Today I want to go through the top 5 Keyword rules in 40K 10th Edition, and why they matter.
The new edition of 40k we got a few years ago reintroduced Keywords back to the rules pantheon. These are rules that are locked in and every time you see/read them they work exactly this way. There isn’t some kind of weird army-based wrinkle to these and keywords are used to “create” a default game state for the players. I like keyworded rules as I think it makes the game easier to play, easier to balance, and easier to judge if something is good or not. Today I want to go through the top 5 rules and how important they are to the units they are attached too.
#5 – Anti (x)
This is a pretty simple rule that can kind of explode in usefulness. I put this at 5 because most of the time it can be a rule that an army could accidentally ignore. You could have no infantry units in your army so this Anti-Infantry gun doesn’t do a whole heck of a lot for ya. Or you could be an army of vehicles and this Anti-Vehicle weapon just melts through all your tough robot things like butter. The bigger issue with Anti is how it can stack with other rules and create some pretty brutal combinations which are so dependent on the “targets” you’ve been provided to attack against.
#4 – Lance
Lance gives you a flat +1 to wound if you charged a target. It is a pretty simple one and really again dependent on if you are going to be charging a lot of things. I like the idea of having a +1 as you can easily chain into more damage opportunity especially if you have some kind of built in reroll mechanic for your attacks. It sits at 4 as it is a powerful rule but again it depends on if you are able to charge into something reliably.
#3 – Sustained Hits (x)
This rule is simple one that rewards your “critical” successes to hit with an extra attack. This usually grants you more chances for successful combinations of damage potential with weapons that wound your targets pretty easily or could cause further damage with devastating wounds. Yes your Lethal Hits are pretty powerful but getting more hits is usually the better way to cause more damage. Just having more “chances” to get critical wounds is such a powerful ability.
#2 – Devastating Wounds
This is the granddaddy of damage as it changes your critical wounds into mortal wounds. Initially this was a way to “pour” all the damage into an enemy unit but thankfully, the balance dataslate removed that. The rule now is just the wounds are considered Mortal and there isn’t any flow over of the extra wounds. This rule is still amazing as it can just melt through the enemy, through their armor, and just turn an target elite unit into goo. You have some kind of reroll on top and you start to see how you can fish for these brutal wound rolls and cause your opponent to groan as they lose their big bad unit to a nasty pile of damage.
#1 – Feel No Pain (x)
This rule is so powerful. It warps the game and causes players to rethink their damage potential when facing a large army with this rule. If you have a FNP 6+ you can see how for every 6 wounds you basically have an extra wound on top of it. For any large model that is sitting on 18+ wounds that could be 3+ wounds an opponent has to deal with. Heck if you get lucky on a few of them and spike it into 4-5 extra wounds you can see how you just ruin your opponents damage potential as they have to rethink how they are engaging and dealing with your threats. Heck this rule has been taken away from so many things that it totally shifts an army playstyle to rethink how they work. If your unit has this rule know that it is going to be rare and it is one of the most powerful “keyworded” abilities in the game.
Honorable Mentions
Special thanks to Lethal Hits that I feel hits at number 6. I like how it always works but it feels like such a boring powerful when compared to the others. It does help in a lot of match ups with those units that can throw out a pile of attacks that are not nearly as strong as they should be. Fights First is also in the list as well but I feel it is such a rough keyword that can be good and bad for the game. The ones listed above are what I considered good abilities and good for the game’s overall balance. They do exactly what they need to do which is give an ability to units that feels well within the power range you want them to have.
~Which 40K Keywords do you think matte the most in 10th?
Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on – or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.