Finally, we have various other changes not affecting magic or combat. Some of these seem a little weird to me as I don’t think they were as big of a part of the problem as combat and magic were. Let’s see what else they changed.
The biggest change I would say is the change to poisoned attacks. Now, rather than auto wounding, you get +2 to your wound rolls. Poisoned bricks looked stupid and did not really fit into the spirit of the game. They were, however, an effective solution to the problem with dragons. Poison has never been an issue in the 4 previous editions I have played, so this one is confusing to me. Poisoned bricks are not great against anything except large targets, so I think this poison nerf actually is a buff to the Dragon spam that was already out of control.
This leads us to the next change. Shooting at large targets only gives you one extra rank rather than the entire unit shooting at them. Another rule that seems unnecessary to me. They seemed to try to dissuade dragon and monster spam but have toned down magic, shooting at large targets, and nerfed poison. I may be wrong, but with these three changes that were counters to dragons, we may actually see more dragons and monsters than ever before. Hope I am wrong, but if you want to run double dragon lists, you are actually a little safer to do so than you were pre errata. Just make sure to compensate for the changes to combat res when you do charge those dragons in.
Speaking of combat res and dragons, let’s talk about the change to fly. You can no longer use the fly move when following up or pursuing. I really like this one. Making these dragons use ground movement is pretty thematic and does do a little bit to help to control their power, even if just a little bit.
Regeneration got a little bit of a change as well. You now roll a regeneration save after a wound is lost. Things that inflict multiple wounds will now roll before regeneration saves. Let’s say a cannonball hits that tomb king on dragon, and it fails it’s armor save and ward. You now roll how many wounds and then roll that many regeneration saves. This one I do like. It also has another effect on those unstable units, though. You can now get your regen against crumbling to combat res. This seemed like an oversight, but the old faq about getting regen saves to that was removed so it does seem intended.
Vanguard rules added that you can not declare a charge in the first turn. Sorry Pegasus knights, this one was a long time coming.
Impetuous finally got a little more manageable. Rather than a random 50% chance roll, you now test on your leadership. This is a great one and really makes a lot of those impetuous units that were never seen a little more useable.
Frenzy, on the other hand, took a really weird nerf. If someone can tell me what frenzied units were out there causing problems, I would like to know. Was it chosen chaos knights that ruined it for everyone? You now only get the +1 attack during the turn it charged. Frenzy was generally not used very often because good opponents can easily bait out charges or send these units on wild goose chases all over the battlefield. Now I think you really don’t see frenzied units at all anymore. Too bad, I really liked the idea of the brand new minotaur army, but with impetuous and frenzy, the whole army really got the axe (of Khorgor) before it even got off the ground.
Finally, they may have finally settled on the stupidity rule. I really did like moving an infinite amount when failing it, but that argument is dead now. Now, if you fail, you really can’t do anything. No casting, no shooting, no moving, no dispelling. Just stand there and take a charge if you were charged. At least you can still fight, though.
There are many other changes, but I really wanted to highlight the most significant ones. If you have any that you feel had a great effect on your game personally that I did not cover, let me know. Overall, I think the game has changed for the better. Magic doesn’t seem super overpowered, and infantry doesn’t feel like you are being punished for taking them. Will the meta flip upside down now, or will dragons and monsters still rule the sky? I am excited to be following the upcoming meta changes and see. Coming up next, the matched play guide rundown that really may show changes and improvements to the tournament scene.
