GW released a bombshell of new FAQs on Friday, covering errata for the core book and lengthy FAQs for each faction. And as always, we’ve got you covered with the rundown of what’s changed and what it means for your games. In this series of Hot Take articles, we’ll be covering the changes and our initial reactions to them but for more detailed analysis, check back over the next two weeks as we dive deeper into how these changes affect the game and its factions.
Most of these “changes” are not surprising and are just there to keep the wording in line with the new edition. Which is nice and clear at least, so it looks like a lot more than it actually is in terms of how things work in game. Fyreslayers see some of the heftier changes and so the format of this is a bit different from the others.
Magmic Invocations
I’m going to start with the Magmic Invocations since those are some of the biggest changes for us as a faction, and no one is going to be largely happy about it but let’s look at how they work now. They are officially “invocations” as per all invocation rules in the core book but what’s actually different are the warscrolls for them:
Zharrgron Flame-Spitter
The mortal wound output is exactly the same as it always was, 12 dice, 6’s for mortal wounds, if 10-19 models in the target unit then it’s 5+ for mortals and if it’s 20+ then 4+ for mortals. However, now, if you roll 4 or more natural 6’s it just disappears after causing those wounds. Why? This got more expensive, invocations can now be removed by enemy priests, and they still have the Temperamental Nature rule of maybe-disappearing at the end of battle round. So why add another way it just disappears? Since our priests can no longer chant a prayer as well as summon an invocation this seems like a very unnecessary nerf.
Runic Fyrewall
Well, if you were relying on this blocking line of sight to help protect your units from shooting units/armies, say goodbye to that tactic. It no longer blocks line of sight at all, just blocks movement for anything other than Magmadroths and Fly units, which, don’t get me wrong, is still useful for forcing a chokepoint.
Also, no longer give’s re-roll saves of 1. Now, almost everything that gave re rolls previously has changed to a +1 save instead, but instead of that now this gives a ward save to a unit wholly within 12” at the beginning of every phase and lasts until the end of the phase. This seems unnecessarily tedious making it phase-by-phase instead of making it a Hero Phase thing that lasts the turn. Roll a dice for that unit, a 1-5 awards a 6+ ward and a 6 awards a 4+ ward instead. Now, the bulk of your army likely already has ward saves through artefacts of power or being Hearthguard Berzerkers, however this is very useful on Auric Hearthguard specifically so that they can tank wounds off of nearby Heroes and then get a ward save to just negate it right after.
I’m still not sure this is worth the new and expensive cost with how easy invocations just disappear from the table though.
Molten Infernoth
The only one that’s actually seen a bit of a boost, and I’m wondering how my current list of 1955 points can try and slot it in (no easy way) at 60 points because I think it’s actually great in that it can force a chokepoint much like the Fyrewall can, but also it moves and causes mortal wounds to nearby non-Fyreslayers after its 2D6” move. Rolling 12 dice and each 6 causing a mortal wound is nothing amazing though, dealing on average just 2 mortal wounds, however if the 2D6” move happened to be a double then each 6 causes D3 mortal wounds each instead, which averages as 4 mortal wounds. Still not amazing but it’s a big model that gets in the way and that weaker/damaged units will want to avoid in fear of death.
Oh and it lost its Bravery boosting bubble, I guess a giant molten figuring swimming through the table isn’t actually inspiring to fyreslayers.
Magmic Battleforge
Moving away from the Invocations, the terrain piece sees a new warscroll as well. Now set up after territories are chosen and more than 3” away from any other pieces of terrain before any models go down, bringing it in line with all other faction terrain which now works this way too. Gives +1 to all chanting rolls for Fyreslayer Priests within 18” of it, so long as 1 priest is within 6”. This means that invocation rolls will now benefit from the +1 roll, not just prayers. Which is nice if you’re actually taking any.
The other effect has changed, you can “spend” the forge by a priest being within 6” and then your army gains a 6+ ward save instead of re-rolling saves of 1. Now with re-rolls all but disappearing this makes sense that it’s different, but it’s not the +1 save that many abilities are changing to. As said under the Fyrewall, with most of the army already having access to a Ward save of some form this doesn’t feel great. If you’re fielding lots of Aurics and Vulkites then it can be nice, same as with a Lofnir Droth list, but even then 2 of those are likely to have 5+ ward saves already (core book artefact and the cloak artefact on a smiter on droth).
Zharrgrim Blessings
Most of these haven’t changed and now target units within the range given instead of wholly-within
Just adding to how Invocations have been nerfed horrendously over all, the Molten Infusion blessing has been removed. Not changed, just removed entirely. So, no more that then if you were using it to help make sure that Fyrewall you stuck down actually stays. But let’s be real no one was using so that’s fine.
Gilded Claws is the only one that’s actually changed in how it works, now giving a Magmadroth +1 to wound rolls with its claw attacks instead of re-roll wound rolls, meaning those will be wounding on a 2+. I like this, it’s simple, in line with other re-roll changes and with a CP spent on hit rolls to bring them to 3+ very solid attacks from the droth.
All of the others are the same as before, just the wording changed slightly to accommodate the new edition and as stated before, all require the unit to be within range, not wholly within.
Lodges
No actual changes here, wording just fixed to work in 3.0. Such as Hermdar’s command ability now giving a unit of Vulkite or Hearthguard Berzerkers the fight-first ability as opposed to “fighting at the beginning of the phase” which is effectively the same, just makes it clear as to how it interacts with other units with the same ability.
Lofnir again is just reworded here so that you can take an extra Behemoth in any matched play game of any size.
Units
One place where re-rolls have not left us is the Batllesmith. If the Battlesmith is killed then you still have the option to be able to guard the banner and gain re-roll hits and wounds with the unit that does for the rest of the game at the cost of no longer being able to make Normal moves or Charge moves. Interestingly this was not errata’d to disallow run moves, which are now entirely separate from normal moves, so you can pick it up and spring around the board to your heart’s content! You just can’t walk with it or charge with it. Expect this to change in the next FAQ when they actually pick up on it.
Auric Runesmiters’, both on and off magmadroths, in-built prayer Runic Empowerment has changed from re-roll wound rolls to be +1 to wound rolls instead, which is attractive on any unit.
The Icon of Grimnir held up by Battlesmiths can only effect units once with its ability, which isn’t a change from the previous FAQ but still nice to be clear that you can’t stack extra saves with multiple of these heroes near units (which would help against rend).
The Auric Runemaster’s never-used warscroll prayer has seen a (very unecessary) hit, only targeting a terrain piece wholly-within 18” and no longer causing the Deadly terrain rule to be applied to the piece of terrain hit. You have other prayers you’ll be using anyways.
Auric Runesons kind of have a place now as well. Coming in just shy of 100 points, the aura command ability hasn’t changed I just want to point out that with the changes to how command abilities work using that means you can also still use All Out Attack on a unit as well, meaning that some Hearthguard Berzerkers can be hitting and wounding on 2+. Nasty.
So overall, good things for Fyreslayers (aside from the poor, poor Invocations) for now but will see what happens when we get the 3.0 battletome, at some point.
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