Tuesday, 23 October 2018

The Kill Team Errata


So, with the release of the Big FAQ 2 2018 we also got a Errata and designers commentary for Kill Team. Now I will admit I was quite surprised when I scrolled down to this on the list of updates, I didn't expect to see an update for kill team in this lot. I was expecting to see one at some point but thought that it would be done separately. This make me wonder if we will get anything for kill team in Chapter Approved 2018.

Anyway, what is in the errata and designers commentary? We'll start with the errata and the move on to the commentary. The errata is mostly clearing up some of the wording and options.

The first couple of changes are to clarify the injury roll system and also how invulnerable saves work. The next couple are clearing up issues around the terror tactics mission. I haven't looked in to the changes, so don't know how much of an impact they will have.

We then move on to a couple of updates for specialist. Again most of these are clearing up the wording and intent of the rules. The leaders ability has been reworded to.make it clearer and the  Comms ability has been changed so that it can no longer affect itself. The scouts ability has been simplified, 5o just give a 2" movement boost.

The rest of the errata is concerned with updating the various data sheets in the book. I'll not go through each change, as there's quite a few minor changes.

The first few are updates to the space marines and update tactical sergeant and intercessors data sheets along with adding the Medic Specialism to tacticals and intercessors, meaning you can add in a jazzed up apothecary model now.

Deathwatch and grey knights also got updates to there sheets to clarify weapon options. A big change comes to the chaos Flail of Corruption, as it is reduced to a damage 1 weapon now, making it less of an auto include. Chaos marines also got the option for the combat specialism. tzaangor's also got a wargrear clarification, although I have no idea what it clarifies as I've never even looked at the rules for Thousand sons.

The Xeno's also got a few updates. Eldar heavy weapons platforms automatically pass nerve tests, which makes sense, it's a mobile weapons platform afterall. The Harlequins got hit hard by this FAQ though, with two changes. The first, removing the special rule for fusion pistols, which is sensible and I believe brings them.in to line with 40k, like everything else. The second and probably biggest need in the whole FAQ, is the change to flip belts, clearing up the fact that you can't just 'flip' through terrain. Previously it said to ignore it, which 2qs silly, as it's still there. Now you just don't count vertical movement, which makes far more sense, both fluff and rules wise. Oh, and the neuro disruptor got bumped from S3 to S4. Nercons got a change to Tesla carbines, changing a hit of 6 to 3 hits. Again, don't know what this was before but seems very normal for Tesla weaponry. The GSC also got some updates, mostly changes to the Acolyte wargear options but also a rewording of the heavy rock drills ability.

The Tau got the most changes by a long way, however a good few of them are basically the same change. The original bonding knife ritual rule ment that any Tau unit could support any other tau unit, now it has to be aosrl from the same data sheet, ie breachers can only support other breachers. There were also some changes to the keywords for both versions of fire warriors. Drones, already good units , got some upgrades as well, with a 4+ save now and gaining extra abilities for shield drones and marker drones. While it may look like tau have taken a hit, in reality I think the changes mean just the opposite and overall tau just got stronger. There have been some changes to the specialists options,

Lastly for the Errata, we have the changes to the guard. I left these until last as I will spend a bit more time on them, as they are my main faction. With guard squads gaining the medic specialism, special weapon squads loosing Comms but gaining medics and scions getting clarification that Comms specialists need to have a vox caster. To start with the addition of medics makes sense, your not (fluff wise) going to send a squad off without some form of medic around, even if in reality the medic is useless. The changes to Comms also makes sense, afterall, why would your Comms specialist not be the one with the vox caster? It also brings all the squads inline with each other, with all the specialities being the same across the board, as they should have been from the start. The final change to the guard is a minor change to the Scion wargear options. Now, this is a two part change and the first part is quite funny, as I'm pretty sure we went through this exact same change for 40k proper when scions were first released. The change relates to what weapons the vox caster can have as the kit tells you to build it with a hotshot laspistol but the rules only give you the option for a hotshot lasgun. The changes means that you can have a pistol or both a pistol and rifle. I'll be going for the latter, as the pistols only got a six inch range! The second change is one that, in hindsight, was an obvious change and is the addition of grenade launchers to the scions list of special weapons. This was the only weapon on the scions sprue that wasnt an option for them to take. I'm glad they've included this now, as I'm quite a fan of grenade launchers, as they have quite a lot of versatility.

So that's the changes from the errata, most of which are just clarifications and minor tweaks to rules to make there intent clearer. All in all it won't change the game much and is a nice little update. It will be interesting to see if there are more adjustments in Chapter Approved 2018.



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