Each faction is coming in hot with new rules from Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good. Check out an in-depth look at everything new for the armies!
Coming from The Glacial Geek on YouTube, he’s done an incredible breakdown of all the rules and datasheet changes coming inside Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good.
Check out everything that this supplement will be all bringing to the table, meow.
All The New Imperial Guard 40k Rules From Greater Good
Following the normal theme of things, (starting with Space Marines) The Imperial Guard will have access to a table of twelve different rules. You can pick two and mesh them together to make your own custom Regimental Doctrine.
Pick Your Own Custom Regiment Rules
The first page of Doctrines is super well rounded. However, for the most part, they seem to care mostly about Heavy weapons, Infantry, and some vehicles. This is all to be expected as its essentially what guard is known for! Doctrines that jump out to us are Disciplined Shooters and Fire from the hip. Being able to advance up and essentially Firing 8 shots (at -1 to hit) with any rapid-fire 2 weapons!
Jumping right in, this one is worded a bit weird for the “Type characteristic” of a weapon. But it looks like this is basically the reroll your number of shots for Catachans, except, like for whoever has this!
In the same way, you can make it so your Guardsmen proc Rapid-Fire weapons 3″ before the Tau Fire Warriors can! (unless they’re Borkan) -That’s a pretty spiffy one but only recommended if you were going to be taking a ton of value infantry.
If you want to roll out an armored column, there are some dope rules you can pick from as well. Keeping your tanks grouped together will let you overwatch on a 5+ instead of the normal 6+. If you think about the consequences of having a Stormlord overwatching on a 5+…there can be devastating results out of that one. It’s basically a free Defensive Gunner Strat. NICE!
Rounding out the doctrines there’s an interesting emphasis for melee. Lords’ Approval plus Slum Fighters can give you -1 ap and extra hits on 6s in melee. While probably not competitive, it’s an interesting option if you want to take a different route with the guard.
On top of that, you can heal a wound back on a 2+ each turn for all of your vehicles. But if you spike a 5 or a 6 on that roll, you can heal D3. This is really good if you’re going to be absolutely saturating the board in things like leman Russes and Chimeras. If your opponent has so many targets to pick from, they may cripple one and decide to deal with another…
Meanwhile, that tank could repair enough to soak up a few more shots when your opponent turns back to deal with it. Overall, it’s not bad but it has its niche uses.
Imperial Guard New Tank Ace Rules
Instead of choosing a Warlord Trait, you can select a Tank Ace ability to apply to one of your eligible Astra Militarum vehicles. Alternatively – or in addition if you want to include two Tank Aces – you can spend a single Command Point to use the Tank Ace Stratagem…
Now, you can have a max of two Tank Aces in your force…But what does being a Tank Ace give you? First of all we should note that the Tank Ace isn’t limited to a Leman Russ…You could even give this to a Baneblade/Shadowsword if you wanted to!
Starting out with the Good’ol Leman Russ, they get a solid 6 traits, all of which seem pretty decent. Two of my favorites are Slow and Purposeful to reroll wounds of 1 and Armoured Rush. Both of these accomplish two opposite objectives, either rushing around the battlefield or holding your gumline.
Being a Tank Ace essentially unlocks a tree of exclusive rules. Looking at Weapon Expert, you get an additional AP which can be brutal on the mass of fire coming from the Stormlord or maybe tack on more armor-melting power with the relic 3-flat damage battle cannon from Vigilus.
Support Aces and Super-heavy Aces are next up and cover all the rest of the armored tanks in the army from Hydras to Baneblades. Full Payload appears to be amazing, anytime you would roll for a damaging characteristic, instead, you get max damage automatically. Steadfast Leviathan also seems to have some interesting possibilities…
Oh. and speaking of Super Heavies… you can give them your Regiment rules even if they’re in an auxiliary detachment, meaning you can have them overwatch on a 5+ while they hang around other Vehicles as we mentioned earlier.
Imperial Guard Stratagems
The first set of 6 here seems to cover a few key points. Powering up your vehicles, and powering up your shooting phase. Splash damage makes a Hellhound reroll wounds against targets with cover, while Direct Onslaught adds 1 to hits for a Manticore or Wyvern.
If your opponent has a tendency to use cover and have those annoying 1+ armor saves, you can spend a CP to have your Hellhound reroll all wound rolls against a target…That should help uproot Eliminators that are being too aggressive.
The second page gives a few more options and is a little more open-ended in purposes. Shooting phase, opponents shooting phase, psychic phase, and even charge phase, you’ve got options at a bunch of points in a turn. Hail of Fire is the only Strat more than 1 cp on this page and lets a Leman Russ get max shots if it targets a vehicle, making a heavy d6 become an oh-so-sweet heavy 6.
For another cheap Stratagem, you can bring a small contingent armed with something like lascannons or maybe hunter-killer missiles and add 2 to your hit rolls. That’s pretty good considering they don’t ignore heavy and you’ll almost always want to move them to at least sit on an objective/cover a flank. It’s just another way to get more use out of a less-than-optimal unit.
Tempestus Scion Regiment Rules
Starting off, Crack Shots gives your entire force of hotshot lasguns more potency. Being the longest-range of any of the other Scions, they’ll be able to start throwing down shots a bit before most other ground troops can. This is great for sitting back on objectives while still making the most of your points by firing their guns, which at -2 AP, is nothing to joke about.
Death from the Dark is one of the coolest ones out of the list, essentially doubling the number of units lost for morale. Even if you kill two Primaris units from a squad, they’ll have to take a -4 Ld check.
These dudes are cool because their Infantry is jacked enough to tote things like lascannons and heavy bolters without suffering the -1 to hit penalty. On top of that, you’re encouraged to bring plenty of transports to your game, giving them +1 to hit as soon as they jump out of the truck.
This is just random value. You can either spam cheap weapons and proc as many 6’s as possible or bring high-quality firepower like plasma and hope you spike a few rolls here and there. Just remember you also have to be within half range.
For Prized Weaponry, you can say hello to all of your lasguns being a whopping -3 AP…This is like all of the Space Marine doctrines rolled into one as it affects EVERY weapon.
For these guys, they’re similar to the Predatory Strike rule from above. However, they get exploding hits when they target the closest thing and it’s only for infantry. This might be the weakest of all the new rules.
Tempestus Scion Relics
Tempestus is getting some serious love in this book, and the relics for them are no exception. Refractor Field Generator giving a 5+ Invuln to models within 6 inches seem super strong. While Distraction Charges give models within 3 inches of the character Tau like grenades in overwatch that make the assailant half the charge result if it hits.
A spicy relic coming to the 32nd Thetoid Eagles (the doctrine that gets exploding 6’s to hit when shooting within half range) is called the Fire of Judgement. It’s a two-shot pistol that all you have to do is hit with. Plus with Scions improved BS, you’ll be able to comfortably max-out your mortal wounds for this slam piece. The cool thing is that if you shoot within half-range and get a 6 to hit, you’ll be able to squeeze out another mortal wound!
Tempestus Scion Warlord Traits
Each of the Tempestus Regiments gets a special warlord trait to match. Two great options are Keys to the Armoury which gives the warlord a reroll 1s to hit 6-inch bubble, always a nice thing to have. While Precision Targeting makes it easier for you to hunt enemy characters by removing the cover from him while within 6 inches of your warlord.
With the Master Vox warlord trait, you’ll be able to issue commands from inside a vehicle to units within 24″….There’s not any other rule like that in the game and definitely useful in this unforgiving Sniper meta. Just keep your T3 commander nestled in a Taurox and have him tell the others to die for Big E.
Tempestus Scion Stratagems
Keeping on the Tempestus support train we’ve got the first page of stratagems for them. Precision Drop seems super nice as it lets you get out of an air transport at 5 inches away from enemies instead of the normal 9 inches, perhaps flamers will be a good idea. Advanced Counter-Measures seems awesome as well when switching to hover it’s usually a “feels bad” that you lose hard to hit, but now with this stratagem, you won’t!
As for the stratagems, you can spend 1CP to drop within 5″ of the enemy and completely forget about needing to roll for dead models. These guys are highly-trained and could drop from zooming ships in their sleep. This stratagem will most definitely be used. Especially for alpha-strike plasma squads.
As for the second set of Stratagems Elusive Hunters and Drilled to Perfection seem to be strong options. Elusive Hunters gives a unit -1 to hit while they are more than half of the range of the unit that is shooting them for the turn. Drilled to perfection, on the other hand, gives a massive +2 to overwatch giving you a 50% chance to hit instead of 1/6.
Whew! That was a lot to cover! With Tempestus Scions and Guard coming in STRONG, it’ll be exciting to see how they interact with the Space Marine meta currently!
All the New Genestealer Cult Rules From The Greater Good
Genestealer Cults are getting their own version of the Space Marine “pick two rules” for their Cult-wide rules. These are called Cult Creeds.
GSC Custom Cult Creed Options
GSC getting in on the doctrine action is exciting news for all Xenos players! But they will have their time, for now, let’s look at these. Innate Fighters is awesome, as GSC has some really nasty units in melee that can abuse the rerolls to hit. On the other side of things, Seasoned Enforcers let the infantry move and shoot Heavy weapons!
If you’ve got a stockpile of Bikers, you can ignore basically any penalty to hit that might come up from your end. Your mining lasers will be hitting on their flat 4+. But if you need more speed, you don’t have to sacrifice accuracy with your assault weapons after advancing either.
For Unnatural Symbiosis, this is an OK trait to pick…Really, we can only see this in something like a fluffy/fn Psyker spam list. But based on what we’ve seen, the other GSC named cult creeds are much better.
Hopefully, the GSC have a few more good picks to take for players wanting to go completely custom.
GSC New Psychic Powers
Each psyker can opt to choose one of the above powers linked to their cult instead of the normal table if they so wish. With that being said, Synaptic Blast seems to be very potent. surround your psyker with small size bases to squeeze in models and unleash a huge spell and hopefully dishing out a huge amount of mortal wounds as well. The 5++ from Undying Vigor seems pretty good for the Bladed Cog as well.
Twisted Helix Aberrants were already good with the exclusive Monstrous Bio-horrors strat allowing them to pile in and fight twice. Now, they’re also going to be the prime synergy target for a new Psychic Power coming to the Twisted Helix called Mutagenic Deviation.
Basically, for a warp charge of 6, you pick on an enemy Infantry unit within 12″, turning everything that targets it in melee essentially a Blood Angel. Remember, this only goes to Infantry, but it definitely a nice added bonus going against a fat Intercessor squad or even Custodes. Another prime synergy for Aberrants to lay down the hurt.
New Cult Stratagems
Onto the stratagems, Annihilating Advance is simple but may just be what you need. Considering the popularity of the Rockrinders, we will probably see this stratagem used a lot. Close Range Shoot Out is also very powerful as it gives you re-roll wounds for some jackals.
Prepared Ambush is a cheap 1CP Strat that makes the most of a unit of Neophytes coming out of reserve. If they’re just out of range of rapid-fire, you can essentially turn their weapons into assault 2. This is nice because Neophytes can get wiped off the board fairly easily and tend not to hang around long. Especially if they come up in front of the enemy line.
On the second set of stratagems, The Cults Psyche seems to be one of the better options. Not only do you get an extra psychic power cast, but all spells in that phase get the Ork like-ability to buff the cast roll based on the amount of nearby friendly psykers.
Keep in mind, you have to spend this Stratagem before the battle. But when you do, one Primus gets to use his Meticulous Planner ability twice. (once on two different units). This is perfect for a blob of rock saw Acolytes running into a Knight (dedicating the saws there) and something like a nearby Primaris unit/screen (putting rending claws here), you’ll be able to maximize your damage output for one unit. And that’s only if you bring one unit up from deepstrike to do work with.
If you’ve got more than one unit making it into combat around the Primus, you’ll have even more value in your favor. Just remember that Meticulous Planner only procs for friendly units that are within 6″ of himself.
Overall, for just 1CP and a required character you’ll almost always be taking in any GSC list, this Stratagem is money.
All the New Tau Rules From The Greater Good
There are a few good options off the first half of Sept Tenet options. One of my favorites is Turbo-jets, allowing for a super-fast list grabbing objectives all over with minimal units and as fast as possible.
One of the tenets you can pick from is essentially Target Lock for Battlesuits in your entire army. This lets them ignore the penalties of heavy and moving. This is definitely solid for the bigger suits packing firepower like Riptides.
For another rule you can pick from, For the Greater Good can be increased to 9″. That can be absolutely horrifying if we see more tenet rules to choose from like 5+ Overwatch/+x” to ranged weapons.
On the second half of Tenet options, I really like the Up-gunned tenet. Burst cannons are often a go-to for the tau, and getting that sweet -1 ap is a big deal. The difference between 0 ap and -1 ap is huge.
New Tau Stratagems
For the first page of Stratagems, there are a good amount of viable options. Deadly Aim will be extremely good in sniper drone lists, and Pulse Onslaught is great to help make Breachers more multipurpose.
This spicy little Stratagem makes Riptides (and even R’varhna’s and Y’vharras) incredible. 1CP to max your shot output? Yes, please.
With just as many options on the second page of stratagems, I really enjoy one in particular. Promising Pupil lets you get an extra warlord trait, which can be extremely good for obvious reasons. It does have to be unique but that is hardly a downside.
If you’ve got XV8 suits, you can pick one enemy and they get treated as being lit up by 5 markers exclusively for the XV8 unit you selects. That can be the downfall for a Knight if you manage to drop in a Fusion squad within 18″ and pop this.
Farsight Enclaves have had a lot of practice making the most of their resources. And with their faction once being cut off from the Tau Empire, they’ve trained even their most basic warriors to make every shot count. Danger Close allows you for 1 CP, to reroll wound rolls is not too shabby. You’ll just probably want to use this on a full squad of ten dudes.
New Warlord Traits
For Farsight Enclaves, you can give a +6″ aura to your Commander when he declares Mont’ka. Remember Mont’ka allows units to Advance and shoot as if they hadn’t moved. This is pretty awesome, but considering he can only declare it once per game, you’ll have more of a chance to make it count.
New Tau Relic List
There’s a bunch of model-specific options here. The Gatling Burst Cannon looks appealing to me for the same reason that Up-Gunned was in the Tenet rules.
Just like Primaris Infiltrators, Ghostkeels can not only infiltrate up the board, but they can also deny deep strikers within 12″ of the model. RIP GSC.
With even more options on the second page, one immediately jumps out to me. Cross-Linked Stabiliser Jets, lets a battlesuit reroll hits and wounds of 1 with ranged weapons. If you’ve played against Tau you know how strong this amount of rerolls can be, especially when you remove the need for marker drones (partially).
Farsight Enclaves also get three specific options for Relics they can take. The Mirrorcodex just gives your relic-bearer all the rerolls. However, considering it’ll probably be going on a Commander and they hit on a 2+ anyway, this might not get picked too often. The talismans are back as well, Farsight knows what’s up when it comes to the warp!
New Updates to Tau Unit Datasheets
Shadowsun is most known for being a cheap, mobile Fusion Blaster chassis with decent protection. However, her guns got a bit more versatile with gaining four shots in total using the dispersed profile on her guns. This shot profile is a great alternative for going against something like a five-man squad of Primaris. You essentially double your shot output and keep your insane AP.
Another awesome ability is that she gives off a 6+++ FNP for Tau Empire units within 3″. Sure, that means she’ll have to be right on top of units you want to protect, but being a character, she should be seeded into ranks of other Tau to begin with.
This is going to be amazing for gunline lists running Riptides and Stormsurges as they’ll get a 6+++ FNP tacked onto all their wounds.
Finally, she can join any other Sept (including being able to fight with Farsight) without breaking any Battle-forged rules!
Farsight’s The Eight
And there you have it! Tau looks to be in a much better spot than they currently were just sitting with their base codex in 8th edition.
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After looking at all these rules, what will you be testing out first? Will you be playing mono faction but with regiment/sept soup?
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About the Author: Andrew Schrank
Andrew Schrank
Job Title: Miniatures & Warhammer Hobby Staff Writer
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About Andrew Schrank: Over the past 15 years, Andrew has played all the games, including tabletop and video games, and immersed himself in the associated lore. Andrew joined the Spikey Bits team in 2018 and covers the Warhammer hobby and tournament scene, along with the latest in tabletop miniatures, each week.
Aspiring diplomat, Lord of Fluff, and Master of Ice Hammer, He loves Star Wars, Chaos Undivided, and Gundam. During his free time, he hunts Platinum trophies on PS5 and reads international news. On weekends, Andrew plays commander and cEDH games, often with unique strategies that push the limits.
He believes each day presents a new opportunity to grow and be challenged.
