My first gaming hobby was, like many of you, trading card games. Working at a game shop, I played pretty much every new game that cropped up, but it was always Magic that I really wanted. I'd buy poly-bagged issues of Scrye Magazine because they came with promo cards for new TCG's. These wondrous artifacts always piqued my interest (Ooh, look how many stats this guy has! +4 Engineering!), but I never fell in love with these upstart games the way I did with Magic. They were just too hard to actually play. (Oh crap, what does Engineering do again? A bonus to Cartography, right?)
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| Haha, Shadowrun. Sweet. |
Let's not pretend that 40k has unique and compelling fluff. Nobody thinks GW invented the idea of a 'Space Marine' (It was Starship Troopers, right?). Similarly, Wizards of the Coast didn't come up with the world's first goblins and elves. No, in Magic and 40k both, the real draw has to be the rules. Both games feature an intuitive, fun ruleset that brings these non-unique entities to life under the player's control. There's no shame in being easy and fun to play. It feels silly to have to type that, but explore some tabletop games outside of 40k, and it becomes quickly apparent that game developers disagree. In order to stand out, they boast of the hyper realistic combat, movement, and dying that make real wars so much fun.
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| coolourtroops.com Wheeeee! Disclaimer: Real wars are not fun. |
The Gripes
1. Evasion
Evasion makes some sense. During a standard game of 40k, at least once somebody will call BS on a roll because a 'real space marine' wouldn't have behaved that way. Maybe you missed a point blank shot, or tripped over a busted up fence. A prime example of this is that it used to be just as easy to hit a motionless Carnifex as it was to hit a prancing Eldar. Evasion seeks to amend this issue by issuing penalties or bonuses to shooting models depending on what they're trying to hit. That's awful. The example of evasion given in the book is that when tanks drive quickly, they are harder to hit. This was already the case with close combat, and now I suppose it's the case with everything all the time. Have you ever asked your opponent how far his or her tank moved last turn? Hell, I can barely remember how far I moved my own tanks by the time I get to my shooting phase. Well, dear readers, get ready to keep track of how far everything moves, forever.
2. Instant Death/Eternal Warrior
What the hell? Let me see if I have this straight: A weapon causes instant death(x) where x = (weapon strength - toughness) - 3. Well that's simple. At least there's 3 different kinds of Eternal Warrior to combat this. Remember when double strength = dead? And 'Can't be instant killed' meant... can't be instant killed? I do.
3. Rigid Saves
There's now a universal special rule for 'Feel No Pain' (well, other than 'Feel No Pain', I guess). Feel No Pain was already in the game, but if precedent holds true, they're going to slap it onto all kinds of things to justify universal-izing it. I understand that FNP has a place in 40k, and can really make a game feel dramatic. Personally, though, I want it around only just so often. The more games I play in which I can't kill the enemy guys, the less I want to play any more. Here's hoping they give rigid saves out only sparingly.
4. Independent Characters
Ok, honesty time: I did not read the section on independent characters. GW has always made this an un-navigable rules typhoon, and I can't imagine that changes in 6th edition. I'll read them later. Or, like I've done in 4th and 5th editions, I'll just ask my opponent and believe whatever he or she says.
I could go on, but I feel I've made my point: 40k got harder to play, which makes me less excited to play it. The one positive I saw was the 'patch up' rule for the consolidation phase. You can never have more than one partially wounded model in a unit (besides independent characters). During the consolidation phase you move wounds from one partially wounded model to another until one or zero remains. The total wounds suffered by the unit remain the same, but it's cleaner and more fair, considering that a unit of Tyranid Warriors that each have one wound (used to) fight as effectively as an unscathed unit. The fluff offered for this is laughably absurd, but I kind of love that. Yes, sometimes a unit has to turn into vampires for the sake of simplicity.
I believe my life partner Frank has some cheerier things to say about this bold new edition. Feel free to look forward to that, if you're so inclined. I'll go back to Magic for now, in which double sided cards (with their own new, silly rules) now exist, which are stupid and dumb. sigh
* Just kidding, 40k's mission statement has always been 'sell plastic at extortionary prices.'
** It's really tempting to post a link to my championship fantasy baseball team... but I won't. You're welcome.
At first I was like, is that a Rage card? Then I was like, oh wait duh.
ReplyDeleteYou do realize theres a huge chance it may be fake?
ReplyDeleteThere's a huge chance it might be fake. And that's a possibility we're still dealing with. However there just as many possibilities that point to it's legitimacy not the least of which being the time involved in creating a whole fake game to put all us little 40k nerds on hi alert.
ReplyDeleteI think the best way to handle the leak is as a "future project from the past." If it's real it's certainly not exactly (or at all) represents what's going to go to print this spring. So we are likely looking at a step on the way to the completion of the rules. It's like a rough draft, anything is liable to change, including everything and nothing.
If you want to say it's a hoax then it's a really good one. Still as a potential prototype it could be straight from the desk of J. Jonah Johnson himself in which case we're ready for a brave new world of 40k.
That's a totally good point, Scrap Square. Post edited to reflect this.
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe not fake (although it could be). I would say that this is an earlier playtest version. Probably a few months old.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, as an actual accountant I promise you will do NO algebra in your entire career. So if your professors tell you that, just remember that they probably haven't done any actual accounting since they became professors.