Warhammer The Old World has a NEW FAQ! NEW FAQ! Check out what’s changed!
Ask and you shall receive. Just last week I talked about how I hoped we would get a new FAQ update soon and well, this week a new one dropped. Technically I suppose it’s three FAQs, one for the core rules and one each for the Forces of Fantasy and Ravening Hordes (plus their AJs). The last FAQ to hit was back in July. So it’s been a little bit. We’ve had a couple more books come out and a lot of major events.
Overall I think this FAQ is good. It moves the game in the right direction. As normal there are a few oddball answers. For what I do think is the first time GW has put a couple of “balance” FAQs in here toning down some things. However if you are looking for major changes to how the game is played… well this ain’t it. It’s clear GW is still waiting a bit to make those big moves. So with that said, lets take a look at the big changes from the FAQ.
(N.B. I’m not going to go over every single change, just the ones I think bare noting).
The Targeted Nerfs
Let’s start off with a few units that got some nerfs. By far the biggest is the Wood Elf Sisters of the Thorn. They actually got hit twice here. The first one is that characters who join the unit do not get the 4+ Ward. I think them getting it was unintentional anyway, but it did work. The much bigger change is that they know randomly roll for spells rather than picking. No more spamming 8 Pillars of Fire for the Sisters (unless you are insanely lucky).
This is a pretty big change as it really removes them as a top tier unit and likely kills off the current Wood Elf meta army. However it’s also the right move as this kind of spam was horrible for the game. Clearly the designers really didn’t like it as its the biggest unit errata we’ve seen. It’s implications for Wood Elves are pretty huge.
The other big nerf to a unit comes for the Green Knight. This FAQ makes it a little more clear as to what features he can appear from. A couple events reportedly allowed him to come out of hills and vortexes making him very powerful. GW has taken a firm stance on this and limiting where he can arrive tones him down a little.
The Wider Reaching Nerfs
In a less targeted nerf, but still a nerf, cannonballs can no longer roll over hills. Note that this only applies to the “bounce” after the initial strike and not the extra distance. But it does mean that hills offer a lot more protection from cannons and being behind a one makes it a lot harder to get hit. Overall this is likely good.
Another FAQ answer that acts as a nerf is this one on Stomp Attacks and Impact Hits. If a low linear obstacle prevents you from making contact with the enemy you don’t get Impacts or Stomps. This is a nerf to big things and does help out infantry a bit. Note, this does not trigger with Earthen Ramparts as there is nothing physically preventing you from making contact. If this was all this FAQ did I’d say it was all for the good.
However it does kind of open up a few other issues. How many attacks do models fighting over a low linear obstacle get to make? Since they are not in base to base contact are they limited to 1 rather than their full attacks? Is it impossible to direct attacks against a character defending a low linear obstacle (that is physically in the way) since you aren’t in b2b with them? A lot of things hinge on being in b2b and if the obstacle prevents you from being in b2b then… a lot of things don’t work I guess?
I think you can consider this one a nerf. Every player I’ve known for the entire game has assumed you could decide to use Swiftstride after making the applicable roll. I don’t think I ever heard it questioned. This made it really flexible and good. Well, GW has ruled the other way. This does act as a small nerf on cav and other big things, which isn’t bad!
Skirmishers
I think most people would agree that the Skirmish rules are the worst written part of the rules and hardest to understand. They’ve caused endless headaches and debates. A clear sign of this is that the FAQ now has 5 separate questions about the skirmish rules and I still think people will have more questions. But this FAQ does give us two more answer to help iron it. The first answers what happens when multiple units charge one skirmish unit. The answers is that they form up against the first unit and then the rest charge in, or fail to.
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This is a solid answer and both the easiest to play with and least easy to abuse (one possible answer was basically that half the skirmishers died). Now the FAQ doesn’t tell you which charging unit should move first, and some people are confused because technically for purposes of maximizing contact all chargers move at the same time. But I think here is pretty clear, the active player, i.e. the one doing the charging, picks which unit to move first. 
The second FAQ answers an old debate over whether Skirmishers have flanks and rears in combat. The answer is a simple no. Now, personally I’ve been arguing this stance since pretty much when the game came out, so it is a bit of validation. Ultimately however I just happy to have it answered and the debate ended. While skirmish rules aren’t like… good now, they are a lot clearer and the biggest questions I had have been cleared up.
Settling Some Big Debates
The FAQ also settled some other big debates. One was about if you could counter-charge a mixed unit type unit due to characters joining. The answer is no, and this is clear enough to play with. I think it still overlooks that the rules don’t actually tell you how to determine a UNITS unit type, just a models. It seems clear the implication is that it is just whatever the core models you buy are, but its still a small open questions (I’ll note that this is ruling that went against me, win some, lose some).
Another long running debate was ended as GW has confirmed that Scouts do affect who finishes deploying first in order to get the +1 to go first. This means even if your army is smaller, if you place the last Scout you do get the +1/ Now I always thought this was pretty clear. However some people thought it was too punishing to Scouts. Anyway it’s cleared up now, though some events may write their missions with different rules.
Moving while under Stupidity got some clarity. I think most people understood this is how it worked, but better to be 100% clear. This question came up a LOT.
This Magical Standard question was another one that came up a lot. Again I think it was very clear, and the snarky tone of the answer seems to agree. But it very very clear now!
Another one on using Lore Familiars that seemed clear but got asked a lot. I think a lot of players just didn’t like that the rules wouldn’t allow this. The FAQ has totally doubled down on it and made it quite that yes, this is how it works. It might mean we see a few less Lore Familiars out there which is good!
The WTF! Answers
Of course we do have a few out there takes here as well.
I think this is the biggest one out there. Now this isn’t a question I ever had come up or heard anyone ask, but someone must have. I have no clue why this was ruled this way, other then GW wants it to be this way. It makes no sense to me that War beast/Swarm, fear of flaming attacks overrules Immune to Psychology. ItP makes you pass fear checks- why are these different? When else does fear override ItP? Do Goblins that become ItP still fear Elves? Or not? I just… don’t get it.
This is another question that has popped up a lot, and the answer is just… pretty perplexing. The question is how do weapons with Strike First or Last interact with the spell Spectral Doppelganger. The answer first says that the spell is cast at the Wizard’s Initiative, meaning not with strikes first or last, clear enough. It then says the attacks generated by the spell are made at the Wizard’s Initiative also. OK, super clear and simple, end of answer, right? Right? Nope, because it then complicates things.
It continues on and says that if the weapon has Strikes Last then those attacks are made at Initiative 1. (yes this is strict RAW, but its an FAQ, why complicated it now!) But this leaves us with questions. What happens if the wizard dies between when the spell is cast and I 1? And what about Strikes First weapons? The question asked about both strikes first and last, but only answers half of it! Madness!
Let us know what you think about this FAQ, down in the comments!
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Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.
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