The internets, by and wide, seem pretty happy with the new GK codex. Well, I’m not.
No, it’s not sour grapes cuz they made the GK codex less powerful, or nerfed my favorite trick. Quite the opposite, I think it made GK more powerful.
What I hate is that these FAQs (both the Main Rulebook FAQ and Grey Knight FAQ) is that it was kinda the usual thing, only more so. They answered questions that no one was asking, didn’t answer most of the questions actually had, and then made some extra stupid decisions besides.
So, I’m going to grade the FAQs. 1 pt for each questions answered, -1 pt for each totally stupid ruling made, and then divide that by the total questions people actually had. I’ll leave the questions they answered that no one was asking neutral.
Questions they answered that no one was asking (0 pts):
From the Main FAQ:
- Q: Are Wounds from Dangerous Terrain tests allocated….?
- Q: Can a model equipped with multiple grenades us….?
- Q: What psychic powers count as psychic shooting…..?
- Q: Do psychic shooting attacks need to roll to hit….?
From GK FAQ:
- Q: If a unit is the target of Unyielding Anvil, from the Grand Strategy special rule, and it splits into combat squads…?
- Q: Can vehicles benefit from the effect of The Shrouding psychic power if they are in range?
- Q: What effect does the Cleansing Flame psychic powerhave on vehicles?
- Q: Does a Dreadknight armed with two Nemesis doomfists get an extra attack in close combat?
- Q: Can Brother-Captain Stern use his Zone of Banishment psychic power if he is not engaged incombat?
- Q: If Justicar Thawn is dead at the end of a game involving kill points, does he only give away one killpoint regardless of how many times he was killed?
- Q: When are the shooting attacks from Inquisitor Coteaz’s I’ve Been Expecting You special rule fired?
- Q: Will Inquisitorial Servitors in a squad without an Inquisitor that has been joined by a Techmarine stillsuffer from Mindlock?
- Q: If a Callidus Assassin chooses a unit of vehicles as itstarget for its Polymorphine special rule what facing ishit?
- Q: If an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor takes 2 Daemonblades how is this resolved?
- Q: Does the entire unit need to be equipped with rad, psyk-out and/or psychotroke grenades for their effects to work or is just one model being equiped with them enough?
- Q: Do you take into account the strength increase fromthe psybolt and psyflame ammunition vehicle upgradeswhen working out if a weapon is a defensive weaponor not? If a vehicle has either of these upgrades, mustyou use them?
- Q: Can you only take an Inquisitorial henchmen warband if you have an Inquisitor in your army?
OK, folks that is 4+14=17 absolutely useless questions. They don’t hurt anything, but seriously, no one wondered this stuff. Just wasting our time and assuming we’re stupid.
Questions that they answered, and answered well (1 pt each):
- Q: How does Rending work if you get to roll multipledice for the Armour Penetration roll? (‘course, they didn’t mention the +3 str from the sniper, but whatever)
- Q: Can a psyker attempt to cast the same psychicpower more than once in a turn? (I actually disagree with this, but at least they answered it straight up)
- Q: What counts as a Daemon??
- Q: If a walker is the target of Unyielding Anvil, fromthe Grand Strategy special rule, can it claim objectiveseven though it is a vehicle?
- Q: Personal teleporters make the unit with them jumpinfantry. How does this affect a Dreadknight with apersonal teleporter?
- Q: Wounds caused by a Purgation Squad after usingtheir Astral Aim psychic power get an unmodifiable 4+cover save. Can these be taken against Wounds causedby incinerators?
- Q. Taking Inquisitor Coteaz in your force turnsHenchman Warbands into troops choices. Does thismean that they take up a force organisation slot andcan no longer be taken as an elites choice? (OK, this was a dumb question, but it did have to be answered.)
- Q: Does a Dreadknight with a Nemesis doomfist strike at Strength 6 or Strength 10 in close combat? (OK, this makes sense from a cost standpoint, but if this was your feeling on it, why give an MC a DCCW? Make up some new weapon for him, whatever.)
- Q: For each Jokaero Weaponsmith in a henchman unitafter the first you add +1 to the InconceivableCustomisation roll. Does this mean that if you have 6 ormore Jokaero in a unit that they will receive no bonuses ?(as you cannot roll less than a 6 and duplicate rolls are ignored)
- Q: Can models in Terminator armour embark onto an Inquisitorial Chimera? (I think this is sorta dumb, but whatever, breaks no precedents)
- Q: If the unit targeted by a Callidus Assassin’sPolymorphine special rule is wiped out by it, where isthe Assassin placed? (silly but a question that did need an answere)
- Q: Do Nemesis falchions count as 2 close combatweapons and thus give +2 Attacks in close combat (+1for their special rule and +1 for wielding 2 closecombat weapons) (this is the big one people were wondering. But then, why give all the fluff about how damn fast they were? Also, why would anyone, ever, under any circumstances, pay 10 pts for these on GKSS?)
- Q: How do you work out whether a psyker is affectedby the Psi-shock special rule on a mindstrike missile ora psyk-out bomb?
- Q: Are units with either the Stubborn or Mob Rule!special rules effected by the ‘They’re horrible’ result ofthe psychotroke grenade?
- Q: Does the effect of servo-skulls stack? For examplewould it reduce the scatter distance by 2D6 if you arewithin 12″ of two?
- Q: Would an orbital strike relay targeted within 12″ ofone or more servo-skulls have its scatter distance reduced? (this makes OSRs truly useless, but OK)
OK, 16 well-answered questions. Less than the useless questions, but whatever.
Questions that are just plain wrong. Make for dumb rules, break balances, or ignore precedent (-1 pts each):
- Q: Do the effects of the same psychic power castmultiple times on the same unit stack? (this is fail. You will see GK squads with 7, 8 str now, plus rad grenades. Other game systems ban same power stacking for a fucking reason. This is that reason.)
- Q: If a Grand Master gives a unit with personalteleporters the Scouts special rule, can they use the shunt move as a part of their Scouts move? (Fail, broke a precedent. I don’t care about shunt punch, it was kinda marginal, but scout bikes, for instance, can clearly do the exact same thing.)
- Q: When are the shooting attacks from Inquisitor Coteaz’s I’ve Been Expecting You special rule fired? (nope, broke a precedent. Previous FAQ on the previous daemonhunter codex ruled the exact opposite way. Also, Coteaz is already kinda overpowered for 100 pts)
- Q: If a model with a Nemsesis force halberd has had hisInitiative reduced to a fixed number by anability/special rule, do they still get the +2 Initiativefrom the Halberd? (don’t care about this balance wise, but it breaks precedent for no good reason)
- Q: Does an enemy unit arriving by deep strike ordeploying within 6″ of a servo-skull count as movingto within 6″ of it? (Nope, I’m sorry, you’re just wrong. Deployment is not movement. It won’t matter, I’ll Just put the skulls 6″ back, but it’s wrong)
- Q: What counts as a plasma weapon for the UlumeathiPlasma Syphon? (Massively dumb ruling. When people were wondering, “what is a plasma weapon?” they meant “does it include plasma rifles?”, not the entire damn Tau army.)
OK, only 6 questions that are just flat-out wrong. But some of these were actually pretty strongly game-affecting, and making the game just worse for no reason.
OK, from my two previous posts, we can see I had something like 25 questions already in my first two FAQ posts, part 1 and part 2. I had at least a third post planned and it would have been another 10 questions, a couple of which they did answer. So, 35 legit questions. (for an idea of what some of them would have been, check out this Warseer thread. Not mine, just a good source)
They answered 16 well. 6 are just stupid. That makes the final score…….
10/35= 29%
Not just an F, folks, but a deep F. I’ll list all the questions I still have in another post, this one is long enough.
4 Responses to “Reviewing the Grey Knight FAQ…….how well did they do?”
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It is a FAQ. Frequently Asked Questions.
Thus, they probably have been asked those questions that you claim never were asked, and responded to it.
This hobby is made of kids, people with English as their secondary language and plain lazy people, with easily answered questions, but questions that needs to be answered regardless. Saves time compared to answering it individually I guess, though it is annoying people can't read the rules properly.
Otherwise, I agree with everything except deploying within 6" of servoskull removes them. They count as moving. Count as. Any other answer would be illogical IMO.
It's not something I care over much about, its just that Deployment is not movement, in any way.
I refuse to believe that the any GW action is based upon something so simple and reasonable as "We answered in our Frequently Asked Questions the questions that were most frequently asked". I know there were tons of questions everyone was asking that didn't get answered.
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