Games Workshop released a series of updates today, with FAQs and errata for a number of factions and documents for Warhammer 40k. These were interesting in that many if not all of them showed up last week in the 40k App, but it wasn’t until today that they were made live on the Warhammer-Community website. It’s not a full balance update, but there are some important FAQ and errata updates here, including point updates to incorporate the new Death Guard and World Eaters codex releases and FAQ/errata updates for Custodes, Sanctifiers, Daemons, Aeldari, Death Guard, and Emperor’s Children, as well as two key Detachments.
In this article we’ll go through what changed and what those changes mean for your games.
Adepta Sororitas and Imperial Agents: Sanctifiers Point Costs Move
Nearest we can tell, the Sanctifiers datasheet only changed by losing its points value printed on the datasheet stored online. The cost for the unit – 9 models for 100 points – hasn’t changed. That said, you can currently only find the points cost for Sanctifiers in the app, because it doesn’t appear to have been listed in either faction’s section of the updated Munitorum Field Manual.
Adeptus Custodes: Lions of the Emperor Tweak
The Lions of the Emperor Detachment rule is now active any time a model in a Custodes unit makes an attack, cleaning up a wording issue that referred to Custodes units before. This means that you will technically get the bonus if you’re fighting on death, something that happens at the model level and not the unit level – provided you are more than 6” away from another friendly unit.
Aeldari: Multiple Changes
Eldar saw a trio of changes here:
- Warhost, Skyborne Sanctuary Stratagem – Now your target unit can’t be within Engagement Range of an enemy unit. This is a serious downgrade to the Stratagem, which removes your ability to just drop out of a combat you don’t want to be in and save your unit, especially if they just managed to avoid getting killed on your opponent’s turn. Not a surprising change; some abilities allow this, some do not. GW seems to believe that unless specified, dropping out of Engagement into the relative safety of a Transport is a bit too good. We don’t think this will impact its use as the typical use case is for a ranged unit and not a melee unit.
- Windrider Host, Overflight Stratagem – This Stratagem is now used at either the end of your Shooting or Fight phase instead of right after a Mounted unit destroys an enemy unit (you have to pick a unit that killed something). This is a big upgrade, as it gives you a lot more flexibility – you can now kill several things, finish out your shooting or fighting, and then make a decision about who to give the 7” move to.
- Guardian Battlehost, Breath of Vaul Enhancement – The language here was cleaned up to allow re-rolls on damage rolls for fusion guns (as opposed to the “Guardian Fusion Gun,” which isn’t real. This still does nothing for your Autarch, who has a Dragon Fusion Gun.
- Corsair Voidweavers – Any number of Voidreavers can have a shuriken rifle.
Additionally there’s a clarification here on Surge moves for that just absolutely removes any semblance of regularity in what those are – previously surge moves were any out-of-phase moves, and now the FAQ for Aeldari says that “Out-of-phase Normal moves” do not follow the ‘Surge’ moves entry from the Core Rules update. This suggests that the only surge moves are those with “Surge” in the name, or ones that do not make a normal move, so reactive moves are no longer surge moves. While we can see the intent here, it’s a bit bonkers to do this, as it introduces ambiguity the game didn’t need around the “types” associated with out-of-phase movement.
Chaos Daemons: Daemonic Pact is Only for CSM and Chaos Knights
We knew this was coming but with Death Guard and World Eaters out and Thousand Sons right around the corner the change is finally here: You can only take Daemonic allies from the Daemons index if you are Chaos Space Marines or Chaos Knights. If you want to take allies with one of the cult legions, you’ll have to use their special Detachment for it.
Death Guard: Flyblown Host and Tyhpus Adjustments
There are two changes to Death Guard here. First and largely impactful for our Flyblown Host enjoyers out there, Poxwalkers no longer benefit from the Scout and Stealth granted by the detachment ability. This massively changes up the perceived gameplan for the detachment, allowing your Poxwalkers to create a very annoying jail with the Scout move that sticks around due to its Feel No Pain and Stealth. The detachment still has legs, but the contest for best detachment is now likely centered around Virulent Vectorum and Mortarion’s Hammer.
The other change is to Typhus’ mortal wound ability. It now can no longer be used to snipe out Lone Operatives. Previously our gross big boy flew under the radar with regard to his mortal wounds ability, allowing you to confidently tell an opponent you were going to snipe their character right before you rolled a 1 and had to watch Typhus shit his pants in public. This change brings the ability in line with similar abilities like Doombolt, and it’s definitely a bit of a hit. That said, its range is only 18” so getting within 12” isn’t that tall of an order (especially if he’s Deepstriking 6” away with an attached unit of Deathshroud).
Emperor’s Children: Their first FAQ/Errata
The Emperor’s Children saw their first FAQ/Errata for their codex, with a few key tweaks:
- Rapid Evisceration, On to the Next Stratagem – This is now used at the End of the Fight phase, on an Emperor’s Children unit that destroyed something during the phase, rather than right after you destroy an enemy unit. This is a meaningful change that gives you more freedom to play with order and positioning rather than having to make a judgment early or hold a unit for later and risk bouncing off a key target.
- Tormentor and Infractor Power Swords go to S5 – These units having S4 power swords on their champions always seemed like a mistake, and now that has been fixed.
- Heldrake Save Profile drops to 3+ – RIP to the short window of competitive viability for Emperor’s Children Heldrakes. Our long national nightmare of considering and then not fielding them is over, but more importantly I don’t have any urge to paint one now for the Grand Narrative.
Munitorum Field Manual: Death Guard and World Eaters Points
Points for these armies are now in the Munitorum Field Manual, so you can build armies with them.
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