Masque, let me say once again you are
AWESOME!! Sorry about the delay getting back with you on this, but sometimes real life gets more complicated than we would like, especially in my line of work.
I went through the 2.3 version of the FAQ starting where I left off on the 2.2 version and stopping just before the fleet specific sections. I'll get to those another day.
Hits taken by an escort squadron are only distributed among the vessels that actually took fire (such as in range and fire arc), regardless of how many hits the squadron actually took, though it affects ALL escorts within range and fire arc. This also applies to hits taken by an escort squadron negotiating an asteroid field, as well as hits delivered by ordnance or Nova Cannon, as those hits (regardless of how many) affect only the vessels directly contacted by the ordnance markers or Nova Cannon blast template. For example, if an escort squadron takes a total of ten hits from gunnery fire but only three escorts were actually in range and fire arc, no more than three escorts can be destroyed.
Shouldn't most of this also apply to capital ship squadrons? Particularly the part about only those ships in range/aspect being hit?
Yes. Fixed.
CAPITAL SHIP SQUADRONS: Capital ships in a squadron that are being fired upon to the point that one of the capital ships is destroyed must roll for and apply all critical damage before counting as destroyed. For example, if a squadron of three Dauntless light cruisers is fired upon by a squadron of three Carnage cruisers and takes a total of 13 hits, all critical damage rolls must be made for the first Dauntless before declaring it destroyed. This means if the first Dauntless rolls a Thrusters Damaged (+1Hp) and Engine Room Damaged (+1Hp) criticals in the process of being destroyed, there remains a total 9 remaining shots to be applied to the next closest Dauntless light cruiser, with shields, blast markers, etc. still taking effect normally. This rule in particular applies to squadrons of ships that do not count critical damage normally and instead take an additional 1Hp of damage, such as Ork Roks or Kroot Warspheres.
Unless my math is bad or we are supposed to assume a non-standard circumstance the example is wrong. It would take 7 hits to destroy the first Dauntless (1 shield and 6HP). That would leave 6 hits for the next one but if 2 were added from criticals then that should leave 8. I would also make it very clear that damage only carries over for shooting, not ordnance attacks, boarding, ramming, and the like.
I would honestly do away with this entirely. It just seems counter-intuitive.
Your math is not bad, mine is. It should have been a total of nine hits applied, meaning only FOUR hits applied to the second Dauntless, NOT nine! GOOD CATCH!!!
I would love to get rid of this complexity, but that would either mean getting rid of capital ship squadrons shooting as a unit, or somehow killing all the munchkins that have taken advantage of this rule not being clarified to either abuse others or nerf being shot at themselves. And since we just can’t go around killing munchkins…
Free turns provided by gravity wells can be used even when the ship cannot normally turn, such as when under All Ahead Full or Lock On special orders. They can also be combined with Come To New Heading special orders. This does not change the fact that the free turn can only be used before the start of the move and again only at the end of the move. In either instance the ship must actually be in the gravity well to use it, and the free turn is only toward the center of the planet‟s or moon‟s gravity well or toward a space hulk‟s stem.
Can the free turn be used to turn past the planet? Say, for example, that the planet is only 10 degrees to port at the start of a ship's movement. Can the free turn end such that the planet is now to the ship's starboard side or must it stop turning when it is facing the center of the planet?
Andy C said long ago the free turn can ONLY point you toward the center of the planet or up to 45 degrees, whatever is LESS.
Torpedoes on a Planetary Template: Torpedoes are only destroyed when they come into contact with the templates edge. So it is possible to launch torpedoes while on a planetary template but they will be removed when they touch its edge.
I would allow torpedoes to be fired off of a planetary template. If this seemed too lopsided (which I don't think it would be) I would also allow torpedoes to hit ships on a template, but not to fire through a template.
No. Pretend you’re an experienced Eldar player with poor social skills. This allows ships to be immune from torpedoes and Nova Cannon while they sit on the center of a planet and be stationary torpedo silos until the enemy gets close, then they just dive off the opposite end of the planet edge.
Keep in mind that 90% of the FAQ/Errata isn’t to tell good people how to play- when good players find an unclear rule, they flip a coin, make a call and move on. The FAQ is an attempt to keep munchkins from being munchkins.
Blast markers are not placed when asteroid impacts take shields down, however the ship will act as if it has moved through blast markers that turn.
I've always just placed the markers in contact with the ship at the end of it's move as close to the asteroids as possible. It would seem strange that ships could effectively regenerate their shields faster from asteroid impacts than from other sources of damage.
That would be unfair to those that actually clear the asteroid field. Ships that get slowed down by passing through blast markers don’t place one in base contact with themselves at the end of their movement, and they are regenerating their shields in the same manner.
Asteroids and All Ahead Full: When traversing an asteroid field on All Ahead Full you must pass a leadership check on 3D6 instead of 2D6 or suffer the usual D6 damage. Escort squadrons still get to re-roll this result for free, as they would normally.
Did this somehow get left out of the .pdf of the rulebook? I can't find the bonus for escorts or penalty of AAF in asteroid fields anywhere and the rule about taking a leadership test at all is only alluded to. I don't have my hardcopy here to check. Assuming it's not in the .pdf you may want to write these rules out in full.
YES!!! The asteroid traversing rules in 1.0 were accidentally deleted in the 1.5 book AND the .pdf! Ray and I actually caught this one completely by accident, while arguing with each other about asteroids in fact! Good point- I will add the rules in full.
If a ship explodes inside an asteroid field, including when due to the D6 damage from failing a leadership test to safely navigate an asteroid field, the explosion will hit all ships and ordnance within the asteroid field up to 3D6cm away but none outside the field, regardless of distance. Blast markers from the explosion are scattered throughout the asteroid field, each player taking it in turns to place a blast marker.
Why make this rule? Why not just have the ship explode in the normal manner and leave blast markers as close to the ship's location as possible?
The intent is to say ship explosions can’t leave the asteroid field, but we can use your syntax to keep in simple. Done!
Vessels used as planetary defenses such as Defense Monitors or system ships do not roll for leadership or have a leadership value just as other normal planetary defenses do not, with the exception that they reload ordnance (where applicable) on a nominal leadership of 7. This means that they cannot take on any special orders except Reload Ordnance. They can however attempt to Brace For Impact. Note that ships that can be fired on as defenses (such as Ork Roks or Kroot Warspheres) are otherwise ships in all other respects and roll for leadership as ships do.
The rule limiting planetary defenses to only using the reload ornance order is only supposed to apply to sattelite (immobile) defenses according to page 36 of the rulebook. I would also mention whether or not sattelite defences can brace for impact. I would suggest allowing them to do so.
It was already decided in a prior FAQ that they would be allowed to BFI so we will add this in. Good catch!
Though Planetary Defenses cannot attempt other Special Orders, they automatically pass any leadership checks they are required to make, such as for navigating local celestial phenomena, etc., as they are intimately familiar with the local area of space they operate in.
Defense Monitors are terrifying opponents when there is a local warp rift, who knew? I would just make them count as leadership 7 for all purposes and take all tests as normal.
If by some lucky or unlucky chance something as unusual as a warp rift is on the table during a scenario where something as slow as a Defense Monitor can get to it, that is a happy or unhappy accident for all involved. This is more easily addressed to state that Warp Rifts are especially unstable and dangerous forms of celestial phenomena, and planetary defenses of any type cannot be placed closer than 30cm to a warp rift, with all other rules still applying normally. This means if a particular defense must be placed within 15cm of celestial phenomena, it still must be so AND it can’t be placed within 30cm of a Warp Rift.
Defences and Blast Marker Removal: You remove D6 blast markers from each defence with a speed of 0cm in each end phase after all other actions in the end phase. This only applies to stationary defenses, not planetary defenses that behave as ships (such as monitors or system ships). This also does not apply to ships on standby or ships reduced to 0cm due to movement effects but otherwise capable of movement.
I would have ruled to the opposite here. Ships regaining shields as they move away from blast markers is how shield regeneration is tracked mechanically. Since sattelite defenses do not move a different method needed to be invented to keep their shields operational. I would apply the same rule to ships that remain stationary for any reason because their shield generators should still function even if their engines are having a little trouble and they've already got enough problems. I would probably only make stalled ships remove blast markers at the end of their own turns though.
This is the method planetary defenses have removed blast markers for years now, and it is how the Ramilies removes blast markers as well.
Any fleet chosen from one of the fleet lists may also include reserves. This applies to fleets in the rulebook, Armada or any other official fleet list, such as those on the Games Workshop‟s Battlefleet Gothic Resources website. For every three battleships, cruisers or escorts chosen from the fleet list, you may also pick one ship of the same type from another fleet list belonging to the same race. For example, or every three cruisers picked from the Gothic Sector Fleet List on p.115 of the rulebook, you may pick one cruiser from the Segmentum Solar Fleet List on p.27 of Armada, from the Adeptus Mechanicus Fleet List or from any other published fleet list. Only ships of the same “type†(battleship, cruiser or escort) count for reserves purposes so you can‟t pick three escorts from one fleet list and use them to qualify for a battleship from another. Also, for these purposes light cruisers, cruisers, heavy cruisers, battlecruisers and grand cruisers all count as “cruisers,†so that three cruisers from one fleet list would qualify you to take a grand cruiser from another fleet list of the same race as a reserve. Reserves are still subjected to restrictions on minimum and maximum numbers of certain types of vessels. For example, having three Chaos cruisers (such as a Murder, Carnage and Devastation) entitles a 12th Black Crusade Incursion Fleet to have a Repulsive grand cruiser. It also entitles the fleet to have one reserve cruiser such as the Executor grand cruiser, but that ship cannot be taken because you must have at least four cruisers to have two grand cruisers, not merely three.
The example at the end is wrong. It should say "at least six cruisers" rather than "at least four cruisers".
Oops! Fixed!
Except where specifically allowed in a given fleet list, no fleet may use both allies and reserves at the same time. For example, a Gothic Sector fleet list cannot take both reserves from the Segmentum Solar fleet list and Deimurg Bastion commerce vessels at the same time, though it may use either one or the other. However, just as a fleet can take any number of reserves as long as restrictions are followed concerning the number taken compared to the core fleet list, the number of allied vessels the fleet takes is only limited by the rules applied to the allied fleet as long as all other restrictions concerning reserves are also followed.
Since Demiurg in a Tau fleet are mentioned a couple times previously as examples of allies does this mean that Tau fleets containing Demiurg, Kroot, or Nicassar cannot take reserves? Does this mean an Armageddon fleet including Space Marines can't inclue reserves? I don't think that is your intention but I'm unsure.
This section as a whole is rather touchy- the intent is to graft in the important parts of Armada's first nine pages of without violating IP while actually doing so. Yes, we can rant all day about even having to do that, but such are things as they are.
No, your example is NOT our intention, and your example is spot-on. The Space Marines/IN relationship is an odd duck in the Armageddon fleet list and should be cited as such, as is the Tau’s special relationship with the Demiurg/Kroot/Nicassar. The FAQ already cites the IN/Space Marine connection for the Segmentum Solar fleet list, but the Tau should have similar treatment because of how unusual the Tau fleet is in this manner. I will get this fixed.
Concerning allies: I'm prettymuch baffled by this entire section. It seems to be a big list of cans and can'ts but doesn't really explain when or how this is important. For example, Orks and Dark Eldar could be allies, but I don't really understand how or when this is possible. Are you just saying that if there was a variant Ork list that allowed you to take Dark Eldar ships then that would be okay? How is giving this list of who can ally with whom important? If there was a Necron list that specifically said you could take Tyranid allies (even though that would be so completely wrong) that would just override this list anyway, wouldn't it?
I would be very tempted to do away with the section entirely and just put the specific limitations you are trying to achieve in the appropriate ship or fleet listings. For example, add a rule to the Demiurg that fleets containing them may not include reserves unless the Demiurg ships are actually listed in the fleet list.
What we are doing here is imparting onto the game some of the background framework intended by the designers. For example, the Craftworld Eldar and Dark Eldar have a visceral hatred for each other in a way that transcends even the Imperium’s animosity toward Chaos. The Dark Eldar are all that remains of the hedonistic, depraved society that brought about the Fall in the first place, whereas the Craftworld Eldar are all that remains of the rest of their race, forced to flee in the face of their society’s insane degeneracy before the rise of Slaanesh consumed nearly the entirety of their species in an instant. Craftworld Eldar in a real sense blame the Dark Eldar for the Fall, and the Dark Eldar see their Craftworld cousins as the most delectable of all beacon-bright soul-foods they consume to stave off the predations of She Who Thirsts. It is only through intercession of the Harlequins that they don’t consume each other in an orgy of hateful destruction, and they would never EVER under ANY circumstances actually ally with each other! Likewise Necrons hate all life and don’t even communicate with the living, much less form alliances with them (the Dark Eldar made an attempt of it, and it didn’t work out so great). There was a time when the Tyranids were only beginning their incursions into the Eastern Fringe that they enslaved a race rather than merely consuming them outright (the Zoats), but that instance never repeated themselves after the Zoat race was exterminated and later ret-conned out of the Warhammer 40k universe entirely.
What I want you to see is that rather than merely be a list of “thou shalt nots,†this list is one that opens up a range of possibilities to make your games even more interesting while being fluff-true to the WH40k universe. One-off games are a riot, but I’ve seen enough fleet lists to know that players like to weave battles into campaigns and campaigns into stories. This list does no more than provide a framework for that. As with everything else we’re trying to do here, PLEASE feel free to use as much or as little of this as you want!
- Nate
