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This is more of an abstract query than a question about a specific rule, but this seemed like a good place to ask. I was reading through the FAQ for Blood of Baal and this caught my eye:

BLOOD ANGELS
Q: Is the Fury Within ability’s improvement to Armour Penetration characteristics cumulative with that from the Assault Doctrine?
A: No.

The relevant part of Fury Within says that an unmodified 6 to wound improves AP by 1.

So my question is why? Why would these two things not be cumulative? Is this consistent with anything GW has said in the past? Has it ever been stated that AP improvements don’t stack?

Edit: Just had a look through the Faith and Fury FAQ, found this one:
Q: If the Dour Duty Stratagem is used on a unit that is within 6" of a model with the Bastion Warlord Trait, will enemy attacks with an Armour Penetration characteristic of -2 that are made against that unit be treated as AP -1 or AP 0?
A: The attacks will be treated as AP 0. The Dour Duty Stratagem turns any attacks with AP-2 that are made against that unit into AP -1, at which point the Bastion Warlord Trait will cause them to be treated as AP 0.


What the hell?

Crackedgear wrote:
This is more of an abstract query than a question about a specific rule, but this seemed like a good place to ask. I was reading through the FAQ for Blood of Baal and this caught my eye:

BLOOD ANGELS
Q: Is the Fury Within ability’s improvement to Armour Penetration characteristics cumulative with that from the Assault Doctrine?
A: No.

The relevant part of Fury Within says that an unmodified 6 to wound improves AP by 1.

So my question is why? Why would these two things not be cumulative? Is this consistent with anything GW has said in the past? Has it ever been stated that AP improvements don’t stack?

Edit: Just had a look through the Faith and Fury FAQ, found this one:
Q: If the Dour Duty Stratagem is used on a unit that is within 6" of a model with the Bastion Warlord Trait, will enemy attacks with an Armour Penetration characteristic of -2 that are made against that unit be treated as AP -1 or AP 0?
A: The attacks will be treated as AP 0. The Dour Duty Stratagem turns any attacks with AP-2 that are made against that unit into AP -1, at which point the Bastion Warlord Trait will cause them to be treated as AP 0.


What the hell?

Because "Unless specified otherwise," Combat Doctrines "is not cumulative with any other rules that improve the Armour Penetration characteristic of a weapon".

Fury Within improves the AP and does not specify otherwise, so Combat Doctrines doesn't get to apply while it's active. Dour Duty worsens AP, so doesn't interact with Combat Doctrines.

I'll agree it's a bad look when you compare the two FAQ answers, but BCB explained it well I think. The "Combat Doctrines" rule requires explicit permission in any ability that intends to stack AP modifiers on an attack.