Get off my lawn!

Set in my ways. I am definitely set in my ways.

So, as I've written previously, I've begun the slow and cautious reentry into this silly game of toy soldiers. Feeling I was being ridiculous in my hesitation, I plopped down on the couch this weekend with my newly acquired Chaos codex, thinking to see how things fit together. Maybe throw a quick list together and take it for a spin. I knew 8th edition was a major reboot, so I really shouldn't have been so surprised, but the book completely baffled me. I kept wanting it to be familiar, but it wasn't. I kept trying to force it into the structure I remembered. Okay, I've found the unit for which I'm looking, but where are the numbers? Oh, I'm in the wrong place, here are the data sheets. Wait, where are the point costs? Where's the war gear? Whatthe?! Really, guys? 4 different pages? And no force org chart? So, now it's like 6 different pages in 2 different books. I'm beginning to rethink this reentry...

Is it safe yet?

Many, many years ago,  two friends took it into their minds that they should drag a third friend into their dark, depraved rituals of dice rolling and painted plastic. And so, I was introduced to Warhammer 40K.

The end of one edition, the beginning of another, everything was new and exciting. Codices weren't quite updated, rules weren't quite balanced, but still... Several months of constant change, books, models, rumors; it was glorious. Never mind that I never had time to actually put the models on the table, there were blogs to read, videos to watch, net lists to critique. And time passed. Another new edition. Another rise in prices. Everything that had been learned and planned must now be relearned and replanned. And did I mention ANOTHER rise in prices?

I just couldn't. The books went to the overflow bookcase where things are seldom seen again. The models moved from visible shelving to sealed containers. And time passed. And another new edition. And yet more price rises.

And here we are. Personnel changes. Business practice changes. Rule changes. Model changes. Dare I revisit that which I once so enjoyed? It has a different feel now. Calmer maybe?

I am, as of very recently, the owner of the brand new 8th ed. Rule book and the Chaos Renegades Codex. I've been gone a long time.

Hit a home run guys...

I think a lot of players are wondering what is going to happen in the 41000 millennium, and if I was the CEO of Games Workshop I'd be telling telling the development team that they have to get this edition right to keep the company from falling into a downward spiral. In short, if the GW boys don't hit a home run the future is going to have a lot more Infinity and War Machine in it then Warhammer.

8th edition Fantasy seems to be a big pile of fail from GW.  I started collecting Dwarf and Vampire armies a few years ago, building and painting slowly,  anticipating a grand entrance into, debatably, a more strategic and overall better ruleset.  A rule set where albeit some armies had a bit of advantage, the player that played the best, won.

When 8th dropped, the boys and I all had budding armies but with a look through the new rules and a few test games, we put the book down and shelved the armies.  I'm not going to play a game that dwarves can out charge a block of mounted knights due to a good 2d6 roll.   I don't think we were alone, and hell, theres always 9th edition right?

Onto the relevance of the epic fantasy fail....   GW cannot survive with both of their rulesets in the latrine.  They've already completely given up the "Specialist Games" market to other companies, infinity and Warmachine, and although they don't have any *real competition  in the 6 by 4 table realm, I don't think it would take much for these other games to beef up the rules and push some thing out, especially if a bunk edition gives them a few years to do it in.   With Fantasy the community, or GW's Customers, have proved they will leave and abandon a sinking ruleset.  Lets see if the same is true for 40k.

But... all that being said, I do really like what I've been hearing about 6th edition.   More rules are better, I'd rather play chess than paper-rock-scissors.  It's just a balance between too simple and too complicated but 5th is too simple.

So F'n'A Games Workshop, lets hit a home run!  After all I was just bluffing about not buying any models if the price keeps going up.

A silk purse from a sow's ear

Since Zacho is busting my chops everyday to put pencil to paper, I thought I might throw out some thoughts that were inspired (most recently) by this post on The Back 40K. By way of preface, I must say I have a great deal of respect for the folks over there. I follow their blog precisely because they aren’t apt to go careening off into poorly thought-out arguments or vitriol or any other nonsense that can be had in scores of other places. That said, I don’t always agree. And that’s okay. Really.

So...

The referenced blog post was, for the most part, focused in it’s message and intent. The ‘fun’ is to be had in the replies! That is where I’ll start, and maybe work back to a look at the actual article later.

WARNING: OPINIONS FOLLOW!

They are worth exactly what you are paying for them.

First and foremost, 40K is a game. Not just that, it’s a DICE GAME. Sandwyrm said in one response referring to Celestine and Thawn, ”They break it in the “It’s no longer a game of skill” sense.” I contend that Sandwyrm (and please don’t take offense. I love ya, Man) is starting with a bad premise. 40K never was a game of skill. It is as much of a skill game as Monopoly. People can play it ‘competitively’. People can organize tournaments. That’s just the monkey-brain at work. People will race each other and a rolling wheel of cheese down a hill, for crap sakes! But, people also sit in their basements and roll dice and drink beer and push plastic around the card table. If you want a game to be reliant on skill, tactics, and strategy, this ain’t it.

I”m going to pick at Sandwyrm again (sorry, I really do like you...) with point two: Lots of people play the game incorrectly. There are many reasons for this. As mentioned above, a person could simply be trying to make the game something it isn’t. A person could just not have a complete understanding. A person could just be an ass... Many reasons. Back to the responses: “If a game can’t function without five 6” high hills on the table, then there’s something wrong with the game.”  In my experience, the game is almost always played without enough terrain. If you get the right amount of terrain on the table, the correct amount of terrain, that razor-spam Wolf list isn’t quite as scary. My 3rd ed. Grey Knights took the shiny new, 5th ed. Wolves to a draw by moving laterally and forcing them to come to me through terrain as an anecdotal example. The game does not work without terrain.

Following from above (so I guess this is point 2a), quit playing at 2000+ points. The game works for every codex at 1500 (+/-). I will put up to 1500 points of Tau on the table against any army. Beyond that, my odds drop significantly. 1000 or 1500 points forces the player to make the hard choices. You just can’t get all the toys in there. If you want to play more points, play Apocalypse.

Now, the main article. I agree with some of the observations, just not with the analysis, for reasons I already covered. Let’s review the conclusions:

1. Less Variety In The Competitive Scene (Marines Everywhere)
2. Less Reward For Learning To Play (More Randomness)
3. Increased $$$ Costs To Play (In A Bad Economy)

Tournaments are being played, almost exclusively, at 2000+ points. That’s why you don’t see the older Codices represented. Play a tournament at 1000 or 1250 or even 1500 and you’ll see those Xenos crawl back into the light. You’ll see more themed or fluffy lists. You’ll see more ‘players’ and less ‘WAAC-jobs’. Another, but I don’t think insignificant, reason for all the Marine lists is they are the most ‘forgiving’ to play. A mistake with Marines isn’t the same as a mistake with Eldar. And, it’s GW’s flagship army - what are you gonna do? The same argument addresses the second bullet. If you play at 1500, you have to learn to play your army. You can’t hide behind all those toys.

I’m going to leave the 3rd bullet alone for now. That is a whole ‘nother thing...

No models? No problem! First game vs the (proxy)Necrons.

Played 2000 points against Necrons with my Blood Angels list last Thursday and had an interesting game.  Besides a few slight fluffs on the new codex's rules and a big *mishap on the deep striking Golden Boys the game went fairly well.  

My list was fairly typical and what you would expect to see with BA; DC and DC Dread, SR, Lib Dread, Chappy,  LR with Termies and Sanguinary Guard.  His was a whole lot of HQ, 2 monoliths, 5 warriors, 10 Immortals, some destroyers yada yada.  Not a lot of points into troops, which is why we should have rolled from a game instead of just playing annihilation.

Each of the new Necrons units seem to do as advertised including the Triarch Praetorians using their Arks Rods of the Covent AP 2 goodness and power weapons to eat a gang of Death Company including Lemartes.  The big "Gotcha" of the game was the Monoliths ability to pick friendly units up and spit them out right in rapid fire range which I had overlooked while perusing through the codex.    Oh and MIND SCARABS!   Luckily its random and does require a leadership test, but wholly hell, if this lands on a thunder hammer or a power weapon model it could really ruin a turn.  

But the game chugged on and I'm always pleased to see a destroyer lord running off the board with under half his squad, but we called it a turn too soon to really see how the game was going to end.  I'm still playing a weaker list than I would like, but the keystone units were the Storm Raven, Death Dread, and Librarian Dread.  I'm still floundering getting my troop choices and Death Company into the game, something I have to work on.    His best unit seemed to be the Praetorians and a crazy expensive Retinue of lords with all sorts of powers.

Lesson of the day is don't leave home with out the vindicators, they can make short work of those expensive five man units running around on the Necron side of the board.