A partial rules update is here ahead of next week’s Tacoma Open with some important changes.
The first major event of 11th edition 40k is just a week away. Six hundred plus players will gather in my own backyard at the Tacoma Open (say hi, if you see me lurking at the event) to play in the first Grand Tournament of the edition and its accompanying narrative weekend games. Of course, a new edition launch doubles as a stress test for a new game system, and 11th edition is no different. In the weeks since its release, the player base has discovered rules issues or items in need of clarification.
Ahead of the event in Tacoma, the studio has released a small rules update addressing the most pressing issues. A full rules update is still on track to come later this month, but today’s release patches up the biggest problems for players at the Open. The document is only considered “official” for the Tacoma Open events, but is clearly of interest to players everywhere until the full update drops in a couple of weeks. Let’s take a look at two of the biggest fixes. The main Events Companion document is, of course, still in effect.
Effects that Revive Dead Character Units
This is the big one. With the release of the game, canny players quickly realized that certain character units had become incredibly difficult to kill as even when destroyed they could be returned to their bodyguard units to once again gain what amounts to ablative armor. This has been addressed with the following update:
EFFECTS THAT REVIVE DESTROYED CHARACTER MODELS (e.g. Protocol of the Eternal Revenant, Divine Intervention, Postmortality)
Change the text regarding how to return the destroyed model to play to the following: […] set up the destroyed model on the battlefield, unengagedand as close as possible to where it was destroyed. That model is not part of an attached unit and its unit has a starting strength of 1. […]
These characters are still tough as nails, but now when they rise from the dead they do so as an independent unit. Much more manageable!
Genestealer Cults Army Rule (Cult Ambush)
Genestealer Cults players have been in a tough spot since the edition launch. The Cult Ambush ability tangled with the new Character rules in some difficult ways. Notably, their army wide rule prevented destroyed units from being returned to play if those units had attached Characters. This was a huge negative impact for the army but it’s been addressed in today’s document.
GENESTEALER CULTS ARMY RULE (CULT AMBUSH) – The following changes are in effect:
▫When checking if every model in the destroyed unit has the Cult Ambush ability, exclude attached CHARACTER models
▫When determining how many Resurgence Points to spend, exclude attached CHARACTER models from the unit’s Starting Strength
▫When adding a new unit to your army identical to the destroyed unit, exclude attached CHARACTER models
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This neatly deals with the issue allowing the unit to return but not giving the Genestealer Cults player an inexhaustible supply of ressurectable characters.
There are some other fine tuning updates so far, and the whole document is worth a careful look. There’s also a few pages of FAQs to clarify player questions that didn’t require errata. More changes are coming soon, of course, but this seems to cover the big open questions ahead of the first major event of the edition. See you in Tacoma!
Solid stuff today! What changes do you still want to see in the July update?
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Simon Berman has been a wargamer since 1993 and has worked in the tabletop games industry since 2008 as a staff writer for the first three editions of WARMACHINE and HORDES. These days he’s the General President of the Brush Wielders Union, a worldwide organization of miniatures painters of all skill levels, a freelance games writer who has contributed to a number of roleplaying games like Eclipse Phase, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and The Hammer and the Stake. He runs his own small-press publishing company, Strix Publishing, and paints more miniatures than he can keep track of. Simon lives with his wife in Tacoma, Washington along with a number of cats and a pack of savage wiener dogs.
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
