So the latest balance data slate and Munitorum Field Manual (MFM) have arrived, and there are some highs and lows as far as the guard are concerned. Overall I think this is more of a side move than either a buff or a nerf, it is however, forcing us in a certain direction whether you like it or not but I'll say more about that later. Firstly let look at all the bits that I think will affect the guard.
In the balance data slate, we got quite a few changes to our core rules and stratagems. One of the biggest changes (outside the detachment rule) is that the Reinforcements stratagem is no a one use only stratagem. This will have quite an impact on many player and I for one will feel this as I generally bring back 2 to 3 units a game. This will limit my willingness to throw a unit forward early game on a suicidal point scoring mission or blocking action, as I now won't be able to just bring them back. A minor change to note is to 0cp stratagem abilities. These are now just -1cp and don't give you the ability to double use a stratagem. It's not a big deal, as only Kreed had this ability and while she was a popular take for many people, she is still only one model, unlike space marine captains.
As I said earlier the real change here is to Born Soldiers. Gone are the old rules in their entirety and now we have a new version. The new version give Regiment units lethal hits against all non-monster and vehicles and Squadron units lethal hits against vehicles and monsters. However there is a small caveat, the target has to be visible. This impacts all indirect weapons and along with the changes I'll discuss later, may well kill artillery parks for guard. There are some quirks to this new rule though. Sentinels are both regiment and squadron so get everything, yet things like rough riders only get regiment, so those melta Lance's are not nearly as useful. Another quirk is that Tank commanders don't get any benefit as they are not squadron vehicle yet the normal Russ is. In addition, something like the LR Punisher, an anti-infantry vehicle are going to be quite good at taking out monsters, just because of the number of shots they can push out. In total over half of the guard units can't take advantage of this ability, someone worked it out to be something like 45 out of 81 units. That's a lot of units that can't use the army doctrine, granted attaching some of these units to squads get around this issue but still, when half your units, including things like the super heavies, tank commanders and most characters, cant take advantage of the detachment rule something's not quite right.
The Munitorum Field Manual also dropped and gave us a few points drops, not surprisingly most of these were to artillery units, such as basilisks and Manticores, but Royal Dorns, armoured sentinels and Kasrkin also saw points drops. Are these points drops enough to balance out the other changes, I don't know.
There were also some core rules that changed that will impact on the guard. One I’ve mention above, is the change to the indirect fire rules, now along side the modifiers to hit and save, there is also a flat rules that 1 to 3 always miss, so no more artillery hitting on 2’s re-rolling. The best we can ever get now is hitting on 4’s re-rolling 1’s. This is going to make a huge difference to many players, but wont do massive to my armies, although along side the changes to Born Soldiers it will relegate my wyverns even further. So are trying to argue that the scout sentinels abilities remove both the -1 to hit and 1-3 always misses but it only say to remove the penalty, which I read as the -1 to hit.
Another change is to movement, with new rules for pivoting vehicles. This is designed to make movement easier and no doubt will. It means less messing around with measurements and simpler movement, hopefully meaning less arguments and quicker game. However, it will also mean a lot of models moving in very funny ways, as the model only has to move in straight lines and not forward, so moving sideways or diagonally is a thing. With no facings or weapon arcs there is no need to rotate a vehicle if you don’t want to, so if you just move it sideways you can and not pay for the pivot.
Another change sort of affects two different rules, both Devastating wounds and Hazardous rolls are now mortal wounds. Devastating wounds is now back to being mortal wounds, but specifically states that the wounds do not spill over, so no more wiping out infantry squads with a single Devastating wound shot. The Hazardous roll also now inflicts mortal wounds rather than just removing models. It now inflicts a straight 3 mortal wound. The result of both of these rules is that any rules that enable you to take saves against mortal wounds, either abilities or FNP saves, can be taken against these. For most models this wont make much difference, a guardsman failing a hazardous roll is still going to die but a terminator or similar might well survive, anything bigger could survive several failed hazardous rolls. The changes to both of these rules means that many units are going to be far more resilient. In terms of guard, it means that we still don’t have to worry about whole units being removed by devastation wounds. The changes to Hazardous mean that we might have a chance to keep characters alive, a platoon commander may not kill himself outright, like mine did recently, when he fails his hazardous roll. The is also a change to the order in which you have to apply the hazardous wounds, non-characters before character is the basic gist of the rule.
There were also a couple of bits on the rules commentary that were interesting and I’m honestly not sure if the ruling on base to base is new or just a clarification. This states that for models that don’t have bases or overhand their bases, if you move as close as possible you are counted as being in base to base, even though you might not actually be touching the base. One other point of this that was new to me is that you can be underneath the model. I have also ways assumed that you could not be places underneath the hull of a vehicle, such as under the overhand of the LRBT track or under the hull of a Tau Devilfish but apparently this is fine. The other rule clarification, that upon looking at the actual ruler, was obvious. Big Guns Never Tire specifically states that it happens in your shooting phase, I had just applies it to every time the unit fires, so in over watch or even on the tank commanders ability. This is why reading the actual rule in its entirety is always a good idea!
One final note is that there has been a subtle change to orders. Each officers data sheet states the number of orders they can issue, previously it was just the number they could issue in the command phase but now it is per battle round, so if you want to use inspired command, you have to either save an order on the off chance you'll need it or use it and loose an order in you command phase. This reduces the usefulness of this stratagem quite a bit. In addition there is lots of talk about changes to Kasrkin to stop doubling up on orders, say Take aim to get +2BS. I can't find this anywhere but as so many people seem to be mentioning it, I guess it's a think, just buried somewhere in all the documentation GW just dumped on us.
I’m sure there are many other rules changes that will impact the guard but these are the ones that I spotted on my read through or I have seen picked up in many of the videos that I have watched on YouTube
No comments:
Post a Comment