New FAQ 28/02/20

[Gore Crow]

A new FAQ for AT - Including Acastus update and Shadow and Iron errata.

 

 

[Brother Captain Arkley]

Well fielding Polys wont feel as dirty now it was much needed.

[Gore Crow]

Includes a hit on Fortidus too:

 

Page 20 - Legio Trait: Lost Sons Replace the rules paragraph with the following: “A Legio Fortidus battlegroup may alter one of the mandatory Titan components of any of its maniples, exchanging this mandatory component for a Warhound, Reaver or Warlord Titan. Note that for the purposes of the maniple’s rules, the replacement Titan does not count as the Titan type it is replacing.”

[Marshal Loss]

 

Page 23 - Legio Trait: Two-faced God; Delete the following sentence from the rules paragraph: “These Titans may not be part of the same maniple.”

 

Huge boost for Legio Vulcanum!

 

Glad for the Fortidus change - that rule already made a mockery of some traits imo (e.g. Krytos).

 

Also nice to see them amend their Bypass omission so quickly.

[Sandlemad]

"Scion Marital", how precious. An age of chivalry and romance indeed, even among engine-killing knight suits that have seen a justifiable toning down.

[Marshal Loss]

Big change that I missed; GW just highlighted this on WHC:

 

 

Legio Rules and Stratagem Points

When both players are using Legio Rules there is the potential for either player to gain additional Stratagem points. The last FAQ handled this by stating that you would only gain these additional points when your opponent has more Legio Rules than you. This rule has been removed from the new FAQ, meaning you gain 2 Stratagem points for each set of Legio Rules your opponent uses.

Originally, the clarification was put into place to prevent one or both players gaining large numbers of Stratagem points, which had the potential to slow down the game. However, it has become apparent that players only rarely use more than one Legio Rule set. 

Additionally, some Titan Legions now find it difficult to gain access to their Legio Specific Stratagems that cost 3 or more points. This change should hopefully allow players to reliably use the full scope of their Legio rules.

[Fajita Fan]

Well fielding Polys wont feel as dirty now it was much needed.

But 200 points for the conversion beamer? That’s almost the cost of a Warhound. They’re not THAT good.

[Sherrypie]

 

Well fielding Polys wont feel as dirty now it was much needed.

But 200 points for the conversion beamer? That’s almost the cost of a Warhound. They’re not THAT good.

 

Yes they are, that is the problem. Acastii outshoot titans in duels, which is bonkers. This nerf is healthy, though I'd personally preferred them rather drop their offensive power down but this will do for now.

[Mandragola]

Overall I like this FAQ a lot. The Acastus fix is not the approach I’d have taken – like Sherrypie I’d have preferred to see their guns toned down to reasonable levels instead. But failing that, giving them a points cost that matches their enormous firepower is a decent compromise. Restricting the number you can have in a banner helps too as it limits the number of hits they can cause to a single location.

 

There are some useful balance changes for the Legios too. My Astorum guys will now get a bit hotter if they war march, as they’ll have to roll two dice when they fire draining weapons or push their shields, as well as when they run. This kind of rules out war marching Warhounds for me. I already hardly ever use bellicosas or shield bane guns and I don’t see myself rushing to do so – though the bellicosa warbringer I’ve been working on is likely to want to war march a bit. But that’s fine – it’s a very powerful ability, especially combined with the rerolls to repairs.

 

On the other hand they’ve slightly improved the absurd princeps trait where you roll the order dice, so at least I’m not forced to switch my titan off. Rolling the order dice and doing something random remains a completely idiotic idea compared to rolling a command check on a 2+ for a Princeps Seniores – especially if you were to just pick Ironclad Tyrant as your trait to have a reroll.

 

It’s good to see fixes to things like Vulcanum’s extra princeps rule. The Fortidas nerf feels harsh but overall it’s probably reasonable. Warlords replacing Venator Reavers or Regia Warhounds was always a bit too good.

[Sherrypie]

As a whole, I too am satisfied with this FAQ though there are some surprises in it. Blast weapons shooting their max range when out of range is powerful, melta Reavers are going to have a field day. Similarly I'm somewhat pleased by Strafing Run having a proper direction.

 

Most of all we FINALLY can just officially shush those silly fellows who insist stratagems were usable multiple times by default when they clearly aren't :D

[Gore Crow]

No word on Warbringers missing the carapace rule - legit then?

[Mandragola]

Yeah agreed. It’s good that they’ve finally answered some day 1 questions, 18 months or so after they were first answered.

 

The blast thing is funny. In theory, I could have a reaver do a sort of cheating split fire, by shooting missiles at something far away and scattering melta on closer stuff. It probably wouldn’t work and I may as well just go on split fire orders, but I think the shot should just fizzle out.

No word on Warbringers missing the carapace rule - legit then?

 

Oh good catch. I wonder if that question never made it through to them. They didn't fix all the issues last time around, but in this case they've obviously at least looked at the cards.

[Fajita Fan]

 

 

Well fielding Polys wont feel as dirty now it was much needed.

But 200 points for the conversion beamer? That’s almost the cost of a Warhound. They’re not THAT good.

Yes they are, that is the problem. Acastii outshoot titans in duels, which is bonkers. This nerf is healthy, though I'd personally preferred them rather drop their offensive power down but this will do for now.

Exactly, boosting their points like this is a problem for household lists where single Acastus are the only way to get more than 3 activations at most point levels. Toning down their guns’ strength and range - heck also changing one of them to be a shield stripper - would’ve helped without pricing them out of a lot of lists entirely.

 

Interesting, they also can't be in a banner within a lance so you can't have one lead two banners of shooty Questoris knights.  That feels a bit overboard and I was using Cerastus to lead them anyway for the better command stat but I had planned to swap Acastus in there. 

Edited February 28, 2020 by Fajita Fan

[schoon]

A new FAQ for AT - Including Acastus update and Shadow and Iron errata.

Wow. There's quite a bit to digest in this one!

[LucidNinja]

I play IF and just started painting Fortidus.. this week has been rough

[Perry]

No nerf for Scattermines :(

 

Im happy with the Acastus changes, they were too cheap, now its a choice between a Warhound and one of these.

[Sherrypie]

Scattermines as is are effective, but not the end of the world. Last game I took a Devastating on every engine I had from them turn one but charged onwards and won anyway. Taking a bit of leg damage early on isn't crippling when you still have shields and so on, though I'd also like to see them either be reduced in radius for a bit or be a point more expensive.

[blackbabyjesus]

Scattermines as is are effective, but not the end of the world. Last game I took a Devastating on every engine I had from them turn one but charged onwards and won anyway. Taking a bit of leg damage early on isn't crippling when you still have shields and so on, though I'd also like to see them either be reduced in radius for a bit or be a point more expensive.

They go off EVERY TURN though, so after you've pushed through the 24" circle of death on turn 1 (and got possibly critical damage on the legs of all your fast titans already) the other player just moves the token up the board and you're up :cuss creek again. If you run a warhound heavy force then scatter mines can completely shut you down for 1CP.

[Gryphonicus Walks]

Can I confirm the stratagem points. You get the amount depending on points value, and an additional 2 if the enemy are using a legio? Am I missing something?

[Sherrypie]

 

Scattermines as is are effective, but not the end of the world. Last game I took a Devastating on every engine I had from them turn one but charged onwards and won anyway. Taking a bit of leg damage early on isn't crippling when you still have shields and so on, though I'd also like to see them either be reduced in radius for a bit or be a point more expensive.

They go off EVERY TURN though, so after you've pushed through the 24" circle of death on turn 1 (and got possibly critical damage on the legs of all your fast titans already) the other player just moves the token up the board and you're up creek again. If you run a warhound heavy force then scatter mines can completely shut you down for 1CP.

 

 

They don't shut you down, though they sure hurt unless you spread out or stay still. Pushing straight through and towards the enemy is also a possibility, as they can then either hurt themselves too or use them somewhere where they aren't as hard on you. I agree that 1 CP is cheap for what they do, but not gamebreaking.

 

Can I confirm the stratagem points. You get the amount depending on points value, and an additional 2 if the enemy are using a legio? Am I missing something?

You get the set amount depending on the game size and two more for each set of legio rules your opponent uses, so as an example in a 1500 game of Astorum versus combined Fortidus + Crucius would have Astorum would have 7 vs. the opponent's 5 CP.

[blackbabyjesus]

 

 

 

Scattermines as is are effective, but not the end of the world. Last game I took a Devastating on every engine I had from them turn one but charged onwards and won anyway. Taking a bit of leg damage early on isn't crippling when you still have shields and so on, though I'd also like to see them either be reduced in radius for a bit or be a point more expensive.

They go off EVERY TURN though, so after you've pushed through the 24" circle of death on turn 1 (and got possibly critical damage on the legs of all your fast titans already) the other player just moves the token up the board and you're up creek again. If you run a warhound heavy force then scatter mines can completely shut you down for 1CP.

They don't shut you down, though they sure hurt unless you spread out or stay still. Pushing straight through and towards the enemy is also a possibility, as they can then either hurt themselves too or use them somewhere where they aren't as hard on you. I agree that 1 CP is cheap for what they do, but not gamebreaking.

Can I confirm the stratagem points. You get the amount depending on points value, and an additional 2 if the enemy are using a legio? Am I missing something?

You get the set amount depending on the game size and two more for each set of legio rules your opponent uses, so as an example in a 1500 game of Astorum versus combined Fortidus + Crucius would have Astorum would have 7 vs. the opponent's 5 CP.

That's the thing though, if you have Warhounds you MUST move because they're too fragile to brawl even with reavers, let alone warlords. 24" is half the board made into dangerous terrain, for a warlord moving normally scattermines do basically nothing, for a reaver they'll slow you down a little but Warhounds become pretty much immobilised. Even their un-boosted speed is a str11 hit to the legs which all but guarantees a critical hit to the legs turn 1, along with the additional modifiers from that damage. In the game where I was essentially shut out by scatter mines I had 2 Warhounds (half my force nearly in points!) choose to either run themselves to death trying to escape the mines (not possible, they just moved every turn) or move so slowly the other player's titans could pick them off at a distance.

[Sherrypie]

That's part of the thing though, I think they are most effective in psychological warfare. You don't want to run to avoid taking hits, but in the end... it's one critical in your movement phase. You can take it and just repair it right after without slowing down, if not otherwise under heavy fire especially in the early game. Taking two structure points is nasty, sure, but you can disperse your force somewhat after taking that once. Good point about force sizes though, it does hurt a small list worse as you have less units outside the minefield and can't take the pressure off by utilizing less important lures as easily.

[Gryphonicus Walks]

 

You get the set amount depending on the game size and two more for each set of legio rules your opponent uses, so as an example in a 1500 game of Astorum versus combined Fortidus + Crucius would have Astorum would have 7 vs. the opponent's 5 CP.

 

Thanks for the answer. I assumed that was the way it was supposed to be but just needed to double check.

[Perry]

That's part of the thing though, I think they are most effective in psychological warfare. You don't want to run to avoid taking hits, but in the end... it's one critical in your movement phase. You can take it and just repair it right after without slowing down, if not otherwise under heavy fire especially in the early game. Taking two structure points is nasty, sure, but you can disperse your force somewhat after taking that once. Good point about force sizes though, it does hurt a small list worse as you have less units outside the minefield and can't take the pressure off by utilizing less important lures as easily.

Its not the damage that bothers me, its the forced half movement.

 

I run close combat reavers and occasionally a powerfist Warlord. This 1 point strat with its 24inch range ruins any chance of combat.

[noigrim]

Scattermines are best stratagem

About time acastus got nerfed