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.
Sons of Behmat are certainly one of the stranger factions in AoS. Their extremely limited model range and army construction make them fairly restricted in what sorts of changes can even be made, let alone how many various rules or effects need to be addressed. As these giants lumber in to 3.0, that seems to be holding true; their FAQ is very short and contains only a few items, mostly helping bring their Tome rules in line with 3.0s gameplay changes.
With that said, let’s take a look at what sort of things the Sons of Behemat are looking at as 3.0 begins!
The Good
- Kicking Objectives clarified. With changes to how objectives work in certain scenarios, it’s nice to see that one of the more interesting abilities the SoB possess, that of literally kicking objectives around the map, is changed in line with the 3.0 change: objectives kicked by the gargants will change value based on where they land.
- Mightier Makes Rightier gives SoB more flexibility. One of the things SoB struggle with the most is objectives that have qualifiers. As an extremely limited army to begin with, objectives are already something they can struggle with. This updated clarification spells out that Mancrushers can simply ignore necessary keywords they lack to contest objectives.
- Disruptive Presence is less of a problem. Though only a bit. In 2nd edition it prevented you from gaining a CP the first turn, now you get more CP to throw around and still only lose one so it’s not as debilitating as it once was.
The Bad
- Longshanks still doesn’t work. Notoriously, Longshanks is an ability that in theory lets you step over enemy units and smaller terrain and continue onward. The problem is it doesn’t let you end within 3″ of an enemy unit, meaning with their large bases, mathematically it really does not let you skip over very many things. Just change the rule to “unless you started movement within 3″ of that unit” so they can still walk over a unit even if it remains in combat with them.
The Ugly
- Smash Down gets less extraordinary. Smash Down was an extremely interesting ability, especially given how important faction terrain can be in AoS. The ability to literally delete that terrain was something terrifying and unique to SoB, but now it’s been replaced with a simple 1 to damage inflicted by successful attacks modifier, with an additional 1 to a roll Smash to Rubble monstrous rampage. The result is still the same, but it is no longer a unique feature to the SoB that made the Gatecrusher an interesting option; now, any Monster can do this but the Gatecrusher gets a +1 to it.
In most ways, this FAQ helps SoB overall by addressing their biggest weakness: objectives. Otherwise, the change to Smash to Rubble and the potential loss of command points are kind of a bummer, but aren’t deal breakers. They’re liable to remain as a gimmick army but if you’re playing them then you probably know that.
If you like your boys large, then good news: Big Boy Season continues in 3.0, so get you some.
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