Blog Wars 9 Rule Amendments and FAQ

Blog Wars 9 is a little less than five weeks away and GW is determined to make things more and more complicated with each passing week. There's therefore quite a lot to discuss before the event.

I'm keen not to restrict things too much because I hope that players will remember that Blog Wars is supposed to be a friendly event without the usual filthy lists. I've only ever had to return one list for being too dirty and I hope that I won't have to do it again. I'm not a fan of telling people what they can or can't use in their army but I'm conscious that some things just aren't much fun for anyone involved. Please make my job easier by writing your lists with the spirit of the event in mind. I have no problem with a strong list, just try to avoid particularly dirty combinations. Right onto a few things that I think need clarifying.

New Codices 
In the old days there might be a single new book between each BW event. This time there's probably going to have been half a dozen or so (and counting). The new Imperial Knights book is confirmed for this Saturday and I'm going to make this the last new book that will be allowed at Blog Wars. At that point there'll be just two weeks before army submission so I'd prefer to avoid people needing to make last minute changes. Therefore if your army gets an update after this date (May 9th), but before the tournament, the old rules will still be in play. Similarly, any new factions released after May 9th will not be legal at Blog Wars 9.

I'll need to read through the Imperial Knights book at some point soon after it's release (I'm getting a copy anyway) to decide whether anything needs to change regarding their use. Unless I say otherwise they'll stay as they are though.

Whilst we're on the subject, codices without an option for a Special Character to act as Commander may still be used. A character must be nominated as the "Commander" and his death with still generate 100 extra VPs in game one, however, he will not receive Objective Secured in missions 2 and 3.

Detachments & Army Selection
From the multitude of emails I've been receiving I worry that the army selection criteria are a little bit overcomplicated. I think it would make sense to simplify the whole thing by saying that each army can have a maximum of two detachments but no detachment may be used more than once i.e. no double CAD etc. I think that makes things much easier to understand and frees up more options for people. You can still only have one Lord of War and/or Fortification in your army though and your "Commander" SC must still be in a CAD/Faction and it be your Primary. I'll update the BW9 page to reflect this unless I hear any strong objections.

I know this opens up more nasty combos but some were still possible with the old system and hopefully you guys will self-police a little bit when it comes to filth.

Invulnerable Saves & Re-rolls
Once again, I'd hope this won't be an issue at Blog Wars because I'd hope people would realise that a 2++ with re-roll isn't fun for anyone. However, just in case one slips through the net I'm going to say that a re-rolled Invulnerable Save is only passed on a roll of 4+. That means your unit is still pretty damn durable but your opponent should at least feel like they have a chance!

Invisibility
In its current form Invisibility is a bit daft, I think we can all agree. I therefore think it's reasonable to say that Invisibility simply reduces the BS of enemy units to 1. That means you can still fire blasts/templates and things that boost BS like markerlights will still be effective. I'm also going to rule that you can't cast Invisibility on a Super Heavy Vehicle or Gargantuan Monstrous Creature (or their variations). Having an invisible Wraithknight just isn't necessary.

Eldar Craftworlds
Well, GW really made my job tough with this one. There are some frankly ridiculous things in there such as jetbikes all with scatter lasers and Wraithknights full stop. Of course, there will always be some nasty combinations but again, I hope I can rely on people to be sensible rather than banning the Warhost completely.

Lords of War
As per the rules in Escalation, Lords of War (including those like Logan) will give up an extra VP for every full 3 wounds or hull points they suffer. This will hopefully mitigate the inclusion of Lords of War and give armies facing them a way of claiming points even when they aren't destroyed. Of course, in the first mission this will be in addition to the points scored from Blood Points.

Conclusion
As I've said above, I'll update the BW9 page now to reflect these things. Please please please comment if you strongly disagree and tell me why. I'd also like people to comment if there are any other issues I need to address. Finally, I want to thank everyone who's supported this event so far and got into the spirit of it by bringing something that's a bit different from the usual "netlists". Games Workshop may be making my job more and more difficult but hearing the positive feedback from people (just about) makes it worthwhile.