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.
With 3.0 hitting the tables this past week with a new set of Stormcast models, it would be surprising to expect this FAQ to address much in ways of dealing with the faction as a whole. Instead, this FAQ is a hold over until the new 3.0 tome drops some time in August, and much of what is here deals with certain rules and clarifications of updating the existing tome to 3.0 standards.
That said, there is still a decent amount of material here, so let’s dive in and see what Sigmar’s Golden Children are up to as they wait for their new book.
The Good
- Largely clarifications, not nerfs. Cycle of the Storm, Retribution on High, and a few other odd rules get clarifications. Stormcast seem to have a lot of either poorly worded or edge case rules, given they were released first. So this is nice to get some of these answered.
- Everblaze Comet Glow up – The damage is a bit more random but it has a higher ceiling (6 is a D6 instead of flat 3) and the -1 to cast is now 10″ instead of 5″
The Bad
- “Only the Faithful” affects your own spells. Bizarrely this remains, pretty much being the only army that does it that way. I thought it was early codex syndrome but they decided to keep it.
- Sigmarite Shield (and similar powers) nerfed – Instead of reroll failed saves most now reduce rend by 1. The Thundershield on the Stardrake now deals a MW on a 6 instead of reroll failed saves and Sequitors get a 5+ Ward in defense stance. This is still good because it gets to stack to +1 to save rolls but definitely not as spicy as reroll failed saves. It’s part of a general game trend to cut down on Rerolls so don’t fret, you’re probably not the only one in your group going through it.
- Having an official document say “As the proud owner of a Stardrake”. This is just weird, although the person then misunderstanding their own unit they’re so proud of is actually kind of funny. Cringe.
The Ugly
- None of this probably matters. The new Stormcast tome comes in a few weeks, so how much these FAQs actually matter overall is debatable. At least for now we all get to enjoy our 2nd ed tomes (Sorry Nurgle and Deepkin).
Shockingly, Stormcast got a fairly hefty FAQ when compared to Orruks. What that implies for their 3.0 tome is anyone’s guess, but with it coming sometime in August, there is likely not a lot of time for any of this to matter greatly. It does show that Stormcast, who tend to get their tomes first, certainly don’t “age” well, as their FAQ is one of the longer of the bunch. Such is the life of Sigmar’s Golden Children, we suppose! For now, this FAQ does an ok job of making Stormcast playable, but check back in August when we get a chance to see how the new rules and units will really merge with the army fully for a better picture of Stormcast’s overall strengths.
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