The composition rules are far more restrictive than I am comfortable with and there are fundamental changes to core rules in the game. The comment has been made by a number of commentators that the committee who put these together appear to be trying to rewrite the game as v7.5.
While I agree that there is certainly more than a gentle whiff of that in the draft, it is important to put the restrictions in the context of what they have been written for. The ETC is a teams-based event with each country limited to a single list from any book. This in itself is a limiting factor. Each country can access any eight of fourteen books. Therefore there is a strong case for needing less restriction rather than more.
However the restrictions echo the politicial structure of the European Union – over bureaucratic, all encompassing and totally pervasive. They look like they have been designed by a committee where each restriction has been met by a trade-off in another race to get approval.
In the traditions of Euro politics, dissension has already broken out. Not surprisingly the English (British?) have distanced themselves from the first draft. On Twitter their representative has said:
“On the ETC-AR, for those asking for ‘why’, please don’t moan at me or ask me for reasons. I’ve spent the last month arguing against most of the changes. What I would say is, compare the euro comp to SCGT – if it’s not in the SCGT pack I’ve probably been arguing to no avail on that point and probably agree with your dislike for it. That said, euro community voted the committee so the argument from the members of the committee that have voted for these rules changes and more restrictions (not me) is that they are doing what the community wants. They could well be right, for all I/we know we live in a Warhammer bubble. Personally I don’t think the community as a whole want these changes but we will see from feedback from the draft. Here ends the “please don’t shoot the messenger” memo.”
So as in life, we have Warhammer’s David Cameron distancing himself from the restrictive practices of the Euro-zone.
For what it is worth, I am very sympathetic to his views. In Warhammer, just like in life, less rather than more regulations are preferable. Army restrictions should be a safety net at the bottom of the cliff rather than a 12 metre high concrete wall patrolled by sentries at the top.
Just read them and I really dont get it. Either you like Warhammer and want to play 8th Ed as written or you dont. These guys obviously dont so Im not really sure why they bothering calling it a WHFB tournament. Why not just run it under 7th Ed rules and pretend that the latest edition didnt exist if they dont like it that much.
ReplyDeleteThere is already pretty heavy backlash against this first draft of the restrictions. Most people thought last year's restrictions were nearly right and that all that was needed were a few tweaks to the top armies and something to entice people to use the lesser used and under-performing armies.
ReplyDeleteI think the next draft will soften some, especially when the dreaded mono-builds/netlists start hitting the tourney scene and interwebs and the real repercussions are known for each army.
I'm not thrilled with where they've gone (being a daemon player and not wanting to bring a lord of change to have a chance to compete), but I also know (read: hope) that it will have to get better from here.
I hear the Greek and Italian teams have already had their team Captains replaced by appointees of the central committee.
DeleteThe Spanish, Portuguese and Irish teams may face the same fate soon.
Dave, you don't need a Lord of Change for MoS. Didn't you know Daemon Princes are completely broken! ;)
ReplyDeleteIn some ways I think the massive overhaul is interesting as it will force players to think outside the box.
But then some of those restrictions are just insane, noones taking them in the first place... (Lol Stegs!) The Dark Elf comp is just overly complex and the Daemon comp seems counter-intuitive, they limit Letters, then axe MoS which the other core choices need to be useful... ???
but its just early doors yet, so we shall see.
James