Stop, Hammer Time

Dear Oz Community,

We have had some amazing times together.  Remember that first Dogcon where I got totally hammered, fell asleep in the garden and got ragged on all day?  Or the Convic where I ended up sleeping in the toilet?  Or that time we played poker at Orktoberfest where Guns nearly got eaten by Akhter?  Awesome.  I could go on listing things that have happened, because I have so many things that are stuck in my mind.

However, things have changed recently and it makes me sad, but its not your fault.  “I love Warhammer”, in the immortal words of Gavin Clarke.  And I love tournaments, and all the people I have met.  In fact, my closest friends have all come from the Fantasy community.  So why the change?  Why all the anger on the forums?  I know why.  Its a sad thing to say, but the people who are responsible for the current situation are none other than Games Workshop.  When 8th edition first came out I was buzzing with excitement.  They have done it I said!  Fixed the game, balanced the books!  Its amazing!  Then I played a few games.  Something was missing.  I enjoyed the game, more than I had before in most cases.  A lot of that came from how new and different it was.  But it was not giving me that same buzz.  I missed something, but its hard to put my finger on.  The spells are not that bad, the strategy is still there, so what is it?  I still cannot fully explain why I feel the way I do.  There are a lot of little things I suppose: the luck factor, the change in army designs and the scenery having no effect on the game, just to name a few.

So I set out with good intentions to try and make the game feel right to myself.  I assumed others felt the same.  I made some efforts which were not well received, and I came to the realisation that people liked this game is it was.  Not to mention the massive problem with creating a set of restrictions or modifying rules:  How do you integrate new blood into the scene?  When you change the rules, you prevent new players from really jumping in, and thats a problem.  Ultimately the goal of any tournament and community is to draw new players.  So the game has to played pure, or close enought to it. 

But thats not what I wanted out of my gaming time.  I felt let down by the company I had supported for 15 years.  So I branched out into Warmachine, and have found what I wanted from a game, a tournament community, and most of all, a company.  So naturally, being excited about something, I wanted to get my friends involved.  My friends are all from the Warhammer community.   I am not going out of my way to try and wreck the Fantasy scene, far from it.  I just wanted my friends to experience what I have experienced.  I know some people have copped criticism for attempting to “recruit” players and for leaving events midway through, but really if you were in their shoes, what would you do?  You are bored with the game.  You gave it a chance but its just not doing it for you.  You signed up for the tournament to get that feeling back, but it still not there.  Your best mates are off having a great time playing a different game.  Wouldnt you want to go play games with them and enjoy your hobby again?  Ultimately you have paid your money to the TO, supporting the event.  But we often have so little time for our hobby that spending a weekend doing something you dont enjoy seems pretty stupid honestly.  So lets all calm down a bit, not begrudge people for wanting to spend their time in a way that is enjoyable to them, nor begrudge them for wanting their friends to experience the same thing.

So where does that leave us?  Well, its time for me to say goodbye.  I wish this community nothing but success.  I want to see people take charge, lead the way for 8th edition and build the scene up so it dwarfs what we had in 7th.  I have loved my time being a part of this community over the last ten years.  I really struggle to think of bad games that I have had.  I have had some massive ups, some massive downs and met so many amazing people.  I want to thank those people now.  You have all contributed in some way or another to this community, to my experience and to the experiences of all.  As something of a community leader, I want to leave you with this parting message:  Please, lets all just calm down.  Internet warriorism is a serious disease, I know as I have it. :) Just relax, the community needs time to settle, and time to develop again.  Everyone is trying to do what they think is best, and wants to spend their hobby time in a way that suits them.  Noone is trying to wreck it. 

I will still see you around no doubt.  In fact, I may even play a tournament or two if the urge takes me. 

Good luck and mad skills,

Trent

I have removed my last few posts . They were not what I wanted as a long term thing for this blog.

I am going to focus my positive energies into my hobby, and channel my negative energies into something else. :)

Cheers

Trent

So I can’t seem to please anyone, I say I’m sick of people whining cause they want the game to stay the same then I have people tear me up because I’m offering no solutions. I realise that most of what I suggest is just going to end up in the trash alongside the ideas of people that understand the game better then me but I guess it’s worth a shot.

The first thing I’ve thought, and yes I know there’s going to be a lot of people against this, but going back to the old way of measuring. So guess ranges for warmachines, for magic range is checked only if the spell is successful and movement you can measure normal moves and marches but charges can only be measured once the dice are rolled  . I know pre-measuring was brought in to make it a bit more noob friendly but I’ve only been playing for 6 months and I can roughly tell when something’s in range or how far away it is. In taking the pre-measuring out it brings back some skill and helps to fix both magic and warmachines a little. Warmachines at current are extremely overpowered because with templates everything hits and there’s a one in three chance of it being a direct hit, it’s no big feat to wipe out half a unit or more in one shot. Reverting back to guess ranges means that they still have the potential to be devastating but it relies on some level of skill and it won’t be quite as easy. I know most spells can be boosted to a 48″ range and even at 24″ most units will be in, but by taking out that pre-measuring you’d have to be 100% that your target is in.

As for magic specifically, there’s a few changes I think might help to make it a bit less random. 15+ are one use only, not one successful use though so if it’s failed to cast or the opponent successfully dispels it that’s it’s one use gone. If you roll six for your spells, you’d be allowed to choose another spell just as if you’d rolled doubles.  The last thing with magic is I think it would help if casters could only throw a number of dice equal to their level plus 2, so a level 4 can through 6 dice, a level 3 – 5 dice, etc, that way it stops spam casting of the big spells and it means if you want to get them off you actually have to invest points into it.

The other problem I keep seeing though is armies like Skaven for example have cheap models and can run units of 100 slaves as diverters, at least with a unit of dogs you can chew threw them and only be diverted for the one turn not the whole game. I’m not 100% sure how to combat that yet, I don’t think it’s necessarily the right solution but it’s the only one I can think of at the moment, that models of 6pts or less are capped at unit size of 30.

There’d be the other obvious restrictions such a the power dice cap, not sure whether it should be 10 or 12 and power scrolls are banned, warmachines max 5 and I’m sure there’s other I’m forgetting from recent tournaments.

I know people have been leaning against changing rules but I’m hoping this is seen more as restrictions then changing fundamental rules. I’m just really trying to throw some ideas out there and not act as if it’s the be all and end all. I just really want to see Warhammer get back towards it’s former glory without too many more upsets.

As most people who read this blog would be aware, 8th edition is leaving a sour taste in peoples mouth. I think as a community we can agree that 90% of the rules have been streamlined, fixed up and is a much better system to play.. however the remaining 10% have thrown the game out of whack, resulting in 1 dice roll turning a massive loss into a win or even vice versa. This is seeing the exodus of a few of the wargaming ‘elite’ who are in search of a much more established ‘skillful’ game where the better general wins 99% of the time.

Deal with it.

Warhammer 6th and 7th (6.1) edition took 10 years to get to a golden age where comp was 99% sorted and etc restrictions resulted in the best generals being rewarded (which is what tournaments are about). We’re now in a new era which will take a while to sort out how to best get it right for the community.. this is tournament gamers and garage gamers. It will take a while, especially if some people leave for a brief hiatus into Warmachine, Hordes and other genres of tabletop generalship… but people will still stick with it. Sure tournaments might not be a 100% accurate representation of skill for the next few months.. hell they may not even crack 75%, but eventually we will get there as a community and be better off for it. There’s no doubting warhammer needed a firm hit of the reset button and this will see the flux of new and veteran players but thats just the life cycle of the game. Tournaments may take a minor beating but hey, its more ranking points and more fun games! Alot of the gamers I know have invested alot of time, money, travel, thought, practice and lifestyle into the game to walk away entirely. Personally, i’m going to attend as many tournaments as possible in the next year or less before I head overseas to Europe for study. I love the game and even though I’ve found 8th edition alot more frustrating than 7th, we learn and adapt, master and overcome and are better off for it.

After speaking on the phone with Charles black, we came to the conclusion that the game is going to fluxuate, restrictions and players will come and go. One Idea I had for a good general restriction was no unit worth more than 500pts or more than 40 models (maybe 50?)

Get involved, enjoy the game, meet some people, contribute, discuss, improve and make the most of this amazing hobby. Treat it as an experience to improve the game and give somthing back to the community… at least thats the attitude i’m going to take. People will whinge and bitch about various aspects, about 4 war machines being the right amount and more abusive, about purple sun and dwellers being too overpowered… they may be correct, however the point i’m trying to make is that we need to just simply “Get on with it.” before we get stuck in a rut of comp debates and people leaving without giving it a fair shot or ‘roll of the dice’.

James