Adam here to take a look War Zone Octarius and what it will mean for the Grimdark.
With the Black Templar release coming up, everyone is excited to see what they do on the tabletop in upcoming tournaments. I really am curious how big, or small, of an impact the army has. Have no fear though. Hot on the heels of the release is the new War Zone Octarius book. In it are updated rules for a number of units and armies that have yet to see an updated codex. We can’t discuss everything that has been previewed so far but there are a few things that have caught my attention and maybe a question or two that spring to mind when seeing the table of contents.
Tyranids
The updates that they have shown for Tyranids seem to be useful but not as extreme as we have seen for some of the other armies. The Synaptic Hive Blades seem somewhat useful as they take away invulnerable save. Even if the armor penetration only 1 or 2, it sill reduces the chances your opponent will have to save their models. Against units that have a really good save this could come in handy. You just have to get that unit there.
The Gesalt Commander seems really strong in you play Leviathan. It seems to allow you to pick a warlord that is usually not available and make it your own. This could be used to get that coveted warlord trait that is usually not available too you due to your hive fleet’s keyword. The Swarm Leader ability is one that Chapter Masters have in that you pick a unit and they can reroll hits. Bringing them up to speed, so to speak, is good for the army as rerolls are always a good thing to have.
Cadians
Even with the planet destroyed, the regiments of Cadia continue to fight. There are a few things to unpack here. The return of the Whiteshields is nice as it allows you to field multiple units of Conscripts without some of the negative effects that the unit normally is shackled with. They lose the Raw Recruits ability and get a leadership boost. In addition, you can make them even tougher by using the Cadia Stands! stratagem. This stratagem makes it harder for your opponent to wound the unit and makes their save better if the damage of the weapon is just one. For the cheap cost on one command point it can easily help in keeping a unit around at a critical moment.
The army trait remains the same and is beneficial to an army that is mostly static but in today’s mission set where you need to have mobile units in order to score both primary and secondary objectives. The relic is an okay sword and the ability is fine although I don’t believe, right now, that combat attrition isn’t as big of a deal that I would use this relic. The Gifted Commander ability is a need trick if you are playing a vehicle heavy list. This allows you to keep some of your armored units safe until they show up on the battlefield.
Fortifications
Yes, I know that there are inquisition units in the army, but unless they are radically changed for the better, I don’t see people using them a lot. What interests me more are the fortification rules. There was a time when almost every army had a fortification. At the start of the new edition you hardly saw fortifications because of the rule that they had to be a certain distance from another terrain piece and that would make it difficult to fit a fortification of almost any size onto the battlefield. With many tournaments using something similar to player placed terrain, it is easier to fit a fortification onto the table as it is part of the terrain placement.
As a result, I wonder if Games Workshop made any changes to the fortifications or just copied and pasted them over. If there was some type of update, whether it’s to the rules, point values or both, then we may see even more people bring fortifications in their army. I mean we will probably see an increase in use because of the player placed terrain and how armies seem to be getting bespoke fortifications but time will tell.
~That’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed the article. Let me know what you think, and what you look forward to with the new book, in the comments section below.
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
