Games Workshop just updated the FAQs for all five of the new index books for 8th Edition Warhammer 40k Matched Play, with flyers being a big focus point.
Is it time to revise how your playing 8th Edition? Good guy Games Workshop has players covered this week with FAQs for all 5 index books, the core rules, and designer commentary:
Big picture-wise GW has joined the ranks of companies like Wizards of the Coast, and Fantasy Flight Games, by actively policing their game system with timely updates to competitive play.
Write this day down in your Hobby Diary folks, this is an important moment that marks a noticed shift in GW’s business activities.
On to the meat and potatoes:
With the release of Warhammer 40,000, our hard-working rules writers haven’t stopped looking for ways to make the game even better. We’ve been listening to your feedback as well as talking with our team of playtesters to find out what’s working in the new edition and what needs some adjustment or clarification. Today, we’re updating the FAQs, as well as making some changes to Flyers in matched play games.
Firstly, we’re providing an updated series of FAQs; like the previous versions, these are designed to make your games run more smoothly and incorporate some of the most raised questions from you guys on Facebook, and from our dedicated playtesting team.
Download the Core Book FAQ
Download the Index Chaos FAQ
Download the Index Imperium 1 FAQ
Download the Index Imperium 2 FAQ
Download the Index Xenos 1 FAQ
Download the Index Xenos 2 FAQ
Flyers have also been adjusted in light of some feedback from your matched play games. The design team want Warhammer 40,000 to be as fun as possible for as many players as possible, but we’ve noticed that a couple of army lists and certain units were crowding out other options.
Now you’ll need to have feet on the ground (or tentacles, hooves, claws, or tracks) to win your games. Flyers are just as powerful as they were before, but now players are encouraged to take more diverse and unusual armies. It’s worth noting that this change only applies to matched play, and in open and narrative play, you’re still as free as ever to reenact dogfights and aerial battles with sky-fleets of your own – Death from the Skies, in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook, even has special rules for this.
The adjustment to flyers can be found in the core book FAQ, on the first page, and it’s a game changer:
Page 215 – Sudden Death
Change point 2 to read:
‘If at the end of any turn after the first battle round, one
player has no models on the battlefield, the game ends
immediately and their opponent automatically wins a
crushing victory. When determining if a player has any
units on the battlefield, do not include any units with
the Flyer Battlefield Role – these units cannot operate
within a combat airspace indefinitely and they cannot
hold territory without ground support. Furthermore, do
not include any units with the Fortification Battlefield
Role unless they have a unit embarked inside – even the
most formidable bastion requires a garrison if it is to
pose a threat.’
The other big adjustment is to the Razorwing Flock. The points have been doubled, cutting down the amount of models you can field significantly.
Page 118 – Units table, Razorwing Flocks
Change the models per unit value to read ‘3-12’ and the
points per model value to read ‘14’.
This update to matched play games came shortly after the ATC tournament, where flyers dominated the battlefield. But, it’s great to see Games Workshop taking such a proactive involvement with the community, watching what lists are dominating the scenes, and figuring out what they can fix to make the game more enjoyable for everyone. There’s going to be a lot more on the way from this one folks, keep your eyes peeled as we break these bad boys down one by one.
What are your thoughts on the updated FAQ’s and the new update to Sudden Death for matched play? Let us know in the comments below.
