by Peter Atkinson and Calvin Rarie

We got a shadow-FAQ overnight, with the App updated to fix a couple of things in the most recent Dawnbringer book. I’ll set the tone up front: if you’re expecting a “Poor Me” Destro-centric rant about Muh Gargant Teleport, you’re not going to get it. I quite like the changes and I’ll still be happy to run Brodd’s Stomp competitively. So let’s a take a proper look at what’s changed, and what it all means.

Ready? Let’s go.

What needed fixing?

The FAQ was aimed at a few specific issues, all of which objectively needed looking at. And when I say “objectively”, yes I mean it in the classic Wargamer-running-their-mouth-online sense of “I happen to agree, therefore it’s correct”. Let’s take it one AOR at a time.

Grunta Stampede

Check out our initial review here.

1. The Grunta Boss couldn’t take CTs or artefacts in Ironjawz / Big Waaagh, because they were locked behind the Megaboss keyword, which he lacks.
2. His Rampage didn’t really work properly.
3. The overall power-level of this AOR is embarassingly shit. The rules were clearly written by someone who hates Ironjawz and has never played a game with the army. You lose all the army’s best rules (including Mighty Destroyers and the Warchanter), and in return, you gain nothing of value.

Brodd’s Stomp

Check out our initial review here.

1. The terrain picky-uppery was kind of broken:
   • The playbook was walk up on to terrain, Sunder it, then set up on the far side of it. So you effectively got a free teleport across to the other side of that terrain piece for any and all Gargants that were toeing onto it.
   • Far less talked about than the free movement, but arguably more important, was the lack of restrictions around this set-up. There was nothing to stop you setting up straight into combat (avoiding Unleash Hell), or nopeing out of a fight you didn’t want to be in (while still being able to shoot and charge off into something else). Slightly under the radar in terms of the commentary out there which focused mainly on free linear movement, but literally game-breaking in its own right.
2. The Grand Strat didn’t function, because it was impossible to Sunder every terrain piece on a standard board across five Rounds of play.

Kharadron Grundstokk

This army was both incredibly one-note, and obviously going to change.

1. Unloading a bajillion Thunderers and then shooting twice was a stupid idea that should never have made it into print. It was dumb when the Kunnin Rukk could do it, and it’s dumb now. Learn your bloody lessons.

Trugg’s Troggherd

Check out our initial review here.

1. Nothing, it’s bang on the money. Interesting but not OP, which is exactly where these armies should sit.

As a reminder, this is how we rated these Armies at launch:

So what changed?

Grunta Stampede

Firstly, the Enhancements were fixed to include Tuskbosses as well as Megabosses:

Nice little quality of life change. I mean anyone who knows the first thing about Ironjawz could have told them this would happen – and this is not just me being wise after the event – but better late then never I guess.

Here's a thought. All the Ironjawz Enhancements are keyword locked to Megaboss or Wizard

Unless Big Pig and the Ardboyz Boss both have the Megaboss keyword (unlikely?), they won't be able to take their faction CTs or artefacts

Maybe we'll get an updated table in the supplement? pic.twitter.com/YaSgilSDpN

— Peter Atkinson (@PlasticCraic) September 2, 2023

It doesn’t change too much because the Ironjawz Enhancements are mostly crap:

• The CTs are rarely seen competitively and nothing here changes that. You’ll continue to see Shaman of the Chilled Lands on a Weirdnob as the go-to selection.
• The only good artefact is Destroyer, which is better-used on a Megaboss for their extra attack (starts at 7 and can ramp up further) and in the case of the Footboss, fighting on death. The Big Pig is still around 80 points overcosted but if you’re keen on running one instead of a Megaboss, access to Destroyer on his 6-attack profile has narrowed the gap between them.

Still, quality of life does matter so it’s good to see, and there’s certainly a world where you could take the Tuskboss with Destroyer in a Big Waaagh or Ironsunz army, to unlock Big Pig Battleline.

Secondly, Carve a Path has been clarified to allow you to pull off the Rampage even if you are within 3″ of enemy models. It’s still too hard to trigger, because the Momentum mechanic is frankly poorly judged and way undercooked – the chances of pulling off this Rampage are exponentially worse than if it just happened on a 3+. Regardless, it was clearly intended to function when you are within 3″ of the enemy but the rules didn’t really say that, so again, good job cleaning it up.

Thirdly, the AOR is still dogshit: they didn’t take any real action to fix the piss-weak power level. I don’t think anyone really expected them to, so it is what it is: a swing and a miss.

The changes that were made were positive, and at the very least it’s good to have the Rampage and access to Destroyer cleaned up.

The Verdict: Thumbs Up.

Brodd’s Stomp

OK, big change to the terrain picky-uppery. We knew it wasn’t going to last, but this is actually more brutal than I expected.

If there’s a Monster on it (like you), you’re fucked. So if you toe the objective, you now can’t pick it up and throw it, which stops your teleporting bullshit. And that’s fair enough to be honest.

Where I feel it was pretty harsh is that your opponent can now stop you Sundering terrain by toeing it with their own Monster. I mean they clearly never really thought this rule through before sending it to the publisher intended for you to get a free teleport, but completely stopping you from being able to pick it up and chuck it is a bit much – it’s pretty much the AOR’s signature mechanic and it shouldn’t be that easy to deny. Hey ho.

Implications

OK let’s get our thinking hats on. There’s a few flow-on effects here to consider:

1. Faction terrain is generally Impassible, which means they can’t toe it with a Monster. So you can still pick that up and piff it at them – which is one of the best use-cases of this rule. As a reminder, there are a lot of Faction Terrain rules that sit outside the Terrain’s own warscroll, limiting the practical impact of Smash to Rubble but not your shiny new Sunder. The value remains.
2. Furthermore, Faction terrain is a recurring motif within these AORs. The Ogors have an awesome new terrain piece that punishes you for trying Smash to Rubble – but doesn’t fight back when you Sunder it instead. Similarly the new Sylvaneth guy is likely to see a resurgence in the weeds, and his Nature Aetheric rule further interacts with terrain too. Granted he’s a Monster, but unless he physically stays on top of that terraformed terrain for the whole battle it’s going to be vulnerable to a Sunder, and in the meantime you can jog around grabbing Wyldwoods to toss the caber.
3. Edge case: You’ll probably want a couple of Gate Breakers in a Brodd’s Stomp list anyway, so watch out for the opportunity to pump out extra damage against any Monsters that carelessly wander wholly within the terrain piece. Similarly if your opponent has a Monster on the terrain piece to prevent Sunder, or just has another unit nearby and you fail the 2+ roll, you’ll get the opportunity to at least bash out a few bonus Mortals with Smash to Rubble, whether or not you hit the 3+ on the Monstrous Rampage attempt. So switching off Sunder isn’t quite cost-free for them.
4. For avoidance of doubt: in the AOR you lose the classic SOB Monstrous Rampages, so you can’t suplex an annoying Monster off the terrain. Ah well, you can’t have everything.

The Grand Strat has also been fixed, so now you only have to Sunder all the stuff that’s wholly or partly within enemy territory (Monsters standing around in the wrong places can make your life very hard here). Note that they’ve called it a Battle Tactic in the description even though it’s in the Grand Strat section (oops), which will presumably get cleaned up when they drop the pdf.

Really it comes into serious consideration only when the missions are pre-announced and you know you’re playing exclusively on quarters (not red and blue halves) to limit the number of relevant Terrain pieces you’ll be dealing with. Mostly you’ll still lean towards the GHB options (my general preference is Slaughter of Sorcery) – but at least it’s more achievable now than it was previously.

All in all, the ability to Sunder terrain is still bloody strong even without the jank. Brodd’s Stomp is an AOR that preys on other AORs, so if they prove popular in their role as a late-edition revamp for those armies (which I suspect they will), that puts you in a good spot.

The Verdict: Thumbs Up (just about).

Kharadron Grundstokk

Well now, would you take a look at this! They copped a decent nerf:

The headline is that each Gunhauler can only pick up and transport a combined model count of 6 or less (and capped at two units) – so you’re probably looking at a unit of 5 Thunderers and a hero. Much better. No more unloading a whole army of Thunderers right up in your business – thank fuck for that.

MSU units take buffs less well than units of 15, and what’s more, if you want to keep the delivery mechanism, you need to rejig the ratio of Haulers to Thunderers. Given that Gunhaulers are less Dakka-intensive for any given points investment than the boyz, that’s definitely a good thing for anyone across the table from it.

Another important factor is the change to their interaction with Overwatch:

Unleash Hell must target the same unit with both volleys. This is really important, because the most common workaround for that rule is to charge in first with some chaff, who can take it like a good ‘un. Having some cheap scrap of a unit massively overkilled when you charge in is getting great value out of that play, so if they’re going to let the bastards shoot you twice on your own turn, that’s the least worst way of doing it.

The army would still batter plenty of others but these changes are probably enough to knock it out of the nascent meta – which is exactly what we needed it to do.

The Verdict: Thumbs Up.

Overall Thoughts

Fair play, these are a good suite of changes. We couldn’t realistically expect them to lift the power level of the Grunta Stampede – that’s a flaw in the initial rules, not a flaw in this FAQ. Everything else has been addressed: a bit of bullshit reined in, a bit of clarification where there were gaps or rough edges.

There were already some events here in Australia coming out and banning the AORs or issuing their own house rules for them, and I reckon these updates will be enough to get them accepted into the mainstream game anywhere they weren’t already.

As a fella who’s interested in playing Brodd’s Stomp, I’d have preferred something slightly lighter-touch in terms of enemy Monsters being able to prevent Sunder, but it’s still fit for purpose as a Faction Terrain fucker and I’ll still be happy to play the army competitively.

As a side note, we do sometimes give the playtesting process a hard time, but I think we should take a moment to reflect on what the game could look like without it. There’s a few things that went to print here that really shouldn’t have, and it strikes me that they probably lacked that extra pair of eyes / external input that would have nipped it in the bud earlier in the process. Here’s a tip of the hat to the playtesters for all the Smash-Terrain-and-get-a-free-teleport interactions we never even saw, because they were fixed up front.

So in summary – today is a good day. The AORs are in a healthier spot for these changes, and it’s a thumbs up from the Craichouse. Good job.

Credit for the cover image to Games Workshop

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