Jan 17, 2012
Over the last year and half GW has been doing a pretty good job updating FAQs and answering questions the playing public actually wants answered. So when the latest batch of FAQs sprang up a few days ago most of the Internet’s focus was on the Necron FAQ. Lost to most, but not all was one little clarification that might pump some life into a type of army that was all the rage less than two years ago. What I am hinting at is Descent of Angels lists for Blood Angels. For those that don’t know a DoA list is any Blood Angel list that spams jumping pack units. Now the reason for the new life is you can actually use the Deep Strike with Combat Tactics. Here is the ruling…
Q: When a unit of 10 Space Marines with the Combat
Squad special rule arrives from reserve as two combat
squads, can they move on from, or Deep Strike onto,
two different locations? (p23)
A: Yes.
With this slight change the possibilities for DoA got a whole lot better. Before if you wanted to combat squad jump pack units you actually couldn’t use deep strike. Now this allows a DA list the ability to drop units in fun and frankly more tactical ways.
If you want to run a unit like a CSM Termicide squad without putting the other five blokes in harm’s way, you can. Want to roll the dice and split your meltaguns between each combat squad now you can. If you want to mix up roles for your Assaults squad: one half gets a flamer the other a meltagun, now you can.
Since the typical 10 man Blood Angel Assault Space Marine squad runs anywhere from 200-250 points, this change can really up the redundancy of your units and avoid nasty random occurrences. It also makes it easier to double the total amount of scoring units without having to place them all down on turn one. This also might give Vanguard Vets a spendy, but interesting second look. With the Divine Intervention you can two sets of melta pistols against different targets or split the Vets into half close combat with the other half tank hunting. Combat squads also create a smaller Deep Strike foot print allowing for easier unit placement.
Does this make DoA lists a viable competitive option? Probably not. The ruling though does give flexibility and options for team power armor and actually tactically enhances the way you can play those armies. This ruling just doesn’t affect Blood Angels it goes for all books that allow combat squads. As I am often reminded many Grey Knights units can Deep Strike.
Still this ruling doesn’t go far enough in my opinion. I would have liked to have seen GW take the ruling one step further and allow combat squads to half one combat squad from the same unit on the on the ground while the other sits in reserve.
Do you think this changes anything or was it just a clarification to what should have been an obvious rule?
pathtyphon
TastyTaste
Frank Austin
fluger
Brent
Dethtron
newsun
AbusePuppy
nyhil
That Teri Girl
reecerobbins
badtaste
In 5th units placed in reserve are ‘not deployed’. therefore are not allowed to combat squad at that point.
When the unit comes in from reserve it is ‘deployed’ and as such may combat squad at that point.
This is not a change, just worded better.
DV8 hit the nail on the head. There was no change here for the vast majority of SM players that weren’t bullied out of doing it through calls of WAAC/powergaming etc from their respective communities.
Absolutely correct.
I don’t get what you mean by CSM here. Chaos can’t combat squad their termies so how would you save 5 and redirect your meltas?
I think Tasty meant that if you wanted to run your combat squad with the same fucntionality as a CSM Termicide squad, you can do so without wasting the other 5 guys.
Yup because that is what he said…
I am pretty sure you are just stating the obvious. This is how it should have been played all along. Rules trolls complained about it due to a reference in the previous FAQ about drop pods but deepstriking, reserves, outflanking is completely different then deploying via drop pod.
With that being said, I’ve always played it this way since I adopted 5th ed White Scars!
As an aside, I completely disagree about having one unit off of the table and one unit on the table. It almost seems like instead of making a important, tactical decision, you instead get the best of both worlds without any thought. Laziness I say!
Rules trolles just ruin it for everyone. They use raw to twist the rules to suit them. I see them on every forum and they are very aggressive and very obnoxious. It’s just stupid.
And people who don’t like to play by RAW like to ignore rules that don’t benefit them. I have seen them all the time at tournaments and they are very aggressive and ill tempered. Its just stupid.
I gotta agree. When the rules are used exactly as stated in errata and faqs AND the codex you can cry all you want about how broken it is but the text is in your face and youll just get docked on points for being a poor sport if you cant stand the rules GW approved themselves.
Nice to see the clarification.