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.
Seraphon, home to one of the best casters in the game and one of the top tier armies since their 2nd edition Battletome. Having a high degree of flexibility around every stage of play and multiple ways to play, from monsters to hordes, Seraphon are an exceedingly adaptable army for many players. Did the FAQ knock them down a peg or leave them up on the shelf?
The Good
- Bounded Endless Spells: Previously, keeping an endless spell under their control was an ability unique to Seraphon (and Ossiarch Bonereapers, but Seraphon did it first). They paid a small premium for the privilege but it was worth it to keep Predatory Endless Spells out of your opponent’s hands. Now that mechanic is mostly universal, though Seraphon are not bound by the 30″ rule like other armies. While that’s not terribly useful, it’s also free, as you’re not paying a premium for “bound versions” of spells. You can even still grab wild spells and wrestle them under your yoke!
- Realmshaper Engine: Not all good, bit of a mixed bag, but its major drawback has been removed. It can now hold 15 models instead of 20 wounds, making it less ideal for skinks, but more so for Saurus. A win overall. More importantly, you can now place it after deployments have been determined instead of before, so you won’t accidentally drop it in your opponent’s deployment zone (in fact you can’t). Overall despite the drawbacks I think it’s a win. It is free after all.
The Bad
- Slaan Starmasters and Skink Starseers generate less CP: Slight rewording of the ability to generate CP makes this ever so slightly worse. Now you only roll once (instead of per model) and get your 1 or 2 CP on a 4+. This probably won’t affect you unless you were running multiple, but you also have more CP to throw around so it’s not the end of the world.
The Ugly
- Perfect Mimickry: Now gives Chameleons a 4+ Ward instead of +3 to saves. Oof. You can’t field squads nearly as large anymore (Capping out at 10 instead of 20) so they can’t weather too many hits. Sure everyone lost a lot of great save buffs with the caps to save rolls but this is brutal for them in particular.
Overall nothing too bad here. Most of the changes affect Seraphon positively (except for those poor chameleons). It’s safe to say their position in dominance has been protected.
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