Saturday, November 19, 2011

Can two Cryptek's join a single squad?

This seems to have come up in several places recently, such as this thread's comments where I asserted that attaching two Crypteks to a single unit (via the purchase of two royal courts) was too far "into the grey" for me.

Buemmshef said:

"Actually, as of right now this seems to be the case.

While it might not be RAI, we don't care about that; it is RAW until GK decides that this should not be.

The splitting off one Cryptek for each unit refers to the 'current' Court, not 'all' Courts (This is a rough translation from german, since I haven't gotten my hands on an english codex yet. If I do, I'll try to highlight the corresponding sections and confirm my interpretations)."
The actual rule, helpfully provided by Tassadar, is:
 
"Only one Member of the Royal Court can join each unit in this manner."
Now, you can make the argument that "RAW" currently allows you to attach two Crypteks. I disagree. I think that the most that can be said is that RAW currently is ambiguous enough about the matter to make this a "grey area" which I *personally* do not feel comfortable pushing forward into while we are still in the "codex beta test phase."
 
Now, does that mean I would call someone a "cheater WAAC asshole" if they played this way against me? No, what I would tell them is that I think their interpretation of the rule is likely not going to be supported once the FAQ is released. I would also acknowledge the possibility that GW would support their hail mary and that we are all going to be running around with dual Crypteks in a couple of months.
 
I think it's fine, and even kind of fun, to be hopeful for a "whacky" interpretation from GW. Furious Charge triggering off Counter-attack? Sure, why not?! That was sure a fun FAQ (until ret-conned). How about Shadow in the Warp not affecting psykers inside of transports? That's certainly a whacky interpretation, and I'm sure it made many a Space Wolf player happy!
 
I even spent a little while pulling for GW to make a whacky interpretation on the Grey Knights codex. I was REALLY hoping that the Purgation squads would be allowed to fire out of vehicles without firing points. I fully understood that the RAW did not support this. But I also fully understood that sometimes the FAQs do funky (and in this case potentially awesome) things. Alas, my dreams of rumbling around firing Psycannons out of the bowels of a Land Raider where not to be.
 
Oh well.  
 
Here's the thing, I stated clearly at that time that I would not play it that way unless the FAQ specifically supported it. Even as I was throwing my "hail mary" hoping for the FAQ to fall my way, I knew it was wrong to even try and make the argument that we should currently play that way.
 
Now, the Cryptek issue is grey-er than this. I acknowledge that. However, I feel the same way about this, that it would be wrong to try and play it this way until a FAQ clarifies it. GW could have avoided this situation with a little bit of competent technical writing, for instance:

"Only one Member of each Royal Court can join each unit in this manner." -Clearly you can attach two if you have two courts.

-or-

"Only one Member of any Royal Court can join each unit in this manner." -Clearly you can only ever attach one.

But they didn't. So we will wait and hope for a FAQ. Either way it goes, it will not be game-breaking. I just prefer to avoid these kinds of situations altogether so I can focus on kicking your ass "on the table" and entirely "above board." (Slight hubris and sarcasm there, lol).