Thoughts on the New Imperial Guard FAQ

Posted by Ranillon on 10. September 2009 21:13

For those few of you that don't know, Games Workshop came out with an updated FAQ for Imperial Guard recently.  Here are some random thoughts on it (in no particular order):

• Many of the new clarifications were clearly meant to stop pure cheddar from over-running the battlefield.  Come on -- using a mortar to range in your off-the-board barrage from the Master of Ordnance?  Those are the sorts of tricks everyone should know are bad sportsmanship.
  
  
• That loud collective moan you are hearing are all those Storm Trooper players who suddenly can't use "First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire" with Hotshot Lasguns.  I guess this is a reasonable limitation as the guns are AP3, but then again Storm Troopers are as pricey as space marines now (but without the power armor and great stats).
  
  
• I'm not sure about limiting the effect of multiple Astropaths or Officers of the Fleet to a single +1 or -1, respectively.  I can see how having two Officers could really mess up an opponent if you know they are going to rely heavily on reinforcements.  Otherwise, bringing one might not be worth it let alone two.  Astropaths are more likely to be useful since you can obviously design an IG force to utilize their talents, but again is a +2 really that cheesy over a +1 when you are talking IG?  Maybe, which is why I won't say I flatly don't like this new clarification, but it certainly means you'll pretty much never see two Astropaths and maybe not even a single Officer of the Fleet.
  
  
• I can see why they limited Penal Troops with the gunslinger ability under the "First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire" order to three shots at just 12" for game balance, but it does violate the letter of the rules.  The point of assault weapons is that they can fire at full range even while the troopers move, but here gunslingers still only benefit from the order at half the assault weapon's range.  Not a biggie, but considering that you can't guarantee that your penal scum will have the gunslinger ability there wasn't a significant game balance issue anyway.
  
  
• The clarification as to what inducted Guard you can take in your Inquisition armies is quite welcome and will help 'Hunter players avoid arguments.  However, I do have minor beef with the 0-1 Leman Russ choice only being the vanilla Russ and no variants.  One, the price on those other types are pretty high anyway which limits their appeal, and; Two, why give people yet another reason to not play Inquisition?  Giving 'Hunter players the bonus of taking one of those cool new LRs variants would have been a nice reward for sticking with an otherwise rare force.  Oh, well -- at least being able to take appropriate IG special characters with your inducted Guard helps makes up for this.
  
  
• Nice to see that Grey Knight terminators can't hitch a ride on a Valkyrie/Vendetta, but there is nothing about not being able to carry power armored Grey Knights or Sisters of Battle.  I take back what I said about not encouraging people to play Inquisition -- Grav chute Gray Knights here we come!