Tuesday, May 27, 2014

FAQs and 7th Edition


Well the FAQs are up, and most of everything is on the black library site minus the main rule book and a few supplements.  I'll give it to GW, they are at least trying address some of the issues, though the wait has been long.  Some are just minor clarifications and others have a larger impact on the game.  Others are just fixing the lazy editing errors.  At least its been done.

So first off the bat lets talk about the Astra Militarum and Tempestus.  As far as AM, all that really has been changed is demonology has been added and some errata changes to Scions that are in the Tempestus FAQ as well.  Now the Tempestus got a few things that needed to be fixed.  The warlord trait Grav Chute commandos got changed to detachment not platoon, so it actually works now.  Tauroxes can take heavy stubbers like in the AM codex, and camo netting has been added.  Vox operators can take a hot shot laspistol instead of their lasgun for free (ok?).  Tempestor primes are I 4.  And finally the gets hot rule is gone from volley guns, though this was an obvious mistake as it was not in the AM codex nor in the reference section of the Tempestus book.

These are minor but nice to see fixed, and at least the warlord trait actually works now.  No actual FAQs yet, so will see if something comes out regarding heavy and ordnance, though that most likely will be in the main rule book FAQ.  On to other armies and changes.

For CSM, the big change now is that Heldrakes no longer have their weapon count as a turret weapon, they are hull mounted and a 45 degree arc.  This is a big change and I think GW listened to the community on this one, as it made them an extremely powerful vehicle that could fly anywhere and not worry about trying to aim.  The baleflamer is still a torrent and getting targets will not be an issue, the player will just have to actually think about where to fly his Heldrake.

Void shield generators now make sense against blast weapons, instead of resolving the number of models hit, resolve the attack as one hit per blast marker against the void shield.  So no getting ten guys under a blast marker and having ten chances to bring the shield down, you get one shot per blast marker.  This makes sense as the shot would hit the shield first before exploding on the target.

Dark angels power field generator works in vehicles again (the FAQ that prevented it no longer exists).  Space wolf runic weapons now only give a +1 to deny the witch.  I don't remember if rune priest have psychic hoods, if so then they can probably still be useful, but no longer will be running around denying powers on a 4+.  Pedro Cantor's sterngaurd have objective secured, a very nice option to run now, how about some unmoveable squads with awesome guns.

Currently ork psykers can only use demonolgy now, as the FAQ basically deletes the codex powers, but with a new book in a few weeks and lack of large use of wyrdboys, don't see that being a major issue and the new codex will have its own most likely.

No major changes to Tau, Eldar, and a lot of the others.  The 5th ed armies have the most, as they are the msot out of date and its a lot of profile updates with a few gear option changes.  Those are the major ones that I have seen and I'm sure there are plenty more.  Please post what you find in the comments to add to the list.

There are also some general things that I have noticed along with others about 7th edition.  Two big ones regard Barrage.  The first is that Barrage no longer causes pinning, its nowhere to be found, and it may very well be intended to be that way now.  The second is that blasts and templates no longer wound by levels in ruins or buildings anymore. So by the rules, you have models in a multi level ruin, and all are hit by a big blast template, they can all be wounded.  Hopefully this is FAQ'd as the way 6th did it made a lot of sense and I was a fan of it, giving you a chance to hide from barrage weapons.

I expect the main BRB FAQ to come out in the next few weeks and will hopefully adress a few of these things.  GW is getting off to a good start, they just need to keep on it and keep with the FAQs as the game progesses, and new issues pop up.  Terrain needs to be clarified a bit.

Other than that, I think the FAQs address the issues, even if the answer may not be the one you wanted, its at least a clear answer.

GG

11 comments:

  1. Surprised you did not mention the changes to grey knights in passing, all though they lost one or two good powers, over all , like daemons did in 7th edition , made out like bandits ( technical term:) )

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  2. Interceptor/Skyfire special rule bonus with being able to fire at full BS, against non- skimmer/flyers/FMC, appears to be gone aswell. Hard to know if these, like lack of pinning on barrage are meant to be gone or not. Lack of pinning on a barrage weapon does not make any sense, thats kind of what artillery are known for, and used for. GW tends to be more interested in realistic'ish rules than balanced ones. So i think that will be errata'ed in again.

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  3. Btw, rune priests don't have psychic hoods

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    1. didn't think so, a lot of utility is gone from them now until a new codex for them comes along

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    2. Grey Knights lost all their custom powers but some got upgraded in the trade (hammer hand, cleansing flame, vortex of doom). Purgation squad lost astral aim so they are now a strike squad in the heavy support category. Interceptor squad lost jump inf rule but can still make a single 30" jump. Strike lost warp quake, draigo no lobger has anti pysker on the sword of titan or sanctified flame, stern lost zone of banishment, vrother hood champ lost heroic sacrifice making him 100% worthless compared to crowe, and banners no longer auto charge force weapons. Vehicles lost fortitude vut gained sanctuary so +1 invul save to it. On the bright side gk now has vindis preds and whirls abd shares same values on dreads making em a bit cheaper.

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    3. Interceptors are still jump infantry AND can still make there 30" shunt move!
      GK has no acces to vindicators, predators or whirwhinds. The fact that the FAQ list the HP for them, doesn't give access. (Or what point costs would it be? Which wargear? etc etc)

      I liked fortitude more then sanctuary, so it's a loss to me on that point!

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  4. And though I didn't think it possible, Tyranids have been nerfed yet again as Shadow in the Warp is absolutely pointless - I can only imagine its absence in the new FAQ was a mistake

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    1. well, it will make them have a harder time passing those leadership checks on the perils checks, but yeah other than that its not what it once was. Hopefully they will address it in an FAQ but have yet to figure out how to work the game mechanics out. What would make sense is the keep the minus 3 to leadership and give a bonus to denying the witch, including blessings as long as the caster is within the shadow

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    2. I'm curious how you would change Shadow to work in this context. Knee jerk reaction is -1 power dice to psykers in range, but that seems rather OP. Second is Ld check at -3 to generate full power dice, which I like, but slows things down a lot.

      and I'm hurting pretty bad over smash. It would be OK if nids had tanks (like the riptide it was supposed to nerf) but we Don't. seems like a thing that could have been easily addressed in the codex. nids get D3 smash kinda thing. Or at least let us keep the attack from the charge.

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  5. Ok....so heldrakes baleflamer is no longer Torrent ?

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    1. They are no longer turret weapons, they are hull mounted with a 45 degree arc from the barrel. They are still torrent. The big issue was that before they could shoot in any direction, so fly over a target, vector strike it, then flame it. Now they cannot do that anymore

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