I don't really write balance articles because I'm more of a narrative (Crusade) person, and so I don't bother talking about point changes, the meta, what's good and what's bad, etc. I just play my favorite units and detachments (Skitarii Hunter Cohort!). If you've been following my blog from the beginning, you'll know that I've always been a fan of the Skitarii, even back when I was an Imperial Guard player, jumping into the army in 2015, not a fan of Cult Mechanicus (wasn't a fan of the battle-servitors or Electro-priests, and I only like the robots - and even so, I prefer the Forge World Mechanicum battle-automata).
But I digress. I play Skitarii and still play Skitarii because I like them, even if people complain they are the worst army in the game (which actually isn't true, but they were in a bad spot). I was kind of happy with how they worked, particularly Skitarii Hunter Cohort, because it allowed me to field my Skitarii. Yeah, I just got crushed last week in spectacular fashion by Drukhari, but hey, it's still my army alongside Knights. My...uh, third army, behind Astra Militarum and my primary and first army, Knights. Actually, come to think of it, I might have played Skitarii more than Imperial Guard, but never mind.
Anyway, here are the changes!
To sum it up, this is what we have:
Protector Imperative gives our ranged weapons Heavy, improves our Ballistic Skill by 1 (so our whole army, except Kastelan robots and Cybernetica Datasmith, who will only get Doctrina Imperatives if we pick the Cohort Cybernetica detachment), and gives our opponent a -1 to hit in melee against Battleline units or units within 6" of Battleline ones.
Conqueror Imperative gives our ranged weapons Assault, improves our weapon Skill by 1 (again, same thing for Legio Cybernetica units), and improve our weapons' AP by 1 if they are Battleline or within 6" of a Battleline one. Both shooting and melee. Now let that sink in for a moment. Yeah. Now let your Serberys Sulfurhounds loose and set fire on your enemies, my friends!
Additionally, all our units, with the exception of Legio Cybernetica units, get Doctrina Imperatives now. That includes Electro-priests and Tech-priests.
Won't comment on Belisarius Cawl because I don't bring Named Characters for Crusades.
Ironstrider Ballistarii get 4 shots for twin cognis autocannons and 2 shots for twin cognis lascannons now, keep Sustained Hits 1, but lose twin-linked. They go up to 70 points, though, which is...yikes. But worth it for the additional firepower.
The damage for the Skorpius Disintegrator's ferrumite cannon has been improved from 3 to D6+1.
Skorpius Dunerider is supposed to have Firing Deck 2, but for some reason it's not in the balance dataslate. A mistake, I assume. They have gone up 5 points.
Sicarian Infiltrators now each have 3 attacks for their power weapons and taser goads.
Sicarian Ruststalkers (my guys!) each have 5 attacks and Strength 5 for their transonic blades (my version) and 4 attacks and Strength 5 for their transonic razors/Chordclaws. They have gone up 10 points to 75 per 5 guys now.
Onager Dunecrawlers saw the biggest increase, going up to 160 points from 130, but their weapons are more powerful now. 2 shots for the Daedalus missile launcher, 2D3 shots from D6 for both profiles of the Eradication Beamer, 3 shots for the Neutron laser and D6+2 damage from D6+1 (and apparently, it's no longer blast!), and 12 shots for the twin onager heavy phosphor blaster - plus keeping twin-linked to boot!
What does this mean? We have more firepower than before, better Ballistic Skill if we're in Protector Doctrina - not only do we improve our Ballistic Skill from 4+ to 3+, if we stand still, we benefit from Heavy and hit on 2+. That's an incredible buff for Skitarii gunline armies. More so, when you consider that we have just increased the volume of shots for stuff like Ironstrider Ballistarii and Onager Dunecrawlers. The Conqueror imperative benefits the Sicarian Ruststalkers, who have more attacks now - and with Devastating Wounds, that would be great. Just...wow.
This doesn't just benefit stuff like Skitarii Hunter Cohort. Imagine Cohort Cybernetica Kastelan Robots hitting on 2+ with Phosphor blasters, or them getting WS3+ with twin-linked fists. Well, I'm sure there will still be people not sold on it, but I'm a Crusade guy, and I think it's awesome.
As an aside, Imperial Guard got this:
Basically, we still get Lethal Hits, but we no longer need to stand still. Regiment units, such as infantry, cavalry/mounted and even Sentinels only get Lethal Hits when targeting non-Monsters and non-Vehicles, while Squadron units, such as Sentinels (again - so Sentinels are actually the most versatile unit that benefits most from this), Leman Russ tanks, Rogal Dorn, etc., get Lethal Hits when targeting Monsters or Vehicles. Of course, some lose out - my Stormblade or other Baneblade variants no longer get Lethal Hits, which...kind of suck, but whatever. Basilisks and Wyverns are less effective against infantry now, despite being artillery, since their Lethal Hits don't trigger against what they're supposed to be targeting. It's...kind of silly, really. Hydras, on the other hand, target flyers and aircraft, so it's good for them unless you're shooting flying infantry like jump pack units, but I think it's fine. Hellhounds don't really care because they use Torrent weapons, so Lethal Hits don't apply for them, and it probably helps the Devil Dogs more when they target vehicles and monsters with their melta cannons.
It does mean your heavy weapons teams and field ordnance batteries like heavy lascannons are better off packing anti-infantry firepower than anti-tank, and taking lascannons on them are sort of...bad now?
I won't lie, I do like the change, though, because Strengh 3 lasguns getting Lethal Hits when standing still and hurting a Toughness 12 Knight is silly, while lascannons on Sentinels and the like are still pretty good (while heavy flamers remain ineffective). So no complaints there, aside from the artillery being weirdly more effective against vehicles and Monsters than infantry.
One more thing - the Reinforcements Stratagem (Send in the Next Wave!) can now only be used once per game. No more infinitely respawning Karskins now. Yikes. Can't deny that I've been using that to my advantage, heh. So fair play there.
As for my beloved Knights, they clarified that we reroll one Hit roll and one Wound roll as opposed to rerolling a Hit roll of 1 and a Wound roll of 1, which was kind of silly, and is a direct buff. Somehow, I think that was from long ago, though - so that's...not new, I think? It's been that way for a while now.
Also, we can move within Engagement Range of non-Titanic models when walking over them, as long as we don't end that move within Engagement Range of them. So no more blocking, hah! Though we do need to roll for Battle-shock if trying to move through Terrain that are more than 4" in height. This is new because people were trying to block movement my Knights by getting their models close to terrain and claiming I can't squeeze between them. Not gonna work now!
As an aside, Forge World Knights and the Knight Paladin receive points cuts - the Paladin is now 405 points, same as the Knight Errant - and the Knight Lancer drops from 465 points to 430. Wow! The Atrapos and Styrix also saw further points cuts, so yay.
Now the question is...how should I change up my Skitarii Hunter Cohort list? We'll see on Saturday!
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