First of all I'll cover the less significant of the particulars. As with any errata the August Errata included a couple of basic clarifications on rules that weren't written clearly or didn't work as intended in RAW (Rules as written for those not in the know). These included a number of minor clarifications:
1. Altering Verendrye and the Trench Busters' Flank to 'other' so they can't flank with themselves.
2. Durst's misprinted icon got corrected.
3. The wording on Hayley3 was amended to clarify who in the unit could allocate focus to what.
4. The wording on the spell Boneshaker was standardised.
5. An actual duration was included to Thyron's feat so it would end.
None of these were surprising or game changing and were basically just making the way the game already worked clearer.
Now in addition to these regular realignments there were some more significant changes:
Firstly the wording on Shake Effect was adjusted to also allow models to shake Blind and Shadow Bind. Obviously this has the biggest impact on Denny2 and Gorman, though several others suffer too. This is part of the balancing, ensuring that these models can't have such a huge impact on the game, so for example a Blind colossal or Gargantuan is no longer completely screwed out of the game. Obviously many Denny2 advocates were unhappy with the change or 'nerf' as it's being called. I'm not so sure it's that terrible though. Obviously it's nowhere near as good, but that's kind of the point of the balancing. If you think about it, though, if you Shadow Bind everything that means that none of the infantry in your opponent's army is doing anything, since they can't shake. But say you're playing a warmachine army, the caster has to allocate one focus each that turn just to get his or her jacks working at all. That doesn't generally leave much left over for doing much of anything else that turn. It's still freezing half the army and then it's wasting resources for the other half. Still not a bad option. Blind does suffer on Gorman, but again it's wasting resources and there's still no way to shake it for heavy infantry or cavalry!
Next up, and in a similar vein, Hayley2's feat was reworded to completely remove the ability to choose your opponents' order of activation. Now this is half of the feat completely gone. Obviously, again, it is a big deal but that's the point. But again: is it that bad? I don't think so. I've played against Hayley2 several times and sure it sucks that they can have your shepherd or your paingivers go at the wrong time or have the back models activate before the front ones. But if you're prepared and have a solid plan for what your models can do even out of activation it wasn't too bad. Plus for the Hayley player it requires a lot of finesse to know which of your opponent's models need to be activated when. That sort of decision making cuts down on clock fast.
The other thing to remember is that both Denny and Hayley have had their feats kicked down a notch. But that's all. All their other abilities, spells and tier lists are just as powerful they just can't auto win with a well placed feat as easily. But I bet they still can.
Next up there was also a change to Hayley's third incarnation to change one of her spells slightly. Temporal Flux now affects all three Hayleys, but also only affects Faction models. There's been some serious salt about this on the forums, with people even saying it's an intentional 'bait and switch' by PP to sell models. It doesn't take into account that the caster and the spell are still very solid or that buying those mercs won't still be super useful. Hell it's Cygnar why didn't you own the mercs anyway?
Another little update was on the pack warbeasts to clear up a loophole that was being exploited. You can no longer reeve from pack models that die from friendly attacks. You can't have the Twins fuel each other by killing wasps. While this is a big change it's hardly surprising and reeving that way was clearly not intended in development. Not judging people for doing it. It was totally legal until now, when it isn't. Never mind, I guess.
The final 'nerf' was on the Pistol Wraith who had Death Chill replaced as a critical effect with Stationary. Which is an equally powerful ability but one that can be shaken and can't affect gargalossals. It does undermine the pistol wraith but it's still a powerful and useful tool in the belt nonetheless.
Now as well as these balancing downgrades there were also some surprising upgrades too. First off the two reputedly 'worst' gargalossals in the game got some pretty cool boosts. The Mountain King gained assault, allowing it to spray on the charge (and potentially twice with Kill Shot) this adds a new layer of playability to the huge troll and also extends its potential threat range with a charge and spray. Not a huge change but a welcome one. The other also-ran the Archangel got an updated animus. Instead of Righteous Flames which set things on fire if they ended their activation (i.e. After already hitting you) within 2", it just sets things currently within 2" on fire. I think that this ability has some real merit to it if used correctly. You can now ride-by combust people with the Archangel or have Abby2 charge in, set a bunch of infantry alight and then teleport away. Or imagine charging Thagrosh into the enemy caster for the assassination but you come up a few boxes short! But oh look, free animus to set the caster on fire. 66% of an extra roll to finish them off! Any Menoth player, myself included, will gladly tell you that any time you can get out some cont. fire is fun times for you.
It wasn't just the gargantuans that got some love, though. In addition to the Mountain King and the Archangel Skorne's Animantarax got a helpful little boost too. It can now gain Rage Tokens from friendly attacks. Meaning that it can be part of the long standing Skorne tradition of punching your own models to make them work harder! Yay for them. But also on top of that those tokens can now also be used on any attack or damage roll too.
So that's a round up of the changes made and their impact in my humble opinion. Feel free to comment if you disagree or want to discuss it further.
Oh wait. There was actually one more tiny change slipped in right at the end. The oft lamented legion Grotesques had their name and sub type changed to Grotesque raiders. Interesting since that probably foreshadows a grotesque based release coming soon! But we'll just have to wait and see I guess!
As always thanks for reading, and don't forget to check out the Facebook page and 'like' for regular post updates, photos and more at www.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis
-M
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