Welcome to Ruleshammer! My ongoing attempt to make sense of the many rules, abilities and interactions of both in games of Warhammer 40k. This week I’m covering some extra Aeldari questions!
Q&A
Table of Contents
Batle Focus Moves and Models within Area Terrain
The Battle Focus move has restrictions when models are moving over area terrain, but what if the models are already on the terrain and don’t “wish to move”? Let’s check the rule first.
Battle Focus Moves Through Area Terrain
If a unit make a Battle Focus move and any of it’s model wish to move over any part of an Area Terrain Feature, subtract 3″ from the distance models in that unit can move when making that Battle Focus move (to a minimum of 0). This penalty applies even if every part of that Area Terrain feature is 1″ or less in height, but is not cumulative with any other penalties that Area Terrain feature may impose (e.g. the difficult ground terrain trait).
So really what the heck does “wish to move” mean. Like if you’re using Battle Focus then don’t all the models wish they could move and some of them can’t because they’re on a terrain feature? I’m not being serious with that suggestion but it’s pretty odd phrasing. Especially as if any of them wish to move, the 3″ subtraction is for the every model in the unit. So what if you’re in the situation below?
I’m really not sure if the rule sufficiently covers this situation; if the units rolls a 3 for their Battle Focus move, can the unit move at all? Personally I lean to yes, if you don’t move any of the models already on the terrain but we really could use an FAQ to clear this up.
Pre-FAQ Suggestion: If some models in a unit are not within Area Terrain when using the Battle Focus move ability then you can move those models the full amount rolled so long as the models that are within the area terrain do not move.
Strands of Fate and The Selectable Keywords FAQ
I’ve had a few people asking me about this FAQ and if it interacts with Strands of Fate (SoF) or for that matter any other “all your army” abilities.
Q: Are named characters exempt from the rules that require every unit that has a selectable keyword to have the same selectable keyword?
A: Yes. Though named characters can have sub-faction keywords these are typically predetermined and not selected by the player (i.e. they are not typically presented within angular brackets).
The short answer is no. This FAQ is not about rules that give an army an ability for all sharing a keyword, it’s about rules that require an army all have the same selectable keyword.
Strands of Fate doesn’t require or enforce they all be the same, it rewards having the same <CRAFTWORLD>
If every unit from your army has the ASURYANI keyword and is drawn from the same CRAFTWORLD
like it’s a question not a imperative. Strands would need to be
All units with the Strands of Fate ability must be drawn from the same <CRAFTWORLD>
to say it “requires all selectable keywords be the same”, where as
All of the units in a player’s army that have selectable Faction keywords – that is Faction keywords presented in angular brackets that a player selects when they add those units to their army – must all have the same selectable keywords.
This rule from GT2022 Nachmund is requiring they all be the same, the keyword there being “must”. So this doesn’t allow an army to include The Yncarne to be in a different <CRAFTWORLD> army and keep Strands of Fate.
Mirror Architect and Solitaire
Q: If I have a Harlequin Troupe with a mirror architect Shadowseer and a Solitaire standing in the middle of them, can the troupe protect the solitaire with look out sir? Or does mirror architect mean he counts as the closest model, even though he isn’t actually the closest model?
I think as odd as this interaction is the current answer is yes, but lets look at why; what does Mirror Architect do is a good place to start.
Mirror Architect (AURA)
While a friendly <SAEDATH> unit is within 6″ of this model, each time an enemy units is selected to shoot, when measuring range to any model in that <SAEDATH> unit, that model in that <SAEDATH> unit is considered to be an additional 6″ away from the shooting model.
So in a normal Look Out, Sir scenario, a unit of Troupes would be able to protect a character. Like the Marines in this Diagram below are protecting a Librarian.
However if the Shadowseer gets within Range of that Troupe unit, then when measuring range to them for shooting your opponent will treat them as being 6″ further away. This would be fine if the Character they were protecting was also affected by the Aura, however Solitaires don’t have the <SAEDATH> keyword. So while the Troupe unit now counts as further away a Solitaire will not, potentially making it the closest enemy model and removing the protection of Look Out Sir.
Strands of Fate, Luck of the Laughing God, and missing exclusions
Both of these abilities have some pretty clear exclusions missing.
If every unit from your army has the Asuryani keyword and is drawn from the same craftworld (excluding models with the ANHRATHE or UNALIGNED keywords), then at the start of each battle round, you can make a Strands of Fate Roll.
Strands of Fate is missing an exclusion to let you ignore Pheonix Lord units for this check. I say it’s obvious that this is missing because Asurmen, Baharroth, Fuegan, Jain Zar, etc all have Strands of Fate as an ability on their Datasheets. If including them was intended to break Strands of Fate they wouldn’t have the ability.
Pre FAQ Suggestion: Play as if “Pheonix Lord” is included after ANHRATHE in the list of units to exclude from the “drawn from the same craftworld” check.
Similarly the same issue exists for Luck of the Laughing God and Solitaires.
If every unit from your army has the HARLEQUINS keyword and is performing the same SAEDATH (excluding units with the UNALIGNED keyword)…
it’s just Solitaires but like Pheonix Lords and SoF, they do have Luck of the Laughing God on their Datasheet.
Pre FAQ Suggestion: Play as if SOLITAIRE units are excluded from the “same SAEDATH” check for Luck of the Laughing God.
More Aeldari answers are available in the full Ruleshammer 40: Aeldari article here
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