GW released a bombshell of new FAQs on Friday, covering errata for the core book and lengthy FAQs for each faction. And as always, we’ve got you covered with the rundown of what’s changed and what it means for your games. In this series of Hot Take articles, we’ll be covering the changes and our initial reactions to them but for more detailed analysis, check back over the next two weeks as we dive deeper into how these changes affect the game and its factions.
Sally forth, brave defenders of Sigmar! Your FAQ has arrived! There’s a bunch of kinda irrelevant changes in this FAQ, so I’m going to focus only on what really stands out. Changes from ‘your territory’ to ‘their own territory’ aren’t interesting, so let’s get into it!
- With the loss of realm empowerments for endless spells, Cities wizards now get +1 to cast endless spells instead. While we may miss the extra bonus, some of the new endless spells are really good (Cogs. Cogs and Geminids. Oh dear lord).
- Stormcast, Kharadron Overlord and Sylvaneth units you take in your army are Coalition, meaning they (aside from Aventis Firestrike) can’t be your general. This is… sometimes not great. Cities heroes are of variable quality.
- Freeguild Guard, that weak unit that needed a buff, now get +1 to wound with spears if they target a unit that has made a charge move that turn. Huh. This is neat, because the Cities of Sigmar book already has a hilarious number of ways to gain bonuses to hit, but far fewer ways to get bonuses to wound.
- Freeguild Guard, that overpowered unit that needed a nerf, took a hit by removing the +2 to hit for 20 or more models.
- No realm rules, so your army doesn’t have to come from the Realm your city is from. Narratively, it probably still should, but up to you if you have a Greywater Fastness outpost in Hysh. Yeah, I know I said I’d only focus on the really interesting changes, but there aren’t a lot, and I kinda like the idea of an army of gun-smoke stained dwarves marching grumpily through the light-fields of Teclis.
- Sorceress and Dreadlord on Black Dragon now have the Dragon keyword. Dunno if I missed this earlier, but it’s a funny inclusion.
- Gyrocopters can issue commands to their own unit! But not Gyrobombers. Screw those guys.
- Not an FAQ, but Nomad Prince for some reason keeps his Lord of the Deepwood Host Command Ability which… is just kinda a weirdly conditional All-out Attack? Was expecting this to change, but it does stack now (within the rules for stacking, of course).
- Dreadlord on Black Dragon got a buff by improving his damage table, including making the final bracket only come in at 13+ wounds taken and be still better than his previous final bracket by 2” of move. His Fearsome Jaws also now wounds on a 1+ until three wound are taken, so this is a pretty neat buff all round.
- Probably the big one, Freeguild Handgunners and Sisters of the Watch can use Unleash Hell once per turn for free, and it doesn’t use a command point or count as the command being issued (so someone else can Unleash Hell as well). This isn’t as good as just using Unleash Hell normally (you almost have to be charged, rather than just be near someone else who’s been charged, and you’re at -1 to hit), but also… can you just use Unleash Hell on your unit normally, instead of using it this way, given it’s ‘can’? Who knows! Time for an FAQ to the FAQ!
Having seen some of the other FAQs, Cities came out pretty well! A couple of sidegrades around casting and Freeguild Guard, and only one real nerf. Admittedly, losing Loose Until the Last and Stand and Shoot is gonna hurt, but given how much shooting we can put out I reckon we’re in a pretty good spot this edition. So, go on! Paint up those Crossbowmen, pray for that Curse, and make Sigmar proud!
Or Morathi. You could make her proud too, I guess. If you’re into that sort of thing.
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