Faction Focus: Titans

Faction Focus: Titans

So I've already got two predictions, one positive one negative.

The first thing I want to point out is the title of this article is "Faction Focus: Titans," not, "Warhammer 40,000 Faction Focus: Titans."  It's posted under #NEW40K and they promised news about Titans for 40K, but I don't think that's all we're getting.  

So my positive prediction: there will be teasers for Titanicus and possibly even talk about their plans, if any exist, for Apocalypse in 10th Edition.  I'm even pretty sure that is Titanicus artwork.

My negative prediction: Titans will be getting the Forge World and Heresy treatment.

In short, though I'm betting we'll see some rules below, Titans will probably not be allowed at Competitive events.  I'm betting that will include things like certain Xenos models too.  From my faction, I'm guessing they're not planning on balancing Harridans and Hierophants for the game.  We might still get Hierodules, though.  But then, they already took away a bunch of our Forge World units!

Let's see if they prove me wrong.

ADEPTUS TITANICUS

So right off the bat we're getting Imperial Armour Indexes for each faction, with a separate one for Titans themselves.  And so far it sounds like they're treating these Indexes the same way as any other.  So that's good.

The rules for including one are simple.  If you're Imperium or Chaos, you can include 1 Adeptus Titanicus model.  Whether they'll be anywhere near affordable enough to include is another story.

THE WARLORD TITAN

And we're just going straight to the top for this article!  The Warlord comes packing with a new Toughness stat of 16 and 100 Wounds.  This is still 20 Wounds less than its 9th Edition counterpart.  Its Warp Shields have been simplified to a flat 5+ Invuln against all ranged attacks, so you can't break them anymore.  This massive war machine is also OC 30, meaning you'll need practically an army to steal an objective from it.  Strangely, it's got a 6+ Ld.  If anything was going to have a Primarch's 5+, or even Greyfax's 4+, you'd think it'd be a titan.

And it's bristling with guns, including the now Strength 32 Belicosa which will allow it to even wound other Warlords on 2s.  Strangely, it's not -6 AP like the previous big guns we've seen, meaning you can still get a save if you can find cover somehow.  But lets face it, you're shooting this thing at something that can't qualify for cover.  It's also gone up to damage 18!  I'm not going to go through all the other weapon changes individually, though some are nearly untouched.  The highlights are the Ardex-defensors losing their bonus in Overwatch, a pretty big nerf to the Sunfury, the Arioch getting a sweep, and the macro gatling blaster getting shots for days.

Titans in 9th Edition came with a CP tax in edition to their massive points bill.  This has returned in 10th as a tax on all Stratagems used on them.  Any Stratagem you use on a Warlord will cost you a massive four times the CP.  I think this is also a way to balance the Titan's ability to be included in any Imperium or Chaos faction.  Considering they probably haven't even written all the Stratagems that 10th Edition will eventually have, this is potential future proofing against problems.

The Warlord also gets the Screamer-killer ability we've seen a few times now, allowing it to for a Battle-shock test on a unit.  Though if any unit would get to inflict Battle-shock on multiple units, you'd think it would be a Warlord.

THE PHANTOM TITAN

We also get a little Aeldari number in the form of the Phantom Titan.  They went with T14 and 55 wounds with an OC of 20.  However its shielding still keeps its 4+.  I'm again not going to go over all of its weapons, but there are substantial nerfs here, even past what 10th Edition has been doing.  

However, unlike its Imperial counterpart, this one gains all the faction rules, including Strands of Fate.  We get a rule missing from the Warlord Titan here, the ability to move over models and terrain.  I'm guessing that must be part of the Warlord's Super-heavy Walker rule.  This one also gets a CP tax, but at three times the cost instead of four.  One massive thing to note here is that it gets a rule called Flawless Poise that allows it to Fall Back and shoot and charge.  Many of us were expecting some of the keyword rules would already allow models like Knights to do this.  But it looks like you have to be a Titan to see this kind of rule by default.  It does make me wonder if the Warlord will get that with it's Super-heavy Walker, or if it can be pinned in combat.  If it does, than that means the Phantom doesn't get a rule of its own.

THE HIEROPHANT BIO-TITAN

Yes!  We get to see the stats on the Hierophant too!  The bio-titan comes in at T14, 30 wounds, and a 5+ Invuln.  It's also Ld 8+ like most non-synapse units.  The bio-plasma torrent is actually pretty buffed by 10th Edition standards, gaining another D6 shots.  But the dire bio-cannon is honestly straight up nerfed.  This model used to be a descent Titan hunter, but those days appear to be over.  In exchange, they've boosted its melee, making it vicious against against both other Titans and ground troops.

Rules-wise, the Hierophant gets a +1 to hit against Battle-shocked units, emphasizing the Tyranid's new roll as intergalactic horrors, and gets the same rule the Phantom got for moving over models.  It doesn't get the ability to Fall Back and shoot though.  It's also still acts as a Transport, though we don't know which and how many models it can carry.  But the best part is there's no CP tax!

GARGANTUAN SQUIGGOTH

Oi!  Iz time da boyz show dem how itz done!

The Squiggoth gets similar stats to the Hierophant, though it's got slightly lower toughness and better leadership.  It's weapons have standard 10th Edition conversions to them, though the huge tusks have taken a slight nerf in exchange for a new sweep attack.

It comes with Firing Deck 20 to allow embarked Boyz to dakka away.  They also can fire perfectly fine while tied up in melee thanks to Walking Bastion.  This model also manages to escape a CP tax.  A simple unit for a more barbaric age.

T'AU MANTA

The reveals keep coming, making this our most packed Faction Focus yet!  We get the full card for the Manta, including what it can carry.  And that "what" is basically an entire Tau battle force.

The Manta hasn't lost any wounds, but is still nerfed by going down to a 5+ Invuln.  It's guns are mostly untouched, save a buff to the heavy rail cannon and burst cannon.  It gains the Fire Support rule in the form of Aggressive Deployment, allowing disembarking units to get rerolls to Wound against struck targets.  And considering what this thing can carry, that target probably will be a crater.  It also gets the CP tax we saw on the Phantom.

FINAL THOUGHTS

And with that, we've covered most of the factions that can bring these massive models!  Both of my predictions were wrong, though there was a foot note about Titanicus at the bottom.  This article was entirely focused on models you will be able to bring to a 40K game, with no exceptions stated for competitive play.

Obviously we don't know what they'll cost yet.  Save for painting competitions, you weren't taking a Warlord, Phantom, or Manta to a tournament since they're too expensive for a Strike Force game.  But you could bring Squiggoths and Hierophants.  I'm pretty sure under new army construction rules you can take just a single titan as your army if it's 2000 points or less, so if they dip that low it's technically legal.  My guess is they probably won't see the board in most lists, but its nice the option is staying there.  

Faction Focus: Space Marine Chapters

Warhammer 40,000 Faction Focus: Space Marine Chapters

From the moment GW unveiled the new rules for army construction, one question has been on the minds of many players, "What does this mean for Space Marine Chapters?"  Despite all the memes, Space Marines are by far the most popular faction in the game.  And it makes sense when you think about it, the game was kind of built around them.  They've been front and center in the lore and rules from the games very inception.  And with the expansion of the lore through Black Library's hit Horus Heresy series, this has only grown.  It's a cycle of hype and profit.  As Space Marine fans buy models, books, and merchandise for their favorite Legions and Chapters, GW dedicates more resources to providing them with more stuff to consume, which only builds up the fanbase more.  As a result, there are individual sub-factions of Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines that are more popular than other entire factions.

As I said before, I can't imagine that GW wouldn't make a Codex for at least the classic three, if not the big five.  And Dark Angels have already been confirmed as getting a new Codex in the spring of next year.  So let's see what details the designers have for us for now.

OVERVIEW

This faction focus will obviously need to be a bit different, as we're covering five specific Chapters of Space Marines as opposed to a single, more diverse faction.  So right from the get go, they reveal that these Chapters start with the same base-line Army Rule as all other Space Marines: Oath of Moment.  This is good, it's a powerful and flexible rule.  But as expected, each Chapter will instead be represented by its own Detachment with its own Detachment Rule and compliment of Stratagems.  We even get the name of two, the Righteous Crusaders and Champions of Russ Detachments.

They also confirm that these Detachments will be useable by all Space Marine armies, as well as that they will have restrictions on them.  This is something many of us theorized GW would do, and it's now been confirmed.  It looks like the restrictions will be done with Keywords.  The examples they give are that Psykers can't be used in Righteous Crusade while non-Space Wolves characters and Deathwing units can't go in the Champions of Russ.

DARK ANGELS

Oh!  We're getting more details than I thought!  This means these might be available on release!

The Dark Angels Detachment is the Unforgiven Task Force.  It comes with Grim Resolve, which lets them stay OC 1 when battle-shocked.  This is very useful.  But, well, it's not Combat Doctrines.  Here's hoping their Codex will have a bit more oomph to it.

We then get the full Datacard for the Deathwing Command Squad.  The unit consists of an Ancient, Apothecary, Champion, and Command Terminators.  We actually didn't have a specific Datasheet for a Deathwing Ancient in 9th, so that's nice.  Interestingly, we get a note that there is a rule not on this Datacard.  If you want to field the Command Squad with a Watcher in the Dark, you'll need the rule form the Deathwing Knights datasheet.

The entire unit gets the Terminator profile, with no special stats for any of the characters in it.  We get the rules for the Narthecium finally, allowing you to return a non-Character model to the unit in your Command phase.  It looks like the standard rule for Banners will be +1 OC, which I think we've seen before.

Then we get an interesting reveal!  The Honour of Death rule grants +1 to Advance and Charge rules while the unit has a Company Champion.  But it also make the Heroic Intervention Stratagem free.  I can't remember if that was revealed as a Stratagem yet, but that is very interesting.  Heroic Intervention gave Characters a lot of increased threat and board control.  And when units got it, or powerful characters had increased range for the ability, it could make them a potent force you needed to carefully play around.  Now you'll need CP to use it, meaning like Overwatch you'll need to consider it as you plan your turn, but you won't always be able to rely on it.

LION EL'JOHNSON

Get ready for some screaming Death Guard and Thousand Sons players, as Dark Angels get their Primarch as part of this reveal.  The Lion returns with a new 10th Edition friendly T9 and an extra wound.  He was one of the last Datasheets of 9th Edition, so I wasn't expecting many changes for him.  Still, they're definitely here.  Arma Luminis's Plasma profile has lost a pip of AP of course, as has Fealty on the strike.  Fealty's strike is also nerfed when you consider the new Toughness profiles, but that's been true for many weapons.  He's also lost a couple of Attacks with it, though nothing like what Angron lost.

Like his brothers, he gets one of these snazzy new Army Commander rules.  Hmm . . . maybe Faction Commander might be a more appropriate name?  Doesn't really work for Abaddon though.  All Secrets Revealed causes nearby enemy units your opponent targets with Stratagems to test Battle-shock, and potentially lose the Stratagem and the CP.  That's seems situational, but you know your opponent will want to use Stratagems if they're fighting a Primarch.  In the mean while, Martial Exemplar is an all around useful Aura that grants +1 to Hit, while No Hiding From the Watchers gives a powerful but situational 4+ FNP against mortals.

The Emperor's Shield gets a massive buff.  It keeps its mortal wound on saving throws of 6, but now also grants the rare -1 to Wound and a whopping 3+ Invuln!  The Lion be thicc!  And if that's not enough survivability, he also gets that wonderful Lone Operative rule when near friendly Space Marines.

SPACE WOLVES

From the Unforgiven to their rivals in the Vlka Fenryka.  Sagas have returned and they seem like a much more worthy replacement for Combat Doctrine.  Unlike before, you get to pick a saga after you've fulfilled it.  This will make the mechanic much harder to play around.  The buffs are army wide too, meaning the more you successfully complete, the stronger your army becomes!

We just get one unit reveal for the Rout.  The Hounds of Morkai seem largely unchanged, with their special rule now transferred to their weapons.  They get more attacks with their knives than before though.  Morkai's Howl is interesting though.  It refers to units being Stunned.  We haven't seen that referenced before, so I don't know if that's a condition that can be inflicted or specific to this rule.

BLOOD ANGELS

Er . . . okay the Red Thrist is definitely powerful but did you have to call it that?  Blood Angels fans don't normally think of that as a buff.  Savage Echoes was a much better name in my opinion.  Still, this will keep the Sons of Sanguinius a devastating assault army.

Death Company now gets a 6+ FNP and look like they're going to be absolute blenders on the charge.  They get re-roll Hits innately, and you can use Fire Overwatch and Heroic Intervention on them for free.  But in exchange, you'll want to keep a Chaplain with them or they can't Fall Back or hold objectives.

Blood Angels get a little more love than their lupine brothers, or at least their successors do.  We get a look at The Flesh Tearers Chapter Master and fan favorite Gabriel Seth.  We get to see his full Datacard too, as well as how his rules interact with other Space Marine characters.  He's coming in with a nice buff to his melee, getting 6 attacks and SUSTAINED HITS 1 on Blood Reaver now, and another +1 Attacks for every 5 models he's fighting.  But the big kicker here is that he grants Advance and Charge to a unit he's leading!

BLACK TEMPLARS

Vows return as a flat army-wide buff your units just get.  This is arguably more powerful than Combat Doctrines of the Space Wolve's Saga ability.  Granted I'm sure Templars players would love to have access to the Assault Doctrine's Advance and Charge.  Still, you get to pick the best buff based on the army you're fighting, and that's always a good thing.

We just get to see Sword Brethren for this preview, though that's not a bad reveal.  Still I'm betting people wanted to see Helbrecht or The Emperor's Champion.  They get a third wound now, so that's definitely a nice buff.  Even better, they get to choose between a buff of +1 Attacks or +1 Damage every fight phase.  Despite their rigid dogma, it looks like Templars will be quite flexible on the battlefield.

DEATHWATCH

The military arm of the Ordo Xenos suffered quite a bit in 9th Edition.  Honestly, it's innately difficult to balance an army who's schtick is fighting a specific type of enemy.  This has never seemed to hurt Grey Knights though.  It looks like they'll be much more flexible now.  The rule for the Black Spear Task Force is an alternate version of Combat Doctrines.  Just like with Gladius you have three options to choose from and you can only use each one once per battle.  These don't seem as strong, but it's so hard to beat Advance and Charge or Fall Back and Shoot and Charge.  Additionally, not all of these will be universally useful against every opponent.

The Veterans squad seems like it's had some weapons consolidated, but the Infernus heavy bolter is still there and completely intact.  Long Vigil weapons seem generically useful, but the Xenophase blade has taken an necessary but painful nerf.  Death to the Alien is an interesting rule though.  It's re-roll Hits of 1 against any target, but if the target is not Imperium or Chaos you get full re-roll Hits.  I guess that's one way to single out Xenos factions without giving them a unifying Keyword.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There's no denying it, Combat Doctrines are powerful.  It's going to be hard to give up that Detachment rule, especially since you can still play any Chapter of Space Marines with it.  There's nothing stopping a Black Templars player from using it and just not taking Psykers, and I don't think it excludes Chapter specific units like Ravenwing or Wulfen.  It won't surprise me if we see a lot of fans go this route until their Codex comes out.

Of the new Detachment Rules, Sagas seem like they're the most powerful.  If you plan properly and can keep your opponent from playing around you, you can stack up a some serious power.  Oaths are next in my opinion.  It's hard to argue with a flat army-wide bonus you get to pick at the start of the game.  I think Blood Angels gets my next pick, as there's no world in which hitting more and hitting harder is a bad thing.  Deathwatch feels lack luster to me, as not all of its buffs will always be useful and they only last a single round.  Dark Angels might be the dark horse though.  We don't know how big of a deal Battle-shock will be for 6+ Ld armies, but if it's a real threat that rule could help them maintain board control.  It certainly ended up an issue in yesterday's Battle Report.

Still, I'm pretty sure there are fans out there right now that aren't happy.

Faction Focus: Imperial Agents

Warhammer 40,000 Faction Focus: Imperial Agents

I'm fighting off something, but it's a big day and I got a surprise in my email yesterday that I might cover too.  So let's get started!

Imperial Agents are a bit of an odd duck.  They're not really a faction, in the lore or in the game.  Instead they represent the many unique offices of the Imperium that might take an interest in a battle.  That hasn't stopped players from wanting to play them as an army though, especially since back in 2nd they were an army.  Since then, though, two of the forces in the codexes were split off into their own factions.  But that hasn't stopped players from wanting to run the elite forces of an Inquisitor, an alliance of Rogue Traders, or a disparate force made of allies of convenience.  Unfortunately, 9th made it difficult to put such a force on the battlefield.  Even with the new Kill Team boxes adding in forces of the Imperial Navy and the Adeptus Arbites, these armies have largely been relegated to Narrative or Open Play.

Will 10th change this?  Let's find out!

FACTION RULES

And with our preamble out of the way, GW cuts straight to the point.  No, Imperial Agents are not designed to be fielded as a combined force in 10th Edition.  They do not get Detachment rules, Stratagems, or Enhancements in the Index.  Whether they might change this later, time will tell.  But for now, these are units designed to slot into your existing army.

Right off the bat, Agents can not be used in a Combat Patrol.  This makes perfect sense, since Combat Patrol is now specific armies fighting each other instead of one you build.  Next, agents are now split into Characters and Retinues.  This also makes a lot of sense since most Agents would come with their own hand pick unit of allies, and with the new Leader rule you'd want them together.  You get 1 of each based on the game size, so 1 Character and 1 Retinue for Incursion, 2 Characters and 2 Retinues for Strike Force, etc.  Finally, you can't have an Assassin as your Warlord.  This does mean that since including Agents occurs after your Select Army Faction step, you can pick an Agent to be your Warlord.  So in this way at least, you can still field the forces of an Inquisitor or Rogue Trader, they'll just use the rules of another faction.

VINDICARE ASSASSIN

We get my favorite assassin for the first Unit Spotlight.  Statline wise, the Vindicare has lost a wound like many characters.  This is something I keep forgetting to notice or mention, but it is a definitive trend that has crossed all factions with a Character in the Faction Focus.  The pistol has gone up a point of Strength and gone to a flat damage 3, while losing the normal pip of AP.  That's overall a buff for 10th Edition, though if there were weapons that shouldn't lose AP I'd say these would be them.  What isn't a buff are the changes to the special rules.  It's no longer ANTI-INFANTRY 2+, and since they've gotten rid of ignoring invulns, that's gone too.  Instead, it's gotten DEVASTATING WOUNDS and IGNORES COVER.  This will still be a potent weapon, but nowhere near as reliable.

It's a similar story for the rifle, though this time it's a pure buff on the statline as this weapon didn't lose AP.  Looks like GW agreed with me that the Vindicare's Exitus rifle should have a high AP even in 10th.  Again, they've traded DEVASTATING WOUNDS for ignores invulns and IGNORES COVER for ANTI-INFANTRY 2+.  But the weapon has also remained HEAVY, which is now a pure buff.  This means if you're Vindicare can Remain Stationary, it can offset most penalties to Hit.

As expected, the Vindicare, and I'm guessing all assassins, are Lone Operative.  This means you can't shoot them unless you're within 12" or, maybe, with PRECISION.  You can feel free to perch them atop a ruin to get the most benefit from their range and HEAVY rule, as well as Plunging Fire, without your opponent being able to pick them off.

As if the boost to damage wasn't enough, especially with Characters going down in wounds, you get another 3 Damage on a critical hit.  This means there is a very real possibility this Assassin can just headshot a character off the board.

And there it is!  There's the ignore invuln!  The Shieldbreaker rule lets the assassin fire a single shot in a battle that ignores all saving throws.  That's our bar for ignoring an invuln: a once per battle ability on the Vindicare Assassin.  You must be that swol to ride the pain train!

INQUISITOR

While we don't get Dan Abnett's Gregor Eisenhorn or even Katarinya Greyfax from the Fall of Cadia, we do still get our baseline Inquistor for the second reveal.  Again, there are no surprises in the statline, just a single lost wound.  They can now wield a combi-weapon with it's new and improved abilities.  They also get a single PSYCHIC attack in the form of Psychic Shock Wave.  It's stats are underwhelming but it does come with DEVASTATING WOUNDS, so on average you'll plink at least one point of damage through.  It's melee choices have seen the usual consolidation with a single Inquisitorial melee weapon and a force weapon.  The force weapon looks like it's based off the force sword profile.  Sorry, no more big hammer blows for Inquisitors.  And the melee weapon appears to be a power sword.

It keeps the special rule that allows it to override the unit restrictions of a transport.  This makes more sense than including the Inquisitor on any potential transport amongst all the Imperium factions.  It then additionally gets the standard CP refund rule for units its leading, though it goes off on a 3+.  The real kicker here, though, is it can grant a unit a 5+ FNP.

Honestly this is underwhelming.  The main reason you brought an Inquisitor before was for access to their special Psychic powers.  Now you'll be weighing them up against other leaders for units.  Most factions will have access to that CP refund and that FNP.  But it's possible there might not be as many that can grant both with one character.  We'll have to see if people find uses for them in 10th.

IMPERIAL NAVY BREACHERS

Oh!  But what is this?  We get another reveal!  I guess with no real faction rule they thought fans of Imperial Agents needed a bit more.  Navy Breachers were underwhelming on release and never really got any kind of buff.  Let's see if they get any interesting rules now.

Their statline is unchanged, which means they come with a Termagant's 8+ Ld.  Ouch!  Aren't these supposed to be hardened warriors of the Imperial Navy that brave the deadly role of both breaching an enemy vessel as well as defending from breachers?  You'd think that soldiers that have seen the horrors of void warfare would be a bit more fearless!

They otherwise get a large, but bland, selection of weapons.  It's very clear that this datasheet is designed to let you take your Kill Team and have them be roughly as effective on the board regardless of how you've put them together.

In exchange, they get Veterans.  However unlike the previous versions we've seen, they get the re-roll for all of their attacks!  This is a nice buff.  My big concern is that they're rarely going to get to use that OC 2 since they'll be constantly Battle-shocked.  Still, they might be able to help secure an objective.  They get access to both Smoke and an enhanced Grenade Stratagem, but this has the same concern since you can't target a Battle-shocked unit with a Stratagem.

I know they were Ld 6 in 9th, but I just don't understand why they weren't bumped to Ld 7+ in 10th.

INQUISITOR KATARINYA GREYFAX

Well it seems I spoke too soon!  But then I wasn't expecting to see four reveals today.  Do I hear a fifth?  There's still some scroll bar and I know we're not getting a Stratagem!

Greyfax has also lost a wound, so that trend continues.  However, she's Ld 4+!  For reference, Guilliman is 5+!  That means she only has a 1 in 12 chance, only a little more than 8%, to fail Leadership normally.  If she can give her Leadership to units, she could be really valuable.  She gets Castigation as her main witchfire, hitting at S8, AP-2, and D3 with ANIT-CHARACTER 4+, DEVASTATING WOUNDS, and PRECISION.  She'll be able to do some nice damage to priority targets with this.  And while the Condemnor has a bland profile, it gets ANIT-PSYCHER 2+, DEVASTATING WOUNDS, PRECISION, and RAPID FIRE 1.  I'd say that's an overall buff for the Pychic power though maybe a nerf to the gun.  Honestly Condemnor is probably a side-grade, gaining more general purpose use for less potent anti-Pycher.

She keeps the Transport rules from the generic Inquisitor profile but also gets the ability to share her ANTI-PSYCHER abilities with her Bodyguards at 4+.  And though I have no idea how important Desperate Escape will be in the new edition, the fact that she forces enemies in melee to test it if they want to Fall Back, at -1 if they're Battle-shocked, is probably pretty good.  There are lots of enemies that you want to keep pinned in melee, and anything that helps you do that is a good thing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The article closes noting that you can field an army of Agents of the Imperium.  They all have the Faction Keyword, so you can select that as your Faction and follow the rules as normal.  But you won't gain any other benefits for doing so.

At the end of the day, Agents of the Imperium allows you to sprinkle in cool units into your existing Imperium armies and allows Kill Team players ways to use their units in 40K.  While bespoke rules for an Inquisitor's retinue would be cool, it's honestly easiest to just use whatever existing faction fits the scenario best.  Maybe as 10th Edition continues, as well as another season of Kill Team, we'll see more rules to let you do interesting things with these units.

Of what we saw in this faction focus, my guess is that Assassins are still going to be the main thing you use from this Index.  The Inquistor might be worth taking if your budget is tight and you need those two specific buffs in your army.  Breachers feel a bit sad to me, and I'm worried their Leadership will prevent them from finding a home in any list.  Depending on what she costs, though, Greyfax could find a home in a few armies.

All we have left are divergent Space Marine Chapters and Titans.  And since next week is the first full week of June, I'm guessing the reveals are going to be coming fast at this point.  It won't be long until we get to see these full indexes and their points, as well as an official release of the full rules.  Then the real fun, the army building and theory crafting, can begin!

Eh?  Playing 40K?  Yeah, I guess that's fun too.

Faction Focus: Genestealer Cults

We finally get to my sub faction, the Genestealer Cults.

As a faction, GSC is a hard army to write rules for.  They're a force that consists mostly of not just base-line humans, but untrained base-line humans.  The bulk of the "army" are the weak and down trodden of the Imperium, drawn to the siren song of justice, change, and salvation by the cult's psychicly laced words.  Their statlines have usually reflected this, with datasheets seemingly not worth any points investment.  Instead, they are an army that thrives on stealth, infiltration, and espionage, as well as the arrogance, corruption, and incompetence of their enemies.  The rules need to reflect this.

The 9th Edition GSC Codex is widely considered to be the best book of the edition, if not all of 40K.  The mechanics so perfectly displayed the faction and how it fights in the lore while remaining balanced.  For nearly all of its tenure in 9th, it was a middle of the road faction that only overperformed in the hands of its most stalwart fans.  But it also showed how precarious such balance can be, as only a slight buff turned GSC into a terror on the top tables.

Let's see if GW can bottle lightning twice.

CULT AMBUSH

The article starts by detailing that every GSC Infantry unit will have access to Deep Strike, likely replacing the old blip mechanic that GSC used in 8th and 9th.

Well . . . it looks like not replacing.  Blips are indeed back, but they work way differently and look like they might be crazy powerful.  Now, rather than starting with blips on the battlefield, you roll a dice when one of your units is destroyed, adding 3 if it was Battleline.  On a 4+ you place a blip using Deep Strike rules and place the destroyed unit in Cult Ambush at full strength.  The marker is lost if there's no legal place for it.  Then at the end of your opponents movement phase you get to Deep Strike the unit.

This is a potentially powerful rule that will take a lot of skill to use properly.  On the one hand, you get your full unit back.  On the other, you place the blip marker when it was destroyed.  Depending on when this is, your opponent will get to respond.  I can easily see a scenario where the opponent guns one squad off the table in the Shooting Phase, you place the blip, then they charge within 9", and you have to remove it.  But then you Deep Strike those units at the end of your opponent's movement phase, so they'll get a chance to respond to them before you can do anything.  I'm betting GSC will get some stratagems or rules for returning units with better timing though.

So it looks like GSC will continue to be a high skill ceiling, high skill floor army that will reward the players who are willing to put the time in to learn the faction.

THEY CAME FROM BELOW

This, on the other hand, is simple and powerful.  You Deep Strike a unit, they get SUSTAINED HITS 1 and IGNORES COVER.  Hard to argue with that!  Although it doesn't explicitly say in the text, Cult Ambush counts as Reinforcements according to the article.  This makes sense, since it occurs in the Reinforcements step.  So you're opponent will be destroying units only to potentially see them come back with a vengeance.

BROOD BROTHERS

They return!  And it's just a nice and simple faction rule.  You basically get a quarter of your force to dedicate to Brood Brothers.  They don't get any special rules or anything, but they're also much simpler to include.  Unlike before, where the unit had to have a specific keyword, now you're just excluded from taking specific keywords.

And of course I had to check: none of those keywords appear on the Baneblade!

NEOPHYTE HYBRIDS

The Neophyte profile is exactly as expected, no surprises there.  Weapons also seem mostly unchanged, though krak grenades and the mining laser have been given a boost.  I'm also noting the squad leader gets a stronger pistol.

A Plan Generations in the Making is the standard CP generation rule we've seen before.  But the real kicker here is that the Cult Icon now lets you return 3 destroyed models, D3+3 on an objective.  This is a unit you'll want to aim to keep on objectives as much as possible.

We also get a reveal that the Goliath Truck will have Firing Deck 12, allowing 12 neophytes to shoot out of it.

THE PATRIARCH

For our second reveal, our alien overlord makes his appearance.  The model itself is mostly unchanged, though its claws have gained some some strength in exchange for that standard pip of AP.

But of course, 10th is all about the special rules.  Might From Beyond gives the Patriarch's unit his DEVASTATING WOUNDS rule.  My guess is you'll usually be using this with Genestealers, whose weapons lack any special rules now.  Cosmic Horror brings in the new Tyranid penchant for Battle-shock.  Then, finally, the Familiar returns with an ability to double the range on Cosmic Horror.

Swift and Deadly will definitely be missed (at least on the profile as I'm betting there will be a Stratagem) but for a model leading some Genestealers this could be potent.

WEAPON SPOTLIGHT

We next get a peak at our returning 9th Edition character, the Reductus Saboteur.  Demo charges are much more simple now, dealing a one shot blast at a standard new 10th edition profile, though it's gained 3 shots.  Remotes look like they're nerfed, but what actually seems to have happened is that they're now the old blasting charge profile but with INDIRECT FIRE.  Kinda disappointing as the Saboteur no longer has a fluffy anti-vehicle attack.

Next we get the Abominant, and the power sledge has taken a bit of a nerf.  The formerly S10 weapon would be S14-16 in the new Edition, and it's lost 2 points of damage in addition to the standard AP nerf.

For now, the Beach appears to still be closed.

STRATAGEM SPOTLIGHT

While Crossfire is gone, it looks like we'll be getting some Stratagems like this to allow us to gain a similar benefit.  For 2CP, Coordinated Trap allows two units to gang up with a +1 to Wound on a target.  One complaint GSC players had with Crossfire is that it only benefited shooting.  But GSC feels like a melee army.  This Stratagem can be used for either.  So you can use it if you want to lay careful ambushes from cover, or get in close to tear down your oppressors.

And if you're worried about being able to use those blip tokens with your opponent getting plenty of time to respond, you've got Tunnel Crawlers.  This allows you to Deep Strike in as long as you're outside 3".  Now, even if your opponent is crowding in close to your blip tokens, you can still get your unit into position.  Then you'll be able to avenge your fallen comrades at close range!

FINAL THOUGHTS

We get a couple more reveals snuck in at the end for this Faction Focus, with the Locus giving led units Fight First and the Biophagus granting LETHAL HITS.  GSC are definitely going to get to take advantage of the new Leader rules.

GSC is not an easy army to play, and that's not changing in 10th.  As I said at the top, they're datasheets are suitably underwhelming.  And that's how I feel about the reveals we've seen for units and wargear.  But those Faction Rules and Stratagems are where the real power lies.  If you can perfect these challenging but powerful rules, I can see GSC having some real potential.

Faction Focus: Drukhari

Warhammer 40,000 Faction Focus: Drukhari

I was wondering when Aeldari was announced as a pure faction for 10th Edition what the fate of their dark cousins would be.  At this point Harlequins definitely seem to still be a part of the Aeldari faction, though we still don't know the rules for how they'll be played in 10th.  But, for now at least, it seems the Lords of Comorragh will remain an independent faction with their own rules.

Let's see what horrors they have in store for us . . .

POWER FROM PAIN

The intro discusses how the three aspects of Drukhari work together to accomplish their goals, so it looks like we probably won't be seeing separate rules for Kabals, Cults, and Covens yet, if they keep them at all.

For now, Power From Pain returns, a mechanic 9th Edition Drukhari shared with their AoS sisters.  But now, instead of being a cumulative buff over the course of the battle, it's a token based mechanic.  You gain Pain at the start of Battle, each time you destroy a unit, and each time you inflict Battle-shock.  In a standard Strike Force game you'll be starting with three.

You know, with both Daemons and World Eaters losing their points mechanics, and Votann being simplified, it seemed like 10th was moving away from this kind of book keeping.  Now they're introducing it where I feel the system was much more simple before.  Honestly finding this a little bit strange.

And this is a much more restrictive and less powerful set of buffs for it too.  Admittedly, re-rolling Charges is always useful, but this faction used to have army wide Advance and Charge.  The flat re-roll hits is pretty nice though, especially when their more disciplined cousins just get to re-roll one dice.

REALSPACE RAIDERS

So our first detachment for 10th Edition is the Realspace Raid, implying we could see more dedicated detachments in the future.  I do hope they keep that in some form when the Codex comes out.  This is a very simple mechanic too, you get another Pain token if you have at least one of a sub-faction's leaders, to a maximum of 3.  This can double your starting Pain total.  Being able to front load an army's power is always useful.  Looks like Drukhari will have some serious alpha strike potential.

THE VENOM

Venoms have been potent in many editions of the game.  I seem to recall they were particularly nasty in 8th Edition.  We're getting the full rules for them here, so we can get a better idea for how good they'll be in 10th.

It's interesting the model itself gives you the ability to Combat Squad your units.  If you have one, you can take one squad of Wyches or Warriors and split them.  One part of the unit will be embarked on the Venom, the other can either be deployed or embarked on another vehicle.  I'm noting the rule reads, "Before the battle, at the start of the Declare Battle Formations step, you can select one Kabalite Warriors or Wyches unit from your army."  It's my understanding that rules like this don't stack.  So this means you can split one unit if you bring a Venom, not one unit for each Venom.  I'm curious to see how this actually works out when I have my hands on the full rules.

Oh wow!  It comes with Stealth.  We still don't know for sure what that does, but if it's a -1 to Hit at ranged that will still be quite powerful.  The embarked models also get to fire, which is definitely a plus.

Like many models in 10th Edition, it's a little bit tougher but also a little slower.  The Invuln has gone down a pip but now works against melee.  The Bladevanes are also staying at WS 4+.  It also looks like Splinter weapons are getting a slight boost, wounding Infantry on 3s now instead of 4s.  Other than that a lot of this is what we've come to expect.  The splinter rifles are losing a shot of Rapid Fire but gaining TWIN-LINKED.  Interestingly, not only is the splinter cannon gaining SUSTAINED HITS 1, but the AP hasn't gone down.

What's really cool here is you can Embark units in the Fight phase.  This means you can embark them in your opponents turn and reposition them on your turn.  If there's a Stratagem to allow them to charge, this could be brutal.

KABALITE WARRIORS

The article immediately calls out that Kabalite Warriors have sticky objectives.  They get the added bonus that you can control the marker either with them, or with a Transport they're on.  Looks like they want to keep Drukhari as fast and agile as they can.  This makes sense as they've always been a glass cannon army.

Kabalites are actually faster in this edition too!  Other than that their stats seem very much the same.  Their weapons seem mostly unchanged, save the standard AP reduction.  The big loss here is that the Sybarite is substantially nerfed.  My guess is that they probably felt it didn't need its current damage abilities with the new Leader rules.

Huh!  And I just noticed they have Aeldari as a keyword.  So while the Aeldari units we've seen don't have any keywords denoting them as anything but Aeldari, Drukhari are still both Drukhari and Aeldari.  I'm guessing Harlequins and maybe Ynnari will have their Keywords too.

WEAPON SPOTLIGHT

We get to see the Talos's haywire blaster.  It's lost a shot to gain TWIN-LINKED, but that's almost certainly a buff.  The re-roll will be very appreciated when fishing for 4s.  Like similar weapons, it's gained DEVASTATING WOUNDS now but lost the extra mortals.  In exchange it's now flat 3 damage.  Its AP has gone down, but that doesn't really matter since you'll be ignoring saves for Vehicles anyway.

We then get a peak at Lelith herself!  She's gained an attack but lost a point of Strength.  In exchange her weapons are now ANTI-INFANTRY and have gone up to SUSTAINED HITS 2!  She will shred most light or medium infantry now and any such characters will need to watch out.

ALLIANCE OF AGONY

The stratagem reveal doubles down on the Detachment Rule.  They really want you to take one of each faction leader for this army.  This is the first Stratagem I'm kind of cold on.  You're basically trading 1 CP for 2 Pain Tokens.  Of the two resources, I feel CP is going to be far more scarce.  Still, if the game isn't going well this might give you a way to catch up.

FINAL THOUGHTS

They finally end with a little tease of Advance and Charge returning for Wyches, if only as a Stratagem.  I think they might need it too.

Drukhari entered 9th Edition with all the devastation and terror befitting their faction.  Between them and AdMech, they devastated formats for nearly a year.  This Drukhari force feels like it might be paying a bit for those sins.  The new army rule will require much more skill to use.  This is honestly better than an army rule that doesn't require much skill at all, but the army as a whole can already require some effort to pilot.  However a lot of that power does seem to have gone back onto the units, which seem to allow for a agile and hard hitting play style. 

Like so much of this edition, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Faction Focus: Grey Knights

And now we have our other psychic army.  In 9th, Grey Knights relied heavily on their psychic powers to make up for a lack of power and mobility in their datasheets.  Let's see how they'll play now without a psychic phase.

TELEPORT ASSAULT

So it seems like to start, GW is playing down the Psychic angel of the Grey Knights in favor of their ability to deploy seemingly to any battlefield "guided by their Prognosticators."  Tides are gone, now we have Teleport Assault.

Okay, wow!  I'm not sure they'll be missed!  You get to just pick up a unit or four and redeploy them each turn.  The timing is kind of weird.  You pick them up at the end of your opponents turn and then redeploy them in the Reinforcements step.  My guess is that they wanted you to make your decision before the Command phase and give your opponent a chance to respond.  Either way, this is incredibly powerful.

DEEP STRIKE

Like their Daemon opponents, it looks like units also come with a heavy sprinkling of Deep Strike.  With that, it looks like GW decided it was time to reveal the full text for the return of this Universal Special Rule.  It's basically exactly how we knew it would work.  We don't know what the Declare Battle Formations step is yet, but my guess will be this is now the part of setting up a game where you declare which of your units are in Reserve and which are riding transports.  I'm also guessing this is where you'll declare which Characters are Leading which units, though that could be when you make your roster.

I'm noting from the fact that you put the units in Reserve that I'm guessing Strategic Reserves are gone.  If it's returning, it'll probably be a Universal Stratagem that just places a unit in Reserve.

TELEPORT SHUNT

Oh wow!  I know from experience how powerful rules like this can be!  An automatic 6" advance is great, and they're adding Fly to boot!  If they've got a decent selection of Assault weapons and access to Advance and Charge this army could be lethal!

PURGATION SQUAD

Interesting choice for our first unit spotlight.  The first thing that jumps out at me is that 2+ Save.  Makes me wonder if Grey Knights will now be a base 2+ army.  Everything else is standard Marine fair.  All their weapons seem to have gained a point of Strength, but only one lost any AP.  Nemesis weapons have been consolidate and are using the Halberd profile.  Looks like the Knights of Titan will be hitting pretty hard.

Astral Aim is interesting.  It's a Psychic ability that lets you INDIRECT FIRE your weapons as long as one of your units has Line of Sight.  I think LINKED FIRE would have been cooler, but this still give you some flexibility, especially if you can offset the INDIRECT FIRE penalties.

GRAND MASTER IN NEMESIS DREADKNIGHT

We get "The Mighty Dreadknight" as our second reveal.  All baby carrier memes aside, these were a top tier Datasheet until last year when the final wave of power creep hit.  They've gained 2 points of Toughness, putting them into Monster territory.  Like many models that bracketed speed, they've taken an inch off their Movement, but that's not gonna matter for this army.  What is noteworthy is that they're hitting on 3s now.  

Looks like all psilencers have lost a point of AP, as has the psycannon.  But in exchange, the psycannon has gained two points of strength and a point of damage.  Though it should be noted that this all around puts it as less effective than it was in 9th, since it'll be hitting most previously T8 targets on 5s.  

Of much greater note is how much melee has been nerfed!  The dreadfists have been turned into standard marine close combat.  The great hammer has also not scaled in strength to match new Toughness, though its still going to wound everything but a Monolith on 3s.  And the greatsword hasn't scaled at all.  They've also all had their damage reduced.

Surge of Wrath certainly makes up for a lot of this though, granting rerolls on everything in Melee against Monsters and Vehicles.  That's hits, wounds, and damage.  That'll still make the Grand Master a potent force on the battlefield.  Interestingly, rather than getting the "free and duplicate Stratagem" rule we've seen on other major force commanders, Heroism's Favour only makes sure you never pay more than 1CP.

PURIFYING FLAME

We get a Psychic power for the first Weapon Spotlight.  It's a nice reliable Anti-Infantry weapon.  Nothing to write home about it's but definitely going to be useful for Purifiers.

Huh, no other weapon spotlight . . .

HALOED IN SOULFIRE AND RADIANT STRIKE

Okay, the Heroism's Favour ability had me a little worried about high cost Stratagems.  Still, this is awesome.  While you'll likely be striking in close to something, this will protect you from other enemy units away from your targets.  It's situational, but fantastic in the right circumstances.  I'm just not sure it's worth 2CP.

This is another one that has me scratching my head at the 2CP cost.  This is an awesome Stratagem though.  All your weapons seem to be PSYCHIC so this means the entire unit will get DEVASTATING WOUNDS.  This will bring back some of the Mortal Wound damage the army had.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This one is a bit of mixed bag.  They're tougher, with 2+ saves now and nice boost to the Dread Knight, but they don't hit as hard in melee.  I can see some Grey Knight players shuffling their feet on this.  But Warhammer is won in the Movement Phase, and Grey Knights are going to absolutely dominate it!  They're going to have the ability to play around nearly any army, including, to fluffy delight, Daemons.  But I won't fault any fan that wanted to see more psychic might on display.

Faction Focus: Thousand Sons

When I first started playing, every army was a psychic army that made use of the Psychic phase to try and alter the board state to their advantage.  But as I said in my rules roundup, as the game progressed more and more armies didn't use the psychic phase.  However, there are two armies and one sub-faction that are defined by it.  And now it's time to see how the first of those factions will work now that it's gone.

CABAL OF SORCERERS

Cabal Points are still a thing, and look like they're largely unchanged.  The big difference now is that each unit will now have an ability that tells you how many Cabal Points they give you, rather than looking it up on a chart.  This is a nice quality of life change as you can now easily just look at you Datacards and add them up.  Additionally, it looks like you can use them throughout the battle round, where before you had to spend them during your Psychic phase.  In exchange, though, you lose them at the start of your next Command phase.

We have five abilities to use them on now.  This is down, and less fluffy, from the nine we had before.  It's possible we might get the remaining four when the codex drops.  For that matter, I wonder if any other armies with rules like this might get more options in the codex?  I guess we'll have to see.

Picking these is still going to be a major skill check.  Weaver of Fates lets you potentially protect units around your sorcerers, but you use it at the start of a phase so you'll have to predict where you'll need it most.  Temporal Surge is great, letting you move a unit at the start of the shooting phase for an extra boost of speed.  We've got another "free and duplicate stratagem" rule with Echoes from the Warp.  Doom Bolt is just a nice simple mortal wound bomb, and it always hits to boot.  And wow!  Twist of Fate is potentially huge!  Forget AP, you get to just turn off armour saves for a unit!

PSYCHIC MAELSTROM

It's like my Hyper-Adaptations but you get to pick it every battle round!  Granted this isn't going to affect your entire army, but the Thousand Sons should have plenty of PSYCHIC weapons to use this on.  Unlike Rituals, this will usually be a much easier pick.  You'll simply choose which one will work best against what you're planning to shoot at the time.  But the fact you can change it each battle round is really good!

AZHEK AHRIMAN

Ah, Azhek.  You're legitimately one of my favorite characters in the lore.  Let's see how you'll play on the table now.  

Profile wise he's lost a wound, like many characters in 10th.  Of course two of his weapons are PSYCHIC and will get to use the Detachment rule.  He still grants you 3 Cabal Points.  But what we care about are his powers.  Interestingly his first ability is just a Leader buff, granting +1 to Wound.  That's nice, but I think I would have preferred two powers.

Huh . . .  His Psychic power is just a free Ritual once per Battle.  That's . . .

I'm not gonna lie, that's underwhelming.  I was hoping for two bespoke powers for him.  I mean both of these are useful, they're just lacking in flavor.  At least he gets PRECISION with his PSYCHIC attack.  Oh well, let's see what else we get.

RUBRIC MARINES

Rubrics and the Aspiring Sorcerer are largely unchanged.  The Soulreaper is up an attack but down a second pip of AP and the stave has lost a point Strength and is now a "force weapon."  And your Aspiring Sorcerer is still worth a Cabal Point.

The big change is that All is Dust now appears to be just a 5+ invuln.  This is more simplified, and probably more effective than the previous rule.  But I have a feeling if Plague Marines don't have a similar invuln, the Death Guard players are going to be salty . . .  They've also lost their morale rules like everyone else.  But now they get Veterans, just for shooting instead of melee.  Finally the Icon of Flame can now improve the AP of their weapons.  All this means they're still going to be pretty tough while laying down some potentially brutal fire power.

WARP VORTEX

The Mutalith's Warp Vortex is now greatly simplified, but it looks like it's not limited to one of each effect per turn.  The selection looks pretty flexible, meaning you're always going to be effective no matter what your target is.

We also get a surprise reveal for one of its unit abilities, doubling the range of Rituals for nearby sorcerers.

I wonder why they just didn't give us the third Datasheet?

PSYCHIC DOMINION

AH! HAHAHAH! *cackles madly*

Oh wow!  This is great!  I have no idea how often this is actually going to be worth spending CP on, but this is just such a flavorful stratagem!  You're sitting back blasting your opponent with PSYCHIC attacks.  Then they get the gumption to return the favor.  And you tap an Island and say, "You didn't say please."

I love it!

FINAL THOUGHTS

We get a little tease that Magnus will of course have an Army Commander ability, and it will be a choice of two auras and a focused defense.  Looks like we'll have to wait for the final reveal to start speculating on whether we can put him on the board this edition.

Currently, he and his Thousand Sons are in a tough spot in 9th.  They're a middle of the road army that requires a lot of skill to play.  I think most players, fans of the Thousand Sons or not, want this army to be challenging to play but greatly rewarding to players who can master it.  Rituals definitely look like they'll help with that.

But man, the Ahriman reveal was really underwhelming.  I'm really surprised they decided to just give him an Aura and a free Ritual.  And it's only once per game!

Faction Focus: ORKS!!!

I'm having a bit of an awful day, so this is a good time to learn about the most fun faction in 40K.  I love Orks.  If Tyranids didn't exist, I'd be an Ork player.  Orks have had their ups and downs over the years.  But one thing that hasn't changed is that they've always been fun to play and Ork players have nearly universally been the best players to play with.

Let's see what GW has in store or them!

WAAAGH!

I feel you're short a few exclamation points there GW.

So WAAAGH! returns as a once per battle ability where you call it on the turn you're going to make your big play and charge forward with everything you've got.  There's no separate WAAAGH! types this time, it's just an army-wide Advance and Charge, +1 to Strength, and 5+ Invuln.

Like Shadow in the Warp, when you declare this is going to be the skill test for the army.  You get one round to do as much damage as possible, so you need to make it count.  Call it too early and you won't inflict enough damage to matter.  Call it too late, and you won't have enough boyz to make a difference.

GW makes a big deal of calling out this as a "start of the battle round" ability.  This definitely helps a lot, as you can shrug off blows your opponent deals and counter charge in your turn.

GET STUCK IN

Well that's nice and simple.  Just SUSTAINED HITS 1 for every Ork in your army.  Not gonna complain about that.

BEAST SNAGGA BOYZ

Man, we need more love for the classic Ork Boy from GW.  Still, lets see what last editions new Ork menace brings. 

The Beast Snaggaz come with a 6+ FNP and re-roll Hits against Monsters and Vehicles.  I feel like maybe they should have gotten re-roll Wounds or LETHAL HITS.  The highest Strength on their profile is 7, 8 with the WAAAGH!  Hopefully there are more rules to get their Strength and AP up.  Cause their weapons and profile make them seem more like an ant-infantry unit.

GHAZGHKULL THRAKA

Next we get the big man, er Ork, himself!  Can I just first note that Makari is T6.  I know this is a rules thing more than any statement on the vitality of Ghazghkull's favorite, lucky git.  But I just find it funny.  At T6, Ghaz is tougher than the average Ork but not by much.  I'm a little surprised at this.

Ghaz isn't getting and Army Commander ability, despite his role in the lore.  Instead he grants a unit he's leading a flat +1 to Hit and Wound.  This will be much appreciated with the higher toughness threats out there.  This combined with Makari's banner granting LETHAL HITS is going to make an Ork WAAAGH! hit hard.

Ghaz doesn't need a shtupid humie "Pick an ability" rule.  He's just going to make the army better by being there, like a propper boss.

Also, I find it hilarious Makari's famous luck now applies to his stabba, granting him DEVASTATING WOUNDS.

DEFFKANNON AND MEGA-CHOPPA

We're not seeing a lot of special rules on the weapons themselves here.  Apparently the kunnin' brutality and brutal kunnin' of Orks means they just get a lot of attacks with big guns.  Works for me.

SQUIG LAUNCHAS

Oh but here's a fun reveal.  Squig Launchas are an INDIRECT FIRE weapon that also IGNORES COVER.  That means one of the disadvantages to using INDIRECT FIRE is automatically negated as the squigs scramble, bounce, and tumble into their targets.  Note, you'll be hitting on 6s normally, so you better hope you can get those boyz a bonus.

ORKS IS NEVER BEATEN

And Orks get fight on death!  It's 2 CP, but that's always a brutal way to turn back an enemy offensive.  Your opponent gets the 1st turn, it's Battle Round 2, and they're in position to launch their offensive.  You call the WAAAGH! so you can get the Invuln and can counter charge on your turn.  Then you spend 2 CP in the fight phase on the biggest scrap to punish their puny army for daring to steal your bluster.

'ERE WE GO

And we get a second one too!  That's a decent amount of reveals for this Faction Focus.  This one is another simple but powerful ability.  Just a flat +2 to Advance and Charge, perfect for when you call the WAAAGH! as this potentially gets you an extra 4" to your threat range.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We get a final reveal in the fact that Ork Boyz will also get AP -1 on their Choppas, which will help with enemy armour.  They also say they've taken a fresh look at the Painboy, but don't reveal anything.

On the whole, Orks seem to have been granted simple but powerful rules.  You'll still have your skill check for knowing when it's best to call the WAAAGH!  But if you're the kind of player that just wants to push models and roll buckets of dice, it looks like Orks should easily scratch that itch.

My only concern is that we haven't seen a lot of high Strength weaponry.  Ghaz is bringing his S14 claw, and the Stompa has it's big weapons.  But that's Ghaz and the Stompa.  I hope that there'll be enough combined bonuses on the army so that it doesn't bounce off enemy armour.

Faction Focus: Adeptus Custodes

EDIT: I somehow misread Aegis.  So ignore everything I said about an army-wide FNP . . .

There are many armies that are described as difficult to balance.  But designing a truly "Elite" army is probably the hardest challenge of all.  It's tough to represent an army of demigods on a table top, always out numbered but never outmatched.  Let's see what ideas the design team has cooked up for "The Emperor's Ten Thousand."

MARTIAL KA'TAH

Ka'tahs have returned in a much more simplified form.  Now, like Doctrines, they're just a bonus you can declare for your army.  However, there's no limit to the number of times you can use a Ka'tah, and you pick them at the start of the Fight phase.  The end result is you will always be able to choose the best option when it matters most.  It's simple, it's elegant, and it fits the lore well.  I think this is a good start.

AEGIS OF THE EMPEROR

In 9th, this was just a blanket 4+ Invuln for the army.  But now an Invuln can just be part of a datasheet, and doesn't require its own rule.  So instead, its a FNP 4+.  That's just insane!  So I'm guessing this means all Custodes are 2+/4++!  They are going to be thic!  Let's see if they've kept that base 2+ and the 4+ invuln.

EDIT: This is Emperor's Chosen 4+ FNP against Mortals.

TRAJANN VALORIS

And why not start with the big man himself!

So the first thing that immediately pops out to me is that his core rules include a 5+ FNP.  This means that even outside of the basic Shield Host detachment, Trajann, and I'm guessing many other Custodes, will still have a FNP.  Makes sense to me.

I'm also noting that they've significantly reduced the damage he can do at range, but in melee he's just lost the obligatory pip of AP.  He's also got the second rule we've seen in these reveals that allows him and the unit he's Leading to ignore modifiers (excluding saves).  This is all feeling perfectly fluffy.  Moment Shackle returns in a slightly nerfed state.  It's still potent, but it can no longer outright save him from lethal damage or give him two full Fight sequences.

ALLARUS CUSTODIANS

The Allarus don't have a FNP by themselves, meaning this might just be a rule for the big man.  I'm also noting they count as Terminators.  They get a full re-roll to Wounds against Characters, Monsters, and Vehicles, meaning they'll be plenty effective against big targets.  They also get a teleport, which is great for any army that might not have a lot of units on the board.  I just noticed both them and Trajann are OC 2.  I'm kinda surprised they're not higher.  My guess is Guard and maybe Wardens are probably going to have a higher OC, as they might otherwise have difficulty holding objectives.

I'd also like to note the absence of special rules on the weapons.  The grenade is BLAST and the guns are ASSAULT but that's it.  This kinda makes sense, as you'd imagine a Custodes is always making the optimum use of any weapon they wield.  The Misericordia no longer gets its own attack though.  

Also check out that T7!

PROSECUTORS

Oh wow!  We get a third Datasheet!  The Prosecutors basically get Battle Sister stats, meaning they're probably still the "cheap" infantry of the army.  They get a 3+ FNP against Psychic and get both PRECISION and DEVASTATING WOUNDS against Psykers.  This should make them effective, but not a complete counter, against Psychic armies.

EXECUTIONER GREATBLADE

I was guessing with the three datasheets we probably weren't going to see much for weapons.  The Executioner is a good Melee weapon for a Sister of Silence to wield, but it's otherwise not much to write home about.

VIGIL UNENDING

Well that's a thing!  Just pick a unit and return a destroyed model!  It's limited to once each unit, but that's still fantastic.  Custodes already look like they'll be tough to kill.  But with this, if you don't somehow wipe out a unit, they could be punching back at full strength or near it on their turn.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Custodes are going to be tough!  There damage output has been scaled down some to continue and try to make the game less lethal, but that also means their incredible toughness will stand out even more.  While they're going to probably still struggle to use their limited resources to secure victory, their opponents are probably also going to struggle with target priority and trying to be efficient with damage.  Looking pretty good!

Faction Focus: Chaos Knights

Chaos Knights were a favorite of many of the people I follow in the Warhammer Community.  Their Harbinger abilities are one of the most fun and fluffy mechanics of 9th Edition.  But Dread Tests were likely a test bed for the new Morale mechanics.  Now that Morale has changed, I'm curious to see what GW has in store for the biggest and stompiest Chaos boys.

HARBINGERS OF DREAD

So Harbingers has been reduced to two rules that stack on each other, one active at the beginning of the battle, the other coming in on Battle Round 3.  Both interact with Leadership and Battle-shock.  I'm noting that the Despair aura affects "Battle-shock or Leadership tests."  This likely means your units will still have Dread abilities that interact directly with Leadership and not just Battle-shock.  Let's see if they show us any.

FORGED IN TERROR

This rule doesn't provide any further benefit from your opponent being Battle-shocked, but it does make it happen more frequently.  Note that the aura range is identical to Despair.  So as long as you have a model with 12" of a damaged enemy unit, that unit will have to test Battle-shock in the Command Phase at -1 to the roll.

How big of a deal this is will depend on how effective Battle-shock proves as a strategy, and how many other rules your Knights have to benefit from it.  I do find it interesting though, that this rule kind of encourages you to split fire and "share the love" to get the most benefit from it.

KNIGHT DESPOILER

Hey, it's a full unit card!  The Despoiler starts with two melee weapons for its arms, and you can upgrade each with one of three cannons.  We'll need to see what the point costs are as first, but it's nice to see more customization options.

If this is matching their Imperial counterparts at all, it looks like I was right about Knights being Ld 6+.  I note the rest of the stats mirror Canus Rex pretty closely.  The Daemonbreath Thermal Cannon gives us a Melta 6 weapon, meaning this thing will destroy most armor.  The Despoiler Battle Cannon is another Rapid Fire Battle Cannon.  Other than those two, this bad boy has a lot of options for dealing with infantry.

Both the Claw and the Chainsword have dual profiles.  And since we know that you only get to fight with one, you'll probably only keep one of these.  I find it interesting the Claw trades a pip of AP for better strength and damage.  It's weird because they clearly want you to see the Chainsword as being better at dealing with infantry, but it's also better against Vehicle armor.  The higher strength and damage on the claw probably still sets it up as the better vehicle killer.  I would probably set this bad boy up with the Thermal Cannon for big targets, with the Chainsword and some lesser guns for taking out infantry.

The Dread Dominion ability obviously represents underlings being more scared of this thing than anything the enemy has.  I do find it funny though that GW talked a lot about how Imperial Knights buff each other while not showing us a single rule.  Now the first Chaos Knight we see buffs Wardogs.  We also get another of those "re-roll one Hit roll or one Wound roll" rules.  

As a quick side note, the article reveals that Imperial Knight Bondsman abilities will all be targeted buffs that benefit both units, while Chaos Knight abilities will be one way auras.

KNIGHT ABOMINANT

Oh boy, we get the Abominant too!

The first thing I note is that unlike other Psychers we've seen, the Abominant doesn't seem to have a direct damage power.  Not that the Volkite Combustor isn't capable of dealing damage, though strangely is AP 0.  Now I'm trying to think if we've seen other Volkite weapons.  All and all this is a serious damage downgrade from the Despoiler.  But that's not why you're taking it.

Our first ability, Vortex of Terrors, forces a Battle-shock test on a unit.  Again, this is the same range as Despair, so that test will always be at -1.  Warp Storms is our first Psychic ability to bring back reliable mortal wound damage.  I'm also noting that there's no chance of failure on either of these.  You just get to bully the enemy with your Psychic powers automatically.

DESECRATOR LASER DESTRUCTOR

I won't lie, it's hard to get excited about a knight weapon that isn't the Thundercoil.  That being said, this is still a versatile and powerful weapon.  Three attacks at BS 2+ means you're reliably gunning down anything at Rhino size or lower, and probably doing serious damage to most other targets.

This is odd though.  We've already seen the Warpstrike Claw on the profile for the Despoiler.  Why is this in the Weapon Spotlight?  Yeah, it's a big, high strength, high damage melee weapon.  It's also not as good at dealing with armor.  Though I suppose that's not a bad thing if you're facing a lot of invulns.

DREAD HOUNDS

Oh this is gravy!  Now we get to see another rule putting Battle-shock to more effect.  First, you get to select "Two or more War Dogs."  Two or more!  That means for 1 CP you can theoretically have every War Dog in your army getting this Stratagem!  The odds you'll be able to attack the same unit with all your War Dogs is low, but if your opponent is doing something like the Chaos Terminator bricks we saw last edition, you can just target it down and annihilate it.

And providing you're able to reliably inflict Battle-shock (note that Vortex of Terrors triggers at the start of your Shooting phase) those War Dogs are getting Sustained Hits and any other weapon rules on a 5+.

FINAL THOUGHTS

While there isn't anything as awe inspiring as we've had in some other Faction Focuses, this is still a potent reveal.  Providing you can stack up ways to inflict Battle-shock and benefits from doing so, this army will potentially be as terrifying on the table as it is in the lore.