Friday 1 March 2019

Warhammer 9th Ed 1.4 out now!

Updated to 1.41 2/3:
  • Made first Miscast result 1-3 in case a miscast happens without rolling any power dice.
  • Changed it so you cannot use hand weapons if you have another special weapon.
  • Fixed issue with bugged section breaks in the special rules section, organised it clearer with no special rule being divided across multiple pages (except Breath Weapons).

A fairly big and important update, fixing numerous issues as well as being a major change in how magic and charging works:
  • Standard of Shielding gives 6+ ward vs missiles only.
  • Warbeasts are Expendable.
  • Monstrous Beasts do not cause impact hits by default.
  • Clarified monstrous support for monstrous cavalry and monstrous beasts (mounts do not get supporting attacks).
  • Unit Strength 10 or more units automatically kill units when charging or pursuing fleeing enemies, less than Unit Strength 10 inflicts W based on Unit Strength.
  • Clarified that Ranger Standard applies to any mount the rider has.
  • Clarified that direct damage spells and magical vortexes do not counts as missile attacks.
  • Fixed bug with ASF stating attacks are rolled at the same time.
  • Clarified that "re-roll misses" means To Hit rolls.
  • Changed Spear and Lance "(Cavalry)" to "(Mounted)".
  • Removed "Note that a unit may only make an actual Flee move once per phase. If multiple units have declared a charge against a unit that chooses to Flee, the unit will turn around and run directly away from the enemy unit with the highest Unit Strength." from "MULTIPLE CHARGE REACTIONS"
  • Removed "Note that if you can only maximise the number of models fighting by contacting another enemy unit, you do not have to declare a charge against that unit as well." from "ALIGNING TO THE ENEMY".
  • Clarified that fleeing units that attempts to rally at 25% US have halved leadership after  any other modifiers, special rule or abilities are applied, rounded up.
  • Added that High Ground applies if you charged down from a hill the same turn.
  • Expendable no longer causes Panic at all to non-Expendable units.
  • Clarified that Cavalry characters with an armour save better than 5+ causes Fast Cavalry to lose their Fast Cavalry rule.
  • Fixed bugs with RIDDEN MONSTERS & SPLIT PROFILE that referred to chariots.
  • Clarified that Look Out Sir happens automatically and does not require a roll, and that it does not count as a save for rules purposes.
  • Added Panic and Terror to examples of war machine crew fleeing.
  • Add psychology test to and Leadership test section. Models with Immunity (Psychology) are (of course) Immune to Psychology tests. Panic tests are Psychology tests.
  • Stubborn only applies if the majority of the models in a unit have it.
  • Parry does not apply to Frenzied units, and cannot be used to Parry attacks that are twice the Strength of the Parrying model's own Strength.
  • Suspicious Allies can not target each other with friendly spells, like augments.
  • Trusted Allies may only use inspiring presence and hold your ground if from the same army book.
  • Always Strikes Last now causes models to re-roll successful To Hit rolls if their initiative is also lower than that of the enemy.
  • Magic resistance returned to former system of 1-3, now gives bonus to dispel in additon to ward saves, so they can be used against hexes as well. Magic Resistance limited to 4+ at best like other ward saves.
  • For every natural 6 rolled when casting/dispelling a spell, you automatically have to roll an additional 'free' power/dispel dice to boost the casting/dispel value even further. 
  • Removed Irrestisible Force for both casting and dispelling.
  • Extended Miscast Table with plenty of new results.
  • Poisoned Attacks gives +1 to Wound rather than auto-wounding on 6's.
  • When charging, you roll 2D6 rather than 2D3, and discard the lowest result. Models with Swiftstride and Movement 6 or lower roll 2D6. Models with Swiftstride and Movement 7 or more roll 3D6 and discard the lowest result.
  • Changed last paragraph of Stupidity to the following: "Until they pass the Stupidity test again, models that have failed their Stupidity test have Immunity (Psychology), Random Movement (D6), can only choose Hold! as a charge reaction, cannot choose to do a combat reform, and Wizards cannot attempt to cast or channel power dice or dispel dice."
  • Clarified that if a model is armed with another weapon besides their hand weapon, they must use this at all times (unless they also have a shield).
  • Clarified that weapons may not be swapped at the start of each close combat unless specified.
  • Added "Alternatively, if both players agree, you could choose to pick your force from two different armies. Ideally this should be done by both sides so that each player is given an equal chance to build an allied force. Regardless of the number of players, each army must have their own General and Battle Standard Bearer." to the Allied Armies chapter.
  • Added Animated Construct special rule. Animated Constructs have the Unbreakable and Immunity (Poisoned Attacks) special rules (explained later in this chapter), and automatically pass any Leadership tests taken for re-directing charges, reforming, and restraining from pursuit. However, they may not march or use stand and shoot as a charge reaction.
  • Potion of Strength, Toughness and Speed give +D3 to stats, 10 pts.
  • Blade of Sea Gold 25 pts.
  • Dragon Blade 60 pts.
  • Fixed multiple smaller bugs.

13 comments:

  1. Quite a bit of flexibility you're adding if anyone with a shield can choose to go into a fight just using that instead of any special weapon they're wielding
    Nerfs to poison and stubborn are heavy, but I really approve of stupidity having the impossibility of initiating combat removed. I was thinking how much more mandatory it'd become to keep Trolls close to the general if we're not able to give them a baby-sitting character anymore, but allowing them to 'charge' even with a failed test will help a bit

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    1. Well, it won't affect that many units. It's mainly to clear up the rules for units like Black Orcs and Putrid Blightkings.

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    2. Won't affect many units? There's plenty of units and characters that can take shields alongside great weapons, halberds, two hand weapons or so forth, even if it was just for protection against shooting up until now.

      Spear-and-shield alone is hardly a rare load-out, and models like Night Goblins for whom spears are free would leave a player asking 'Why NOT take spears' if he's free to choose not to use them

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    3. Fair point, though spears won't be free in their next update. I'll make using shields a special rule for those units that have multiple weapons instead, and revert the rule to previous version to avert those situations. Thanks for the feedback!

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  2. I can understand most of your changes but some of them are iffy:
    -There is no 1 or 2 value on the Miscast table. What happens when someone suffers an Automatic Miscast from an effect (I hope I'm remembering properly, I think there are effects that trigger Miscasts without any spell being cast) and then rolls a 1 or 2 on their dice roll. Since no dice were used in the spell, nothing is added to the 1 or 2 rolls.
    -Though I like that you separated Miscasts from your version of Irresistible Force, I'd like to know why you removed Irresistible Force and replaced it with Ultimate Power. What if someone already rolls a high number of 6s with a spell, should they really be forced to risk miscasts with additional dice?
    -I don't understand what's preventing a character from poisoning a magical weapon they are wielding.
    -Why is it that you made it that units of a high Unit Strength able to instantly destroy other fleeing units? The change to units inflicting damage was added to prevent units from causing ridiculous amounts of damage in a short time but now that's back. What if 10 men run down a 50 strong tarpit of Peasants? I'd say, keep it as it was, 10 or higher unit strength units will still destroy most fleeing units and tear a massive gash out of any particularly large one.
    -Since fleeing units with less than 25% US are less likely to rally, maybe do the same with single model units, but with wounds instead (for example, a quarter of a giants wounds is 1.25, if they have a single wound left, they are not likely to come back if they flee). It's also possible to make it that all units halve their Leadership (rounded up) when below 25% strength to represent how they are on their last legs.
    -Why don't Animated Constructs have Unstable? Is there anything fluffed as an Animated Construct that does not?
    -There's a formatting error on page 57 in the form of a needless page break.

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    1. - Good point, will fix.
      - Yes, that's the idea. The odds of rolling that many sixes is pretty low though, but it's not very different from rolling double 6's in 8th ed, which you also have no control over.
      - Mainly about balance reasons.
      - It was made for streamlining purposes, the main reason it was changed in the first place was to avoid situations where a single model can kill a horde through a pursuit move. US10 means you actually need a full unit in order to use it, and saves time not having to count US all the same. It it deincentivises using huge units, since there is a greater risk of losing the whole thing.
      - That becomes a bit more fiddly since it's not as visually clear, and forces you to calculate in decimals a lot more.
      - Some constructs like the Rune Guardians are not unstable, since they are not magical.
      - Will fix.

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  3. Mostly good changes from what I can see Mathias, but I question a few of them though:

    1. Stubborn: So now the Crown of Command is that you command yourself and that's it? Was this really needed? A bit puzzled why this was done tbh, but I might have missed something...

    2. Parry not applying to Frenzied models? I can sort of see it (arguably), but I honestly think it takes it a bit far. There certainly is an argument to be made for combat reflexes and training still applying to frenzied models. I'd much rather see the idiotic Lance + Frenzy combination go tbh... I can see Spears being usable when in a frenzied state, but a proper heavy lance, no way...
    It also nerfs some already struggling units like Witch Elves to the point of uselessness (arguably the poison removal will nerf them as well).

    3. You removed the Option of adding extra dice when rolling 6's to cast and made them mandatory as I first suggested instead? I kind of liked the optional touch you added tbh. :-)

    4. The US 10 being able to destroy any unit size seems very arbitraty. I'd rather like to see some modifier come into play as to how "well" your pursuit/charge roll was compared to the one fleeing, working on the premisse that if you pursue your enemy and "overrun" him by a lot after fleeing distance is worked out, that you do more damage to the unit, representing that you have more time to actually kill those that flee etc. Something simple like for every 2" you "overrun" on the pursuit, you multiply your US by 2. This is not written out well, but you get the idea. :-)

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    1. - Crown of command is already fixed, it gives stubborn to both the character and the unit he is with, so no change there. All it means is that you cannot get cheap stubborn units by taking any random stubborn character and throwing him in, just like you won't get ItP by throwing an ItP character in a unit.

      - Well it works the same as in 8th ed, so no real change there. If frenzy won't work with lances, it would screw with all Khorne players who have models for it though, would rather not go that route.

      - It made more sense to be mandatory, as you cannot use if you roll double 6's in 8th ed either. Magic is fickle and all that ;)

      - It was made for streamlining purposes, the main reason it was changed in the first place was to avoid situations where a single model can kill a horde through a pursuit move. US10 means you actually need a full unit in order to use it, and saves time not having to count US all the same.

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    2. -Ok, Off the top of my head I couldn't rcall any such cheap stubborn characters, but It makes sense. :-)

      -The Khorne models with lances could count as spears (and be the default option for free, with encorcelled weapons as the upgrade option. I understand not wanting to screw models over though, but I still think the Frenzy+Lance thing is idiotic (bordering on being Frenzy with a Bow), which is why if you recall I arguing for Blood Knights to lose Frenzy in the VC book. That, and the fact that they are supposed to be the most disciplined of Vampires, trying to emulate Abhorash offcourse.

      -Fair enough.

      -I understand that, but it still seems a bit odd tbh as its a very all or nothing type mechanic. It doesn't brake the game or anything though, but just seems odd more than anything. :-)

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    3. is it the extra attack with the lance that feels weird? In that case any character with A2 or or more should be limited to 1 attack with the lance as well as he charges in. I think any explanation for allowing models with multiple attacks the same number of attacks with the lance could be used for frenzied models as well (like a round of batle being longer than just an actual 5 second exchange of blows, "barbequespearing"(not realistic of course but fun;)), nonstatic flowing battle line etc...). I do not think reducing A för lances (even if realistic) is a good way to go. Otherwise the road is open for reevaluating all the weapons for weapon speed versus number of A per round(you can stab much quicker and often with spears and shortswords than swing your heavy double axe for example and so on...

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  4. Good stuff for the most part. I wonder how long the nerf to ASL weapons will last. That seems brutal on paper.

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    1. Well, there are hardly any ASL weapons to begin with, it's pretty much only a magical ability at this point. Remember great weapons are only -2I now.

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  5. If I may ask, are types of magic and specific spells, such as Fey magic, witchcraft, Hedgecraft, Geomancy, Earthbound magic, Elementalism, curses from the RPG, and going to be covered in the Colleges of Magic Codex?

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