Warhammer 40k: Pre-Release Date Nerf Bat Hits Astra Militarum, Marines, CSMs
Goatboy here and last week we got a quick series of nerfs to models and detachments that aren’t even on the table top yet. Come see who got bonked.
While it is frustrating to not see some other stuff get hit – it is odd to see something change pretty dramatically before it even hits the neoprene wasteland. Let’s pull up a chair and chat a bit about this stealthy update. This week saw a few things to tone down some of the edges for not released yet Warhammer 40K rules. There was a tweak to what looked like a mid table bully detachment and an auto include character for the Astra Militarum army. Both of these hits were probably needed and leads me to wondering how much other things might change when we get the giant refresh to Warhammer 40K in 11th edition.
Commissar Yarrick – Nerfed!
Let’s start with the biggest hit to Yarrick. This 150 point Commissar looked pretty amazing initially with his counter move, counter shoot, and super order abilities. All of these things took a nose dive in this update. We’ll start with the easiest one in his counter shooting ability that no longer is just a flat shooting attack and now is an extra “overwatch” basically. This should tell you right away what is coming with other future “shoot” out of phase abilities that might show up in 11th and any rules that are currently attached to units that might shoot a bit too hard. The next big shift is changing his counter move to a straight d6 instead of a move. The finally shift is making his other move a surge move of a d6 – instead of a counter charge. All of these can only be done with a unit that has an enemy get within 9”, hasn’t made a normal move this turn (so you can’t do 2 counter moves on a unit), or shot overwatch. A whole lot of nerfs to a rather expensive leader.
Most likely Yarrick needs to go down in points as while I don’t think he is completely terrible he has so many caveats to his once powerful interaction. He still looks neat and can order Titanic models so that is a bonus. I just don’t know if he is a must include in your army right now.
Armoured Speartip – Nerfed
The next big shift is updating the Armoured Speartip rules to basically remove the whole flyer interaction. They just straight removed the ability to get Heavy and have any fun rules if you have Fly. This is huge and just takes out the Stormraven interactions. Next they removed the ability for units to move again after getting out of a vehicle if the vehicle came out of Strategic Reserves. This stops some of the goofy things you could if your Land Raider came out of reserves, dropped out a pile of jerks and watch them waddle over into your zone.
They also changed one of the Enhancements that gives the unit they are embarked scout 6” now and even tweaked the move after getting destroyed stratagem. Now the only way the vehicle gets to move after getting destroyed is if you rolled a 6 to blow up.
This is a pretty big nerf to the detachment but it is most likely needed. The idea of crazy Land Raiders just seemed like such a mid table bully and it is good we see some of this toned down.
Mutilators – No Longer Welcome in Rhinos
Oh and they fixed the whole weird Mutilator issue where they could have gone into CSM Rhinos. Or fit too many into a Land Raider. I wish they gave them more attacks but will just have to wait for that to come out in the future.
Mutilators in Rhinos was kinda silly, so good on GW.
Pre-Relasee Date Nerfs – The Verdict
Overall the big things we got from these changes is that GW is effectively looking at how far things move, making sure they are not going to fast, and hopefully keeping some things balanced. I wonder what else will see change in this upcoming 11th update. I do like that these new rules are digital only and thus any issue can quickly be fixed and updated. It does point out the obvious – don’t go ham on investing into something that seems broken. If it is too good to be true it won’t be good for too long. I am wondering what is coming for Defilers (remove things that let the reroll and probably raise some point costs).
~If you squint, you can kinda see how 11th Edition will play.
