Games Workshop has published a hefty errata document that updates the Warhammer 40,000 core rules. While some of the changes will only be meaningful for tournament gamers, there are plenty that every player needs to know about.
The Warhammer 40k core rules errata, published on June 20, changes the core rules of the game in all modes of play. Although it doesn’t name any armies in particular, some of its changes will certainly have a greater impact on certain Warhammer 40k factions than others – Imperial Knights and Chaos Knights in particular are heavily affected.
You can download the new 40k core rules errata from the Warhammer Community website. Make sure to watch out for these six massive changes to the core rules:
Indirect fire always misses on a 1-3 to hit
Indirect fire weapons always miss on a to-hit roll of one, two, or three. It doesn’t matter what modifiers apply, there’s a flat 50/50 chance of missing.
Titanic Units are nerfed
Two key rules changes that were previously part of the Balance Dataslate have made their way into the core rules. Titanic Units can no longer fire Overwatch, and Titanic units do not have line of sight through ruins unless they are at least partially within them.
Pivoting costs movement
Units now have an additional stat, a “pivot value”, which is an effective movement cost for making a turn during their movement. By default this is 0”, but for monsters and vehicles it’s 2” – so every pivot that a tank makes during its move costs it an extra 2” of movement.
This is actually a simplification of an existing rule that players often forget. The original movement rules stipulate that no part of a model’s base can move further than its movement distance during a move: so if a unit pivoted at the end of a move, or to navigate through a narrow gap, the distance it’s back end was displaced counted as a move.
That rule wasn’t really explained, new players often forgot it, and then got a nasty shock when rocking up at their first tournament.
The Tank Shock stratagem is massively nerfed
The Tank Shock Stratagem has been reworded, so that the number of dice you roll to inflict mortal wounds on a target is now based on your unit’s toughness, not the strength of one of their melee weapons. There are no bonus dice for having a higher strength than the target’s toughness.
This is long overdue – Imperial Knights have several S20 melee weapons, and the original Stratagem let them trivially score six mortal wounds on a target unit for a single CP.
Insane Bravery is nerfed
The Insane Bravery Stratagem can now only be used once per battle, and it must be used before a unit takes a battle-shock test, not after. If that sounds familiar, that’s because this rules change was previously included in the Balance Dataslate – it has now made its way into the core rules.
The Devastating Wounds ability changes subtly
There’s a new clause in the wording of Mortal Wounds, and the ability Devastating Wounds, that means the Mortal Wounds caused by Devastating Wounds cannot spill over to more than one model. This is a change from both the core rules and the Balance Dataslate.
In the previous Balance Dataslate, Devastating Wounds inflicted damage against which no saves or invulnerable saves could be taken, but which weren’t Mortal Wounds. That meant they also evaded abilities that provided a Feel No Pain save against Mortal Wounds, negating a lot of specialised protections.
There’s more in the core rules update than we have time to cover – both the Grenades and Rapid Ingress 40k Stratagems receive changes, and there are many, many more changes to wording that clarify precise timings or sequencing of abilities.
While these are the core rules errata, tournament gamers also have to check out the Balance Dataslate to ensure they’re fully up to date before they put their Space Marines onto the field. Frustrating as that may be, major tournament circuits like the WTC are already publishing their own errata, so this is more of a replacement than an addition.
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