I've been really pumped on the hobby side of things over the past few weeks and am putting this down to not having an army that I'm painting towards. So in the past month I've managed to do 13 Tomb Guard, 15 TK Light Horse Archers and 18 Eternal Guard as well as the twenty hills I finished.
I really enjoy jumping from one project to another and painting different elements for different armies. Upcoming I have 6 Waywatchers plus Pink Horror command elements. I'm also looking at three Fiends of Slaanesh that look interesting.
This weekend I have got Wrath & Ruin in Auckland. I'm just not feeling it at the moment and would likely give it a miss if it wasn't an opportunity to catch up with Tom and Jack. Not sure whether it is Winter or playing ETChammer or something else but my level of enthusiasm in effectively nil. ETC proper is only two months away and I can't wait for it to be over. I can live with the comp and the rules changes but the thing that gets me down is the style of play to be successful. In part it is down to the role in team as well as requirements of the army but it has sucked all the fun out of the game for me. I'm enjoying the tight games with opponents but the risk averse style is limiting the fun.
With this Miasma well and truly descended, I am hoping the Southern Spring will see a continuation of GW's release schedule. There are three books left to release in this edition and I am very hopeful that we'll see them all released before 9th. While I don't own Brets I like their play style and think they offer an enormous amount to the game. My hope is that we start to see the non-Core knights more viable again. When Mierce did their Kickstarter I took the opportunity to buy a lot of Monsters and Monstrous Infantry. I hope a new book sees a selection of viable builds emerge for these figures.
Finally Skaven. No surprise that these are my favourite army. I am really keen for the book to be re-done. This will see Magic Items shrink to 10-12 and I suspect that a lot of "unique" rules will be gone. My hope is that they introduce more unpredictability into the army. I'd like to see Slave units leadership capped at say Ld 8 as I think Ld 10 is not consistent with fluff however I hope they keep the Life is Cheep concept. There is nothing more fun than shooting into a combat though there should be more scope for randomisation of casualties (as in past).
As long as it keeps dollops of quirkiness I'll be happy.
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I'm happy with slaves as is, just make them not count towards compulsary core minimums, the night runners need to come down in cost and or become skirmishers.
ReplyDeleteThe hell pit should become a normal monster like a ground based chimera.
Introduce a stadardised warpstone artillery misfire table rather than every machine having it's own table.
I'd want less randomness in the army. I don't want games to be skaven toys work skaven win, they don't opponents win. At present it feels like my input into the game is nil and it's all about whether the skaven explode or not.
Agree to a point John. Although the problem is the Skaven toys at the moment are too reliable.
ReplyDeleteI would be happy with the skaven exceptions being aligned with the core rules...as with every other book.
ReplyDeleteeg:
If in combat = cannot be shot or hit with direct damage/MMissiles
Bell/furnace work like the cauldron does for everything
Add in more standardised misfire results, slaves no longer being the best infantry in the game point for point and Skaven will enter the modern era and games will all of a sudden become interesting again as opposed to 6 turns of wading through more re-roll ldship10 slaves than can be possibly killed while being bombarded by everything yawnfests.
Joel v
Of course you're right. The Skaven infantry should just exist to be swept away by Demigryphs, Skullcrushers etc at no risk to these superior troops.
DeleteSounds totally exciting
It's not like the Skaven book is lacking in ways to negate armour saves/deal multiple wounds etc. Slaves are just too good for what should be the zombie equivilent (there in numbers, but not something you would rely on and take points away from the more choppy options).
DeleteThe combat troops exist (and can be surprisingly effective) but are never taken because they stop warplightning/WLC/ratapult/`13th/etc etc from dealing the damage.
8th has been about streamlining rules, and slaves are a glaring exception to this.
Joel v
Can you point out what these combat options are? Cos I'm struggling to see how any can reliably take on 1/2+ armoured troops. Note the emphasis is on reliable with an equal risk/reward profile
DeleteI seem to recall reading a Masters write up that can be summarised as "Assassin + potion of Strength + Weeping blades wrecks Monsterous Calv". There is also the WLC with a multiwound template that ignores obstacles and armour, Rata-a-pault ignores armour, Ruin spells that ignore armour, jezzails, doomwheel zap thing is 3 multiwound shots, Hellpit to the flank does a nice number on monsterous calv, toughness tests from censor bearers, Stormvermin with ws5 i5 halberds (and can take the razorstandard + with a special character become s5 - one of the Aussies at NZTC used this to great effect) with access to death frenzy and poison to really take advantage of the s5ap at i5.
DeleteThat is off the top of my head. I'm sure there are other options that dont require an exception to the rule about targeting units in combat.
Joel v
Largely all invalidated by your ability to be impervious in combat.
DeletePerhaps if I was allowed 2 HPAs or 2 WLC. But I can hear the whining from Empire players already.
Life is Cheep is a great and characterful rule. It just needs to be more evenhanded in application - though it obv is for templates at mom
*impervious in combat vs fodder troops...not vs s5ap i5 death frenzied stormvermin or weeping blade assassins...and only then if they have survived the magic and combat phase that skaven can unleash.
Delete+ taking 15 silverhelms, 2 nobles and a mage off the board t1 with the ETC restrictions kinda weakens the "need MOAR shooting to be effective".
Monsterous calv chew through fodder infantry...but so do plaguemonks and hellpits. The difference is that (eg) Empire cant chuck a bus of 40 spearmen into a unit of skull crushers and then unleash a magic and shooting phase into them...neither can any other army because of how the basic rules mechanics work in a standardised system (which you have praised in the past as a positive move by GW...so long as Skaven keep their exceptions as you seem to argue).
Maybe the next Skaven Armybook will require another 50 page errata/FAQ to expain all the exception rules, or more likely it will align with the rest of WHFB. WLC will shoot like a normal cannon (with some fluffy warp rule), bell and furnace will act like the cauldron (and seer loses the free 4+ ward), packmaster rules will make sense, Slaves will actually be useless troops, not super cost effective mobile impassible terrain that allows the gunline to still shoot...maybe the book will get Cruddance'd (does that term still apply given the relative strength of the Empire book???)...
Joel v
Monsterous Cavalry is far too cheap at the moment for what it does; 75 point Demigryphs would be a closer reflection of their true impact, while Skullcrushers should be 85-90.
DeleteSlaves are also too good, especially since the randomization rule was deleted for some unknown reason (good to see that Pete acknowledges this). I think it's a great, fluffy rule, despite having suffered at it's hands many times, but it needs to be toned down greatly. T2 and S2 would also be fluffy as well, they're not exactly well nourished.
I do look forward to the Skaven book being redone, mainly because it's such a bad match for Dwarves as it's currently written. Things can misfire and do horrible stuff, but generally they don't seem to. I'd like it if Scorch scattered too.....
I'd be happy with skaven basic clan rats get a boost in capability. It would be really nice for Rat Ogres to become effective monsterous infantry and provide some of that anti armour that Pete needs.
ReplyDeleteI expect that monster cav and cannons will get a downgrade in the next edition of the basic rule. Moster cav with vulnerability to Killing blow. It's still a man sized rider afterall. Take away stomp. At the moment in most armies Knights are rendered useless by monsterous cavalry which are taken in preference. The only armies that have monster cav and field knights are those that have the knights as core. Since you can't change the points for units in army book the easy way is to change the core rules and vield the Nerf bat with virtuoso skill
Slaves LD and maybe S&T should absolutely be toned down. Or more randomness be added to them. But not so much as to make them unreliable when used correctly. They still have to be a valid choice. Randomizing non template shooting in, would help.
ReplyDeletemost other tools are ok. Doom rocket being the exception. Hell pit hits like a truck but at T5, only a regen save and movement, a smart opponent will kill it before it lurches into combat.
skaven are far from overpowered. They just have some nasty toys (when they work and used correctly). Higher risk comes hand in hand with higher reward. I hope skaven embody both elements in the new book, without removing some command and control, risk mitigation for the skilled user.
Alan
Hey man,
ReplyDeleteSad to hear ETC is sucking the fun outa WFB.
I found what helped me was playing what I wanted, naming my characters, playing campaigns. Obviously not ETC but would get your love back and re hone you for the big tournie coming up.
As your vice-coach I'll start to have to implement a warhammer-tapering program to get you ready for the Nerd-Olympics.
Cheers,
Henry
It's the style of play rather than rules or comp. The need to be extremely disciplined removes a lot of the fun for me and my opponent. Don't necessarily push when I generally would etc.
DeleteI'm hoping that September, Oct, Nov time gives me new Rat book so I get the joy of trying to work out what works and why I ever painted 160 slaves