New FAQs hit... RIP Gamling?

Did you free-hand yours yet? Are you wondering if you wasted your life?

Photo Credit: The Hooded Goblin

How's that title for click-bait?

In case you missed it, the latest round of erratas and FAQs dropped over on Warhammer Community yesterday. Apparently the game state is much more balanced than it was last time around, so there are much fewer big-impact changes to report (at least we think so at this point). Here are some of the highlights (or lowlights):

• Gamling's Royal Standard of Rohan now only gives one Rohan hero within 3" a point of Might if they have none, as opposed to all Rohan heroes within 3". My own opinion is that this is definitely a nerf, since it was generally easy to get at least 2 free Might points out of the banner (Gamling + one random hero within 3", which is not hard to do, especially since heroes like the option of banner rerolls). Now it's just one, which means Gamling can still spam Heroic Moves, Marches, and Defense, but only if you're good with him consuming your free Might per turn. The banner is still good (any chance you can replenish heroic stats is good), but the question moving forward will be exactly how good? Is 50 points too much for a 3" banner and one Might per turn, especially when there are other 6" banners that confer bonus effects, which cost less? Time will tell.
• The other highlighted change involves Isengard Demo teams, which now have to have at least two enemy models within 2" of them before you can detonate them (to prevent players from intentionally blowing up half their army to achieve end-game in scenarios that end when one force is quartered). I'm indifferent to this personally, since Isengard is evil and evil has a reputation for killing itself with chariots, war beasts, and other shenanigans for precisely this purpose. But if it's posed enough of a problem in the competitive scene elsewhere to merit a specific call-out from the game developers, I'm not going to complain about it.In smaller FAQs, they also clarified that you cannot place a demo charge in a way that overlaps a model's base, you must drop it so that it touches both bomb carriers, you measure the 2" range from the edges of the demo charge, and you do in fact need one point of Fate for each wound dealt by a Demo charge (not sure why that was ever a question). Again, all this seems eminently reasonable to me.
• A sneaky small clarification that could end up being bigger (in the long term) than either of the above: you can no longer shield if you've been Immobilized or Transfixed (the same would be true of Commanded and Compelled, too, since you suffer the effects of Immobilize / Transfix at the end of being Commanded or Compelled). Transfix was already good against big heroes since it prevents them from making strikes if they win combats, so this makes it even more devastating against big heroes with shields.

The last FAQ I'll highlight is the only one that I'm not sure is quite as clear as it needs to be. Here's the question and answer:

Q: How are models that cannot normally be directly affected by Magical Powers that would prevent them from moving (such as Smaug or the Mumâk) affected by Special Rules that would make them suffer the effects of the Paralyse Magical Power, but that technically aren’t Magical Powers (such as a Mirkwood Spider’s Spider Web or Shelob’s Caught in a Web Brutal Power Attack)? (p. 194)

A: Models that cannot be prevented from moving (such as Smaug or a Mûmak) will be unaffected by Special Rules that make them suffer the effects of the Paralyse Magical Power.

I have some questions about this one, and I'm not sure what the answers are:

1. The question and answer reference Smaug and the Mumak as "models that cannot be prevented from moving." As far as I can tell, this is referring to the Immovable Object special rule for War Beasts (Rules p. 81) and Smaug (Armies of the Hobbit p. 129), but that's not exactly what Immovable Object says. Models with Immovable Object can't be knocked Prone, Hurled, be trapped, or back away (unless to another model with Immovable Object with a larger base size), but the rule doesn't say they "cannot be prevented from moving." In fact, we know that War Beasts can in fact be prevented from moving--if they're charged, for example (Rules p. 80). We also know that War Beasts can in fact be moved against their will--Stampede! may or may not be an example of this (depending on whether you think this is the war beast moving "against its will," or willing itself to run roughshod in the direction chosen by your enemy), but a Command or Transfix that is successfully cast on the driver certainly is. In fact, the language on Rules p. 81 describes these powers as "imped[ing] a War Beast model's movement (thereby causing it to remain stationary or take a move as described by the Magical Power)."
2. Where this could matter--and where I think the ambiguity may cause problem--is with models that don't have the Immovable Object rule, but do have rules that explicitly grant them immunity to magical powers that prevent them from moving or force them to move against their will. In other words, Ents with the Fangorn army bonus (Armies of the Lord of the Rings p. 90). Perhaps it was always understood that you couldn't Paralyze Treebeard, and I just missed it. Maybe that's a change. Either way, I think the FAQ as written would render Ents completely unaffected by Paralyze, which means Tiberius was right after all: Treebeard by far the best good Monster model in the game. 

Other random changes / clarifications that may interest only me:

• Azog or Bolg only get the army leader bonus from Azog's Legion if you take them from the Azog's Legion list. The purpose is to avoid niche lists that took Azog from Azog's hunters, and then some other hero from Azog's Legion, in a historic alliance, with the result that Azog was the leader (as the only Hero of Legend in each force). My own view is that this was an entirely unnecessary complication in list-building (just take Azog from the Legion), but I know there were some players who said it mattered in niche cases. In any event, if you want Azog or Bolg to get Master of Battle from the army bonus, you now have to take them from the Legion.
• Commanded / Compelled models do not need to take courage tests for break; additionally, they do not provide a Stand Fast! The same is true of models that have been Paralyzed, and I assume it is also true of models that have been Immobilized / Transfixed (though the FAQs don't specifically address those spells).
• Speaking of Command / Compel, if you Command / Compel a model that declared a Heroic March, you cannot command / compel that model into combat because that model cannot charge that turn. I assume the same would also be true of models that benefited from an On the Double!, but the FAQ doesn't specifically speak to that. You also cannot command / compel a model to charge on a turn in which that model has come onto the board via Maelstrom of Battle (because, again, the Maelstrom rule says models cannot charge in a turn where they come onto the board).
• If you have a special rule that inflicts a hit on "all models," it inflicts a hit on both the rider and the mount on a cavalry model, unless otherwise specified in the rule.
• Models that attempt to charge the One Ring, and fail, can choose to go into another model or otherwise complete their move as normal (since the One Ring check is not a Terror check). Tiberius feels, and I agree, that there will probably be an up-tick in attempts to charge your ringbearers as a result of this, so be forewarned.
• Speaking of invisible, two clarifications to the Shroud of Shadows spell. First, you cannot make a War Beast invisible (fine). Second, Sauron, the Necromancer, and Ringwraith models ignore the Shroud of Shadows effect (that's cool). Paired with the "no shielding whilst transfixed" clarification, it was a good day for ringwraiths.
• Amazingly, Legolas's Deadly Shot still cannot be modified (this time by the Crebain's Cloud of Bird's Special rule). I think the devs have been pretty clear that Legolas's Deadly Shot ability cannot be modified, but now it's been settled again (until next time). Semi-relatedly (but not really), Gimli only gets his I myself am sitting pretty on 43 special rule if Fellowship Legolas is in your force (not Mirkwood Legolas).
• If you dismount Merry from Dernhelm, Dernhelm becomes Eowyn (because "Dernhelm" = Merry + Eowyn--remove Merry, and you no longer have Dernhelm, you have Merry and Eowyn).
• It turns out you cannot in fact use Farmer Cotton's pitchfork as a two-handed weapon when using it to support a fight (I wasn't sure that was a thing, but Tiberius is taking credit for this clarification, so okay...)
• If a siege engine kills Sigrid and/or Tilda with a direct shot, Bard has to charge the Siege Vet. If they're otherwise killed by a siege engine (say with splash-damage, having another model flung into them, etc), you treat the situation as if Bard has already slain the model that killed them, at which point he just charges the nearest enemy model each turn. The same is true if you declare your Siege Vet the assassin in Assassination--he scores the kill if he kills the target with a direct shot only.
• In the Recovery scenario in Battle Companies, you can only move the relic off your opponent's board edge. 
• Legendary Legions that are part of a siege game (from War in Rohan) can purchase siege equipment.
• You can in fact hit Crebain on a 1-3 if they are in the way of something else, even though they are generally hit on just a 6. So that could make things interesting if you play lots of crebain.
• When deploying for scenarios, you generally need to have a model's entire base within X" of whatever inches the deployment rules are talking about (with the exception of Contest of Champions, where only part of the champion's base needs to be within 3" of the board... but we all know Contest of Champions is a special case, so...).
• Speaking of Contest, if you take Bard or Girion as your champion, and they happen to have the Windlance, you still have to deploy them at least partially within 3" of the center of the board, ignoring the usual rule that siege engines must be deployed within 6" of a board edge.
• You score VPs in scenarios for casualties if enemy models are removed as a casualty in any way (Will of Evil, courage test failure, Kardush eats them, etc). This includes Lords of Battle, so trample away. It does not, however, include any wounds prevented by a Fury save (yay 6+ saves!). It also doesn't include Will points that are spent as Fate points (because they're not actually Fate points). Really good day for the Necromancer and Undying...\
• The obvious exception is reconnoitre--models that escape the board (as opposed to being removed as a casualty) still count as being on the board for purposes of determining if you're broken and/or quartered.
• Objective markers count as open terrain, and can even be stood on by models (yay, Mumak). You cannot, however, jump on top of a Goblin Drum (although you can try to jump over it). So yeah... now you know.
• You cannot "capture" any objectives using an enemy's player that you control (Denethor, Thrain the broken, etc).
• And lastly, if you have an uber hero who gains Might in some way (like winning a Heroic Challenge), those points can be regained in the Lords of Battle and Contest of Champions scenarios because they were previously spent in the battle (will need to think about this one more--Blood and Glory would have to count, I think, but what about Aragorn's Mighty Hero? Or does that not count as "gaining Might"? And does that even matter?).

What do you all think of these changes? Is this mostly a bunch of cosmetic housekeeping (and Rohan tears), or are we missing something seismic?