Games Workshop is changing up the releases of major FAQ’s, vs Erratas, and Chapter Approved. Plus rolling out BETA changes to Warhammer 40k 8th Edition
Games Workshop just gave us a huge update on a schedule for Erratas, FAQ’s, and Chapter Approved releases.
Our new approach is broken into three parts: 1) regular, corrective updates through codex errata, 2) twice-a-year ‘big’ FAQs to deal with larger issues and address balance in the game and, of course, 3) Chapter Approved.
1: Codex Errata
A couple of weeks after the release of every codex and Chapter Approved book, we’ll review all the questions and comments we’ve received to see if there’s a need for an errata. If that’s the case, we’ll get one out quick smartish! These will address any ambiguities or issues that might have cropped up, such as how new rules and Stratagems might interact in certain edge cases, or when there is a genuine error in one of the rules that stop it from functioning as intended.
Speaking of which, we’ve just uploaded this errata for Chapter Approved 2017.
2: Big, Twice-a-year FAQs
Major game-wide questions will be answered on a biannual basis each March and September when a wider set of FAQ updates will be released. These will be focused on anything that might emerge as more codexes, and thus more unusual interactions, make their way into the game and will address issues across multiple factions and publications. We’ll also use these to address balance issues in the game, so these might include a few changes to rules for overly powerful, or underrepresented units.
3: Chapter Approved
As new codexes arrive, and certain styles of army come in and out of fashion, the relative effectiveness of certain units in matched play will change. So we’ll be using Chapter Approved as a chance to reassess the points values of all units across the game (just like we did with the first Chapter Approved).
It’s great to see Games Workshop taking a proactive approach to the communities response to the frequent release of FAQ’s. Certain questions or problems will be handled shortly after the release of a new codex in the form of an errata, major game-wide issues will be handled in FAQ’s that will come out in March and September each year, and Chapter Approved will be on an annual basis to address point values of units across the game.
Alongside this news they also dropped a new errata for Chapter Approved. The errata only contained three changes, but one of them is going to change the way you choose an enemy target to shoot at.
ERRATA
Page 67 – Matched Play Mission Rules, Targeting Characters
Change the first sentence to read:
‘An enemy Character with a Wounds characteristic of less than 10 can only be chosen as a target in the Shooting phase if it is both visible to the firer and it is the closest enemy model to the firer.’
Games Workshop also has plans of beta testing new rule ideas at some of the major tournaments.
Occasionally, though, we’ll want to test a small number of new rules before we enshrine them in an official book or update, and we might use some of the world’s biggest tournaments and events as testing grounds for these potential changes. But don’t worry – if we do trial some rules at an event, we’ll also make sure they’re available for everyone, so even if you’re not attending the event in question, you can still try them out and send us your thoughts.
Now then, with that in mind, here are the first “beta” rules we’re looking to test at the Las Vegas Open and AdeptiCon (two of the largest Warhammer 40,000 events in the world) in 2018, so do let us know what you think.
Two of the rules they’re planning on beta testing at the LVO and Adepticon will change the way your psykers will play, and who you can target with your shooting attacks.
The difference between the current ruling for targeting characters and the beta rule is that other enemy Characters with Wounds characteristics of less than 10 are ignored when determining if the target is the closest enemy unit to the firing model.
The Psychic Focus beta rule is going to hurt players who love to spam their Smite. For every time that Smite is cast you will have to subtract 1 from the results of further attempts to Smite during that Psychic phase, whether it was successfully cast or not. The example they used is if you have two other psykers attempt Smite in the same Psychic phase the third Psyker to attempt to cast it would subtract 2 from the result of the psychic test. This is definitely going to put the brakes on some of the armies that rely heavily on Smite.
Games Workshop really seems like they’re listening to what the community has to say and are working to make the game better any way they can.
What do you think about the new release schedule for rules changes and updates? Are these beta rules something you would like to see made as permanent rules? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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About the Author: James Rodriguez
