Along with the balance dataslate and updated points in the Munitorum Field Manual, Games Workshop have also published a set of FAQ answers and errata along with new datasheets for the Raveners and Servitors found in the new Kill Team box – in fact Raveners get two sheets, because there’s a new Leader option for them as well. We didn’t get preview copies of these, so we found out at the same time as you all did. Our take on the updates is below.
You can find the rest of our Dataslate coverage via the following links:
FAQs and Errata
Codex: Aeldari
There’s just two extremely minor errata for Aeldari. The Shadowseer previously had the option to swap its shruiken pistol for “neuro disruptor; flip belt,” an entirely irrelevant typo which has now been amended to just say “neuro disruptor.” In addition, the Ynnari Incubi’s Klaivex had an AP of 2 on his demiklaives, not -2, which has been corrected.
Codex: Astra Militarum
The Militarum Tempestus Command Squad gets the Voice of Command ability, which it should always have had.
Codex: Death Guard
The Death Approaches ability for Deathshroud Terminators is erratad to say “In your Movement phase,” i.e. it can’t be used for Rapid Ingress. This is the 6″ deep strike ability, so that’s a pretty significant change to their ability to drop in.
In addition, there’s an FAQ answer on the Plagueburst Crawler’s Spore-laced Shock Waves ability. Some enterprising individuals had read this as inflicting mortal wounds every turn after it was applied; the FAQ says that no, it does not do that. Good.
Codex: Thousand Sons
A significant errata to the Aetherstride ability for Daemon Princes of Tzeentch with Wings (say that three times fast), changing it to work in your Movement phase and allowing you to set up more than 6″ horizontally. This is a similar change to the Deathshroud one, preventing you from using it on Rapid Ingress. The errata to the range is sort of a nothing because the Balance Dataslate already modifies all abilities that say 3″ to be 6″ instead, but most recent abilities along these lines have actually been printed as 6″, so the rules team have clearly decided to align this with those.
Smaller profile changes for:
- Chaos Vindicator: Now only has a 9″ Move instead of 10″
- Flamers: Get 7+ Leadership instead of 8+ to match the Index version
- Screamers: Get 7+ Leadership instead of 8+ to match the Index version
There’s also two FAQ answers, both for the Channel the Warp ability. In short – you don’t have to Channel the Warp before rolling dice, and you only suffer mortals if you choose to do it and then get a double or triple. This is how we thought it worked, but the text wasn’t the clearest.
Codex: World Eaters
The Warp Stalkers Stratagem in the Possessed Slaughterband detachment gets a line added to clarify that yes, you can end a Charge move within Engagement Range when using it; previously the wording created the weird situation where you were allowed to use it on a Charge but then couldn’t end within ER.
The single FAQ answer clarifies that yes, a Lord on Juggernaut gives Bloodcrushers or Flesh Hounds the Blessings of Khorne ability by attaching to them, even though it’s only him that has it. This is how we, at least, thought it had to work anyway, but it was not clear that was the case so it’s good to see it clarified.
Datasheets
Adeptus Mechanicus – Servitor Battleclade
The Servitor Battleclade is an entirely new unit for the Adeptus Mechanicus, a kind of spiritual successor to the old Servitors that existed in a bunch of Imperial armies in the past. Those were mostly a joke except for brief periods where they were cheap action monkeys. These are a bit more interesting.
The unit consists of 9 models for just 60pts, which is ok value to start with when they’re T4 with a 4+ Save and a 6+ invulnerable save. The Servitor Underseer (the floating balloon guy) has two Wounds and 7+ Leadership while the flesh puppets have 1 and 8+ respectively.
They do get the army rule (not a guarantee in Ad Mech!) and their datasheet ability is Network Override, which allows them to Advance and action and shoot and action as long as the Tech-Priest is still in the unit. Do note that he’s not a CHARACTER or anything, so he can’t be precisioned out.
The exact make-up of the team is 1 Servitor Underseer, 2 Gun Servitors, and 6 Combat Servitors. That means there’s a lot of different weapon profiles on show here.
The Servitor Underseer’s stuff is pretty yawn-worthy; his pistol has DEVASTATING WOUNDS which is cute, but it’s only BS4+ and 1 damage, so whatever.
The Combat Servitors have phosphor blasters which are just boltguns with ignores cover. Up to 3 of them can take an incendine igniter instead, which is a S3 flamer with IGNORES COVER, and exactly one can take a meltagun.
Finally, one Gun Servitor has a heavy bolter, while the other has a heavy arc rifle. All the servitors have servo-claws, which are garbage.
They can be led by anything that can attach to KATAPHRON BREACHERS.
Look, these aren’t good, but they’re servitors, what did you expect? They are however cheap as chips, and the datasheet ability is neat even if it’s not exactly the shooting you’d ideally want to be able to do that with. Having an option on one or two units of these to do mission stuff and occasionally kill a couple of Aspect Warriors or something is fine.
Tyranids – Raveners and Hyperadapted Raveners
Raveners
With their upcoming plastic kit in Kill Team: Typhon, Raveners get a new datasheet to match it. On their base profile, they get a 4+ Save instead of 5+, and no other changes. Keyword-wise, they gain BURROWERS as expected, and also get VANGUARD INVADER printed (though this isn’t new as it was added in a dataslate previously).
Weapons-wise they’ve lost their guns, and their claws and talons go down to 3 attacks each inside of 7, but they’re AP-2 and damage 2 now instead and retain TWIN-LINKED. They no longer have any wargear options, as the armoured thorax is baked in.
Their datasheet ability, Death from Below, is unchanged. Finally, the unit is now a fixed size of 5 models, instead of the 3-6 it was previously, coming in at 125pts.
Hyperadapted Raveners
The Hyperadapted Raveners are a 5-model Leader unit, coming in at 165pts. The unit comprises 4 Raveners and one Ravener Prime.
The basic Raveners have the same statline as the normal ones, but get heavy claws and talons instead which are still TWIN-LINKED with the same profile but also get ANTI-MONSTER and ANTI-VEHICLE 5+. In addition, one Ravener gets a gun, the venom bolt, a 12″ range S6 AP-1 D1 flamer with D6+3 shots, ASSAULT, TORRENT, and IGNORES COVER. Not a bad little gun to have in the back pocket.
The Ravener Prime gets 6 Wounds instead of 3 and Leadership 7+, and also has Shadow in the Warp and the CHARACTER and SYNAPSE keywords. The Prime claws and talons are identical to the heavy claws except that they get 6 attacks with them.
In terms of datasheet abilities, Alpha Invader gives models in the unit SUSTAINED HITS 1, while Hypersensory Array lets you do a 0CP Rapid Ingress or Heroic Intervention once per battle round, and use it even if you have already targeted a different unit with that Stratagem this turn. Remember this is not affected by the general dataslate ruling on CP reduction abilities because it names specific Stratagems.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the only thing that Hyperadapted Raveners can attach to is Raveners.
Thoughts
Putting it all together, this is an interesting set of changes. Tyranid players obviously lose out on the possibility of the 3-model Raveners as a cheap option for mission play, but then Tyranids are awash with cheap, small units to do that kind of thing anyway, so it doesn’t hurt as much as it could. Dropping their attack count but upping the quality is a reasonably fair trade. The Hyperadapted Raveners honestly look pretty great, and while you can create the somewhat pricy 10-snake stack for 33 attacks with SUSTAINED HITS 1, you’ll probably also consider running some Hyperadapted on their own, since they’re a perfectly good unit without needing to attach to anything. That said, that unit can also Ingress for free, and allows you to double-Ingress too, and can be pulled back into Reserves to pull the trick again, so it’s very much worth considering.
The Ravener Prime being a character also opens up the possibility of getting Enhancements on them, too, where there’s any relevant ones. Oh, look, the new Detachment has an Enhancement to come in from Reserves in the first battle round. How helpful.
Wrap Up
Make sure to check out the rest of our Dataslate coverage by following the links at the top of the article.
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