More FAQ thoughts

Hi all,

The new FAQ's have had a significant impact on a number of armies; not only have GW released the expected Necron faq, but a number of other issues have been clarified as well (and in interesting ways).

For those who don't want to read the detail - here is a brief summary/list of the major changes (though I would carefully read the faq's as to how they effect your individual army).

Daemons;
- Need to roll to hit with lash (not huge, being bs 5, but still a nerf...)
- If rerolling to hit/wound with warptime, you need to reroll all dice, not just misses...

Nids;
- Hive guard now ignore *all* cover unless it is intervening, that you are either in or touching. No more smoke for you!
- Lash whips (and coils for necrons) are now overridden by anything that further modifies initiative (halberds, furious charge, etc).

4 Biggies - Necrons, Deployment, Rerolls, and Firepoints.

Necrons!

I would say the biggest clarification to the Necron rules is that a necron court member can join a squad that already has a member from a seperate necron court.

Ie - Necron court A sends cryptek with eldritch lance to Unit C, and Necron court B does the same.

This in effect allows necrons to field very effective MSU units. Strength 8 ap2 at 36 inches is fantastic against many of the lighter vehicles that make up mech spam, and when you can fire 2 shots per unit of 7 models (5+2 crypteks) this isn't bad. The range provided by these lances is significant, particularly when considering a solar pulse to initiate night fight in your opponents turn. I mean, do you really want two waves of 10 str 8 shots hitting your army before you get a chance to hit back? Coupled with the str 7 multishots from annihilation barges, and I think we have a winner. Probably the most viable lists will now incorporate either warriors or immortals in 5 man squads with nightscythes (for the str 7 cannon) and annhilation barges (x3), giving you 8 vehicles or so + any command barges. Every unit can thus hurt mech and infantry alike.

Things like veil of darkness and mindschakle scarabs clarified to work how they do is a good thing - but with decked out courts, this army will get expensive very quickly. My suggestion would be focus on the core, and develop the tricks later. Other issues (such as whether or not a vehicle lost its +2 armour if it passed its cover save, and wether or not ) were also clarified, but were silly in the first place - no (australian) TO would have ruled otherwise. But again, good to have!

Moving on - Deployment! (and Dawn of War).

The FAQ has clarified (changed the rules) with deployment in that all marine armies that have combat tactics can split during dawn of war deployment, deploy both units, and count as a single unit! Thus you can now have up to four units of five marines deployed on the table at the start of dawn of war. This used to not be the case, as Dawn of War specifies two 'units' are able to deploy, not two 'force organisation choices'.

This is also significant with deepstriking, particularly with grey knights and blood angels that would use this tactic - split right before you deepstrike, and deploy both squads individually (after the single reserve roll). This also works with scouts/other units infiltrating the same way.

Now, the internet is in an uproar about how Imperial Guard platoons will now deploy - following the same reasoning, an entire platoon is considered one troop choice - giving you literally up to 70-80 models down per unit in the opening of dawn of war. The real argument begins with chimeras though.

With a normal dedicated transport, say marines getting a rhino, even with the new faq, the Dawn of War mission states a dedicated transport is considered a seperate unit from the troop (and thus takes up another troop selection). Chimeras are bought as dedicated transports for components of the platoon, but the faq says the whole platoon is deployed - and any units deploying 'in a non dedicated transport' will have to deploy seperately/roll seperately in reserves - say for example, a vendetta.

This would imply that if you are in a dedicated transport you can deploy with the platoon... but this doesn't meet the guidelines for the mission. I would suggest that chimeras 'dont' deploy with the platoon, following dawn of war specific rules, and that the exemption for non dedicated transports relates to other deployments (say outflanking, normal reserve rolls, etc). However, this issue seems to be very prickly, so I would check with your local TO to see their ruling before hand. Either way, this is a massive boost for guardsmen, and players who like their heavy weapons! At worst, you can deploy your HQ's chimera empty and a single troop chimera, for spotlighting everything for all those heavies...

Rerolling!

With the change in how Warptime works for chaos (when you reroll dice, you reroll all dice), many people are arguing that preferred enemy, and other instances of reroll dice that doesnt specify reroll misses, must all be rerolled or none at all. I expect most TO's will rule this way, though again it would need to be checked prior to. Note, things like Eldar's Doom psychic power specifies reroll failed to wounds, so you need to check in each instance.

Firepoints!

Any 'special rule' or 'wargear' that requires line of sight and is not a shooting attack can no longer use a firepoint. This again will need to be taken by a case by case basis - but note, psychic powers are not 'special rules' or 'wargear', and this is addressed by the first faq statement under 'psykers' on page 3 of the main faq (a psychic power that isn't a shooting attack may use line of sight from firepoints). However, certain abilities, such as the tempest storm from njal are not psychic abilities, and do require line of sight. You should check these on a case by case basis to see if your abilities are affected.

Many changes to think about!

Cheddar