Now that 8th edition has been out for six months I think that people are starting to get a handle on what is strong in various army builds.
Personally I think that the combination of core rules, scenarios and mysterious terrain has flattened out a lot of the differences in strength between the various books – certainly far more than 7th Ed ever did.
Australasia is one of the spiritual homes of Composition and there was a rush there to introduce list restrictions as soon as 8th arrived off the press. Most of the systems I saw were either rooted strongly in 7th Ed or read like “Crimes Versus the TO”. In particular, there was a drive to introduce composition rather than use the full suite of rules or all the scenarios.
With the benefit of six months play I think that any discussions on list restrictions are far more informed now than they were at the time.
So without further ado, here are the restrictions I would put in place now if I was running a 2000/2400 point tournament with a view to ensuring both players can have a "fun" time:
General Restrictions
• Maximum Power Dice usage of 12 in Magic Phase (as distinct from maximum of 12 dice in pool at any time)
• Army to have no more than four (4) potential template weapons
• Army to have a maximum of four (4) warmachines
• No more than two (2) of any Special choice
• No double Rare choice worth more than 80 points (single 2:1 choices excepted)
• No Power Scroll
Army Specific Restrictions
• Daemons of Chaos: No duplication of Daemonic Gifts
• Empire: Steam Tank is classed as Warmachine in terms of General Restrictions
• Lizardmen: Slaan may have maximum two of Focus of Mystery, Becalming Cogitation, Cupped Hands or Focused Rumination
• Skaven: Maximum of three Engineers
• Tomb Kings: No Wizards Hat
• Vampire Counts: Only one Vampire may have Master of the Dark Arts
So pretty minimal (and hopefully not "Crimes Against Pete"). I’m sure you can still come up with a strong (perhaps even abusive) list. However I think that it covers most of the bases without getting too prescriptive.
Like them. Are you going to be implementing these restrictions to the tourneys this year Pete??
ReplyDeleteI may be biased due to being (amongst other things) an (Orcs and) Goblins player, but putting a limit on four war machines, while aimed at Dwarves and Empire, *really* limits Orc and Goblin armies. I generally play with 6, minimum, and I find that barely reaches effective levels.
ReplyDeleteHi Pete
ReplyDeleteas another O&G player I think the 2 special max perghaps could go to No tripling of any special over 80 - 100pts.
Otherwise I have another solution to some things. For Crowsfeast I've introduced a cap on all magic items/ blood lines/ big names etc can total a maximum of 120pts. 5% of 2400pts.
Hi Guys,
ReplyDeleteWasn't too concerned with O&G specific restrictions given March's new book.
Once the contents of that are known, I'd revisit any race specific fixes.
Pete
Hi Nasher,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that limiting magic items etc to 5% total really achieves what I'm looking for.
The idea with this system is not to necessarily constrain people's choice rather to limit the number of unpleasant builds.
Part of the attraction of Warhammer are the Magic Items, Vamp Powers etc and if people want to play a Fantasy game they want those aspects.
But they also want to know that they are participating in the game and have a chance.
Hopefully this system addresses 95% of the abuses but retains the flavour. The other 5% of abuses can be dealt with by specific restrictions as they come to light.
Any candidates for abuses I've missed?
Pete
Looks Good. The warmachines & templates & rares restrictions mesh well together as they mean you don't have define if a Plague Furnace or a Warpfire Thrower are warmachines or not - they do templates and so are covered by that rule instead.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can still run Bell/Furnace/Wheel/HPA, so that's grand too :)
J