psyker-hunters they were always meant to be and not as elaborate human (or posthuman) shields.
2: Psychic Powers
Meanwhile, this proposed change to Smite means that the power is still a great way to dish out mortal wounds, but one that you’ll only be able to cast (easily) a few times in a turn. Using multiple psykers is still a great way to go, but rather than relying on a single trick, you’ll benefit from using a wider pool of psychic powers to secure victory in your games.
Depending on player feedback, these rules may very well make their way into the first big FAQ update in March, and later, in Chapter Approved itself.
If you would like to get in touch with your thoughts on these new rules after trying them out or pose other questions you’d like us to consider for the next FAQ document, drop us an email: 40KFAQ@gwplc.com
All that’s left is for us to say thanks once again to all of you, for all of your help in making this edition of Warhammer 40,000 the best ever.
– Warhammer Community Team
P.S. Here’s a list of common questions we thought you might have about the FAQ/Errata process and some snazzy answers.
Are these updates essential for my game?
From the errata to the major FAQs to Chapter Approved itself, these updates are part of our ongoing efforts to make sure that Warhammer 40,000 is the best it can possibly be.
We think these updates improve the game, and we reckon you’ll really enjoy using them. We’re considering errata, FAQs and Chapter Approved official, while beta rules are an opportunity for you try out experimental content and give feedback. It is, of course, up to you whether you use any rules in any of our publications – it’s your game after all!
Does this cover Forge World models and rules as well?
No. This schedule of updates covers updates for all Warhammer 40,000 Citadel miniatures. We’re sure that, in time, Forge World will have its own process for rules updates in place, and we’ll keep you posted.
What about Warhammer Age of Sigmar
It’d make sense if we rolled out a similar process… Check back soon!
I’m not a tournament player – do I need to use the beta rules in my game?
These beta rules are designed primarily with tournaments in mind, though they can be tried in any matched play game, and if you think they’d improve your open and narrative games, then feel free! Right now, these rules are an optional tool.
If I’m going to an event, which of these rules should I use?
You should always check with the event first – how they run it is up to them. Many tournaments and campaigns use their own house rules, missions or narrative additions to the game. Both Games Workshop events and those run by our partners at supported independent tournaments will be using all recent FAQs, errata and Chapter Approved, and at the discretion of the organisers, beta rules.
If I’ve got the rules in beta for free, should I still get Chapter Approved?
Definitely! Firstly, Chapter Approved is absolutely packed with content – as well as your rules updates, you’ll find new missions, new ways to game for every kind of player and fun stuff like the vehicle design rules, Apocalypse and whatever surprises the future may bring. Following your feedback throughout the year, the “beta” rules may well change before their inclusion in Chapter Approved – getting your copy is the best way to ensure you get your hands on the final versions.
Will Chapter Approved just contain the rules from the two annual updates, or will it have more content?
Chapter Approved is designed to be the ultimate annual resource for every Warhammer 40,000 player. Part of that means providing a handy reference guide for the latest rules updates for fans of matched play, but that’s a mere fraction of what you’ll find in your copy. There’s new missions, rules for playing epic narrative campaigns and much much more in each edition – in fact, you’d be able to get many hours of play out of the book even if you completely ignored any matched play content.
I’ve got a great rules idea I want to share with you – how do I do that?
We’d love to hear it! The best way to submit your feedback is by sending us an email at 40KFAQ@gwplc.com
Balancing the game sounds great, but isn’t keeping up a bit complicated!
We agree – that’s why we’re introducing the new approach. You’ll know exactly when you can expect to see major changes, while beta rules give you some visibility of – and the opportunity to provide feedback on – the latest thinking from the rules writers.
Not everyone is a matched play diehard, and if this isn’t relevant to how you play, then worry not. You shouldn’t feel obliged to use any of these updates if you don’t want to. We’d always recommend picking up Chapter Approved each year, as in addition to a roundup of any rules updates you might have missed, you’ll find plenty more content for how you play.
I’m looking for some change in a specific area – after I’ve submitted feedback, when might I expect to see that?
We can’t promise every single question will be answered, but we can promise every piece of feedback will be taken on board when we write FAQs, errata and future publications.
Our rules team are constantly working on ensuring Warhammer 40,000 is the best it can possibly be. This can take some time, but you can be reassured that we read through all the feedback we receive and that it all goes towards making Warhammer 40,000 even more awesome.
Do make sure to send your suggestions to us! You never know – if there’s a burning issue you think is essential to your army, you might be the first to think of it.
As always, the best place to keep up to date with what’s coming soon for Warhammer 40,000 is on the Warhammer Community website and the Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
One of the best posts from GW I’ve ever seen. Community outreach, competitive consideration, timely updates, forewarning of when things will change rather than just dropping stuff randomly.
This is a great, great thing.
Totally agree. This will help people to understand what to expect and alleviate anxiety.
it’s also like it has all those things you have been hinting at forever XD
Hmmm, funny coincidence I guess =P
Don’t believe the hype!
this is all extremely good to me.
Yeah, great communication and solid game plan. I dig it.
The smite change is bad and GW should feel bad for applying such a change without considering that Smite is spammed due to Psyker not being able to do much outside of Smite itself (since Smite is equal for every Psyker, the Psyker with the lowest cost will always be picked for Mortal wounds duties)
Smite spam was terrible, awful for the game, lol. This is one of the best changes we’ve seen in the game so far by a mile.
Psykers have other powers to use and as you noted, they were being used as Mortal Wound batteries but that was never the intent. Now they are support characters that can do some damage as they were designed to be.
So yeah, bye Smite spam, you will not be missed…at all.
Here here!!
Buuuuut it does kinda suck for units that only have access to smite & either cast on a single d6 or do a single wound. Grey Knights get it the worst.
Rubric marines/T. Sons get it worst, their Sgt’s ONLY know smite. At least Grey Knights can choose to cats something else. That said, their Codex might have something pertinent to that, and GK might get Faq’d if these potential changes go through.
I would actually say pink horrors have it the worst since they already only cast on a d6 so third in line makes it impossible.
Amen!
In GT Heat 2, one player had eight sets of Smite casting little daemons, plus everything else that was casting which included malifient lords at their original cost. The amount of damge they were causing was totally out of proportion to their points costs. It’s too much like Warhammer Fantasy of 1998 when my lizardmen killed everything off in two turns of casting. I welcome this change.
Well, here’s hoping my Daemons have access to as many (decent) powers as Eldar, at least. Otherwise my psychic phase for my army of literal magic monsters is going to be interesting!
Your dex is on the way, friend. I think it is a safe bet Daemons will get some cool psychic options in it =)
…and then Necron codex, right? Shortly after? With some buffs to an underpowered army?
My lips are sealed =P
Curse your integrity!
lol
I hope so! I’m sitting here wanting to actually field Kairos and some Lords of Change, instead of Heralds and Horrors.
Fantastic! Having a set release schedule improves player confidence! This is much better than “hey, these rules changes are just going to pop up from time to time”. Having a set release schedule allows people to anticipate the rules changes FAR better! Thanks GW! I hope you don’t get inundated with”hey, check out this cool rules idea I had where all my stuff is awesome and all my opponent’s stuff is terrible!”
Yeah, stoked with this plan, and it should help loads.
And you know they will get a ton of email with just stupid ideas, lol, but that is part of it. And hey, some of the ideas will be gems but I am sure they will be few and far between.
I agree. Knowing when the changes will come down the pipe helps me be more patient.Maybe it will inhibit people going out & buying tons of the latest abusive unit with the knowledge that it probably will change in 6 months.
Yeah, knowing when changes occur helps to keep things stable and predictable.
I love this. I do hope that units with modified smite will be exempt from these changes. Grey Knights mini smite really didn’t need to be nerfed. Other than that, I am overwhelmingly positive about this article. It is fantastic to see GW being so transparent. Its a far cry from the GW of 2 years ago.
Indeed. I was waiting for this announcement anxiously, glad we can talk about it, now.
this was first announced live on the Warhammer tv show three weeks ago
It indeed was, but I was referring also to the specific rules changes we got here.
Are Grey Knights even affected? I thought their version of smite has a different name? Likewise Eldar Warlocks cast Destructor, rather than Smite
It does. They still manifest Smite, the special rule modifies the effect.
Consider not long ago that ANY errata was just hopeful thinking, this is bonkers amazing.
I also like that we have a few months to try these “beta” rules.
Seriously, A+
Agree 100%.
Any word on when/IF the Beta rules will be included in ITC yet?
It’s in the first line of the article =)
<–>
Got me
So are Grey Knights and Rubric Marines just doomed to being bad? The smite changes seem really harsh towards anything with gimped smite (be that cast on 1d6 or limited to 1 wound).
Wouldn’t a better change be to just limit the cheaper psykers in the game to only ever deal 1 mortal wound when casting smite?
GK and TS use 2d6 when casting. They have limits on their mortal wounds.
So what I expected to get from chapter approved, I get for free…
Well I’m not complaining (for once :p)
Happy about how open the post is about their thought process.
Ps: rip tzeentch(until codex at least)
GREAT smite change. Perfect. And GW is making it clear how much they care about producing s great GAME which makes their loyal customers happy (despite the impatient, irrational anger targeted at them by many). All that said, I do think there should be a different mechanic for those psychic units which really really on smite in fluff and crunch (ie daemons and Grey Knights), however, the shared Beta-test rules are a huge improvement for the community.
Yeah, this is a great path to take for them.
Love the new GW.
Will be adopting these betas for home games right away. I assume this is in place for all the events at LVO?
Meaning not just the championships?
Yup =)
Love both of these major changes. Smite spam is a bad thing indeed, I just hope that the fundamentally psykic armies will be exempt from this rule.
the character targetting system is perfect, just the way I wanted. Really, in smaller tournament games the abuse of character rules was real and very annoying. I dearly hope both get a pass and become permanent.
The smite change feels half thought out. If they are making this change, they need to add more generic powers and update datasheets accordingly.
Some units (looking at you maleceptor and neurothrope) have the ability to cast two powers per turn but only know one power from their codex in addition to smite. This means those units are forced to use smite every turn as one of their two powers. If armies are going to be punished for casting smite more than once, units need to be given casting options other than smite.
classical way gw fix things, nothing new
Whoa….it’s like I have a twin. Two Hivemindeds?
and what about the zillion of dices with re rolling? doesn’t it need fix too? 😀
“The smite change feels half thought out. If they are making this change, they need to add more generic powers and update datasheets accordingly.”
As good as the idea is for general play armies like pure grey knights will become in practicality erased from tournament play.
They are already the shittiest army out there with the crappiest rules and most overpriced wargear upgrades and units.
I wager there will be a whole community of “happy” GK players (that are already beyond desperate with the crap they are stuck with) over at boards like BnC after this one.
Grey Knights are awesome as an ally but as a solo army they struggle a bit, yeah. However, you will most assuredly still see Grey Knights in tournament play in the same way they were: as a part of an Imperial army.
On the upside I love these rule amendments, it shows the system works and personally it makes (and does) me want to buy even more plastic toys and spend couch time painting away. The hobby at its best in other words.
On the down side however..
In all fairness: then dont give them a codex GK and dont call it codex GK.
Be honest and call it for what it is, codex three-units-gk-allies!
Look up gk forums starting with Bnc (since it is the biggest) and look carefully at what the community of GK players REALLY think about their “codex” and how the chapter approved was received.
Personally..I feel sorry for them having spend all that money and time for armies that are pretty much unplayable standalone and now having to retort to humiliating massed community letter writing sent from the UK all the way to Italy too TRY make gw care.
Call me naive but I still believe gw will remake their codex down the line with some massive wargear rules alterations and point cost reductions across the entire line to make GKs on pair with the rest, but hey, that is just stoopid me.
Looking at the GK community consensus you will see that people are beyond pissed of and have given up by now.
Removing their one remaining thing they can cling to, smite (without a general codex amendment) will really not do anything other then turn their wallets from gw to “china” and yes, I speak not from ignorance, I happen to know much about this.
In the end, gw will loose out but then again, its perfectly ok after all since it is their own call.
Pure GK players from the perspective of that one army, sure, they may feel that they got the short end of the stick and I see why. However, they do have a full army and you can play it solo, even competitively but in the context of the current meta, they can struggle vs. some of the other powerful armies right now only because they lack a few critical elements like cheap or effective screens. That’s really all that holds them back. Their offense is tremendous and they have great utility. Have a reduced Smite capability doesn’t make that big of difference, honestly. It’s annoying, sure, but if you were relying on their baby smite to win games you were probably not doing it right, anyway.
All you have to do with GK to be extremely competitive is take some type of screen unit, IMO. Scouts, Astra Militarum, whatever. But you need something to create space and allow them to bring their bad ass offensive output to bear.
However, if you zoom out to the context of the overall game, these are extremely positive changes. And some of the points adjustments that were aimed largely at other factions with the same stuff, were applied to GK as well for consistency. But, the game isn’t just about GK players. It’s about everyone’s experience. That said, of course everyone wants GK players to enjoy their army but that isn’t the only focus or point of these changes.
And it’s “lose” not “loose” in thta context, just FYI. I see people make that grammatical mistake all the time.
It would be relatively easy to give GK or other “baby Smite” units an exception to the beta rules, though- I think most people agree that their spells are not the problem and those units all have individual special rules that modify how Smite works, so adding an additional clause that prevents the cumulative -1 from kicking in would be fairly simple to do and solve the only major complaint that I’ve seen voiced so far.
Yeah, that could be a possibility and thus the beta version, to allow for feedback.
Don just has a tendency to focus on the seeing the glass half empty is all =P
Oh I know the focus is generic with these rules and not army specific and as I said, they are pretty good at that and I welcome them.
Then again, you didnt read the gk community consensus on other boards around did you? Nor any of the letters to gw design being compiled I assume? Its ok, that takes time and I´m sure you have lots on your plate.
Its far from as simple as lacking a scout screen mind you. Shooty weapons are outdated, understrenght and overpriced, no clear variation between squads, internal balance is a joke and units are very overpriced for what they do, advantages you pay points for unusable etc.
The entire codex is a farse from a competitive standpoint with direct SM point cost comparison insults thrown in for spite.
The latest tyranid-GK FAQ was just an insulting icing on the cake but dont take my words for it, the meat of it all can be found elsewhere, I´m just a messenger and for all this I am not even a member of said boards to add to the weirdness of all this.
I just like to point a finger on flawed things now and then to create awareness and make them better despite the pointers seldom being popular to hear but remember, 100% of all I said for a very, very long time was in fact proven correct in the chapter approved point reductions we just had or did you forget about the ridicule I was given when I pointed out the insane point cost of for example primaris plasma inceptors ages ago?
You said it yourself in a sense, GKs are not a real codex but more of 3-4 allied GK units shenanigans thing. The rest is plainly speaking, worthless.
You see, the thing is when new players looking for GK advice on the boards are de facto started to be turned away from the game by bitter GK players, then said farse has actually gone far enough to be taken seriously instead of being excused away with just-some-scouts-missing explanations and deep inside you know this.
I care not however, its not me nor my wallet that looses out, it´s GWs. I have other armies to have fun with then my dust collecting 10+ hours-a-mini GK paperweights.
They might get their time to shine but atm I enjoy other mini ranges that thanks to GW finally caring, are more fun to play then in a long time.
GW are nevertheless loosing money on GK sales from me and are not only doing so way more from hobbyists who only play only-GK but also lose out of having new hobbyists drawn into their hobby/game from aforementioned single-army people.
I love the fact that gw are starting to care and hop in now and then to fix flaws in the system, as I said, I havent been buying and painting this much myself for ages (outside the GK range that is) BUT it would be a good thing least to say from an economy point of view if gw took their time away a little from fixing cents for everyone and instead do a superFAQ and correct dollars for a whole useless “race” first.
As for spelling yes, I dont do autospell and english is not my primary language so you are bound to find a lot of funny errors when I type fast but I dont loose sleep over a few misspelled English words, I speak 4-and-a-half different languages and somewhat understand a further two. Knowing that I can when I want to is often more then enough for me.
My apologies, didn’t know English wasn’t your first language. You write quite well, actually.
You use so much hyperbole it is hard to take you seriously though, Don. Saying things are “utterly broken” or “worthless”, etc. is just not even close to accurate. You present a lot of opinions as facts. It’s tough to engage in debate under those terms.
It would also be nice if someone in the future addressed the CP mining imbalance in the game.
Some armies like stealer cults have no problem amassing 9CPs while other armies with no cheap HQs can pretty much forget it.
On top of this many armies have a mechanism to return spent CPS while others do not.
This is an easy thing to fix as a tournament tryout rule in the future and would remove a lot of frustration of having elite armies further hampered.
CP mining comes from both cheap/desirable HQs as well as troops. Taking 6 units of scouts for a space marine brigade, sure. Taking 6 units of fire warriors or kroot for tau? Ummmmm…
I think GW should look over the CP mining of Astra Militarum. In my games against them, they’ve so far never run out of CP, in spite of spending a lot each turn. Gaining them back on 5+ even when the opponent are spending, is too strong. It should have a reach, like Kronos Soul Hunger (18″) or something.
Combined with AM being the faction that can form Brigades easier than any other faction, it means imbalance. Neverending CP makes for stupidly reliably armies.
These are some rule suggestions I have:
General:
I believe not all troops should receive the “objective secured” ability. In particular large horde type units or swarms. For example, three Primaris marines should definitely be in control of an objective vs. three barely trained conscripts. Larger units can already position themselves so enemy units can not even get near an objective.
I am not a fan of “Chapter Tactics” that give a blanket -1 to hit. It is much more punishing to lower ballistic skill armies. I was thinking of re-rolling 6s. Still very effective but doesn’t neuter entire armies. Unit abilities that give the -1 to hit are ok because you pay the points for that. Also I really really don’t like if an enemy unit is concealed by smoke or whatever then my plasma gun will be more likely to blow up. Gets hot should be natural 1s.
Players should receive a -1 modifier on the roll off to see who goes first if they include a lord of war in their army, representing how it would be unlikely to be surprised by such a large model
And to mitigate the big impact of first turn devastation, I had an idea to have a preliminary phase where you can cast psychic powers and use stratagems before you roll off to decide who has the first turn. Restrictions being you can only target your own units and you can not move or shoot in this phase. It’s a bummer you buy a unit so it would protect another unit but gets shot off the board before you blink an eye.
Astra Militarum:
I think a proper fix to conscripts is to take away objective secured as mentioned, take away any regimental doctrine as they are brand new recruits, orders only work 50% of the time, and Commisars execute D6 conscripts if they fail a morale check, and go back to 3 points a model. Then amend the commissar FAQ and goes back to his original ability printed in the codex. This way infantry squads are a superior fighting unit and conscripts are the effective cannon fodder.
Grey Knights:
Large units of cheap servitors for Grey Knights would serve the lore and improve their effectiveness on the tabletop. Also twin autocannons for the venerable dreadnought. And the Beta smite should exempt Grey Knights’ handicapped smite.
Tyranids:
Lictors pheromone trail stratagem should allow you to select an infantry unit and put it in as reinforcements. And maybe make lictors a lot more lethal…
I’m sure I have more thoughts but I appreciate if any of this is considered.
yeah.. the -1 to hit abilities are bananas when vehicles get them.
Nice to see them trying to getting rid of character conga lines.
Yeah, that was obnoxious.
New detachement: Elite Intervention Force – +3 CP
HQ units must cost at least 10 Power or 200 Points.
All other units must cost at least 5 Power or 100 Points.
HQ: 1-2
Elite: 0-2
FA: 0-2
Troops: 2-4
Heavy: 0-2
Flyer: 0-1
Something like this might help elite armies?
Some problems/stuff with the new smite:
1. The 1 MW smiters are even worse.
2. The 1D6 smiters are basically unuseable
3. The third time you cast smite, you can’t get d6 MW anymore.
I don’t see these things as problems.
1 MW smiters aren’t changed much, they all place more importance on their other powers (warlocks and Grey Knights) and in the case of Grey Knights they become 3 MW against daemons still.
For the 1D6 smiters you cast them first, and can’t just spam MSU of them.
Not getting D6 MW the third time is a good thing isn’t it? The whole point in the update is to nerf smite-spam.
Which is why I wrote it as problems/stuff.
Maybe “perhaps unintentional sideffects” as the main thing was “don’t take a ton of full strength psykers”.
But I’ll respond in a salty fashion anyway
Ah, so GK being normal smite against 1 total army changes everything /s the 1 MW smite spam was never a problem. And now they got ever worse
Oh, so don’t spam the any of the 3 troops choices Tzeentch daemons have access to? Great idea! /s
Yes codex and so on.
The last one was just a thing. Not really a problem
Also you’ll just never try casting the 1d6 smite. It’s a 1 in 3. Then a 1 in 6. That’s just making your normal smites worse.
Pretty much, yes. Take big units of horrors instead of MSU. Use their shooting attack and don’t just rely on smite which is meant to be in addition to their shooting attack instead of the main event.
1. If you have a unit with an ability, using which makes other abilities worse without a significant benefit – it is bad game desgin.
2. Feel free to tell me what blue horrors should do then. Brims got defence. OK. Blues are now worthless as you don’t want to smite with brims anyway now.
I didn’t see anyone crying about 1MW and 1D6 smites. They should’ve been excluded.
Mortal Wounds are a useful tool in the game but not good when you have too much of it.
So all of those “problems” you list I see as positives.
I dunno, the “baby Smite” guys like GK and Thousand Sons I don’t believe anyone saw as a problem. Likewise, the units that cast on 1d6 (like Horrors) were essentially useless already, since it was so easy to shut their powers down with even a trivial level of psychic defense.
So two of the three problems he brings up are legitimate concerns for armies which simply are not doing that well overall, and this change is only going to punish them further. It does solve the main problem (Smite batteries from cheap units), but it does so in a way that- barring any other changes- is going to catch several other entire armies in the net as well that don’t deserve to be weakened.
abusepuppy for president.
It’s the same thing that happened with Forge World Greater Chaos daemons. Big bird was a problem. The other 3 were on the same/weaker level as a knight pts/performance. However they got caught in the same kind of sweeping change.
Right now casting the D6 smite is most of the times a bad thing. It’s a 1/3 that makes all other smites worse. Why not cast those instead? And if you cast 2 smites, you can’t even cast the D6 ones anymore. 5+ to do 1 mortal wound? Damn, that’s way too powerful.
The change could’ve(and should’ve) been only for 2D6 D3 MW smite.
Or adressing the main problem units by upping the pts cost.
Or making them do baby smites if they don’t cost 120+ or whatever.
The current change is too generalising. Better than nothing ofc, as elites armies might now do something and the awful character spam lists got a nice kick swift kick in the croch region.
Maybe the release of this change is timed just before the demon book on purpose. There should be a few GK vs Demon coming up. If the GK get a kicking then GW will hopefully acknowledge that.
I actually think some of the problems are overstated – only proper testing on the tables in competitive conditions will really prove one way or the other whether these changes are for the better. But in answer to your points.
1. I doubt if my GK would ever have been worse off by more than one or two in damage output per turn if this rule had been in place all along. I think based on pure theory that an amendment to “protect” mini-smite armies would be good but only play-testing will show if it actually makes a worthwhile difference which justifies the added complexity.
2. If we were seeing lots of units of Pinks all across tournament tables then I might believe this is an issue. Brims already have pitiful damage output and are just there because they are ludicrously durable for their points. That did not change. We will continue to not see Pinks unless there is a fundamental redesign of Horrors in the codex.
3. Almost certainly a good thing. It was too powerful and this is clearly in line with the design intent of the change. I will retain an open mind but honestly I would be surprised if play testing showed that this aspect of the change was overall a bad thing.
So your 1 and 2 is saying “they were bad anyway, it’s OK they got made a bit worse”?
Shouldn’t they be made… better? They shouldn’t get caught in the crossfire…
How about feeding back to GW
Damn good call GW, damn good call.
“Mortal Wounds are a useful tool in the game but not good when you have too much of it.”
Death Guard with their mortal wound sprinkler systems on full say hi!
Of course they are exempt from throwing around mortal wounds nerf because reasons.
I bet TS and GK players having their mortals nerfed will be SO happy playing typhus and morty and exploding drones.
Adding another little crumble of frustration that ought to be looked at is various races “army traits”.
Explain the fun and balance of chaos marines and SM with their troops/dreads/bikes-only army traits facing for example eldar with their everyone-and-the-kitchen-sink-gets-it-including-vehicles versions because..reasons!?
Say..are eldar vehicles, flyers, etc, etc point cost upped accordingly because of this?
I see they haven’t addressed the issue of Reece single handedly destroying the Tau Empire. They shouldn’t even be looking at other people’s suggestions or ideas while Frontline Gaming is out there single handedly increasing Tau unit point costs and nerfing battlesuits into oblivion. Single. Handedly.
It’s all a conspiracy designed to eventually remove Tau from the game. And it’s led by the lizard people Illuminati at GW and Reece.
Why do you hate Tau, Reece!!
(Hope you got a laugh from this, merry Xmas, also please put your holiday schedule up very conspicuously. I’m traveling home to SD from Japan this year and I wanna know when you’ll be open for a visit )
Lol, they’re on to me!