The FAQ brought along with it some sweeping changes, which we discuss in Episode 23 of our podcast. The meta will most certainly shift in light of these changes. Of course, the ability to regenerate Command Points is now limited to only 1 CP per Battle Round regardless of the source you are using to regenerate. This was a nice change, but is it enough?
Command Point Farming
Again, the nerf to CP farming and the increase to several game altering stratagems in Warhammer 40k, particularly for the new Imperial Knights, certainly makes it harder to play them, but does it make them irrelevant? Far from it. It is still worth investing in the CP train if you want to run Knights. Here's why:
Astra Militarum is still the best ally for Knights. So, you can't really count on Blood Angels smash captains anymore as the nerf to the Fly keyword and CP regeneration has neutered their effectiveness as an ally for Knights. AM on the other hand is still very much an ally to be reckoned with. When you look at the AM warlord traits, Grand Strategist is still king even with the nerfs to regeneration. There simply isn't another one that comes close to being as good really. Sure, you can bring your ultra fluffy Armageddon army and take something that synergizes well, but we are not talking about that here. We are talking about what you will find at tournaments.
You can easily bring an AM brigade of Catachans along with a Castellan, you are looking at tons of bodies with multiple attacks hitting on Strength 4 as screens with the ability to fight in the Shooting phase. On top of that you have an army that brings 18 CP to the table and will regenerate 6 over the course of a standard battle in ITC. And those guard bodies make excellent screens for your Castellan knight as you feed it CP every turn for re-rolls, 3++ saves, etc. In short, this problem did not go away. 24 Command Points is more than enough to fuel the Castellan for 2-3 turns which is all you need out of it anyway.
Assault Has Changed
The change to the Fly keyword means that no longer can you declare a charge against a Leman Russ behind a screen and just hop the screen to hit the tank behind it. You can only use the Fly rule to move over other models and terrain in the Movement phase. This correlates to cheap screen bodies being invaluable to the game.
Units like Brimstone Horrors, Guardsmen, Cultists, and other cheap throw away units become MVP for being able to block your opponent from charging shooty units like Knights or Russ tanks or Sicarans. Expect Knights players to layer Castellans in rows of Guardsmen and Conscripts which you will have to chew through before even touching the Knight.
Importance of Counter Charging
The change to Fly has added a more layered dimension to combat. I think everyone can agree the Fly keyword made assault strategies very easy to implement. Now, with careful positioning you can set your hard hitting units, like Daemon Princes and even smash Captain, behind screens to strike at the right moment after the screens have absorbed the charge. The change to not being able to arrive via Reinforcements until Battle Round 2 did hurt, but now assault armies will adjust. In fact, you could argue that being in reinforcements is more of a detriment than a boon.
It's not about getting that monstrous charge out of full reserves, but rather having the ability to counter charge with your hard hitting units in assault. Space Wolves become incredibly valuable here because they have a 6" Heroic Intervention, allowing you to place your characters safely behind the screen in front of them and HI in to fight. Have the Armour of Russ on? Now your opponent is fighting last. The combos can get pretty crazy.
Screening and Board Control
Early on in 8th screening properly was critical to winning, but those were the days when anything could come down on you turn 1 and you had to be prepared. That wavered slightly in the Spring FAQ because you had time to position and zone out your units to block your opponent. Now, your opponent has to chew through screens to even get to your good stuff. This makes chaff units, as we mentioned above, incredibly powerful. Controlling the board is also instrumental. Positioning units so they are 18" away from each other and the board edge, which with many armies is very easy to do. (Even marines can do it in the right setups) means you have a huge advantage.
Reserve units will likely be used less and less as we see the meta form. Aside from specialized circumstances such as Bloodletter bombs, etc most armies will begin fully deployed and it will become a cat and mouse of movement, positioning and counter assaulting as I mentioned above.
Chaff Removal
Of course, if you are going to be playing against these types of lists, which you will see a lot I feel, you need to be able to get them off the table quickly. This can be from hard hitting assault units stacking loads of attacks like Death Company, or via the more safe option, shooting. Units like Razorbacks with twin Assault Cannons have been useful since the dawn of 8th and continue to be so. Being able to stack lots of dakka down on the enemies chaff while protecting these units with layers of your own screens will be critical in successful horde mitigation.
In summary, I think we see loads of more chaff coming back on the scene. Guardsmen are more important than ever for Imperium players. Scouts additionally offer the fantastic ability of deploying in the neutral zone which is huge in establishing board control early in the game and buffering important marine units with screens. Other armies will have to rely on chaff units to absorb hits and charges like Scarabs for Necrons or Gaunts for Nids. The FAQ has certainly changed the game. We can only hope for the better.
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