Independent National Warhammer 40K
Tournament FAQ v4.1 October 2010
In 2007 a group of players from DakkaDakka joined forces to tackle the problem of poor FAQ/errata updating from Games Workshop, and came up with a totally unofficial FAQ that addresses various known unresolved rules issues currently prevalent.
They resolved these issues by either following and clarifying RAW; or by making judgments where RAW is confusing, 'unfun' or just plain wrong; or by reversals of official GW FAQs or rules. All these methods are noted next to each rule issue within the pdf so you can see how each ruling decision has been reached.
1. The v4.1 update and the Dark Angels
Recently updated in October 2010, for the Dark Angels there are a few interesting points, a selection of which are shown below:
- Models in terminator armour are not counted as stationary when firing the rapid fire part of a combi-weapon. This means they can't get the one shot at maximum range when firing that part of their weapon if they moved. One to watch out for. Oh if only DA termies were Relentless as in Codex Space Marines. Luckily though – our Codex allows models in termy armour to assault after firing rapid-fire weapons.
- The Narthecium can be used against shooting attacks that don't allow a save at all (if the AP is equal or lower than the target's armor save). This is actually RAW but overides a previous INAT version which stated it couldn't be used in this situation.
- However, a Narthecium can't be used against an attack that would normally cause 'Instant Death' if the model wasn't immune to Instant Death (such as with the 'Adamantine Mantle'). This is a rule change and not RAW.
- The Narthecium can't be used to save a vehicle's failed cover save. This is stated as being a 'rules change'.
- I'm pleased to see that Ravenwing Attack Bikes and Land Speeders are counted as scoring units even when taken in the Fast Attack slot. This is of course RAW but some tournaments don't allow it.
- If a Ravenwing Attack Squadron doesn't split up on deployment, the bikes are still able to Outflank, while any RAS Land Speeder deploys from table dege as per normal reserves rules. This is stated as being a 'rules change' but seems RAW to me.
2. A bit of background on the FAQ
The FAQ is divided into sections covering the main Rulebook, individual Codex queries, subdivided in the Space Marine's case into smaller Chapter sections, the Forge World Imperial Armour series, and the two 40,000 Expansions. There is quite a lot of ground covered and although some might argue the conclusions of one or two rulings given, no one can take away the fact that at last, an up to date FAQ has been methodically produced that tackles these things head on in their entirety.
From the introduction:
"This FAQ is a completely 100% independent (unofficial) Q&A list for the game of Warhammer 40,000 5th edition. It isn't meant to replace the Games Workshop official FAQs (which can be downloaded from: www.gamesworkshop.com in any way, and in fact the issues addressed by the GW FAQs aren’t included in this document.
The purpose of this FAQ is to give players advance knowledge of how tournament judges will be ruling the myriad of tricky situations that arise in games of 40k at the event they are planning to attend."
The FAQ was written and edited by Jon “yakface” Regul from the DakkaDakka forum, with the a ruling council comprised of Jon “yakface” Regul, Bill “Centurian 99” Kim, Hank “Muwhe” Edley, Greg "Inquisitor_Malice" Sparks, Matthias Weeks, Christopher Mehrstedt, Dave Creswell, Colin Vasconcelles and Jeff Chua.
Produced originally for the US non-GW tournament circuit (used for instance at Adepticons from 2008) – this FAQ has become accepted as being the most comprehensive produced and is being adopted by many gaming groups and competition organisers where no better rules authority exists.
I think it is a great initiative and wholeheartedly support it. So spread the word and use the pdf.
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