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Blood Angels FAQ:
“Independent Characters that have succumbed to the Red Thirst can only join the Death Company, and units that have also succumbed to the Red Thirst."

How do ICs gain the Red Thirst special rule (and carry the effects thereof)?

As an example, let's use a Librarian attached to a unit of Assault Marines which succumb to the Red Thirst. Since they are in the same squad, they all become treated as having the effects (Furious Charge and Fearless). Therefore, the Librarian can be viewed as having Red Thirst (the effects of) for the rest of the game. The FAQ is in there so he can't go off and give Fearless to units [big assumption on my part].

What happens if I attach a Battle Brother IC (e.g. C:SM Librarian, Wolf Lord) to that same unit during deployment and the unit succumbs to the Red Thirst?


Probably doesn't matter, but in 5th I always thought it was the unit that carried the modifiers, the IC would not carry it if he left the unit. This is why I find the new FAQ confusing.

What ICs does this apply to other than DC Tycho?

Nvm, only the regular one is an IC and that profile says nothing about the Red Thirst.

It's a useless question right now.

CrashCanuck wrote:What ICs does this apply to other than DC Tycho?

Nvm, only the regular one is an IC and that profile says nothing about the Red Thirst.

None of the BA ICs have the Red Thirst rule.

rigeld2 wrote:It's a useless question right now.

It's not useless to me. As I use Astorath, Red Thirst is more prevalent. Does my Librarian carry the Red Thirst with him when he leaves the unit (limiting where he can join) or not?

Independent Character rules state that unless specified by the special rule in question, the special rule does not confer to an independent character attached to the unit.

Red Thirst rule states that on a roll of 1 the entire squad (not unit) is treated as having Furious Charge and Fearless instead of ATSKNF.

Use of the word squad rather than unit leads me to believe that Red Thirst is not conferred to the Librarian when he joins them. Regardless, IC rules also state that the special rule only applies for as long as the IC is with the unit.

I really do wonder what the point of the new IC/Red Thirst rule was in the FAQ, since none of the ICs have the Red Thirst special rule to begin with.

@Orblivion Well put, agree 100%. It all made sense to me until the newest FAQ

I fell foul of this in a 500pt game recently... my ICs were unable to join a unit since I only had an Assault squad and Death Company, and you can guess what I rolled for the Assault squad... this left a Priest all on his own to get shot down in short order. Luckily the Captain that was in the same boat survived, but could easily have gone the same way.

I can see the intent behind the ruling but as it stands it's broken. ICs need to be given the Red Thirst special rule so that they can at least join the Death Company if noone else. I'll check the codex when I have it handy to see if there's any embedded rules that would give ICs the Red Thirst.

Super Ready wrote:I fell foul of this in a 500pt game recently... my ICs were unable to join a unit since I only had an Assault squad and Death Company, and you can guess what I rolled for the Assault squad... this left a Priest all on his own to get shot down in short order. Luckily the Captain that was in the same boat survived, but could easily have gone the same way.

I can see the intent behind the ruling but as it stands it's broken. ICs need to be given the Red Thirst special rule so that they can at least join the Death Company if noone else. I'll check the codex when I have it handy to see if there's any embedded rules that would give ICs the Red Thirst.

You're misreading the FAQ. The limitation only exists for ICs that have Red Thirst. If you have an IC that does not have the Red Thirst he can join any unit he wants.

Aha! So I am! Thankyou *SO* much. That solved my problem... but admittedly, does still make it a little bit of a pointless rule...

reps0l wrote:Blood Angels FAQ:
“Independent Characters that have succumbed to the Red Thirst can only join the Death Company, and units that have also succumbed to the Red Thirst."

How do ICs gain the Red Thirst special rule (and carry the effects thereof)?

Simply put, an IC currently can never get the Red Thirst special rule, so you can ignore this FAQ until they produce an IC with this rule.

DeathReaper wrote:

reps0l wrote:Blood Angels FAQ:
“Independent Characters that have succumbed to the Red Thirst can only join the Death Company, and units that have also succumbed to the Red Thirst."

How do ICs gain the Red Thirst special rule (and carry the effects thereof)?

Simply put, an IC currently can never get the Red Thirst special rule, so you can ignore this FAQ until they produce an IC with this rule.

Fair enough, works for me. Thanks.

I think it ended up being confusion amongst the creators of the faq that if an ic is joined to a unit at the beginning of the game they got the red thirst if you rolled for that unit and got red thirst.

I don't think this is possible but ill double check the wording just to make sure.