GW released a bombshell of new FAQs today, 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.
Spooky ghosts and…yeah just ghosts. Poor Nighthaunts were a launch faction and have felt very neglected through most of their existence. Their heroes are were always a bit too delicate for their own good and that was A Problem as they’re an army who relies on their Heroes more than your average army. Ethereal is a nice rule, but not with below average Wounds, and the move away from rerolls in 3.0 really hurts them since they can’t take positive modifiers from say the Mystic Shield. In short, it doesn’t look good. Is there any bright spots on the horizon? Read on.
The Good
- Briar Queen is a wizard now. That’s neat. Warbands are still not going to see play in many games, but it does give her a bit of an asset if you wanted to.
- Kurdross can thief 2 command points now. This is more about the rules changing around it, but the change in the text is very appreciated.
- Bladegheists Revenant are ELITE. in short this means they can issue orders to themselves despite not having a leader. Good stuff.
- Black Coach is a TOTEM. Now that’s nice. Not sure if it’s the circles I hang in but I see a few more Black Coaches out there then I used to, and being a mobile command center is a nice power boost for them.
- Soul Reaper lost its edge. More of a mixed bag than “good” or “bad”. You now only roll two dice instead of one for each model, and each does D3 mortals if you roll over their armor value. This actually means its target is Heroes or small elite units, rather than hordes. I think think is a good change, because “roll a die for each model in a unit” spells are a dime a dozen, such as…
- Vault of Souls – Also positive change, it’s counter is set for 10 instead of 20, making it far more likely it will actually detonate.
The Bad
- That’s it. Some nice changes but probably not the ones you wanted to hear. You’ll have to wait for a battletome
The Ugly
- Why isn’t the Black Coach a Monster? Nighthaunts have no Monsters outside of a Forgeworld model, unless they ally in a Gargant or Soulblight Gravelords unit. Sucks, because Monsters are so key to this year’s battlepack.
So mostly small but good news for Nighthaunt honestly. Nothing game changing but they at least didn’t move down in standing from where they were. The mechanics changes around them really hurt and that’s something we’ll need to examine closer in a faction focus, which will be coming soon!
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