So, been reading a few of the gaming blogs that I normally
read and there has been a trend I noticed…
There have been a lot of folks noticing the GENERAL power level and
balance of the Codices is actually quite good…
As long as you completely ignore the giant elephants in the room of the
Eldar and to a lesser extent the Tau books.
Now, a number of the writers are approaching this from the “competitive”
perspective where taking anything but the All Star/best of breed/most stupidly
under costed units is just silly. Money
on the table and all making this a “less friendly” game and all. Not like high stakes poker money mind, but
the principle is exactly the same.
I don’t really have any answers or anything of course, but
given the current situation where there is one particular Army with one HUGE
glaring UC unit and a bunch of things that are simply better than the baseline
for the game in the standard Marine… The
game is just not really much worth playing at this time. Yes, you can still play and even have fun, so
I am NOT saying drop it like it is cursed or anything… Just that as soon as one side breaks out the tier
one list, the game is pretty much over (“What if they held a war and only one
side showed up” a quote attributed to Lucifer from Robert Asprin’s Myth series)
for the other side if they do not also have such a list. So long as there is an understanding and NO
ONE brings the uber lists, you can have a fun game and both sides might well be
competitive. Then it comes to dice and
skill, and I think overall WK has done an excellent job. Overall, but until they send Vinnie and Guido
with a Nerf Bat to have a little chat with the two armies in particular and
there is a complete rebalancing of those forces… Well, the game itself is broken and I know I
am not alone in the “let’s see what happens in the longer term, until then let’s
play ‘X’”… So, excellent articles here (http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/10/40k-editorial-are-terminators-done.html)
here (http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/10/goatboys-monday-thoughts-new-release.html)
and (http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/2014/10/terrible-armies-id-love-to-build.html)... Common theme there for me being several of
the armies I’d actually LIKE to play and how I kind of feel “Why Bother”
breaking them out, packing them up and heading to the Gopher to get stomped
into dust by pretty much anything I’d face.
Mind, I might do well against some.
There is a young lady playing a very colorful Chaos Demon force that
could easily go either way, though I would consider myself the underdog as she
can minimize the random silliness and just make me roll armor saves with each
casualty being bad and grind me out of existence. Sadly that is about the only army I can think
of offhand that I would not be immediately outclassed with. Painfully and obviously. IG (or whatever they are called, IA in the
older days) has the tanks and special weapons to wipe me in a few turns. Marines have Grav weapons and bikes to move
wherever… Wolves have… Well, no one locally playing them anymore
except me and that is why J… Eldar and Tau? Beaucoup shots, too many of which are able to
simply ignore my 2+ save… And even
without that, having so many shots and given the game mechanic of 1/6 fails
whatever you are attempting means that weight of fire (“Quantity has a Quality
all its own” one I’ve heard attributed to Stalin) will simply win every time. So, Terminator based forces, even 30K ones are
mostly dead at this time. 30K, I CAN
bring them in Land Raiders or Spartans that ignore Melta, attach Medics, etc.
making them ALMOST viable. Assuming that
the TO is OK mixing 30K and 40K armies in a League/Event… Still die to the Xenos avalanche of dice
though, so it is not even the answer in the longer run, just something that
might work once or twice…
So, basically I shelved my DA (Consecrators) force long
ago. Not long after the new Codex hit
honestly. I played it in a League or
two, but with some stupid scenarios (NONE of which were the fault of the local
organizer, this is all GW) highlighting just how stupidly under powered or over
costed the DA really were, especially with the Vanilla Marines book hitting
soon after and getting everything the DA could do, but better and cheaper. Being hit with IG forces that could come on
from any table edge (table was a narrow platform) with rending las guns and
squads that could respawn when I finally killed them all to come back the next
turn with full squads again… Not even a
little fun. The Ravenwing player getting
wiped by the swarm of Heldrakes pretty well drove him from the game as well… Yeah, the $50 book still irks me there. Vanilla Marines are a good book, and I
enjoyed playing them. Until it became
painfully obvious that the Marine as a baseline for the game was surpassed by
the Tau and Eldar in every way. Now, the
Marines CAN in some lists compete in a fairly limited fashion against a well
build tier one list, but overall? My
Crimson Fists are playable, but still a HUGE long shot against most. White Scars bikers are decent, and until you
hit the Chaos player who brought a Heldrake or two you will likely do well. Against them?
No.
But looking at the GK and DE, things have been brought more
in line… And omitting the problem
armies? 7th edition has the
potential to be an extremely well balanced and fun game. If it survives. Not really sure what to hope for myself, an
eventual rebalancing when the NEXT edition of the T&E books come out, or
the whole thing to crash and a complete rebuild? First one I think, but when will that
happen? Last two Armies with soft cover
books are due in the next few Months…
Are the priorities at GW the same as mine? Um, no…
But I would hope they recognize that this IS an issue and should be
corrected for the long term viability of the game… J Yes, I doubt it too, but just typing between
meetings here so why not shoot for the moon?
Does bring me to Warmachine…
Again. First time I got into the
game it was back when WM started up, and I was still getting over the silliness
of 40K third edition and being involved with some of the hyper competitive
tournaments back then. WM was NOT balanced
by any means, but it had potential. And
eventually it did become a fun and balanced game. So, back playing that game now and seeing how
nice it is. Haven’t actually seen the
Ghordson Earthbreaker, but will probably end up with one… Even if I have to trade off some FW stuff or
MtG J… Finding I have a LOT more of that than I
remembered. Guessing that quitting
drinking a few years back has been quite helpful in that (among other) respect… But, need to trade for or pick up some of the
Warjacks and the Earthbreaker looks like it will be one to have on the shelf at
least.
Guess this is a long rambling way of asking: “So, when’s 8th
Edition hitting” or at least “When are the new Tau and Eldar books due?”
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