New Force Organization Chart

Warhammer Community published an article on the new Force Organization Chart last night, and I thought it was very refreshing. It might look a little complex at first, but once I sat down and actually read through it, I understood how it worked, and how to simplify it.

Unfortunately, I see the comments on the Facebook page, which are just...I'm not sure. Now, I understand if people prefer 2.0 and whatnot, and I perfectly empathize with buying the books all over again - I feel the pain, especially now that I'm effectively jobless for a couple of months until August. It's not cheap. However, the crying about "I'm sticking to 2.0" and "this is overly complex" and "this is becoming more like 40K" (make up your mind...) is just...asinine. Look, if you prefer 2.0, that's cool, but let's not pretend 2.0 is this "perfect" system that only needs "refinements" and "FAQs." It...quite frankly, is far from perfect. It's a good system and I enjoyed it, but there were major flaws. Plus, a lot of the complaints about it either being "too much like 40K" or "too complex" sound like they did not actually sit down and read. They skimped through it, had this confirmation bias of "2.0 is better" and bolted down on that stance, using this as "evidence" that this whole "refinement" thing is "Games Workshop doesn't know what they're doing." Far from it, and I'll explain the strengths of this new system.

That said, I don't think it is perfect, and I agree with the "HeroHammer" aspect - it forces you to take more Characters or pay a Character tax just to unlock stuff, so...we'll need to buy all those resin Consuls from the Horus Heresy range now. Ugh.

Anyway, that aside, allow me to present the Force Organization Chart in a simple manner so that the whole "complex" nonsense can get refuted immediately. So, you'll notice that everyone starts off with a Primary Detachment (Let's ignore the Crusade bit for now).

If you played 2.0, chances are, you were taking a Praetor to unlock the Rite of War with his Master of the Legion rule anyway, so you already have a High Command. Troops can be filled with your tactical squads, assault squads, breacher squads, etc. I have no idea if support tactical squads with special weapons like plasma guns or volkite will still be counted as Troops, or if Inductii is still a thing, but we'll ignore those for now because I'm trying to show you how simple this is. If this was the old Force Organization Chart, you'll have 3 HQ slots (which, to be frank, is very restrictive, especially if you play Thousand Sons like me), 6 Troops slots, 4 Elites, 3 Fast Attack and 3 Heavy Support, plus an optional Fortification slot and a Lord of War slot. And Allies, but let's keep it simple here.

Now, the problem with the old Force Organization Chart is that you have a limited number of slots. Let's say I'm Thousand Sons and I'm taking a Praetor to unlock the Achaean Configuration rite of war. I'll need to take a Praevian Consul, and that leaves me only one more slot for my new-ish Thousand Sons Librarian Consul. That's all I can take for my powerful psykers. Ugh. I'm also forced to take Techmarines, and now I have 3 Elites left for...maybe a 10-man squad of Cataphractii Terminators for my Praetor (if I could build them into a command squad, I would, but I don't have a standard), an Osiron-Contemptor Dreadnought talon and a Numerologist Cabal. That's all my elite slots filled out. I have no space for Khenetai Occult blades, Sekhmet Termninators, normal Contemptor Dreadnoughts (not that I'm taking them now that I have the Osiron), or other Elites.

If I'm playing a tank-heavy army, I only have 3 Heavy Support slots. So I take 3 different tank squadrons, but I won't have any left for say, Leviathan Dreadnoughts, Heavy support squads, etc. Or Deredeo Dreadnoughts - if you take both Leviathan and Deredeos, you only have a single Heavy Support slot left.

So the old Force Organization Chart has its limitations. And these limitations feel worse in higher-points games. If we play, say, 5,000-point games, you'll run out of your favorite Battlefield Roles very soon.

Here, it's less restrictive in that you unlock the slots/battlefield roles you want to take via Characters.

So let's say you take 3 Consuls, that means you can take 3 Auxilliary detachments. Whichever you want. How do you want to build your army? Do you have Terminators? Throw in a Shock Assault. A Dreadnought? A Heavy Support. Tanks? Armored Support. And that's your 3 Detachments.

Your Praetor gives you a 4th Auxilliary detachment for that second Dreadnought, or it gives you Apex Detachments like Army Vanguard for your Legion-specific specialists like say, my Numerologist Cabal and/or Khenetai Blades. I'm not sure if Sehkmet Terminators fall under this or under Shock Assault.

And even better! If I take a Consul for Command in the Primary Detachment, I fill the Prime Slot for Army Vanguard, which unlocks a Logistical Benefit, which is adding a Battlefield Role of any choice (except Lord of War). Awesome!

Basically, this is how the new Force Organization Chart works: Assemble your army around a few Characters and troops (or don't bother with troops if you don't want them). Add an auxilliary detachment for each Character you take to fulfill your command slots (including High Command). Add an extra auxilliary detachment if you fill the prime Command slot. Centurions also unlock an extra auxilliary detachment.

There you go. Simple, right?

So how does that play out for my Thousand Sons army?

Currently, I have a Praetor for High Command, a Librarian Consul and a Praevian Consul for 2 Command slots, which unlock me 3 Auxilliary detachments, plus one Logistical Benefit. I can fill out my Troops slots with my 2 tactical squads and 2 support tactical squads (assuming they're still troops and aren't shuffled into Tactical Support). I assume the Paevian Consul will unlock me a Heavy Support slot for a battle-automata maniple, which I can shuffle all four of my Castellax-Achea battle-automata into. Unlike Dreadnoughts, I'm certain automata will still be taken in maniples because they're currently sold that way, and it'll be too inefficient to unlock them otherwise.

The second auxilliary detachment will be an Osirion-Contemptor Dreadnought, the third will be Shock Assault for my ten Cataphractii Terminators, and the fourth would be Armored Support for my Predator tanks. I didn't take an Apex detachment because I have no Veterans, and I don't know if Numerologist Cabal will fall under Army Vanguard. On the other hand, they make a good Veteran squad with their current equipment. So pretty much what I still have, with the exception of my second Osiron-Contemptor Dreadnought and Numerologist Cabal. To unlock either of them, I'll have to take a third Command Consul (maybe a Centurion to unlock 2 slots, and voila! I can take both now!), and this gives me an excuse to buy Sekhmet Terminators now, heh. Or more tanks - since I only have 2 Predator Executioners so far. Time to add a couple of Vindicator with Laser Destroyers, eh? We'll see.

Anyway, this is just an example of how I reorganized my army with the new Force Organization Chart. Not too complex, and neither is it "too 10th edition" or "too 40K", right? You can't simply spam the units you like (aside from rule of 3) in 40K because you need to unlock them via Characters, and it means losing out on other units/battlefield roles. It's still a fun and fluffy list that isn't very different from my Horus Heresy 2.0 list, I just need to make a few additions and maybe take out a few, depending. The Techmarine did absolutely nothing for my army, so I don't mind removing him. If I add a Centurion, then I don't need to take out my second Osiron-Contemptor Dreadnought and Numerologist Cabal, but otherwise, I can just get Sekhmet Terminators and more tanks now! Or both routes, if I have the points!

...so why are people so against the new Force Organization Chart? I get the feeling that they're just against change or anything new. They don't want to try anything new, and are up in arms when their "favorite" game gets changed in any way. I say give it a try. Experiment with your lists and play around. If you still don't like the changes, then return to 2.0. But at least give it a try before you start whining and throwing a tantrum on social media. Who knows, you might actually find this new style refreshing and more fun. I know I had more fun reshuffling my Thousand Sons around.

Oh, and what about my Dark Angels? Hmm...good question. I don't know. For one thing, I'll definitely need more...Consuls or Centurions. I suspect I'll be using the Centurion from the Saturnine box for them. I still don't know if Inductii can be taken as Troops or if they're still a thing, and it is entirely possible the Dark Angels will have their own Deathwing Detachment or something, so it's a wait and see for now. But I can imagine converting the Saturnine box into Dark Angels to unlock more slots and turn them into a more conventional force. They don't have much, I only need to unlock the Shock Assault, an Apex and 2 Heavy Support (one of which will be unlocked by the Army Vanguard Logistical Benefit since I literally have Veterans). So I might only need a single Centurion in MKII armor to unlock everything for my Dark Angels! Hah! I don't know if Consuls are allowed to take Saturnine armor, but if he can, then hell yeah, it'll give me a third Heavy Support slot for the Saturnine Dreadnought. But, as you can see, it's all good here. Only things I'll ditch are the Rhino and Land Raider, for now.......unless I get yet another Logistical Benefit from using the Prime Command slot, then I can unlock Armored Fist. Which means more Rhinos and Land Raiders (or Spartan). Heh. Possibilities, possibilities...

Imperial Knight rumors

Sorry, I've been sick for 2 weeks now. Actually, I was supposedly recovering, but things took the turn for the worse on Tuesday and I've been down with a fever for a few days since then. Chills, aches, and lots of phlgem. Seen a doctor (or medicae?), and hopefully I'll recover soon, otherwise I'll have to return to the clinic if I don't get better.

I blame Nurgle. See, Games Workshop? You should have nerfed the Death Guard during the latest balance dataslate. Now they're dominating not just tournaments but real life as well.

Jokes aside, here are some rumors regarding the new Imperial Knight codex. I wanted to write this sooner, but I was too sick the last few days, so I'm only able to write now that I've recovered slightly.

So our Army Rule has changed, and we no longer have that Honored thing where we achieve them to get 2 extra CP and get bonuses (like a 5++++ Feel No Pain). Instead, we have two bonuses now. We have our 6+++ Feel No Pain built into our army (oooh! Nice!), and each time we shoot or fight, we may reroll a single hit roll, would roll or damage roll. Only one.

Armigers are apparently now Toughness 9, no longer Toughness 10. Fortunately, Questoris Knights are still Toughness 12 and Dominus are still Toughness 13. Phew. Armigers also stayed the same cost, but Titanic Knight have 10-20% decrease in points. Oh, and while Armigers retain their 5++ invulnerable saves against shooting, Titanic Knights now have a 4++ invulnerable save. However, we lose the Rotate Ion Shields Stratagem. However, given the release of the Chaos Knights codex and how all their Despoiler and Tyrant class Knights went down in Toughness (11 and 12 respectively) and retain a 5++ invulnerable save, I highly doubt it.

Bondsman abilities are reworked. Titanic Knights still buff your Armigers like now, where you choose one Armiger within range of your Titanic Knight during the Command phase, but this time, the buff lasts forever until you replace it with a new buff. The Titanic Knight will only receive his own blessing whenever he activates the bondsman buff each turn. No wonder they go down in points.

Knight Defender, unsurprisingly, has a shield generator instead of a carapace weapon and his aura ability reduces the AP of attacks by 1 against Imperial Knight models within 9" of him. His bondsman ability increases the Toughness of Armigers by 1, bringing them back to their old Toughness 10. His own blessing, which lasts until your next Command Phase, subtracts 1 from the damage of enemy attacks to a minimum of 1.

His plasma executor is 36" D3+3 shots, Strength 8 AP -2 Damage 2, up to Strength 9 AP -3 Damage 3 if you supercharge (gets hazardous). The conversion beam obliterator is 36" 3 shots Strength 14 AP -2 Damage 4 with Sustained Hits D3 if you fire it at a target more than 18" away.

We seem to have at least 4 Detachments.

Defenders of the Realm ensures our Deployment Zone is Protected Ground, and No Man's Land becomes Protected Ground if we control the majority of objectives. Grants +1 to hit while model is in Protected Ground, and +1 to hit and +1 to wound if in Protected Ground and on an objective. Nice. We also get an Enhancement for Sticky Objectives.

Omnissian Conclave gives us 1 of 6 blessings to choose from, or 2 random ones if we choose to roll 2D6 to decide them (I assume we reroll duplicates). We either get +1 to hit in melee, +1 attack on Strike profile and +3 attack on Sweep profile, +1 Strength on ranged weapons, +1 BS if model remains stationary, +1" movement, or +1" to charge rolls. We get a Stratagem that gives a single Knight an additional Blessing of our choice for 1 turn, but Armigers take D3 mortal wounds if we choose them. It costs 1 Command Point.

Freeblade Crusaders allow Imperial Knights to ignore modifiers to their characteristics when we're damaged, basically allowing us to ignore Bracket. Even better, if our Knights are more than 6" away from each other, they get 5+++ Feel No Pain. Hmm...

Adamantium Hunt allows us to set up reinforcements during the 1st, 2nd and 3rd turns, ignoring mission rules. This combos with an Enhancement that gives a Knight Deep Strike and a Stratagem that allows him to arrive within 6" of an enemy. Knights may also arrive using the Strategic Reserves as if the battle round is one higher than the current one.

How true are these? Nobody knows. Remember, everyone. Rumors are lies until Games Workshop confirms it on their official websites. Take these with giant pinches of salt. Just thought I would share this to increase the hype, but I can't guarantee their authenticity.