Automatically going first or +1 to the roll for first?

[Dr_Ruminahui]

My friend and I for the most part only play the Maelstrom of War missions.  His necrons invariably clean my chaos marines clock, though I at least can make him work for it if I manage to go first.  That pretty much never happens as he always has less units to deploy than I do.

 

As written, the Maelstrom of War missions all have the first person to finish deploying choose whether to go first unless the other player can seize the initiative.

 

Now, when Chapter Approved 2017 came out, a GW employee told me that instead of automatically going first, the first to finish deploying gets +1 on a roll off to determine who gets to choose.  Now, the missions in that chapter approved have such language, but I couldn't find anything there or in the FAQs changing how you determine who gets first turn in the missions in the rulebook.

 

Is this a change that happened, or was the GW employee confused?

[John Thompson]

This is indeed a new rule for matched play in Chapter Approved!

 

 

[Wassa]

I think with the +1 and the seize roll, it roughly works out at 55% chance to go first if you finish deploying first so it's not too bad.

 

 

If you go second, depending on your army you can somewhat counter the alpha strike by using:

 

 

But some armies (i.e those relying on invulnerable saves) don't really benefit from it.

 

 

Maelstrom missions tend to benefit you if you go first as you get points at the end of your turn. Whereas Eternal War the points are allocated at the end of the game, so you can see what objectives your opponent has gone for and you know exactly who you need to kill or what other objectives you can go to.

[Jolemai]

However, if you are playing a mission from CA18, the first turn rules for that mission supercede those from any previous publication.

[Ciler]

However, if you are playing a mission from CA18, the first turn rules for that mission supercede those from any previous publication.

Exactly, each mission specifies it's own "who goes first" rules :

- Rulebook : first side deployed goes first

- CA 2017 : first side deployed gets +1 roll

- CA 2018 : don't have my book with me.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Now I'm a bit confused - John Thompson and Ciler seem to be saying opposite things.  John Thompson, where is that language from in Chapter Approved?  Is it a mission rule (in which case it doesn't change the rules for the rulebook missions) or is it a general rule that does over ride the RAW in the rulebook?  

 

And thanks for posting the strategem, Wassa - I'll have to consider whether the extra save is worth 2 CP - my friend likes large squads of destroyers, which have AP -2 guns, so I guess it depends on what he wants to shoot at.  Is that from CA 2018?

[Wassa]

Prepared Positions is from FAQ 2 I believe.

 

 

The roll off for first turn with +1 to the one who deployed first was only for CA2017 missions. However everyone I have played against and mostly every tournament has adopted it as  the new way to do it.