Now I was going to have all the kill team stuff in one post but after reviewing the length of the post, I decided to split it down in to two posts, otherwise it would have been a very long post.
The designers comments are basically an FAQ and the designers statement of intent all rolled in to one and as usual there are some really important questions answered and some really stupid ones too. Ok, I know that just because I think there obvious doesn't necessarily mean that others do but asking if you can use your tactical re-roll to re-roll an opponents dice really should be obvious.
Anyway, let's take a look at what has been said in the notes. Again, I'm not going to go over everything in detail, just the highlights and things that I think are important.
There were several points in the movement phase that stood out, chief amongst them was the point that confirms that if you start the movement phase in combat but your opponent falls back, your still limited to staying still or falling "back". There doesn't seem to be any restriction on shooting though, other than the usual, so staying still seems to be the better choice. This has been a bit of a debate at my club and this ruling lands where I though it should, as at the beginning of the phase your still in combat. Also, if you react with a readied model, it's no longer readied, which makes sense, along with the fact that you can't react and overwatch to the same charge. For charges we also got clarification that if you fail a charge and still want to move, you have to move the full distance on the dice, getting as close as possible to your opponent or you stay still. No half moves in to cover anymore. Also in the movement phase it now says that you can't climb up something if there is no climbable surface, ie you can't climb up to an overhang. The last thing to mention which is quite funny, if you get knocked off a ledge and land near another ledge, you can fall again. It brings to mind some of the classic cartoon, of the bad guy falling over a cliff and hitting every ledge on the way to the bottom. I'm not sure it will come in to play very often but when it does, it will be amusing.
In the shooting phase there are some further silly questions and some that I would never have thought of, like a readied model being able to pass in the ready, fire section and fire in the fire at will section. That's quite a useful thing. Also, combi weapons are one weapon not two, so you have to follow the rules for shooting a single weapon if you want to shoot multiple targets. I've always thought of them as one weapon but I can see why there would be confusion. Also, no shooting pistols at all if you get charged or charge. This is one I though was obvious but apparently not. We also got definitive proof that in multiplayer games, you can shoot other models in combat, as long as one of them isn't yours. It also good to see the issues around random damage weapons and also mortal wounds has been dealt with. It's not something I've seen but there has been a bit of discussion online about it and finally, if you've a model on 3 flesh wounds, there doesn't seem to be anything (ie tactics) you can do to stop it dieing when it takes another. There is quite a bit more in there but again, most of it should behave been fairly obvious anyway but not it's down in black and white, people can't try and game the system.
The fight phase is fairly simple with just 3 questions. The only one that seems worth noting is that if if a charging model has all it's targets eliminated before it gets to fight, it can only pile in and not consolidate.
The moral phase is even shorter, with just two questions. Does the order of nerve tests matter and what can a shaken model do. Of course nerve test order matters, afterall when you go through each step in the process, it has the possibility of changing every time, depending upon the previous test and shaken models can basically do nothing voluntary.
I haven't actually read the missions, bad I know, so I don't really know if these are sensible question. The one about objective markers makes sense and the one about terror tactics sounds like someone is trying to game the system for there advantage by counting models that are off the table as dead.
The tactics section again sounds like some people are trying their luck but any chance of that has been shut down.
In the choosing a kill team secretion, I think some people havent been reading the rule book properly, as all the points lists I've used all say (does not include wargear). Also why ask why they give you options that aren't optimal? Choice people, choice and because they sell models equipped in that manor and don't want to make it illegal for kill team. As for making things specialists technically you don't have to make any models specialists apart from a leader.
Talking of specialists, the next section is all about the specialists and there various tactics and abilities.
Up next are all the faction specific FAQs. Some have a lot, some have only 1. Well run through them all quickly, some quicker than others. The Astartes are first, and there's nothing of note really, just a clarification for the auspex. Also, it clears up the wording for Deathwatch when choosing primaris marines, which was a little confusing. The guard only had one point, which stops you issuing an order to yourself. For AdMech, you can chip and chance between choosing and rolling for canticles. Oh, and read the options for wargear.
For death guard, DR doesn't affect the number of injury dice rolled for multi damage weapons and you cannot re-roll it, it's not on the list afterall. On the plus side the flail of corruption explodes on a 6+ to hit! The 1k sons get a minor boost (I think) for the all is dust rule and there's is nothing listed for chaos proper.
For the space elves, the craft world boys and girls seem to have a few problems with their weapons platforms, the key ones seem to be that of you ready the platform, the firing guardian doesn't need to be readied but it must be able to legally fire itself to fire the platform. For the dark kin, drugs are chosen after you've picked your team and the quin's don't have fly, despite what people think, so no shooting after falling back and even players are are clumsy sometimes, so can set of traps.
The necrons question is a bit random and I'm guessing comes from a non-necron player, after all if you play necrons why would you not want to trigger Reanimation protocols? Oh, and even mind shackle scarabs can't break the shooting rules. For the Orks, the question is fairly simple. You shoot at the original target but the wound goes on the grot. For the tau, you now need to just declare everything is firing overwatch using the greater good before shooting anything, not as each one fails. Pulse blasters are pretty risky weapons, always have been and saviour protocol's are still over powered.
Nids and GSC are last on the list. The nids questions a=e mostly about flesh hooks, which have got quite a boost as they are now the only weapon that can fire if the model armed with them is charged. Not a bad bonus. The other issue seems to have been the tactic metabolic overdrive, which has a mini essay on how to use it! Plus there is no point arming your warriors with more than one pair of bone swords. For the GSC there were just a couple of points, including the fact that genestealers don't gain the cult ambush rule for GSC.
One of the largest section in the commentary is about campaigns and the largest section is about managing your command roster. Most of it is pretty straight forward and ready only clarifies the way the system works, although on the whole it's a pretty easy system to understand, apart from 2 bits, both of which are cleared up here. Firstly, new models in your fire teams still cost the same as the rest of the team, so adding in a new recruit To a level 2 fire team means that you pay the level 2 cost for it, not the base level 1 cost until after the first battle, even though it doesn't gain any of the bonuses from the fire team. The other point of not is that you cannot change the wargear of a model once it's on your roster. Not a massive problem for most armies as you can just take several different variations in one roster.
All in all there are not many big changes to the game and nothing that jumped out at me as being unexpected. The errata and commentary both lean towards clarifying and tweaking the rules slightly to make play more streamlined and give us players a greater understanding of the game.
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