Did we all miss the secret to making Khorne Daemonkin summoning work, or is this just another wild grot chase?
I love sharing these little rules puzzles with folks to help raise awareness to wording issues that may need to be address for a great game experience, and to help with development of future rules sets.
When the Khorne Daemonkin Codex (KDK) hit last spring we mobilized to share some of the more clunky rules mechanics we noticed from that book so we could all figure out just how to run their special “Blood Tithe” summoning correctly.
Now here we are today with this rules teaser that may just put the KDK back in the spotlight. I mean don’t get me wrong the codex is good, our friend Horton got 5th overall at NOVA to say the least, but if we ever figured out what the true intent is (from the designers of this book) as to how the special summoning works for them, it could just put this book square into the Tier One army arena altogether.
As it turns out the designers may have left us some bread crumbs even as to how they envisioned the book working….
Contributed from down under’s rules sleuth; J Lamp.
Hey mate, got a something re: KDK Summoning & FMCS (possible fix?) as it possibly solves the KDK summoning FMC Flight mode Q.
BRB P162
“In the Movement phase during which they arrive, Deepstriking units may not move any further, other than to disembark from a Deep Striking Transport vehicle if they are in one.”“In that turn’s Assault phase however, these units cannot charge”
That’s pretty much an accepted mechanic that I think we can all agree on. Things that can assault turn one are primarily formations or very specific special rules that are generally not conferred to Independent Characters.
KDK – P111
“Designer’s Note: When a rule indicates that a unit is summoned, a new unit under your control immediately arrives via Deepstrike within range of the specified unit(s) on the board.”KDK – P110
“The controlling player can choose to expend Blood Tithe points at the start of any of his turns.”BRB P17 “The Start and End of a Turn”
“During your game, you may encounter rules that say that an action or event happens ‘at the start of your turn’. These are always resolved before your Movement phase.”Note the limitation on not being able to move is reliant on them appearing in “In the Movement phase during which they arrive”
Since they arrive *before* the Movement phase as allowed in “The Start and End of a Turn” section and specified that they are immediately summoned in the Designers notes which is prior to the Movement phase; then they may move normally that turn.
However, they are unable to assault as they did arrive that turn.
So this is where the general disconnect seems to happen with most folks. We saw it with the Librarius conclave that if you backtrack the rules for the Psychic phase, it seems to indicate that you can literally perform actions at any point in any phase, with the priority given to the active player.
However you still have some folks saying you can’t cast powers at the “end of the Psychic Phase” and you have folks that say you can.
Back to the issue at hand, this new development seems to set into play the following series of events that can be quite advantageous to aspiring KDK players.
- KDK player expends Blood Tithe at beginning of their turn.
- KDK player summons a Flying Monstrous Creature that “immediately arrives via Deepstrike within range of the specified unit(s) on the board” .
- The start of the turn sub-step (per above) ends, and the movement phase begins.
- The Flying Monstrous Creature is free to change it’s flight mode if it wants, however either way it can not perform assaults this turn. P. 68 BRB
Now keep in mind this also means that KDK summoned units would also get a movement phase as well sort of against the rule on P.162 above, however they are still prevented from assaulting.
If you look at it like they are “disembarking” from the warp instead of a drop pod, wave serpent or other transport it may seem more sensible from that perspective I suppose.
The important things to keep in mind here is the fact the player turn is divided into phases, and those phases can have “sub-phases” just like the combat phase does. Rules like the start of turn one above may be an attempt to split phases that previously just dealt more with who’s turn it was and they order of actions they decided on like rallying or rolling for reserves at the beginning of the turn etc.
However now it seems like the beginning of the turn phase is becoming more and more complex as Games Workshop ramps up it’s release schedule once again.
How do you feel about the sequencing of each player phases, and how this issues seems to crop up in rules conundrums over and over again?
2015’s 40k Rules Conundrums
Episode 21 -Fixing 40k, One Rule at a Time?
About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
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Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
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About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.
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