Wednesday, February 27, 2013

With the stroke of a pen, could the 6th edition be "fixed"?

Mkay, thinking about the few fixes I think that would make the game actually a LOT more playable.  Not saying any of this will ever happen, and it would likely break something else down the line if applied.  Still, here goes...

As of right now, the biggest single issue I see is that Fliers are simply unmatched and unevenly applied across the armies...  Some armies get loads of them, and those that get the ability to field LOTS of them seem to have the ones...  Well, let's call them "less balanced in the current environment"...  Broken, but wanting to stay away from a "complaining" tone...  Specifically, some armies have NO access to either Fliers or AAA of any sort.  That is JUST counting the GW published things, with the exception of the Tyranids I know every army has SOMETHING they could field as AA or has actual Fliers...  Tyranids have Flying MC's, but REALLY not the same IMO.  Strange to think that the Hive Mind would not have come up with an effective way to deal with Fighters and Bombers, but what would I know...

So:

1)  Hitting Fliers on 6's (snap fire only) is simply too much of an advantage for Fliers when it is not matched with an equal disadvantage...  Well, let's be honest here, there is NO disadvantage to fliers engaging ground targets...  IE: Fliers can only hit ground targets on a 6 unless they go to a more vulnerable "low altitude/hover" mode, in which case ground fire becomes more effective...  Something on the order of halving the BS or simply steal the "Mortis" rule and say anything that stood still gets "Skyfire" that turn...  Most things hitting on 5's doesn't seem like TOO much an advantage, every HW having Skyfire might well be too much as most HW's only fire well when standing still...

2) Not every army has Fliers.  Given, but it is sticking out like a very sore thumb right now with some armies having a LOT of them, and others getting none or perhaps one or two overpriced pieces of junk.  Not very conducive to seeing a variety of armies on the table.  And having entire armies relegated to "well, they make decent Allies" status is pretty much unacceptable to the player base who have collected large armies...  Not even touching on the Game Stores who have stock of things relegated to "well, that's useless crap"...  Of the armies I play some are OK...  I have Blood Angels (Fleshtearers), GK, Marines (Crimson Fists), and IG (Praetorians) all of whom have either good/decent fliers and AA support.  My DA (Consecrators) I would also add to this list with the addition of the FW Mortis DN rules.  The Flak missiles are craptastic at best and NOT worth another 10 points on top of the 15 for the Launcher.  So, leaves my Wolves and Eldar as being completely hosed when it comes to facing Fliers.  Right now, playing Wolves seem foolish as I have no answer for the Necron or Chaos armies I am seeing commonly.  The Eldar are just so far behind the current "curve" that they are pretty much impossible to compete with.  2 full editions behind after so many major changes is simply impossible to keep up.  Just thinking that they have served enough penance for the stupidly overpowered 2nd/3rd ed codexes...  So here is where I think the "stroke of the pen" as it were would even things out...  Just like the Land Raider Crusader went to all Marine forces from Black Templar only, why would ALL Marine armies not have access to the Storm Raven and Storm Talon?  Simple thing and mind boggling that it was NOT done initially or even in the $30 FAQ they just released.  I know it is REALLY only the Wolves at this point who have NO fliers...  Frustrating as they have a bloody "Fighter Ace" chart they can buy a roll on...  With the Eldar, pull a Necron Codex on them.  Simply make the Fast Skimmers into Fliers with Hover mode...  Yeah, it would be insanely overpowered...  Just like the Necron Codex :-)... Pretty much goes without saying that ALL missile launchers should get Flak missiles as a free upgrade...  Craptastic, but as a free upgrade, would at least not be so bad...

3)  Useless things...  For me one of the most frustrating things is something like the Land Raider Redeemer.  Looks neat on paper until you realize that the rules make it completely useless.  Now, not just the LRR, but pretty much any sponson mounted flamer...  Baal Predator and Leman Russ come to mind, there may be more...  So, by the rules essentially only one of the 2 will ever fire...  My thought was to make it a Torrent weapon.  Hell, the IG have this in their Hellhound, so it's not like there aren't a billion examples of this sort of thing out there.  Yes, it might be powerful putting down 2 flamer templates  12" out and maybe hitting for a whole bunch of wounds...  OTOH, 250 points for limited transport and a bunch of useless weapons?  At the least they should be given split fire so they CAN shoot at multiple targets...  So essentially, go through and find the useless "stuff" and make a few minor tweaks and changes to make them all at least useful...  Some things like Wolf Blood Claws may well be beyond saving, so...

Yeah a bit of time on my hands :-)  Working out, etc...

2 comments:

  1. I'm waiting for a Tyranid white dwarf that updates the harpy into some kind of flier assaulter or vector strike monster like the heldrake. and then release the model along with spores.

    as to the hull mounted flamers, I think making them able to overwatch if a model is in the firing arch when they charge. Make them less offensive and more defensive.

    ReplyDelete
  2. :-) Hadn't thought about the overwatch thing... Neat, but I'm a lot more offensively minded ("The best defense is a solid offence")... Something I'd be happy to have at times, but honestly I doubt it would much tempt me to use any of the flamer sponsons...

    Really frustrating that the Tyranids, which on paper seem to have a really good army, well pre-FAQ paper that is... There seems to be some overriding fear of these things from Nottingham, I can't explain any other way why they would get cut to pieces via FAQ so soon after their release...

    Kind of brings me back to my wondering if they actually play the same game we do... They seem to fear Tyranids firing the gun emplacements, etc., and they seem to massively overvalue Str 6 weapons... Assault cannons are really pricey, and are nothing like they were in their "Glory Days" of lore when they were rightly the most feared weapon on the table... Now, they're "eh" at best since MOST of the time Marine armor saves against it...

    :-) Yes, killing time between meetings...

    ReplyDelete