Good Afternoon All,
I'm posting from Fort Worth, TX, where I'm at for the week working through a pre-proposal process (for those that don't know, I'm a proposal manager in my day job, for a large DC-based gov't contractor).
A couple of thoughts on rumors of more randomness in 6th Edition, and how this applies to Fantasy 8th Edition randomness as well.
More random effects are perceived by game designers and armchair hobbyists as creating a more laid back, unpredictable, beer and pretzels feel to a game.
I strongly disagree.
Random effects in terms of baseline activities, like what Terrain actually is when you go into it or not ... and how far you can move ... and how far you can charge ... these things are completely unknown factors. "Competitive" players spend a lot of time factoring in the odds of what they're doing, and the best ones put themselves in situations throughout games where the 'bad luck roll' is far less impactful. SURE rolling snake eyes over and over again is bad for anyone, but there's a reason the more competitive list-builders and gamers master the movement phase, and build highly redundant and durable lists, and win a lot of games ... even the random factors that are prevalent through 5th edition at present are managed ahead of time in the list-building phase, and during the moments of the game preceding the moment where you "need" the dice to not be bad.
NOT SO for more casual and laid back gamers.
More importantly, as a GENERAL rule the more competitive gamers ... game more often. If someone plays 15 practice games, and gets that 'awful dice game' during Games 1 and 3, he still has 13/15 games played where everything goes more or less according to how he played. These games probably occurred over a relatively short period of time, more important, and so they haven't really wasted a whole lot of their allocated gaming time.
What about the beer and pretzels gaming father, who gets one night a week to hang out with the guys and roll some dice. He's probably spent all week pondering how things will go at work ... thinking about what list he wants to play, scribbling list ideas cryptically in the margins of his notebook ... even if he doesn't, most gamers in general look forward to their game time. He gets his ONE night off family duties for the week, gets over to his buddy's house for his one game with the guys ... and that week happens to be his crappy dice week. Between the day after game night the week before, and the next game night, his ONLY chance to game is ruined by random bad dice. That's a 14 day period in which he gets one game, and his memory of it is: "My dice screwed me over."
The less a game is dependent on dice, the more a game will go about how you expect it to go, with regard to the lists brought to bear and the play of the opponents. The more a game is dependent on dice, the less a game will go about how you expect it to. The more experience you get with "Bad dice" games, the more your playstyle and list-building style will adjust to insulate you from it ... the less you play, the less your style will adjust.
The long and short here is if some of the rumors about a more random 6th edition come true, you're going to see I think 3 things happen ...
1) People are going to get a feel for the game, and make the general choice (internally) of moving toward quitting, or sticking with the game, based on how it feels. Then, simultaneously ...
2a) Competitive and/or more regular gamers are going to over time adjust their lists and gaming styles to match the new rules, randomness, etc.
2b) Casual and/or less regular gamers are going to be increasingly frustrated as an increasingly random game screws over their "feel" for how things used to be.
This is especially true with regard to new and improved codices, the 'meta,' etc. The more the game changes, the less the casual players are able to comfortably stay up with it ... the more frustrated they become when they 'waste' their playtime feeling like they have no chance against those with more time, and/or feel like how they play or what they purchase has no real impact on the result, due to how random the game is.
YES, competitive gamers won't enjoy going to a tournament, and losing a game b/c of a more random situation, but tournament play as a whole will adjust to that ... if it's REALLY bad, something ETC-style will come up, and the game will develop a modified tournament system that's generally agreed upon, and that eliminates more random components. That's just how things work ... tournament players of 40k will adjust, because they *always have.* Warhammer 40,000 is not a tournament game. Organizers work hard to MAKE it one ... even in the simple ways of creating points or conditions assigned to the basic book missions.
The real issue is not how 6th edition will impact Tournament 40k, because it won't really. The real issue is how 6th edition will impact the fun of the game at the casual and beginner level. If the game becomes more 'who cares, it's random,' or less fun in general for those who don't constantly keep up with it (aka, NOT tournament players), you'll see a lot less people taking the game as a serious hobby, or keeping up with it. Sales will go down (as they apparently have with Fantasy), and you'll at THAT point start to see an impact on Conventions, Tournaments, and presence at game stores ... because as with any hobby, the advancement of 'new' or 'casual' gamers into tournament/traveling players inherently replaces the attrition due to life of those who preceded them.
Ramble ramble :)
SO, my buddy James and I were talking about 40k lists that are wonkier. He's adopted the style of Ork list I've always personally run/advocated, that focuses on 9 Kanz, 9 buggies, 2 battlewagons purchased as rides for 3-man suicide Nob squads, and 6 troop units with Trukks. It's a bit abysmal in Kill Points, but is entirely overwhelming and hard to deal with in objectives-based missions. Fun fun fun to play, and very competitive / effective. He was pondering a list that was similarly 'Weird' in some ways, but still competitive and fun and goofy for Grey Knights, and he wanted to have a Vindicare in it. So, with no revision at this point, I popped this one out there ...
Inquisitor Coteaz - 100
Psycannon Inquisitor - 80
10 Paladins w/ 4 Psycannons, Assorted CCW - 630
Vindicare Assassin - 145
5 Acolytes w/ Storm Bolters, 3 Meltaguns, 2 Death Cults, Dozer Heavy Flamer Chimera - 155
5 Acolytes w/ Storm Bolters, 3 Meltaguns, 2 Death Cults, Dozer Heavy Flamer Chimera - 155
3 Acolytes w/ Storm Bolters, Dozer Heavy Flamer Chimera - 81
3 Acolytes w/ Storm Bolters, Dozer Heavy Flamer Chimera - 81
3 Acolytes w/ Storm Bolters, Dozer Psybolt Rhino w/ Searchlight - 72
3 Acolytes w/ Storm Bolters - 21
Dreadknight w/ Heavy Incinerator - 160
Dreadknight w/ Heavy Incinerator - 160
Dreadknight w/ Heavy Incinerator - 160
2,000 points
Paladins Combat Squad, Hiijack the Chimeras (I guess they don't have to combat squad, if you want to make a deathstar and lower your KP by reserving things, etc. etc., which is why they aren't combat squadded)
Inquisitors split to small 7-man squads in Chimeras ... 2 death cults stubborn backed by inquisitor and hidden within 5 acos, who do have meltaguns. These are your versatility troops, keep 'em in-tact.
Dreadknights follow the action, are generally great when they can't be easily focus fired, and late-game. This list is designed to impact the late-game, while acknowledging it's not 'idealized.'
3-Man acolyte squads have storm bolters so they can actually do something from the backboard when they arrive from reserves, in some games. Worth the investment. People may shoot them, but in most situations you're fine with that, or can hide them if you're not.
Dozer Rhino is to searchlight things if you really feel a need, to bring psycannons to bear early on key targets. More importantly, it's a free ride for the Vindicare, if you want to make him a bigger pain in the ass to actually kill. Sacrificing a turn of fire to hop into a covered, fortitude-capable firepoint is never a terrible idea. Plus, all his rules work with his pistol ... keep that in mind in games where you'd rather keep him with the crew and mobile, instead of sitting somewhere with a marine equivalent save (cover) asking to get dakka'ed down.
Wee, non-NOVA post for ya'll :)
