GW announced a second round of 40k FAQs essentially FAQing their FAQ as well as tweaking some other things that were issues- here are the hot takes.
We’ve talked about the major changes that affected pretty much everyone already. But now that we’ve had time to digest all the changes, here are some other important takeaways that were found in the second round of FAQs. In case you missed our coverage we’ll have it here below for you.
GW FAQs Their FAQs: 40k Changes To Smite & Characters
One of the big highlights to the FAQ came unto the Look Out, Sir! rule.
In all cases, if that Character unit is both visible to the firing model and it is the closest enemy unit to the firing model, it can be targeted normally. When determining if that Character unit is the closest enemy unit to the firing model, ignore other enemy units that contain any Character models with a Wounds characteristics of 9 or less.’
All this does is pretty much make it so Harlequins and Dark Eldar can hide their characters behind their smaller vehicles. Another good example would be the Warboss on a Wartrike can hide behind the rest of the Speed Freeks units.
This one is pretty self-explanatory but it was needed. Models with rules that can move through other models have been expanded on. They move over them just like the rule states but you can’t do anything to end up within engagement range outside of a charge.
Grey Knights & Thousand Sons Don’t Ignore Increasing Charge on Smite
You can find this exact commentary on Thousand Sons as well but essentially, GW took away the rule that keeps smite from going up for Grey Knights and Thousand Sons. That means it’s a bit more difficult to spam mortal wounds in those armies. However, they did keep things open-ended mentioning that they will be building on the rule once it’s time for their codex to roll around.
Other Big Takeaways From the FAQs
In the Saga of the Beast section of FAQs, the Space Wolves gained access to taking an icarus rocket pod on their Repulsor Executioners. But the biggest change is that Space Wolves no longer have army-wide objective secured. We kind of knew this was coming but now the proof is in the pudding. Only Troops that don’t have the Servitor or Beast keyword have Ob-Sec now.
Some needed clarification on the different terrain types was also given. Let’s talk about the big one. If a terrain piece has the Obscuring or Dense keyword, but the terrain piece still physically blocks all LOS, meaning there aren’t any windows/doors (it’s a literal solid chunk of something on the table), then a model can’t shoot at it. Even if the model behind it is an Aircraft or has 18+ wounds.
Another note to make on Dense Terrain is that if the terrain piece is in between two units, they become -1 to hit. They don’t have to be standing in another terrain piece to “get the benefits of cover”. They can be out in the open but as long as you draw a line of fire through a Dense terrain piece, you will be -1 to hit. Now, on the other hand, weapons that ignore the benefits of cover will still ignore that penalty.
Finally, if there is a weapon that has the ability to ignore wounds going against a unit that has a rule that prevents it from losing any more wounds in a phase (i.e Ghazghkull Thraka or an Exalted Bloodthirster with the Blood-Blessed Trait), the favor swings on the side of the weapon. That means that you could technically do more than 4 wounds to Ghazghkull in a phase with the right ability, for example. However, we don’t know of any weapon that ignores those abilities right now so we’re sure we will see future updates.
Overall, those are some pretty big changes with a little bit of rules foreshadowing mixed in!
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
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About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
