The Lie of the Land

One of the most disappointing things for me about the advent of 8th Edition has been the speed with which people have wanted to introduce a composition system to remove heinous armies from tournaments.

I am a total believer in Comp systems as I do not believe GW have some savant skill that allows them to produce a ruleset that completely balances the 14+ Army Books they currently have in circulation. Also with the introduction of any new book the lie of the land changes again and a comp system for tournaments balances this.

However with regard to 8th Edition it is far far too early. Most people (including TOs and the internet warriors) have only had a handful of games at best. How can they hope to have the level of understanding with regard to the new system that they had at the end of 7th. How much better is it to play the game as GW have presented it and then with 3 (preferably 6) months experience look to counter any egregious builds.

Instead we now have largely 7th Ed prejudices been used to formulate composition rules. Check out warhammer.org.uk and you'll find a post from a guy looking to implement a Europe wide system. To be brutally honest it reads like a "Crimes Against Bill" where he has catalogued anything that caused him problems under 7th Ed. In most cases there is little or no demonstrated relevance to 8th. And how can there be? I'd wager he's had less than 10 games.

I have been involved in putting together two Players Packs for upcoming tournaments - Call to Arms @ 2250 points and Skitterleap III @ 2400 points. In both cases the single composition constraint is that the TO retains the right to veto any list that he believes would impinge on both players having a fun and relatively fair game. That coupled with a warning that if your intention is to somehow break the game with some heinous army then neither events are the tournament for you, is all you need.

In most cases this would be applied where somebody had a very high chance of dominating a phase to the point whereby it became stupid......the TO doesn't need to define it in a pack with anymore than "I'll know it when I see it".

Given such a backdrop the onus is on the players to not be a tool.