Today we’ve had a massive Errata and FAQ drop for Legions Imperialis. It includes a lot of rules clarifications but also a substantial errata that will change the game significantly.
Some of the biggest changes include reducing how far infantry can march and preventing infiltrators from charging on turn one. There are a few fixes to rules that didn’t work before, such as having Quake last until a unit next moves instead of uselessly wearing off at the end of the turn. There are also balance changes like giving drop pods and tarantulas tactical strength 0, meaning they can’t contest objectives.
Overall this is a far larger and more impactful update than we’ve had before. It takes the LI FAQ document from less than half a page of text to four full pages.
Additionally, we got a separate FAQ for Rise of the Dark Mechanicum, with some fairly significant changes to their units. Biggest of these is that robots can’t embark on Triaros transports any more.
Errata
Here’s where we see some fairly meaty changes to how the game will play.
Marching nerfed. Infantry now march twice their speed, not three times it. This will make it a bit harder for infantry to just swarm halfway across the board in a movement phase, which makes transports and alternative deployment options like drop pods more attractive.
Movement “-” really can’t move. Tarantulas can’t get in transports any more and get destroyed if they have to withdraw from combat.
realSnice: This does hurt some lists that relied on transported Tarantulas to keep away air support, but I have always found this interaction a reach and I’m glad for it to be removed from the conversation / game.
Advancing units have to activate to shoot. Though they don’t have to actually shoot anything so I’m not sure this matters.
Resolving hits, range and LoS. Models have to be eligible targets to have hits allocated to them.
Garrisoning structures and engaging Garrisoned structures. Some slightly confusing changes here. The key change is that only Infantry can now engage units Garrisoned in a structure. Other stuff doesn’t interact with the Garrison.
This means you can Garrison a structure even if there’s an enemy Rhino or some other non-Infantry unit within 1” of it, as you wouldn’t be engaged with them. And something like a Dreadnought or Knight can walk up to a Garrisoned structure and start Wrecking it, without engaging the Infantry inside.
Previously in theory you could stop your opponent from Garrisoning a structure by parking a vehicle within 1”. You could even end up with nobody able to enter a building if both sides did that. Meanwhile, Wrecker was just a bit of a mess. This clears all that up.
Mole Mortars can’t shoot down planes now. Rejoice!
Quake works! It used to halve your movement but wear off at the end of the turn, meaning it had no effect as shooting comes after movement. Now, you have halved movement and -1 to hit rolls the next time you move and/or shoot.
Shock Pulse works too! It’s the same change, affecting the next time you move or shoot.
Skyfire at one target. They’ve tightened the wording so that, while Skyfire guns can still shoot separate targets, they all have to fire at the same separate target.
Automated Sentry can’t actually guard stuff. Tactical Strength of 0 for Tarantulas. As such they can still hold objectives, but lose control the moment anyone else contests them.
Deep Strike clarified. Now if the first model scatters where it can’t be placed it and its whole Detachment are destroyed.
Also, Overwatch against Deep-strikers is resolved after all the models have set up, including disembarking from their drop pods.
Drop pods can’t guard stuff either. Tactical Strength zero for these, too.
Flyers can’t Overwatch. So why do they have defensive turrets? Actually people were Overwatching with things like skyfire missiles from Lightnings, which was a bit harsh.
Forward Deployment is after infiltration. So you can’t screen your DZ with forward-deployers, but you do get to see where everyone has appeared before you redeploy.
Oh and speaking of Infiltration… You can’t have a charge order on Turn 1. Infiltrate remains amazing but the days of setting up a line of Alpha Legion Leviathans 4” from the enemy are over, thankfully. It’s not a good day for Pioneer Company Veletarii, either.
realSnice: This is one of my favorite changes clarifications. It’s consistent with 28mm and also removes a major feelsbad.
Not-so-Masterful Tactician. Now, you can only change a Detachment’s order to one that it could have had in the orders phase. You can’t tell a Detachment of dreadnoughts to charge after getting out of drop pods or put an Imperial Fist Missile Detachment on First Fire after they get out of their Rhinos. Assault Transports like Land Raiders may now be worth their very high cost.
No ride-sharing. You can only embark on transports from your own Army List. Were you putting Ogryns in a Thunderhawk? Not any more.
Breakthrough mission clarified: You can’t pick Detachments in transports that aren’t on the board yet, meaning no yeeting flyers across for easy scoring.
Ultramarines, interlocking tactics. Minor change here so the reroll of 1s is only triggered by other models in different detachments. You can’t get rerolls for your main gun by firing your sponsons first or something like that.
Word Bearers, True Believers. No change but they fixed an earlier mistake in the wording, which implied broken units could only Advance or March, where in fact it’s Advance or Charge. If you’re more confused now than before you read that, my work here is done.
Alpha Legion Mutable Tactics. Clarified that you need to decide if you want to Infiltrate (or whatever) before deployment. Actually, given the changes to Infiltrate, you may now see Alpha Legion players choose other options.
FAQs
We won’t go through all of these as they’re generally less significant and some really are clarifications rather than changes. However, we wanted to pick out the following:
Morale checks from Combat don’t give a fallback order, but do suffer -1 as well as rolling 2 dice if Broken.
Firestorm now “hits all” if targeting a Structure. This is a bit vague, so presumably just a sliver of the Structure under the template causes this, and a template can potentially hit multiple structures. You do still have to roll to hit the people inside but with no penalties for cover and typically a save mod that they won’t enjoy.
Overwatch kills are resolved at the end of movement. This means losing a transport during its movement doesn’t leave their passengers stranded and force all the other transports to stop.
realSnice: This has caused more discussion than almost any other situation in my experience and I’m thrilled for this clarification.
Auras don’t work if embarked but do work if Garrisoned in a structure – we think radiating from the structure’s whole footprint. That’s potentially a lot of coverage for an Apothecary in a building.
Infiltrators can Garrison structures on deployment. Nobody was quite sure about this one so it’s good to clear that up.
Drop pods have to deploy with open doors, and you measure from there. Bigger pods are marginally more likely to have accidents when they deep strike, but do give you more options for deploying their infantry cargo.
The Great Slaughter
Only some minor changes here.
Deathstorm Drop Pods get Orbital Assault, which was left off in error.
Remote Detonation for the Cyclops is slightly changed. Now, you put the central hole of your 3″ blast within 1″ of the Cyclops instead of right on top of it. You ought to be able to hit more enemies this way and you can place the central hole on a structure to hit models inside.
Finally, they clarify that Palisade drop pods can’t be added to dedicated transport Detachments.
Rise of the Dark Mechanicum
First, there’s a clarification of a bit of random text about Titans having a hard time capturing Objectives. People had drawn all sorts of conclusions from that and this clarifies that it doesn’t really mean anything.
Other changes are much more impactful, however.
First, Thallax lose their plasma-fusils and instead gain Multi-meltas – which is what the models have. Every Thallax base now has a really nasty anti tank gun, albeit with only a 6” range. They keep their Lightning Guns too.
Both types of Myrmidons get a glow-up, in the form of a second gun. Secutors are given the plasma-fusils that the Thallax lost, in addition to their Maxima bolters, which is a major addition to their firepower.
Myrmidon Destructors have both Volkites and Conversion beamers now. It’s another major increase to firepower, though perhaps not so significant as they end up with one dedicated anti-tank gun and one for killing infantry, meaning they won’t always both be useful.
This is a little awkward for people who’ve already built their Destructors, carefully separating Volkite and Beamer guys. Not a big deal, as there’s now no need to distinguish them.
These positives are mostly cancelled out unfortunately by the Triaros losing Large Transport and becoming merely a normal Transport. That means you can’t put your robots, which are Walkers, inside Triaros any more, which radically reduces their mobility.
This was always probably a mistake, as big-scale robots have never been allowed inside Triaros. But at epic scale it means robots are mostly just a bit useless. A robot typically costs about as much as two dreadnoughts, with two wounds but comparable firepower and limited orders. Of course, two dreadnoughts have two wounds between them anyway, so halving our damage output for the same price is not attractive.
It’s a real shame that these iconic models are so overpriced. They’re certainly not the only units in LI with the wrong points costs but it’s a shame they’re all bad.
Conclusion
The Warhammer Community article today says, “We’ve identified a number of small changes we wanted to make to the game.” We think that’s a bit inaccurate. Some of these changes to special rules might seem quite minor but actually they will hugely impact armies designed under the original rules.
The change to Infiltrate is great, and reflects how it works at 32mm. However it will mean people need to quite radically change armies designed to sneak up for a first turn charge. You’ll see fewer infiltrating Leviathans but maybe more Rapiers and things like that, especially now it’s clear they can be set up in buildings covering the midfield.
realSnice: Totally agree with the above and overall I’m thrilled to see this FAQ despite the ruffled feathers of what should or shouldn’t be a Heresy Thursday article. I wish we had further clarification around the independent rule but this is a huge update for LI, and one that was desperately needed. I just hope we don’t have to wait another year (or more) for the next one.
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