The Core Rule Book Has Landed
Written By: @ImperialSympathizer, Joshua Devera (@Pergrine), and Stephen Cobb (@ASpaceViking)
The new Core Rule Book is finally here! The new ‘CRB’ streamlines how the rules are laid out in an attempt to make learning the game a little more user friendly. Now, the rule book is structured into the following sections:
Key Concepts
Getting Ready to Play
Game Mechanics
Appendixes
Notched Bases
Unit Types/Vehicles
Mercs/Battleforces
Battle Card Rules
Timing
Keyword Glossary
There are a bunch of changes throughout the entirety of the CRB, and it is certainly worth a read. To help everyone catch some of the numerous changes, we’ve highlighted many of them below:
Terrain and Movement
There are 3 types of terrain, and 3 terrain classifications now: Scatter/Area/Obstacle, and Open/Difficult/Impassable (p. 11-13, and p. 23-26 for movement)
An Obstacle taller than a silhouette cannot be moved through, but can be climbed through (if not Impassable)
Trooper minis cannot end movement overlapping an Obstacle. They must be fully within/on it (no hanging bases)
Impassable really means it now. Nothing can move through Impassable except Jump X keyword and Repulsor Vehicle. Climbs cannot move through Impassable.
Example of new terrain: building could be classified as Heavy Cover, Obstacle, Open now. For minis with silhouettes shorter than the building, they could perform a Climb to move on top/through it as long as the height difference is less than height 1.
Alternate example: a different type of building could be classified as Heavy Cover, Obstacle, Open on top, Impassable on sides. This would only be accessible to repulsor vehicles or Jump X keyword to get on top.
Clamber no longer exists, Climb is a single move action (p. 25)
Perform a speed-1 move, and the movement may go through/end on obstacle terrain that is less than height 1 difference from the starting point
This does not work for impassable terrain
Jump X units can now Jump > Climb, allowing for getting on/off a terrain piece on the same activation
Movement by small base (standard trooper) minis does not move along the movement tool, they are just placed in a position somewhere along it (p. 23)
So movement tool can be directly touching terrain pieces for small base troopers compared to before
You cannot cohere minis to vertical heights that are greater than the unit leader’s silh height. (p. 19)
Notably, you can’t leave guys cohered at a different level on a climb like you used to
Notched base minis still follow movement along the tool as before (p. 23)
Minis can exit the battlefield as part of a move as long as their final position is fully on the battlefield and legal (p. 23)
Repulsor vehicles can displace during or at the end of a compulsory move. (p. 38)
Compulsory move text was updated, now satisfies the requirements of Ai:Move (p. 50)
There is no wound effect for non-full speed compulsory moves (p. 50)
Expert Climber lets the unit move vertical distances up to h2 during a climb move (p. 8)
Units with Scale gain Expert Climber (when performing a climb can climb to height 2 instead of height 1) + Unhindered (p. 49)
A unit may not begin the first round of the game in base contact with an unclaimed objective token (p. 19)
Nerf to infiltrate and in some cases scout, e.g. can’t infiltrate on a box for recover the supplies.
Applies to objective tokens even if they are unclaimable, such as vaporators
Bane tokens may still base objectives since they are not units.
Cover and Attacking
All minis have silhouettes now, including vehicles (p. 27, 38)
For line of sight, draw a cylinder from the base to the top of the mini ignoring little bits that stick out like weapons/people/etc. The sil includes the base.
For cover purposes on repulsor vehicles, their silhouettes are measured from the bottom of the vehicle/end of the peg to the top of the vehicle (excluding dangly bits again)
Ground vehicles block LOS as if they were area terrain consisting of the volume of their silhouette (p. 37)
Vehicle silhouettes must be 50% obscured to get cover (p. 37, 38)
Base Contact: The vertical space allowed for base contact in melee is now up to the height of silhouette. (p. 26)
During attacks, check LOS from *every* part of attacker silhouette to *every* part of defender silhouette (p. 27-30)
This means LOS will always be reciprocal now (no states where A can see B, but B can't see A)
Must have the entire mini sil unobstructed from the attacker to be no cover for that mini (except vehicles, 50% of sil required).
A defender may only suffer wounds up to the wound threshold for each mini that is visible. (p. 31)
Example: a wookiee unit with only one visible mini that has taken 2 wounds is eligible to receive 3 wounds. A stormtrooper unit with one visible mini is eligible to receive 1 wound.
Cover - How cover is determined when you have miniatures in both light cover and heavy cover has changed (p.30)
“ If miniatures in the defending unitare obscured by terrain that provides light cover and some by terrain that provides heavy cover, if more than half of the obscured miniatures are obscured by terrain that provides heavy cover, the defending unit has heavy cover. Otherwise, the unit has light cover.”
Emplacement Troopers and Creature Troopers no longer grant cover to other friendly units.
Line of Sight - When determining which defending minis are in LOS from the attacking unit, only LOS from the attacking unit leader is used (p. 28).
Non unit leader minis still need LOS to at least one mini in the defending unit to contribute dice.
Can’t ‘slingshot’ minis out with cohesion to get a shot where the unit leader can’t see the defender but other minis in the unit can. Previously you could make this shot but it was automatic heavy cover, now you cannot take the shot.
Wounds may be applied to any mini in the unit, regardless of LOS (p. 37)
No terrain scoping any more, and strike teams will always lose non-leader mini first now
This has a competitive implication, you can stand with a single leader and heavy in the open and the rest behind a building to shoot an opposing unit with your heavy while being only eligible to take 2 wounds in return and not lose the heavy
Cannot stand with just the heavy exposed and attack, unit leader must have LOS to make a legal attack (p. 28)
Range templating default is now “range x” instead of “range x-y”. (p.10)
Existing donut type range effects function normally now (IG-11 1 pip, Gideon Ruthless)
Anything that says “range x-y” still functions like before
Dodges always apply before cover now (p. 35)
Up Close and Personal: Still works with gunslinger but also works with split firing. (Rules Forum)
Fire Support only adds 1 weapon per mini, meaning Arsenal X does not work with Fire Support (p. 45)
Relevant for Gideon 3 pip with units that have Arsenal X
Passing, Panicking and Ties
A player may Pass instead of Activating a unit (p. 21)
This may only be done by the player with fewer remaining orders than their opponent, and only once per round
When a unit is defeated, if it had faceup orders those tokens are removed from the battlefield (p. 31)
Relevant to pass mechanic?
In the event that a game ends and there is a tie on VPs and KPs, the player with the largest army/least bid wins the game. (p. 19)
"Suppressed" and "Panicked" states are constant and immediate (p. 14-15)
As soon as you have suppression equal to (suppressed) or double (panic) your/commander's courage, you are in that state
Panicked units cannot perform actions or free actions (need clarification on interaction outside of activation for Pulling the Strings, Guidance, etc.)
Panicked units and objective tokens they have claimed do not count for victory purposes (p. 19)
Clarified that panicked units still count for Payload since moving a payload is not under the ‘Victory’ section of the objective card.
After a unit rallies, if it is panicked it drops all objective tokens, loses all actions, and recovers suppression equal to courage (p. 22)
No more panic moves toward board edge
Transports
Embark in Closed Transport requires an additional action, not the entire activation (p. 51)
Relevant for Juyo Mastery
Previously, a unit had to spend an entire activation to enter a closed transport. This means that free actions may be used before embarking into a closed transport.
LOS cannot be drawn to or from units in closed transports (p. 51)
No Whipcord, Sabine Grapple Line, Amban, Exemplar, etc.
When a transport vehicle dies, the transported unit loses its entire activation in addition to 1 suppression and 1 wound (p. 52)
Units in Transport: Open may only perform one action if the vehicle performed more than one standard move or reverse during the round (p. 52)
This is not exclusive to disembark, can no longer aim > shoot for example
Bomb Carts
Bomb carts have silhouette from base to top of handle, never provide cover to creature troopers or vehicles (p. 39)
No need to place bomb minis on them anymore!
Bomb carts now follow the movement rules of notched base minis, and cannot move through impassable terrain (p. 36, 39)
Can only move over terrain that is the silh height or lower, since follows rules of standard move (p. 25)
Other Changes
A unit with Covert Ops may not Infiltrate/gain an Operative token if there is no other Commander rank unit in the army (p. 43)
Exemplar only shares aims, dodges, surges now (p. 45)
Nerf to Ani and Padme standby sharing.
Units with Cumbersome can shoot > move, but not move > shoot (p. 54)
Used to be never move and shoot in same act
The number of bullets (•) next to a card's name indicates the maximum number of copies that may be taken of that card. (p. 16)
Semi-unique units/upgrades?
Deflect can not be triggered during a melee attack to gain the benefits of surge to block. (p. 44)
Updated 1/17/23 - Battle cards are no longer hidden information and may be seem before the player with the highest bid picks red or blue player.
Updated 1/17/23 - Barricades cannot have objective or condition tokens placed on them, and are thus ineligible to be selected for key positions or payload.
Immune: Deflect no longer requires all weapons in the pool to have the keyword for the effect to work.
Wrap Up
In addition to the new rule book, the Rules Questions Forum has been reset to give us a blank slate of clarifications to accompany the new rule book. If you have any questions, make sure to check there first and direct any questions you have that way!
Corrections Log:
-Repulsor vehicles can displace during or at the end of a compulsory move. (p. 38) (original was missing compulsory)
-Removed “If the unit leader cannot draw LOS to an attacking mini but can see other minis in the defending unit, then that limits the total wounds the defender can suffer.” from Cover and Attacking section. This is incorrect.
-Updated transport section to remove ‘closed’ from the clause about losing your activation if a transport dies. This applies to both types of transport, not just closed.
-Added ‘creature troopers’ to the clause ‘emplacement troopers no longer provide cover’
Special thanks to William Wallace (@PneumaticPanic) and Dustin Grorud (@KUPiranha) for editing help