18 May 2010

Miffed with 40K 5th and bits of WFB 7th.... Not chuffed at all...

Greetings,

This is something that I had wished not to have happened, and I do hope that it is only a temporary thing...
I apologise for it being another rant too. I didn't mean for another rant to occur between this and the WAAC rant. Stuff happens. Sorry for the NERD RAGE!
I also have been listening to a number of podcasts recently, Podhammer for one, and I really do see their point of view about 40K being more a game for WAAC players and those who have issues with most of the movement things in WFB 7th. Personally, I've always looked down upon 40K compared to WFB as being less tactically involving. It is only now that it has been this actively pushed to the front of my gaming experience.

I've been having issues with 5th edition. I find it turning into a horribly skewed game of 'rock, paper, tactical nuclear warhead' recently. I do have a few main complaints, of which one of them were partially seen to with the new Tyranid codex, but it is an under-lying game mechanic that is present in two of GW's main systems.

Cookie-Cutter lists

This is possibly my BIGGEST issue with the current game. I'm unsure if this is just the current meta-game or if this is somewhere that GW has come to by accident or design. Either way, I AM NOT A HAPPY BUNNY! Certain builds are just too damned effective that the more bizarre and fluff-worthy lists are untenable and pointless.

Case in point my 12 Crisis suit 1500pts list for my Tau. A huge amount of cash wasted in 5th for something that could work in 4th. Not often, but they were usable. In 5th I can't do anything. The increase of plasma and melta to deal with Mech has left me with 12 single shot kills unless I give them all shields which makes the rest of my army absolutely tiny. I've used it many a time in 4th, but after playing a few games in 5th it left such a bad taste in my mouth that I'm looking at getting rid of it.

Second case in point a Marine gunline is no longer effective. Marines themselves, unless Mech-ed up or in Drop Pods are pointless. What is the point of having more choices than nearly any damn codex out there if there are only 8 or 9 unit builds that will be taken. What the hell happened to the Marines' being the thin adamantium line against the gribbly things? Now they run up and fight like a bunch of Orks, but not as well...
I even thought that going the Blood Angel way would have been better, but it isn't. Their big shiny units are waaaay to expensive and they can still be nuked by the anti-Mech weapons too easily.

I was intending on having armies with no vehicles for my Marines and my Tau. This is partially achievable with Tau, but then I run into the XV8-melta-death situation. But with Marines it is something that you can't get away from. I don't like vehicles. I want armies of infantry fighting over a ruined city-scape or in a jungle. Somewhere that tanks, no matter how sophisticated can't negotiate. Again, the current meta-game doesn't allow for these lists to work.

Really just not impressed that my army composition and tactics therein has been dictated to me before I've even played a game.

Re-Rolls

I LOATHE the re-roll mechanic that GW has going at the moment. You get to re-roll all failed dice rolls. With some of the other games that use GW systems you are limited to what re-rolls you can do.

For example in Warhammer Ancients you only get a re-roll if you are Veterans. This means you can re-roll a single batch of to hit dice per game. ONCE, that's it. You re-roll ALL of them, not just the ones that missed. Now do you think that missing with 50% of your dice is worth the re-roll?
Then you have the system in Blood Bowl where you can only re-roll certain things once. If you want to re-roll a test for dodging you either use your Dodge skill or a Team Re-Roll. but you can only make ONE of these re-rolls a turn. You can't make 2 or more of them. No matter if you have used Dodge over a Team Re-Roll.

Now the Tyranid Codex went a step in the right direction in my mind. Only being able to re-roll ones if you only have a single pair of scything talons, and falling back on the full mechanic if you have two pairs. This is better in my mind for a number of reasons.
  • For one it is damned expensive on troops.
  • It limits other weaponry options.
  • It's not always the best tool for the job.
  • Sometimes you just don't need it. Most Tyranids spank people on a 3+ anyway!
Now with some armies this is part of their personality, Dark Elves for example. Fair enough, I understand that, but it gets annoying when they have a unit of 5 guys that rip through most of your army and you can't do anything about it. Especially when they re-roll to hit AND re-roll to wound. It just gets ridiculous.

There seems to be no drawback to this either. Well, yes, people say that you have to spend more points and it only works in close combat. How many games of Warhammer or 40K do you know of where close combat never happens? I can count them on the fingers on my elbow! (I am not, nor ever have been a mutant. This was a sarcastic comment.)

If you HAD to re-roll ALL of your dice for getting the re-roll benefit I'd be happy. Or if it was limited to re-rolling just ones. Hopefully WFB 8th will have sorted it out better to remove the issues that are prevalent in the current run of games.

Reserves

Right, now this will annoy a lot of people. I really don't like all of the reserve options that can be used at the moment in 40K.

Reserves should be a small part of your force, not ALL of the damned thing!

Now winning the roll to go first is actually a dis-advantage. There are also no battlelines that are formed as both sides on occasions can hold all units off the board and then come in much later on. Sorry if this is a bit of my naivete showing through, but I thought that this was meant to be a GAME? Some thing that was meant to be fun. Even playing 40K against supposedly like-minded players has soured my opinion of the game. What happened to trying to hide your force and using terrain to weather the opening salvoes?
People are to afraid of standing up and allowing the game to happen in a spirit of fun. WAAC strikes again, I know. Really #$%%@% me off though. Now that it is tactically beneficial and there isn't a damned thing I can do to stop it from being used! I liked the fact that in 4th that it could only happen on a 3+ I think... Same with infiltrate. They weren't overly-used tactics and they were good in that regard. If they happened you weren't too fussed as they could only come on from one direction. NOW you have Outflank (something that I like in principle, but it's execution leaves a lot to be desired) that can throw a spanner in the works as well as deep-striking which means some armies need not even bother setting up. What is the point of actually deploying armies until turn 5 then?

I apologise for the NERD RAGE!

Mech

I apologise for again bringing up things from the WAAC rant. This also goes hand-in-hand with the Cookie-Cutter lists, so I'll not say anything about it. But RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!

*ahem*

Ripple Fire

This is one of the things that really bugs me about 40K. All shooting should be simultaneous. The units can't coordinate their fire patterns to deal with everything at the same time. I declare what is shooting where at the start of my shooting phase. I've mentioned this in the WAAC post so again, I'll leave it be this time.
It just frustrates me that people can use the precise amount of force to every situation no matter what the army is. Even Orks and Tyranids can do this, which for the more bestial and undisciplined armies is somewhat bizarre. It doesn't feel right when the Eldar, Marines or the Tau do it either. I think it may just be the fact that I'm still applying real-world mechanics to a game that has nearly all eras of warfare into a sci-fi setting. Kinda stupid on my part, but I really don't like it.

Conclusion

Well that was a lot off of my chest. I will still play the game. I'm not giving it up permanently. I'm taking a breather. No idea for how long either. I'll play a few games of WFB 7th afore WFB 8th comes out, but I'm not using my Lizzies. Brets and Ogres will be used as I enjoy them more. Warmachine, Blood Bowl will be my current gaming fix.

Regards,

English Pillock

p.s.

Again, I apologise for the NERD RAGE! I've vented to some of my friends, but I needed something a bit more permanent. It is amazing how cathartic typing something out is.

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