The new edition of Warhammer dropped yesterday and so did something.. else. Take a look at the “Designer Notes” that may just be our first FAQ for 8th.
Games Workshop said they were putting out an FAQ with the new edition, but is this it? They didn’t label it as an FAQ, but it may still help a lot of confused players. Checkout what they put a section form their New Edition Now Available – Read the Rules, Get the T-Shirt post called Designer Notes.
Let’s see what they had to say.
If you have questions about the rules in the new edition, you’ll want to read the Designers’ Commentary. We’ve had all sorts of queries about the rules and our team have written a document designed to explain the core principles behind the game, from coherency to characters, to dice rolls themselves. Whatever your level of experience, it’ll be sure to be a valuable resource in any of your games.
Q: When determining whether a model benefits from cover, does the model’s entire unit need to be fully on or within terrain, or just the model making a particular saving throw?
A: All of the models in a unit need to be at least partially on or within terrain if any of the models are to receive the +1 bonus to their saving throw.
Q: When piling in and consolidating, does a model have to move as close as possible towards the nearest enemy model, or do they just need to move closer to it?
A: If a model moves at all when piling in or consolidating, it only has to end its move closer to the nearest enemy model than where it started. It is not necessary to move as close as possible (i.e. base-to-base contact). Note that if a model is in base-to-base contact, it cannot possibly end a move closer to the enemy, and so cannot move when its unit piles in or consolidates.
Q: In missions where players alternate deploying units, do units that are set up somewhere other than the battlefield still count as a player’s deployment choice? What about units that begin the battle embarked within a transport?
A: Units with abilities on their datasheets that allow them to be set up somewhere other than the battlefield must still be ‘set up’ in that locale, and so still count as a deployment choice. When you choose to set up a transport, declare what units (if any) are embarked inside – these are not separate deployment choices.
For example, two players are deploying their armies for the Only War mission. The mission instructs them to alternate deploying their units. Player A starts by setting up a unit of Ork Boyz on the battlefield. Player B then sets up a unit of Intercessors on the battlefield. Player A then sets up a Battlewagon on the battlefield – as it is a transport, Player A declares it will start the battle with a Warboss and a unit of Tankbustas embarked inside. Player B then sets up a unit of Terminators, but uses their Teleport Strike ability to set them up in a teleportarium chamber instead of on the battlefield. Player A then sets up their next unit, and so on.
Q: If I can choose a keyword for a unit, such as for Astra Militarum, could I choose that keyword to be, for example ‘Blood Angels’ or ‘Death Guard’?
A:No. In the example above, ‘Blood Angels’ is a Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes and ‘Death Guard’ is a Legion of the Heretic Astartes – neither of which are Regiments of the Astra Militarum.
Q: If I create an Astra Militarum Regiment of my own and name them, for example, the ‘Emperor’s Finest’, and I then also create an Adeptus Astartes Chapter of my own choosing, and also call them the ‘Emperor’s Finest’, do the abilities that work on the and/or keywords now work on both the Astra Militarum and Adeptus Astartes units?
A: No.
The intent of naming Regiments, Chapters, etc. of your own creation is to personalise your collections and not to enable players to circumvent the restrictions on what abilities affect what units. It is also not intended to circumvent the restrictions on which units are able to be included in the same Detachment.
Q: If a rule or ability grants a re-roll on, for example, ‘hit rolls of 1’ (such as a Space Marine Captain’s ‘Rites of Battle’ ability) does that effect trigger before or after applying modifiers to the hit rolls?
A: Re-rolls always happen before modifiers, so the re-roll ability is triggered before applying modifiers. For example, let’s imagine a Space Marine (Ballistic Skill 3+) moves and fires a heavy bolter (a Heavy 3 weapon) whilst within range of a Space Marine Captain’s ‘Rites of Battle’ ability (allowing you to re-roll hit rolls of 1). The hit dice are rolled and result in a 1, 2 and 5. Re-rolls are applied before modifiers. In this example a single dice is re-rolled because of the Captain’s ability, this time resulting in a 3. Modifiers are applied after re-rolls. In this example there is a -1 modifier to the hit rolls for moving and firing a Heavy weapon. That means that the post-re-roll scores of 2, 3 and 5
Q: Can you declare charges against units that are not visible to the charging unit?
A: Yes. Note however that the unit being charged still obeys the normal rules for targeting when it fires Overwatch, and so, if a model cannot see the charging unit, it will not be able to fire Overwatch.
This is a HUGE change from 7th Edition. No more hiding behind walls folks, you will get charged.
Q: If a unit piles in or consolidates into a unit it didn’t declare a charge against in the preceding Charge phase, does that unit get to fire Overwatch?
A: No. Remember though that units that charged can only make close combat attacks against units that they declared the charge against, even if pile-in moves, etc. bring them within 1″ of a different unit.
Another BIG tactic here that is a port over from Age of Sigmar, and a great way to come to grips with units that may have been to close to the original target.
It looks like the Games Workshop design team did a lot of listening to some of the biggest questions the community put out. The last two questions about the keywords and other armies feel like they were strictly aimed at further showing the <insert prefix> Star is gone for good. There is a lot of great questions and answers in this new FAQ and it might behoove you to head over to Warhammer Community and take a look at the Designer Notes.
What are your thoughts on 8th edition so far? Is it everything you were hoping it would be? Let us know in the comments below.
