Surprise! It’s another FAQ today for 40k – this time for the Imperial Armour Compendium, which contains all of the rules and datasheets for Forge World models. This time around the Compendium FAQ has been updated to reflect the recent codex releases for Eldar and Tyranids, updating those factions’ datasheets and rules to reflect the new book. In this article we’re going to run through the changes and what they mean for competitive 40k.
What’s Not Here
Before we dive into these changes, it’s worth noting that there weren’t any updates to the Imperial Knights or Chaos Knights sections of the book, meaning that if you’re looking for those units to get updates for their new Codexes, we’ll likely have to wait another month or two. While this is a bummer, it’s worth remembering that the books haven’t been released yet.
Adeptus Custodes
There was a single change to the Custodes vehicles – the Contemptors, Telemon, and Pallas Grav-Attack specifically – giving them Ld 11. This brings them in line with the rest of the faction and may be valuable once Chaos Knights release and start forcing opponents to take Dread Tests against their Ld value.
Tyranids
There were a bunch of small changes here, mostly designed to shore up inconsistencies in keywords and rule names between the new Codex and these older units.
Innes: The Tyranid changes are broadly a nothingburger, just adding the Hive Tendril keyword that allows the units to function, but with none of the quality of life upgrades or keywords that are common across the Tyranids codex. This leaves the Forge World rules in somewhat of a limbo with minimal stratagem interactions.
Death Throes have been updated across the monsters to standardise the new “only hits closest enemy” templating, and Sky-Slasher Swarms keep the ability to reserve themselves that Gargoyles lost, while now being the same points and slot as Rippers. This may leave them with a place in some Tyranid lists as a cheap objective grabber and screen, which is a little lacking in the core codex due to the relatively high minimum unit costs
Craftworlds Eldar
This update was a bit more substantial, doing more than just giving Battle Focus to a number of units. Wraithseers have been updated to have Wraithbone Form and have had their equipment options updated, and the other Wraith units also got Wraithbone From as well, making them all a bit more durable.
James “Boon” Kelling: The Forge World Imperial Armor update brings the legacy Craftworld units into alignment with the abilities of the new codex and makes few changes beyond that. This generally means aligning Aspect and Wraith type units with current rules and datasheet abilities and granting current army-wide rules like Strands of Fate.
I don’t think this fundamentally alters the roster, but it makes selection of certain units a trade-off rather than a sacrifice – which is good. The one ‘winner’ here is probably Irillyth, whose alignment actually makes him an interesting selection, however, he still competes with the other Phoenix Lords and is by no means an autotake for the faction.
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