So 6th has officially hit and so have the FAQ's. To begin with I started with a look at the blood angels codex as its my main army historically.
To begin with the FAQ then, what are the main changes to codex: Blood Angels
The first thing I noticed was this which will affect all codex's:
Two Toughness Values
Where a model has two Toughness values presented on its profile, one of which is presented in brackets, always use the bracketed value. Ignore the other value entirely.
This is pretty massive, as it brings my attention to the rule in the main rulebook (I had not noticed it before)that now, instant death is on the modifier version not the standard version, meaning things like bikes are now LOADS better.
Page 23 – The Red Thirst.
Add “Independent Characters that have succumbed to the Red Thirst can only join the Death Company, and units that have also succumbed to the Red Thirst.”
Bit of a nerf here, but not major, be annoying if you suddenly have to leave the squad you arrive with because you fail a red thirst test, I guess I will now have to actually remember to take the test in the first place.
EDIT: So it turns out, none of them even have this! BA IC's have all mastered the red thirst so none are affected, which begs the point, why the hell is this amendment even in there??
Page 38 – Stormraven Gunships, Skies of Blood.
Change the first sentence to read: “If the Stormraven has moved more than 6", passengers can still disembark, but they must do so as follows.”
Is pretty awesome, this as far as I can tell and correct me if im wrong but essentially means that you can do the deploy while flying/zooming along, so take a squad of death company in jump packs in the storm raven and then leap out mid flight, fantastic stuff.
Page 43 – Lemartes, Guardian of the Lost, the Blood Crozius.
Change last sentence to: “The Blood Crozius is a master-crafted power maul.”
A rule for all chaplains really, power mauls now grant +2 strength, this is pretty huge as these items are also only ap4, so on one hand their power weapon status got completely nerfed however they are like ork choppaz meaning chaplains are s6 normally, 7 on the charge and wait for it, lemartes when he goes nuts is now s8 which aint too shabby.
Page 48 – Sanguinary Priests, Blood Chalice.
Change first sentence to: “All friendly units chosen from Codex: Blood Angels within 6" are subject to the Furious Charge and Feel No Pain special rules”.
This is pretty big also, means that along with the furious charge nerf and FNP breaking even, that it doesnt affect allies which lets face it was one of the main funky cheese combos available for taking allies in the first place. Oh well I don't blame them for this.
So that's about it, not much else in there, I have to say I'm disappointed they did nothing with the Glaive Encarmine, a weapon I feel should have been given a boost in some way, no other 2 handed weapons (relic blades for example) grant no other bonuses to strength for example like the glaive does. On top of that it was hit with the ap3 de-buff like most other power weapons which brings me onto sanguinary guard as a whole.
Probably worth noting that the power axe they can carry, is not actually legal wargear now since they have their own rules (+1s but strike at I1) so may well be if you took this weapon on your Sanguinary guard squad then because its not actually wargear they can purchase its not allowed for exact model representation.
Many people saw the power weapon nerf as a good reason to take things with 2+ armour, certainly I myself started painting up some terminators as I think they will be better now however where sanguinary guard have got better due to this change, I still don't think they are viable as a unit that is as competitive as it should be/or as others are. This being mainly still due to their melee weapons and lack of invulnerable save. On the plus side however, you can now take armour saves against dangerous terrain tests, meaning wandering into cover for protection is a viable option against this flaw.
I for one will be pimping some of these fellows in my lists and while Lemartes is still a 50/50 choice that I'm undecided on, a small death company is certainly a solid choice to compliment any Blood Angels force now.
The last thing I wanted to look at is the vindicator, which I believe now now got loads better with the boost to blast weapons. If you are unaware a hit to a vehicle no longer needs to land the small circle in the middle to get the full effect of the weapon, as such even a scatter can still cause some quality mayhem. Being a fast vehicle it can still move 12" and shoot its weapon as well where the normal vindicators can only go 6" since 12" for them means snap weapons only and blast weapons are not snapable.
So now is the time to hit notepad and write up some lists then dash to your nearest table and try these things out, will death company simply be a good unit on paper? in reality proving to be rubbish? or will they be the amazing killers the internet thinks they now are, perhaps I was completely wrong about sanguinary guard and they are now the best unit in the galaxy! feel free to post your feelings on them here and let me know what you think!