Today we're launching our second update of the year, with v3.3.0!
Whilst not a huge update, v3.3.0 brings some important changes to a few of our core mechanics, as well as a fresh new look for the games. We're going to discuss some of the most important updates first, so that you know what our thoughts are behind them, and then there will be a big list of patch notes for you to pour over.
Style Update & Yearly Releases
This year marks the 10th anniversary of OPR, and with it, we have been improving a lot of things for you. We have been updating and releasing more lore, have been publishing new books with tons of art, and now it's time that we finally update the layout of our rulebooks as well.
The old style of our rulebooks was created all the way back in 2017, and until now the layouts, borders, and illustrations have all remained the same. Since then, OPR has grown from a tiny one-man project, to a full-blown company which is recognized internationally as one of the best up-and-coming wargame studios out there. This means that there are a lot more eyes on our games now, and we have more budget to allocate, so it was finally time to change the way our books look.
All of our core rules, beginner's guides, advanced rulebooks, and free extras have been now updated with a new style, and we will be updating the remaining expansions over the coming months (the rules have already been updated to v3.3.0, it's just the layout updates that are coming later). If you've been checking out the Grimdark Future World Book or the Secrets of Tixal narrative campaign, then you should already have an idea of how things are changing.
The core rules sheets and free extras have been re-worked with a new minimal layout, which brings a splash of color and looks much cleaner now. All of the beginner's guides and advanced rulebooks have also been updated, with colored pages, new illustrations, and finally diagrams featuring OPR minis.
We hope that you like the new layouts, and that they finally allow OPR games to look like a professional product.
With this new style, and with some of the feedback we've been having regarding the frequency of our rules updates, we are also contemplating switching our rulebook updates to yearly releases, whilst keeping army updates to the current quarterly schedule. This would allow us to finally justify the sale of physical rulebooks, which many of you have been asking for, and which would then be valid for a full year. This would also mean that for those that want to print the books at home, they will only have to print them once a year.
Nothing has been set in stone yet, and we are looking into what we can do, but we hope you like this idea.
Army-Forge Community Lists & Base Size Recommendations
Besides the new style updates, we are also updating Army-Forge to give you even more cool features!
The first new feature is that as long as you are logged in, your army lists are saved to your Army-Forge account. This means that your lists are now available across all of your devices, so no more re-creating your lists on desktop and mobile to make them match.
The second new feature is the addition of community list sharing, which allows you to share any list you made for a faction in Army-Forge, which other players can then see and rate. This will make it even easier for new players to find pre-made lists, or to check out lists for inspiration.
Finally, soon we will also be adding base size recommendations for all official OPR armies, which has been one of the most requested features ever. These base sizes are fully optional, and you can disable them from the menu, as they are only meant to give you a general idea of what base sizes are expected for each unit.
General Rules Updates
Alright, moving on to rules, let's start with the three most important general rules changes.
Since OPR was created back in 2014, the morale rules have not changed a lot, but the gaming landscape has. It's been 10 long years since we first conceptualized how units should behave when failing morale tests, and as new games have come out, and old games have been updated, player expectations have changed a lot. Where once the OPR morale rules were hailed as being awesome, they are now seen as being bothersome, and so we think it's time that we adapt as well.
For our main battle games, we are changing the Shaken rule to be more forgiving, and give players some extra choice. In this new version, Shaken units are still able to act normally, but they get -1 to Quality and Defense rolls, halve their movement, and can't seize objective markers. Units may choose to spend their activation idle in order to stop being Shaken, but don't have to.
This change makes it so that Shaken units can fight on, so that you don't have to watch your beautifully painted minis just sit there all game idle because they keep getting Shaken. It does mean that games are slightly longer, as units that previously had no choice but to skip their activation will now be able to act (with a penalty).
For our skirmish games, we are changing Wound Checks and Rout Tests, again to make the game more forgiving, but also slightly less deadly. In this new version, units are not Stunned anymore, but are Shaken instead, with Shaken working as described above. This also means that when units fail a Rout test, they are Shaken instead of Stunned, and are only Routed if they were already Shaken.
This change has a bigger impact on the skirmish games, as it means multiple things. Since units are now Shaken instead of Stunned, you can't auto-kill them by charging them or hitting them with a shooting attack, so the game is a little less deadly. It also means that units that are charged in melee and take wounds will actually get to strike back (if they are not Knocked Out), which makes the game more balanced.
Note that since Shaken is now less painful than before, the cost of morale and morale-related rules has been changed, so many units across the board are now slightly cheaper.
The next important change, or rather addition, is the introduction of Assault rules, which are meant to help Hybrid units perform better (Hybrid units are those that have equally strong melee and ranged weapons, wasting points by not specializing).
Assault is simple: when you declare a charge and pick a target, you may shoot at it before charging, but get -1 to hit to both shooting and melee, and halve your move. In order to keep things clear and easy, morale tests from wounds are now taken at the end of an activation, unless the unit was engaged in melee, so you don't take two morale tests when Assaulted. We have also clarified that if the target of a Charge was killed before the unit reaches its target, then the unit may complete its movement and then end its activation.
This means that units that are sufficiently close to the enemy can increase their power by both shooting and striking, which is especially handy for Hybrid units. It also creates a new game of cat-and-mouse, as Hybrid units now want to get into Assault range of the enemy, whilst enemies want to move away and not end their activation in Assault Range. We are looking forward to seeing how the community reacts to this change, and tweak it as necessary.
Finally, we have re-worded Blast, Furious, Relentless, and similar rules, to try and make their interactions clearer. We have also added notes and examples to the special rules section of the Beginner's Guide, which should hopefully answer some of the most common questions people have been asking since 3rd edition was released.
Army Specific Updates
When it comes to army specific updates, there is lots of tiny stuff here and there, but these are the most significant changes.
Alien Hives have been slightly re-worked, after hearing that they are a bit too strong from a lot of community members. We are toning down the combo of Furious + Combo on Grunt units, as well as change monsters to be Quality 4+ so that they are easier to field in smaller games. We also changed how Spores and Spore Guns work, to avoid a lot of the confusion and imbalance players found.
Custodian Brothers have been tweaked once again, to give players more control over specialization of units in this already tiny army. We are also adding the option for Great Sisters to become Casters, to give the Custodians a bit more of a chance against more conventional armies.
Shadow Stalkers have been heavily re-worked, so that they better fit with our upcoming miniatures release. This means that a lot of units have been re-named and re-worked, and we have added a couple of new units and hero mounts for you to check out (and dream of what the minis will look like).
Patch Notes
Alright, enough waffling about, here's the full patch notes for you:
General Rules
In AoF and AoFR, changed Force Org. of heroes to be 1 per 375pts in the army
Increased amount of recommended terrain to the previous upper value
Units can now Assault when charging (shoot before moving, but get -1 to hit and half move)
Clarified that if the target of a Charge is destroyed before base contact is reached, then the unit may complete its move and ends its activation
Clarified that Fatigue only applies until the end of that round
Morale tests from wounds are now taken at the end of the activation
Clarified that units that were in melee don't take morale tests for wounds for that activation
Shaken now gives -1 to Quality and Defense, halves move, and must stay idle to remove condition
Moved "shaken units can't seize objectives" from mission rules to shaken rules
In GFF and AoFS, models are now Shaken instead of Stunned
In AoFR, melee losers now get -1 to morale if charged in the flank, and -2 if charged in the rear
In AoFR, clarified that units that start with 1 model count as having 1 full row
Clarified that routed units count as destroyed
General grammar and spelling fixes
Special Rules
Added more examples to the special rules section to further clarify common questions
Clarified that Ambush and Scout units are set aside before deployment
Blast, Furious, and Relentless have been re-written to clarify interaction with other special rules
Added a note that Casters get spell tokens even if they are not on the table
Added a note that Heroes that joint units are permanently part of the unit, even if all other models are killed, and that they can't leave/join units in-game
Impact has been extended to only hit on 3+ when assaulting
Clarified that Poison and Rending ignore the Regeneration rule, and not other forms of regenerating wounds
Added a note to Poison to remind players that dice may only be re-rolled once
Added a note to Reliable to remind players that the Quality 2+ it gives can still be modified, suffers from Fatigue, etc.
Clarified that each model with Sniper may pick a different target from the same unit
Added lots of notes and examples to better explain Transports
In GFF and AoFS, Blast now spreads to enemies within 3" of any model in the target
In GFF and AoFS, clarified that Fear only applies to melee
In AoFR, Counter now applies to the two front rows
In AoFR, Impact now applies to the two front rows
Advanced Rules
Reworked the Terrain Selection to be more balanced
Reworked some of the Deployment Styles to be more balanced
Reworked Solid Building rules to be in line with current standards
Expansions
For Campaign Rules, Routed units now count as casualties
For Campaign Rules, clarified that you get +1XP for killing a unit, +2XP for killing a hero unit, and +3XP for killing a hero and its unit
For Campaign Rules, Hero skill traits now increase their cost by 10pts for skirmish games, and 30pts for regular games
For Campaign Rules, reworked the Warden skill trait
For GFF Campaign Rules, Warbands are now called Strike Teams
For Solo & Co-Op rules, added Assaults to hybrid decision tree
General Army Rules
Advanced Tactics (and similar): Fixed cost to be in line with other rules
Devout (and similar): Re-worded to align with new wording style for Furious and similar
Protected (and similar): Re-worded so any hits the unit takes get AP(-1)
Seer Council (and similar): Unit now loses all unspent spell tokens at the end of the round
Spell Warden (and similar): Clarified that the rule applies to the unit and not the model
Surprise Attack: Increased cost for dealing damage on deployment (not counter-play)
Undead (and similar): Units now only take wounds on rolls of 1-2
War Chant (and similar): Clarified they get exta hits on 5-6 from Furious itself
Grimdark Future
General
Re-worked amount of Impact on most vehicles to be half their Tough value
Alien Hives
Grunts can now upgrade with either Furious or Poison, but not both (they can always upgrade with No Retreat)
Removed Fearless from all Carnivo-Rex monsters
All big Tough(18) monsters are now Quality 4+ and have Fearless
Re-worked which monsters have access to melee upgrades
Spore Guns now have the Exploding Spore rule instead of spawning spores on misses
Spores / Massive Spores now come in units of [5] / [3] and have Tendrils as melee weapons
Re-worked the Explode rule, and models only explode in melee after both sides finish attacking
Battle Brothers
Assault Brothers now have Heavy CCWs (AP+1)
Destroyers and Destroyer Hero can now take any combination of shields and melee weapons
Blood Brothers' Guard Brothers now have Heavy CCWs (AP+1)
Watch Brothers' Battle Brothers and Watch Vanguard now have Heavy CCWs (AP+1)
Wolf Brothers' Rookies now have Heavy CCWs (AP+1)
Wolf Brothers' Riders now replace all pistols with shields (instead of any)
Blessed Sisters
Destroyers and Destroyer Hero can now take any combination of shields and melee weapons
Custodian Brothers
Great Sister can now upgrade with Caster
Re-worked most units to allow for better specialization
Destroyers now have access to more weapon-mount upgrades
Custodian Heavy Walkers now have Tough(15) instead of Tough(18)
DAO Union
Stealth Suits can now upgrade with Boosters (Flying)
Dark Elf Raiders
Energy Ram upgrade now as Impact(5) (instead of Impact(2))
Dwarf Guilds
Berserkers' Assault Grenade Launcher now has 18" range and AP(1) instead of 24" and Indirect
Elites now have Protected
Powersuits now have a Rail M-Rifle instead of a C-Beamer
Removed incorrect Autocannon option for Trike
Re-named rocket weapons from the Fortress Tank to fit our models
Havoc Brothers
Culists now replace all Rifles for Pistols instead of any Rifle
Havoc Brothers can now replace all Heavy Rifles and CCWs for Heavy Pistols and Heavy CCWs
Havoc Support now has access to Heavy Flamers, Heavy Fusion Rifles, and Plasma Cannons
Change Disciples' Support now has access to a Hexed Cannon
Lust Disciples' Support now has access to a Noise Cannon
Plague Disciples' Support now has access to a Plague Launcher
War Discples' Berserkers now have Heavy CCWs (AP+1)
Lust Disciples' "Overload" spell has been renamed to "Overpower" to not confuse it with the unit special rule
Human Defense Force
Re-worked Demo Charges from the Veteran Squad to be an A1, AP(4), Limited weapon
Human Inquisition
Slightly re-worked Inquisitor "Hunter" upgrades to be in line with other factions
High Elf Fleets
Elementals were separated into a ranged unit with Relentless and a melee unit with Furious
Re-worked weapon options for Jetbike Strikers and added a Flicker Shield upgrade
Support Artillery can now upgrade with a Hologram Field, weapons have more attacks, and the Heavy Mortar is now an AP(2), Deadly(6) weapon
Combat Walker double weapons have been combined into a single profile
Added new melee weapons to the Great Elemental and Titan Elemental
Jackals
Re-worked Beast Riders so that all models can upgrade their weapons
Machine Cult
Crawler Tank now has Crushing Legs + Stomp instead of Impact
Orc Marauders
Wrecking Ball upgrade now as Impact(5) (instead of Impact(2))
Orc Buggy now has access to Gun Master, Battle Ram, Red Paint Job
Only the Truck, Looted Tank, and Battle Rig now have access to Boarding Plank and Wrecking Ball
Prime Brothers
Assault Brothers now have Heavy CCWs (AP+1)
Raider Squads, Assault Squads, and Guard Squads now have access to Relic Swords (A1, AP(2), Deadly(3))
Robot Legions
Jetpack upgrades now give Swift (ignores Slow rule)
Saurian Starhost
Frog-Mage can now upgrade with Temple Guard (if it's part of a unit of Guardians, they count as Quality 2+)
Re-worked Demo Charges from the Chameleons to be an A1, AP(4), Limited weapon
Soul-Snatchers
Grinder Truck can now be upgraded with Impact(5)
Titan Lords
Titan Hammer and Titan Chainsaw now have +1 attack
The King Heavy Titan's "top" weapons now have +1 attack
Wormhole Daemons
Clarified that "Havoc Symbols" are used during an activation
"Overload" spell has been renamed to "Overpower" to not confuse it with the unit special rule
Age of Fantasy
Deep-Sea Elves
Heroes can now upgrade with Sea Guardian (Scout) to better fit into units
Heroes can now be mounted on a Blaster War-Eel (Constrict) or Barrier War-Eel (Stealth) to better fit into units
Duchies of Vinci
Drones now have Quality 5+ and Good Shot, and their Bot-Bows now have 18", A1, AP(1), Rending
Re-worked Slingshot into two weapons, one with Deadly and one with Blast
Halflings
Zeppelins now have Hand Weapons
Havoc Warriors
"Overload" spell has been renamed to "Overpower" to not confuse it with the unit special rule
High Elves
Re-worked High Noble upgrades to better fit the various hero sub-types
Lion units now have Protected (instead of Stealth)
Orcs
Orc heroes can now upgrade with Scary Shields
Rift Daemons
Clarified that "Havoc Symbols" are used during an activation
"Overload" spell has been renamed to "Overpower" to not confuse it with the unit special rule
Saurians
Frog-Mage can now upgrade with Temple Guard (if it's part of a unit of Guardians, they count as Quality 2+)
Shadow Stalkers
Tweaked unit and weapon names to fit with our lore
Added new units: Spectre Champion, Reaper Champion, Great Terror, Ascended Fiend
All units can be upgraded with a Shadow Censer (Warning Cry)
Spectres, Spectre Hero, and Great Screecher can now be upgraded with Shadow Step (Teleport)
Added Command Group to Scourges, Spectres, and Reaper Flayers
Tormentors now have Quality 4+ and can upgrade with Deadly Stingers
Phantoms now have +1 Defense and +1 attack
Reapers now have Headtaker instead of Ensare and have +1 AP
Spectres have new weapon options
Reaper Flayers now have Defense 4+, Headtaker, Stealth instead of Ethereal, and new weapon options
Butcher weapons have been re-worked
Shadow Hounds now have Quality 5+ and Defense 5+, and Stealth instead of Ensnare
Fang Swarms now have Stealth and Ensnare instead of Ethereal
Fiends now have Ensnare, Rending melee weapons, and can upgrade with Poison ranged weapons
Great Horror now has Breath Attack, Flying, no Ensnare, and re-worked weapons
Great Fiend now has Quality 3+, Ensnare, Rending melee weapons, and can upgrade with Poison ranged weapons
Great Screecher lost its ranged weapons but gained Caster(3), and now has Ethereal instead of Stealth
Terror Beast now has Quality 4+, Protected instead of Regeneration, lost Ensnare, and has re-worked weapons
Blind Behemoth now has Quality 3+, and re-worked weapons
Vampiric Undead
Added new unit: Stitched Butchers
Added new mounts for Vampire Master: Zombie Horde, Skeleton Dragon
Re-worked weapon upgrades for Werewolf Champion
Winged Terror now has Devour, and Winged Steed now has Impact(2), Tough(3), and Hooves (A1)
That's it for today. If you want to give feedback please join our Discord, and leave your comments in the "balance-feedback" section. Thank you all for your support, we hope you enjoy this patch and the new book layouts!
Note: As usual you can expect us to monitor the update over the next few weeks, and post another small patch to fix whatever bugs people may find.
