Thursday 30 August 2012

Once more unto the breach...

The game this week was another venture into the realms of Warhammer and rolling out the Empire army to try something different after the last game that my Empire troops marched into a hail of shot and shell.

With a discussion, post game last time with my opponent Ian, we had decided the way forward was, as had been agreed before, to play scenario's. Usually an equaliser for most game systems.

Ian rolled out his Ogres this time with a slightly different army list but still with a pretty lethal line up. My Empire troops were a different line up too with much more fire power and three bulky infantry units.

The scenario randomly selected was a 'Blood 'n Guts' affair which meant taking out the enemy standards and general with my army break point at three and Ians four.

The game in brief was a much more enjoyable affair with Ian gaining the victory but much more hard fought with the truth being I didn't play at my best, and missing a couple of oppurtunities but still put up a plausible fight against a pretty tough opponent. So much happier though the general thoughts on the WHFB's current universe still standing in regards to changing the army lists for the sake of changing it to be able to justify a new army book.

I won't go into all the broken things in the lists here but I have been toying with the idea of regressing to previous incarnations of WHFB's and trying them out again to see if they really were any better (rose tinted spectacles and all). I know a few others out there have done similar with differing opinions on the results.

In future games we're going to try a variety of things including more random scenario's, which give a bit of variety to games anyway, and possibly look at the points values (which in my opinion is what's really wrong with the current state of affairs) and previous editions of the rules and lists (which actually quite interests me just for a bit of fun).

It is perhaps the nature of fantasy gaming that because it is just that, fantasy that it is extremely subjective that you will always find opinions differing in what is right or wrong, or what feels right. Until something better comes along (and so far most other generic fantasy rules don't cut it after  play testing and silly arms races ensue) WHFB's is still the closest to enjoyable to all that our gaming group has found (heaven help us all).

Perhaps there is salvation in the 3rd edition?

6 comments:

  1. Playing the scenarios is definitely the way forward. In fact randomly selecting the scenario is part of the rules. Not knowing what you might be playing is designed to force a more balanced force selection and cut back on the min/maxing that plagued seventh. Too many people play 8th ed using only the old pitched battle scenario and complain it's imbalanced - well it wasn't designed to be played that way (and I know, I was part of the process..:)).
    Tom

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    1. Definitely right T and the 7th ed was like that, I'd forgotten that we'd come to the same conclusion when playing it that we've come to playing 8th, scenario's. Interesting that you were part of the design process, how were you involved?

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    2. I was in charge of the Games Dev team at the time 8th Ed was written (though they dispensed with my services before it was released). Jervis was keen from the start to re-introduce different scenarios to encourage a more balanced playing style. At one point I think he had twelve or more on the go, but in the end it was (wisely) whittled down to a D6 roll.
      Tom

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    3. Interesting to know, always good to get ideas from the horses mouth as it were on how things were envisaged to be played. Even though that's not always how things end up.

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  2. Was a good game Fran but I enjoyed the game so much I actually just forgot to take any until too late.

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