So I have been thinking about what games I have played where the gaming side has been enjoyable (catching up with people is pretty much always nice) and how my recent not so recent tournament experience has been.
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| Fun Games at Home with Friends |
I did attend Fields of Blood 2021 where I was drawn into a false sense of doing well and left with a reminder to actually read the tournament pack properly. I am pretty sure I won the majority of my games, I am not sure if it was 4-2 or 5-1 but I won the majority. I thought I would have done well but because of how I played (I actively worked to deny my opponents points while making sure I stayed ahead) I found that this was not optimal for this particular tournament because winning and stopping your opponent from winning were not actually the objectives of the game. The winner of the tournament overall and how we were rated was based on your victory points. At 90 pts max per game (Our paint was calculated elsewhere) our overall score for the gaming was out of the 540 possible points we could have gotten not out of our win loss ratio.
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| My FoB 2021 Army |
Well why were my games so low scoring in points, this came down to two factors: Playstyle and Speed.
Now playstyle should in my opinion never be considered a blocker to playing the game. Considering 40k is meant to be very flexible and each army is meant to play differently and internally different was well we should expect and hope for a large variety in armies and therefore playstyle. Personality and skill should also be available to be expressed this way. Do I want my orks who used survivability and open topped transports to control game pace and board state or do I want my Nids who aim to blast you off the table while being troops focused to control objectives.
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| Top Down Photos Never come out well |
Now this doesn't really change Fields of Blood except that I should have been more flexible on how I played. But even if I had cared less about my opponents objectives if they didn't deny me points and focused on the objective of that tournament would it have been enough. No because not all of my games had 5 turns so I couldn't max points anyway. We play game end where it ends no talking it out already.
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| Best Table at FoB |
Now interestingly enough playstyle and speed also influence each other, having massive armies with lots of models will take more time to maneuver and probably more dice to roll. Having an army that's very survivable will mean your later turns are comparatively longer as more of your army remains on the table. Which means game design should be compensating for this.
Well what about speed itself about as a lot of my fields of bloods game finished before we reached the end of turn 5, how do you get things to speed up, what are the places that can be tackled to make games easier and faster.
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| Sad to see these Bots on Trademe afterwards, sad I couldn't house them |
Well I think Hagen was onto it first. When I first started playing 40k in 8th edition everyone locally was playing 1500pts because Hagen who ran both of the major and most enjoyable tournaments ran them at 1500pts. As far as I am aware partially this was done for balance and speed so games could be completed on time. When I finally did my first tournaments Maelstrom and Warpstorm they were both at 1500pts and games were fun and went smoothly. The one game where things way shorter turn wise than they should have been was due to my opponent arriving late on day 1 and spending most of our game time unpacking his army and putting them on flight stands. That wasn't the games fault.
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| Follow _jaded.art_ on insta to see the best painted army at FoB 2021 |
On a more recent note I have started playing most of my casual games at 1000 or 1500pts for sake of speed and to be honest they all been pretty close and fun. Without all the tools in the shed its harder to knock something out in one shot but not impossible, it means you have to make concessions in your list writing and we finish the games. No ohh well only had time for 2 turns its over and done and talking about what could have been, instead we are getting turn 5 complete.
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| A great view of impending doom |
Is going down to 1500pts enough though? I recently gave a mate his first game of 40k and we played at 1500pts. He plays Necromunda so he's used to a large rule set but one thing he wasn't ready for was stratagems, now I blew most of my command points on the first turn and I went first. His first impression was what is going on and thankful when I assured him I couldn't do it every turn. On his turn we needed to look at his stratagems together and even back track part of his turn to make one effective so he could stay pace in the game. He did eventually table me at the end of turn 5 with game score being draw. So it was balanced points wise and game state showed my big burst of stratagems didn't have as much influence on the outcome as it first looked but why did stratagems make him feel uneasy about the game. He said it seemed like another large ruleset to memorise. And on this I agreed, it wasn't my first game flicking through stratagems muttering there must be something I can use here but it was usually my own.
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| Follow necromundane for more Munda and Minotaurs |
So getting caught off guard by stratagems isn't nice one of my first blog posts even talks about it . And then I watched this video by tabletop tactics where "Beard" gave me the solution to stratagems. Limit them and make them a part of your roster. This does two things it limits a players choices in game, removes the flicking through books checking as especially at a tournament you should be familiar with your roster choices and it also allows your opponent to anticipate what's going to happen provided they know your rules.
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| He enjoyed it by the end. |
Now I am not going to say I have memorised every rule because lets face it I still check my datasheets far to regularly but I have read almost every codex and tried to understand how that army plays, what a few of its tricks could be and I write a roster as if I had them (TY Battlescribe <3). I like reading rules and I like understanding the game (except admech, not all of us are robots..). Well honestly I would even go as far to say to play competitively properly you should understand your opponents armies. Now I get and read every codex but most players don't, most players will not have access to every codex . I am very lucky to have nice friends that let me read theirs. This is the one failing of games workshop in my mind.
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| It was great to see someone play Necrons at a Tourne |
I love game workshops setting for 40k, the story telling is great. I love the models, they often hold true to game workshops motto of the best miniatures available. But the game, the game costs to much and we will ignore the cost of the hobby side here as that has hobby value. So initially at the moment that cost is $130 (That's how much the Core Rule book cost from GW in NZ) which is comparable to the upper end console games so we can possibly accept that but then we have the need for the codex's these are another $100, you need at least one to play your faction (Not to mention Codex Supplements). So now its really $230 to play a faction and understand what they do. Now I know its not a video game but at $230 as barrier to getting into the game its far to high. Except if we want to be competitive and understand our opponents we either need a group where all factions are played so rules can be read when you play and visit and discussions can be had etc or to spend $1000 to understand the full game.
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| At least a friend will have it already to help you start right? |
Except then come the expansions, these cost about $100 and cover 2-3 factions each. So really its $330 if you want to be ready for a tournament or another $500 roughly on top of that $1000 if you already went and got every codex if you want to understand the update fully. Now $100 for an expansion still seems pricey but again we can look at other high end games and find out even WoW expansions don't cost that much.
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| And More! |
And then we get onto what used to be an annual controversy for me but is now going to be a bi-annual one. The Patch notes. Now no video game has ever tried to charge money for a patch but if they did I am pretty sure the company would receive so much backlash it would be undone pretty fast and their game would still fail as the gaming community avoids it on principle. So why is game workshop trying to get away with it? With Warzone Nachmund Grand Tournament or whatever its being called coming out, there is no proper reasoning for this, it is patch notes. It is changes to the game to balance it aka it is patch notes. Why am I expected to pay for this!
Then the addition changes and all these prices need to be paid again.
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| It Will Happen Again |
Going forward what can we do and what can we ask of Games Workshop. Well I will start of with my wishlist to Games Workshop, I know it won't be read but we can try.
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| Pretty sure the Cat pissed on it but it continues to inspire |
Make the rules both Free and Available in a printed book. Now the reason why rules and expansions are so expensive is they are printed really really nicely and in wonderful books with wonderful stories and honestly this is great. Many people who don't play still buy the books for the fluff and the artwork. Ontop of that you can get those rules nicely laid out and looking so good, I am not asking Game Workshop to stop this. One thing however should not be put in print: The points costs. Points should be listed online only and easily changed updated and managed by Games Workshops balance team and at a pace they can control. It is a waste of ink and paper, I mean the Custodes points changed so fast.
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| We know you have the tech |
Is just the points enough though, no not really.. Game Workshop need to make the Rules Section of the book available for free online as well, sometimes we can't pay for the new additions codex, should I be forced to stop playing? Simple solution is make the rules side available online from Games Workshop for free and this no longer becomes an issue. Players can print out what they need as they need or even just keep that tablet charged. Even if players do print it, it doesn't look as nice. Though it can make it easier to carry around tournaments. This also makes it more accessible to understand your opponents armies, or to look into a new army and think is that a playstyle I could like. All the while leaving players with the choice of buying the new rules nicely printed for them.
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| Lovely Art and Fluff, it will always be relevant, unlike that stat line |
And what can we do now in the short term. 1500pts feels good, its large but not to large, makes list building more fun as you work around the constraint. Now games workshop has said 12 command points for any list over 1001 pts but really its 3 at 500, 6 at 1000 and 12 and 2000 so we will read between the lines and settle at 3 per 500pts so 9 CP total for our house rules. This and Limited Choice of Stratagems means they will be impactful but not overbearing. Coupled with one thing GW almost got right is the new patch notes, I do suggest using the changes even though I could never recommend paying for patch notes....
My House Rules in addition to the Nachmund patch notes (check here for a great summary by Goonhammer).
- 1500pts
- 9 Command Points
- In addition to the Core Book Stratagems pick 10 Stratagems available to you to use in game and list them on your roster, using pre-game stratagems does count towards the limit of 10.
Simple. Really the game needs to be streamlined but really its not much more than what games workshop is doing and you need it to be simple to get others on the same page. Hopefully I can get my friends involved and really that last barrier is rules accessibility. And if you want that extra warlord trait or extra relic well thats one less stratagem you have access to once that game starts or two less if you got both. No longer will I be caught out by auspex tatics as I can see it listed and check what it does before the game.
If you read to the end, thank you for hearing out my rant. Let me know are you going to try my house rules ;) If you do come join the discord and let me know how it went. Were games smoother with less points and pre-selected stratagems?
