March FAQ - Elysians

March FAQ - Elysians

The 'March' FAQ has just come out, and there are some major impacts for Elysians.

I'll cover the direct changes first in the IA index.

New weapon options.

Page 72 – Wargear, Ranged Weapons
Add:
‘• Boltgun
• Shotgun
• Lasgun and auxiliary grenade launcher’

Page 119 – Elysian Drop Troops Points Values, Elysian Drop Troops Other Wargear
Add the following line:
‘Auxiliary grenade launcher | 0 points’

Page 120 – Elysian Drop Troops Wargear
Add a new table titled ‘Elysian Drop Troops Other Wargear’ with the following entry:

‘Auxiliary Grenade Launcher | A model with an auxiliary grenade launcher increases the range of any frag grenades and krak grenades they use to 24".’

And a clarification on how deepstriking Valkyries work.

Q: Can passengers disembark from an Elysian Drop Troops Valkyrie on the same turn it is set up on the battlefield, using the Aerial Drop ability?
A: Yes, but the Valkyrie counts as having moved more than 20" for the purposes of its Grav-chute Insertion ability.

The Grav-shute insertion ability is interesting and may have some use for melta squads, but really is just a clarification as it was never clear how deepstriking interacted with Grav-shute insertion.

For the new weapons it is good to have access to Bolters and Shotguns now, but the real item of interest is the Axillary Grenade launcher, and it is free. I will now have to model up some Commanders with lasguns. I can't find a lasgun with axillary grenade launcher model, but they look very similar to the regular lasgun.

Maybe I could fix a small tube to the bottom, but probably won't bother as any commander with a lasgun will have the axillary grenade launcher.

This is awesome as I will no longer feel obliged to buy plasma pistols to have a decent ranged weapon.

What was missing was any price drop for the Elysian Lord Commissar to keep pace with the price drop of the regular Lord Commissar. I feel this was an oversight, but they will not errata a FAQ so we will probably have to wait till the next FAQ/Chapter approved.

While these are the only Elysain specific changes in the FAQ, there is a lot more that will greatly impact list creation and play style.

Command Points

Battalions and Brigades obviously weren't popular enough, so the number of commands points they grant has been increased. Battalion now gives 5 instead of 3, and a Brigade now gives 12 instead of 9. This is great as it is easy for us to fill these detachments.

Clarifications from the errata

It looks like the Move, Move, Move order does not allow you to move after dropping.
The Relic of Lost Cadia is once per battle, as it should be.
The Commissar ability, Summary Execution, is now optional.
There are a lot of other changes too, but most are only tangential.

Optional Beta changes

And then there are the big ones, most of which are listed as optional Beta rules, and depending on your area, may or may not be used. However from what I have seen tournaments are likely to use them.

Deepstriking changes.

In an effort to limit the devastating effect alpha striking deepstriking armies are having, there are additional limitations being applied.

TACTICAL RESERVES
Instead of being set up on the battlefield during Deployment, many units have the ability to be set up on teleportariums, in high orbit, in Reserve, etc., in order to arrive on the battlefield mid-game as reinforcements. When setting up your army during Deployment for a matched play game, at least half the total number of units in your army must be set up on the battlefield, and the combined Power Ratings of all the units you set up on the battlefield during Deployment (including those that are embarked within Transports that are set up on the battlefield) must be at least half of your army’s total Power Level, even if every unit in your army has an ability that would allow them to be set up elsewhere.
Furthermore, in matched play games, any unit that arrives on the battlefield during a player’s first turn must be deployed wholly within the controlling player’s deployment zone (even if its ability would normally let it be set up anywhere). This does not apply to a Genestealer Cults unit that is being set up according to the Cult Ambush ability, or to units that are set up after the first battle round has begun, but before the first turn begins (such as those set up via the Forward Operatives or Strike From the Shadows Stratagems).
Finally, any unit that has not arrived on the battlefield by the end of the third battle round in a matched play game counts as having been destroyed.

I have highlighted in red the 2 big changes. Firstly you also need to count the power levels of your deepstriking portion. This will mean that no longer can we just deploy some cheap units on the table, and the aerial drop the heavy stuff.

And the second means if you want to drop outside you deployment zone, you need to wait till turn 2 or 3. On the one hand this makes screens less useful, but waiting till turn 2 means you opponent gets at least one turn of shooting before your deepstrikers can have their turn.

Battle Brothers

Probably the biggest change for most competitive players is that detachments need to be a lot more homogeneous, with certain units like assassins gaining some exemptions.

All of the units in each Detachment in your Battle-forged army must have at least one Faction keyword in common. In addition, this keyword cannot be Chaos, Imperium, Aeldari, Ynnari or Tyranids, unless the Detachment in question is a Fortification Network. This has no effect on your Army Faction.

I don't see this as much of an issue for me as I actually prefer not to mix factions, but it does make it harder to include an inquisitor. This will shake up a lot of the popular tournament lists though.

Organised Event Guidelines

Having such a small selection of datasheets to choose from this rule will have a large impact on pure Elysian armies.

If you are using matched play for an organised event such as a tournament, we suggest using the table below. As well as a helpful guide to the size of the battlefield and game length, the number of Detachments each player can take in their army is restricted, as is the number of times a player’s army
can include a particular datasheet. Of course, if you are organising such an event, you should feel free to modify these guidelines to better suit your event’s own needs, schedule, etc. You can only include the same datasheet in a Battle-forged army up to a maximum number of times, depending upon the points limit for that game, as described below.

* This does not apply to units with the Troops or Dedicated Transport Battlefield Role, nor does it apply to any units that are added to your army during the battle that cost reinforcement points.

The datasheet that will most limit is Company commanders as they are only really Elysian viable HQ choice. In a 2000pt that limits you to 1 Battalion or Brigade without taking other HQ choices. This actually makes Scions are more attractive option, especially bringing a pure Scion Battalion along with an Elysian Brigade. Other options I see are Primaris psykers and Marbo (an Elysian conversion obviously) who both fit with the Elysain theme. Interestingly enough this will mean we will see more platoon commanders.

Other units that I see this limitation being an issue for is veterans, sniper teams and heavy weapon teams. It is not so much as issue for vehicles as you can take them in squadrons.

Summary

I all I feel this FAQ is good for the game, but the optional datasheet limitation will severely limit pure Elysian armies. While Imperial soup as it was may be gone, Astra Militarum soup will still be a thing when you consider the IA Index. While you can only take 3 Elysian Heavy weapon teams, you can also take 3 Cadian Heavy weapon teams, and even 3 Krieg heavy weapon teams too.