FAQ's April 2013

The new FAQ's are up so it's time to see what's changed for my armies.

Imperial Guard

Page 56 / 101 –
Valkyrie Assault Carrier – Scout Valkyrie Assault Carrier – Scout
Remove Scout from the Special Rules section of both the
Bestiary and Army List entries for the Valkyrie Assault Carrier
and Vendetta Gunship.

A minor update. The Scout rule didn't do anything anyway.

Page 71 – Other Equipment, Camo Cloak
Replace the second paragraph with “A model wearing a camo
cloak adds +1 to its cover save”.
Nothing new here.

Q: What Mastery Level is a Psyker Battle Squad? (p47)

A: Mastery Level 1.

Finally GW have decided to give PBS's a Mastery level. Unfortunately there is nothing about being able to take powers from the rule book. Thankfully they already have excellent powers anyway. It's a shame that each psyker doesn't count as Mastery Level 1 because then they might find a way into my lists more often. Imagine a Level 9 PBS!

Q: If an Imperial Guard army includes both Captain Al’Rahem and

Commander Chenkov, and a unit of Conscripts that is part of

Al’Rahem’s Infantry Platoon has purchased Commander Chenkov’s

‘Send in the Next Wave’ upgrade, does it re-enter play using Outflank

as per Captain Al’Rahem’s ‘Stalk the Enemy’ or move on from the

player’s board edge, as per Commander Chenkov’s ‘Send in the Next

Wave’? (p64/65).

A: In this instance, neither rule takes precedence – therefore

simply roll a dice for which rule applies as per ‘The Most

Important Rule’ on page 4 of the Warhammer 40,000

Rulebook.

Finally an answer to this question. I was going to write a blog post about it but looks like GW beat me to the punch. Why it's taken so many years for an answer is beyond me. The IG codex came out in May 2009!

Blood Angels

No update.

Dark Angels

Page 28 –

Warlord Traits, Courage of the Lion

Change rule to “The Warlord, and all friendly units chosen

from Codex: Dark Angels within 12” of him, roll an additional

dice when taking Leadership tests (except Psychic tests),

discarding the highest”.

Only Dark Angels can benefit from this now and Psykers no longer benefit at all. 

 

Page 61 –

Stasis Anomaly

Change to read “Every model in a unit hit by one or more

weapons with this special rule suffers a -1 penalty to their

Weapon Skill and Initiative, to a minimum of 1, until the end

of the turn.”

Added 'to a minimum of one', so no change really.

Page 61 –

Vast Stasis Anomaly

Change to read “Every model in a unit hit by one or more

weapons with this special rule suffers a -3 penalty to its Weapon

Skill and Initiative, to a minimum of 1, until the end of the

turn. This replaces any penalty inflicted on a target by a Stasis

Anomaly (see left).”

Also added 'to a minimum of one'.

Page 64 –

Power Field Generator

Add “If the bearer is embarked upon a Transport vehicle, the

power field’s effects only apply to models embarked upon that

vehicle”.

I'm glad I didn't buy a Land Raider and Techmarine to abuse this rule as it will no longer work. A massive debuff to anyone who was building their army around it.

Page 55 / 92–

Asmodai, WargearAdd “Bolt Pistol” to Asmodai’s wargear.

More lazy proofreading from GW.

Page 95 –

Deathwing Command Squad, Options

Change the fifth bullet point to:

“• Any Deathwing Terminator can replace his storm bolter and

power fist with:

- a pair of lightning claws ……………………………….free

- a thunder hammer and storm shield ………….5 pts

Changed 'all of his weapons' to 'his storm bolter and

power fist'.

Page 96

– Ravenwing Command Squad, options.

Add:

“• The Ravenwing Command Squad may purchase up to two

additional Ravenwing Black

Knights……………………………………………..40 pts / model”

Change the first bullet point to:

“• One Ravenwing Black Knight may take a banner from the

following list:

- Ravenwing Company Banner*...........................................

15 pts”

- Revered Standard................................................................

25 pts”

- Alternatively, the may take a banner from the

Sacred Standardssection of the wargear list.”

The command squad can now take additional bikers for increased survivability and the 'Relic banners' typo is replaced with 'Sacred Standards'.

Page 99 –

Deathwing Terminator Squad, Options

Change the second bullet point to:

“• Any model can replace his storm bolter and power fist

with:

- a pair of lightning claws ……………………………….free

- a thunder hammer and storm shield ………….5 pts

Changed 'all of his weapons' to 'his storm bolter and

power fist'.

Q: Do units deploying via the Deathwing Assault special rule count

toward the limit of units you are allowed to keep in Reserves at the

start of a battle? (p44)

A: Yes.

A debuff for the deathwing that makes it even harder to do a pure Deathwing army.

Q: The Standard of Devastation states that ‘all friendly Codex:

Dark Angels units within 6” of the standard treat their boltguns as

Salvo 2/4 weapons’. Which boltguns does this apply to? (p66)

A: This applies to the standard boltgun (24” range, S4, AP5,

Rapid Fire), twin-linked boltguns on bikes, the bolter

component of combi-weapons, and hurricane bolters.
Confirmation that this works with hurricane bolters which is awesome. Unfortunately though, it looks like storm bolters don't get the bonus.
 

Chaos Space Marines

Page 42 –

Obliterators, Obliterator Weapons

Change the final sentence to “An Obliterator unit cannot

choose to fire the same weapon in two consecutive shooting

attacks”.

I guess this is because of the Puppet Master psychic power which makes you shoot at your own units.

Page 57 –

Abaddon the Despoiler, Mark of Chaos Ascendent

Add the following sentence “If Abaddon rolls Spawnhood or

Dark Apotheosis on the Chaos Boon Table, re-roll this result

(and any further results of the same). The Despoiler is not

meant for Daemonhood just yet!”

I like this because it makes sense fluff wise and if you've spent all those points on Abaddon there could be nothing worse than to see him turn into a Chaos Spawn.

Q: If a model rolls Spawnhood or Dark Apotheosis on the Chaos Boon

Table, does it retain the effects of any Chaos Boon Table rolls that have

been applied to it so far during the game? (p29)

A: No.

This is a bit annoying but probably won't affect a game too much.

Q: If a Helbrute that is already Immobilised rolls Fire Frenzy, does

it lose an additional Hull Point? (p56)

A: No.

Phew! This helps out Helbrute's a bit. Hopefully we will see more of them on tabletops soon but I won't hold my breath. They are competing with  dirt cheap Terminators and cult troops in the elites slot.

Q: Is a model equipped with the Scrolls of Magnus that does not

begin the game as a Psyker, considered to have become a Psyker once

they acquire one or more additional psychic powers from the scrolls?

For example a Dark Apostle with the Mark of Tzeentch. (p69)

A: Yes, the model has the Psyker rule from that point

onward, and is considered to have Mastery Level 1.

The psyker now has Mastery Level 1 whereas in the previous FAQ they were just a psyker.

Dark Eldar

Page 49 – Lelith Hesperax –

The Penetrating Blade

Change the second sentence to “Her close combat attacks

ignore Armour Saves”.

Added 'close combat'.

Q: When allocating Wounds caused by a unit of Reaver Jetbikes

making a bladevanes, cluster caltrops and / or grav-talon attack, from

which direction is the attack considered to have originated? (p29)

A: Use the final position of the Reaver Jetbikes for Wound

allocation.

This makes it much easier than doing random allocations. As a guard player I can say that when you have massive squads that you have to randomly allocate wounds to it can get very annoying and slows the game down.

Final Note

Unsurprisingly the new Tau codex has been FAQ'd already. Sort it out GW! Learn to proofread and play test properly!

FAQ information taken from Games Workshop FAQ's

New Tau First Impressions

Image Courtesy of Games Workshop

I had my first game against the new Tau codex the other day and was very impressed with most of it. The vehicles seem to be just as hard to crack as before due to disruption pods granting +1 cover save. Combined with the Jink save for moving this means they are still getting the 4+ cover in the open. This was the biggest problem I faced as my Imperial Guard weapons just seemed to be bouncing off the Devilfish and Hammerheads, which then dispatched my tanks.

The new tank commander Longstrike is deadly in a Hammerhead,  particularly against Imperial Guard as they are his Preferred Enemy. He destroyed one Leman Russ without it even getting a chance to fire. In fact my opponent had the first turn and the first two shots destroyed a Chimera and a Leman Russ. A third Chimera was stunned and I would have lost a big chunk of a 20 man Infantry Squad if they had not gone to ground in some ruins for a 3+ cover save.

Despite this I fought on and dealt roughly one wound a turn to my opponents Riptide, who shrugged off almost my entire army's firepower. After an initial surge forward my opponent spent the rest of the game retreating and defending with his Riptide. Overall he seemed tough to take down due to his overcharged 3++ save and Toughness 6 but his damage output was woeful. Certainly not something to be feared in 1500+ point games. Below 1500 though, Riptide's could be difficult for many armies to deal with. Riptide's can get Interceptor and Skyfire, which is very nasty, and it nearly shot down both of my Vendetta's before they could do anything. They were dispatched two turns later after they had finally destroyed the Hammerhead with Longstrike. Two Hammerheads still remained unharmed until the end of the game though.

The Vespids still sucked and despite getting to my lines were wiped out without causing a single wound.

I lost the game due to quite a few bad rolls but also because of the ridiculous disruption pods. They should have been removed from the codex in my opinion because of the Jink save vehicles now get or should have been nerfed to 5+. They may cost 10 points more than in the previous codex but they are also better as now they work against models within 12" whereas they didn't before.

At the end of the game all I had killed was 1 Hammerhead with Longstrike, 5 Piranha's, 3 Stealth Suits, 5 Vespids and 4 drones. The riptide had taken 4 wounds.

This game reminds me of a previous post I did about the fact that player who goes first will usually win, assuming similar abilities and experience between the players. This game highlighted that fact and showed why it is so important to get the first turn, especially against Tau, as their weapons can cripple an army very fast.

To summarise, the Tau are back with a vengeance and this codex could well be one of the most powerful around.

Commissar Viktoria Skivlana Unboxing

My Viktoria Skivlana model arrived in the post today and I have to say, it looks awesome! There is loads of detail on the model and I'm really looking forward to painting it. Pictures below:

Female Commissar Miniatures

 

When I first noticed the female commissar model, Viktoria Skivlana, by Warforge I knew I had to get it. It's a great looking model with loads of detail and character.

It got me thinking about using several female Commissars in my Imperial Guard army to add a bit of character and something unique. After searching the web this is what I found:

Viktoria Skivlana
An excellent miniature that I have ordered myself. I believe it used to be available in resin but is now only available in metal. It can be bought from online stores such as eurobitz.com and darksphere.co.uk.

Image Courtesy of Warforge

Games Workshop's Female Commissar
GW produced a limited edition female commissar for Games Day 1998. It's not the best female commissar model in my opinion but would still be a worthy addition to any army. They can usually be found on second hand sites such as EBay where they sell for around £25.00.

The Kurganova Sisters
These metal models produced by Raging Heroes are fantastic. There are three in total:

• Kommander Malinka
• Kapitan Ivanka
• Admiral Olga 

They come with multiple weapon options, optional gas masks and can be brought separately or as a limited edition box set which includes their war bulldog, Charlie.

 

Image Courtesy of Raging Heroes

Edel and her Doberman
This metal model by Gaspez-Arts has a different feel to it when compared to the other female commissars. However I think it is a more realistic depiction of a female commissar, despite the skirt.

 Image Courtesy of Gaspez-Arts

Brother Vinni's Female Commissar

Brother Vinni has a resin female commissar. It's a nice miniature but some people may not like the exposed breasts. It is also worth noting that Brother Vinni has a very nice male commissar model.

  Image Courtesy of Brother Vinni

Commissar Vespera Venko

The final model is Commissar Vespera Venko by Statuesque Miniatures. This is another great model that comes with an optional gas mask. It would fit perfectly into a Death Korps of Krieg army.

Image Courtesy of Statuesque Miniatures

Overall there's plenty of great models to choose from. My favourites are Viktoria Skivlana and the Kurganova sisters. What's yours?

Tau Out of Stock

Image courtesy of Games Workshop

I had an email this morning from Darksphere.co.uk informing customers that almost the entire range of Tau products was now out of stock. Apparently they had spoken to GW's Trade Department and been told that the Riptide, XV8 Commander and Commander Shadowsun models are in such high demand that there is not enough to go round.

GW have also made a statement to say that many of the products are out of stock and orders will not be fulfilled until Monday 8th April or later, depending on the items ordered.

Obviously GW did not expect such a high demand for products but this is still pretty poor on their part. They should have ensured that there would be enough stock available for release date and done proper market research in order to prevent this happening.

Conscripts in 6th Edition

I've always liked the idea of hordes of Conscripts charging at the enemy but have never found them very useful. In 5th edition they were hardly ever used and when they were it was often for fluff reasons. The problem with them is that they have rubbish stats and need a character with them due to their Leadership (Ld) 5 so that they don't run away from the first strong gust of wind. Not much has changed for the better in 6th.

Their main advantage is Commander Chenkov's 'Send in the Next Wave' special rule which allows them to be recycled constantly. To do this the controlling player can remove them at the start of their turn and the full strength squad will come on from reserves at the start of their following turn. Any characters will be lost though, unless they already left the unit before it was removed. This means that once again they will be down to Ld5. Also, at 75pts a unit the Send in the Next Wave rule is not cheap. If the enemy destroys the unit though, they will come back in the controlling players turn anyway.

A Lord Commissar seems the best option for Conscripts due to his Ld10 and Stubborn. However, he will become the army's Warlord unless another Lord Commissar is taken due to his Ld being higher than all of the other HQ choices, with the exception of Commissar Yarrick.

Commissar Yarrick is a decent option for Conscripts as he gives them Fearless and units within 12" gain Stubborn. He is also hard to kill due to Eternal Warrior and the fact that he can get back up on a 3+ when reduced to 0 wounds. Any wounds allocated to him must be re-rolled so putting him at the front of a squad to catch bullets, known as 'tanking', is a great idea. Any that get through can always be deflected onto a Conscript with Look Out Sir making Yarrick very hard to kill.

A Ministorum Priest can be used to grant re-rolls on the charge but you will probably want to use First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire instead, unless you plan to tie up models that can't issue Challenges such as Dreadnoughts and Defilers. Also, the Priest only has Ld7 and no Stubborn or Fearless. He does have an Eviscerator though.

Challenges are probably the biggest weakness of Conscripts due to the fact that if one is issued and accepted, whoever accepted it will most likely be killed before they get to swing. On the other hand they could refuse, but then the Conscripts will lose their Ld bonus. There is no way to prevent this other than to add several characters to a Conscript squad which can make them ridiculously expensive.

The best thing to do with Conscripts may be to keep running them at the enemy in small squads with Send in the Next Wave so they can be killed off and come back in from reserves at the start of the controlling players turn. This way they can also grab and contest objectives that are close to the table edge late in the game.

The other option is to attach Yarrick or a Lord Commissar and charge them at the enemy. This is more risky though and it would probably be better to attach Yarrick or a Lord Commissar to an Infantry Squad blob. This would allow Sergeants to take challenges so the Commissar can attack against the rest of the unit. Alternatively a cheaper 35pt Commissar can be taken for each 10 man Infantry Squad giving them Ld9 and Stubborn.

The points difference between Conscripts and Infantry is negligible compared to their improved stats and ability to protect a Commissar. Also the option for a cheaper Commissar with great Ld cannot be underestimated.
The problem is by the time you've spent points on characters, Chenkov and the Send in the Next Wave special rule you'll be wondering why you didn't just use regular Infantry Squads.

Conscripts can also provide mobile cover to an army due to the Intervening Models rule but will still need a character to ensure that they don't run away.

So Conscripts appear to have become even worse in 6th. Does anyone have any success stories with them?