Games Workshop dropped another stealth update today, updating a number of rules and issues in the faction packs they released two weeks ago. The big change here was adding rules for the new Deathwatch Decimus Kill Team, which had yet to receive rules. Today’s update also made a small change to the core rules, added two new Combat Patrols, and made a few tweaks to other factions. As always, we have a full rundown of what changed and what it means.

Core Rules

Normal moves - A unit can only make one normal move per phase. This is a significant change, in that it essentially turns off making multiple reactive moves with units like the Space Marines’ Combi-Weapon Lieutenant. These are still considered distinct from Surge moves, however and so the other restrictions on those do not apply.

Munitorum Field Manual

The big change here is the addition of the Decimus Kill Team, which clocks in at 100 points for five models or 200 for ten, making them marginally more expensive than standard Deathwatch Veterans if you take a large unit.

That said, there are still some unaddressed things here - Swooping Hawks are still listed at 170 points for ten models, while the app and the Q3 balance update increased their cost to 190.

Faction Packs

While the update lists changes to a large number of faction packs, for most of these the only change was adding a “Changelog” box to the front page. This will be a helpful tool in the future but definitely caused us some heart burn this time around trying to find changes that hadn’t occurred.

Black Templars

A page for FAQs/Errata for the faction was added with a single item: The Black Templars Land Raider Crusader gained the LAND RAIDER keyword.

Credit: JD Reynolds

Deathwatch

The big news here is the arrival of a new datasheet - the Decimus Kill Team, from the Tomb World kill team box, now has 40k rules. These cost similar to the Veterans, at 100 points for five models, but 200 for ten. This team mixes different armor types, and a standard team will be either a Sergeant, Gravis veteran and 3 Veterans or a Sergeant, 2 Gravis Veterans and 7 other Veterans. Despite this, the team has the TACTICUS keyword and no other armor mark keywords. They come with the same Death to the Alien ability that Veterans have, letting them re-roll Hit rolls of 1 or all hit-rolls against non-IMPERIUM, non-CHAOS targets.

At base, the team comes with a very specific loadout:

The Sergeant comes with a Power Weapon and Plasma Pistol
The Gravis veteran comes with an Infernus Heavy Bolter, which can be swapped out for either a frag cannon or Hellstorm bolt rifle and grenade launcher.
For every 5 models in the unit one comes with a Stalker Bolt Rifle. You can swap this for a Plasma Incinerator.
For every 5 models in the unit, one comes with a Heavy Thunder Hammer. Youc an swap this for a power weapon and Astartes Shield (4+ invulnerable save)
For every 5 models in the unit, 1 comes with a Marksman bolt carbine. This can be swapped for a combat knife. (Phobos guy)
If your unit contains ten models, the last one has a special-issue bolt pistol and a Xenophase blade.

The wargear has a few surprises. Their Power Weapons, despite not being explicitly master crafted, are 4 Attacks, Damage 2 and come with [SUSTAINED HITS 1], though that is unlikely to draw you away from the Heavy Thunder Hammers, which are 3 attacks at WS4+ S10 AP-2 Damage 3 with [DEVASTATING WOUNDS]. The Reiver’s Combat Knife keeps the [PRECISION] keyword from their datasheet, and all of the bolt weapons apart from the Infernus Heavy Bolter have [LETHAL HITS]. The Infernus Heavy Bolter here, following the same pattern as the Heavy Bolt rifles on Deathwatch Heavy Intercessors, does 3 damage and is AP-2, making it just an insanely powerful upgrade on the Veterans’ option. The Deathwatch Frag Cannon gains an additional point of AP here, going to AP-2, and also picks up [LETHAL HITS].

The Decimus Kill Team can be joined by any characters that can join Fortis Kill Teams, but most critically their TACTICUS keyword prevents them from going into a Rhino. It should also be noted that the addition of the Decimus team does not move the Deathwatch Veterans to Legends, so you will get to play with the old unit at least until the Deathwatch Index gets its update at some point in the next edition.

The unit is very similar to the old Deathwatch Veterans unit, but you can only take half as many Heavy Thunder Hammers and heavy weapons, reducing their lethality in melee. The fact that they cannot use a Rhino either, while being slightly more expensive at the 10 man size, makes these a tough sell if you wanted to replace that unit’s utility as a melee threat with the attached Watch Master. Instead this unit seems like it might be more at home in an Impulsor, using its melee power as a back-up option.

Imperial Agents

The Decimus team is also added to Imperial Agents, though is called the Aquilla Kill Team there. It is identical to the Deathwatch version of the datasheet, aside from the keywords. It has ORDO XENOS and RETINUE, as expected, but lacks the TACTICUS keyword. That actually doesn’t matter, as the Imperial Rhino datasheet has no limit on TACTICUS, so this version of the Kill Team can actually go into a Rhino. It is unclear if this is an oversight or intended.

Iyande Corsairs - Credit: RichyP

Drukhari

When the Codex dropped, the old resin kits weren’t the only units Drukhari players lost access to: the book as printed also didn’t include the ability to bring Corsairs or Harlequins in any of the detachments it came with.

That’s been fixed now with the addition of the new Corsairs and Travelling Players army rule, which allows you to bring up to 500 points of Corsairs and Harlequins in any detachment. Any detachment except Reaper’s Wager, that is, whose detachment rule is updated to clarify that the new army rule doesn’t apply if you’re using that detachment.

With the return of this rule, you’ll now have 10 more datasheets to run alongside your Drukhari units, giving you some much-needed list-building options. And while none of them will benefit from the rules in your book, some of them may be worth a look depending on the army you’re running.

Space Marines

The Space Marines faction pack adds a number of new sheets, folding in the Hammer of Avernii and Spearpoint Task Force Detachments along with the datasheets for Suboden Khan and Caanok Var.

The Emperor’s Shield Detachment rule has been fixed, changed to its release version to give your units the ability to re-roll 1s to wound against your army’s Oath of Moments target.
The LAND RAIDER keyword was added to the Land Raider Crusader and Land Raider Redeemer datasheets.

That wraps up the updates. The big news is the Decimus Kill Team, which seems really interesting but may struggle to find a spot in lists as its sandwiched between the more melee-focused veterans and better shooting Gravis teams. Corsairs bring some interesting additional wrinkles to Drukhari lists, giving them a cheap additional unit to run in the same way Aeldari lists have.

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