40K Deep Thought – We Can’t Ignore the Problem Anymore
I think the LVO tournament has opened the community’s eyes. I hate to say it but 40K is broken. Now what?
The Crossroads
My friends, we have been headed down this road for a long time now, and it started just before 6th even arrived with the “power-rules” trendlines that started with Grey Knights and Necrons.
6th Edition came in like a shockwave and blew apart the old meta, and opened new opportunities.
Then came the uneven codex releases of Dark Angels , CSM, & Tyranids on the low end, Space Marines & Daemons in the middle and Tau & Eldar on the high end. Throw in Escalation and you have a recipe for where we are now.
An uneven game environment where there are clear superior and inferior choices. Army books that make the grade and those that are “just for fun”. The new exciting allies system was supposed to open up the game and encourage a mixing of various narratives and army opportunities. The new rules were supposed to be an improvement and bring more fun and excitement into the game – but something went terribly awry.
How did we get here?
I think the LVO results has taught even the hardest core of the competitive players that something must be done and done fast.
I would assume that Ward, Kelly and the others should be camped out around the FAQ desk for a day or two to hash this out because the effects are clear as day – as are the culprits and the solutions.
When even Warhammer 40,000 Overfiend (Emeritus) Andy Chambers picks up his battle-ax, and comes down the mountain to weigh in on the winning (and purely LEGAL) winning LVO list – the problem is plain as day.
Congratulations Alex Fennell for cheesing to victory in the Las Vegas Open, you should be suitably ashamed of yourself 🙂
Why it Matters?
The arguments over competitive and fluffy play have been going round for years. Let me sum them up for you with a simple comparison.
Lets say for instance that we all love Monopoly – and who doesn’t 🙂 Now let’s say that the Car and Lone Ranger (I’m old school) get $250 when they pass GO. I can already see the Monopoly community (apologists) arguing that the game is perfectly balanced and that is up to the community to agree amongst themselves as responsible adults to limit the use of Car and Lone Ranger. Sound familiar?
The real issue however is that every other Monopoly playing piece gets left out (sorry Tophat and Cat) – and that’s the real problem. Because as it stands now – that’s about 75% of the product range that GW’s bottom line are built upon that are feeling “left out”. Now you see the problem…
How Do We Fix It?
Obviously, the real problems here HAVE to be dealt with by GW. They have their jobs literally on the line and certainly can’t afford to see an unbalanced and stricken 40K out there. Lets start with some really simple things:
1) Battle Brothers HAVE TO GO! After years in the field it’s now obvious the benefits of Battle Brothers are ONLY ever used for shenanegins. The entire concept was great in concept – but terrible in execution. What was meant to add fluffy variety to armies became ugly cherry-picking from the most unbalanced books to create Frankenstein monsters. Now any teensy unit-balancing mistake is magnified and can be exploited by other armies.
2) Save Re-rolls have to be seriously revamped. Consider that the LVO CHANGED the rules for rerolls and limited 2++ to only be 2+/4+ AND IT HARDLY SLOWED the Deathstars down. It may be that a 2+ save may just be the best save the game should ever allow in any case. Almost any type of reroll atop a 2+ and you start to get into silly-season from a statistics point of view.
3) There are some plainly broken units out there. I’m not going to go into them here, but we aknow the usual suspects, you count them on one hand, and they they need erratas (not FAQs) asap. Game design is hard, and I will never blame a designer for a miss every now and then – but not correcting them IS a sin.
4) The FAQs – Ward, Kelly, Jervis and all the rest – PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF THE GOD-EMPEROR – we need some new FAQS! Seriously, the entire game can be rebalanced with one solid overhaul of the core rulebook FAQ. I mean – it’s not like the company’s unit sales and financials don’t matter – or something.
Light at the End of the Tunnel
Warhammer 40,000 has been in worse straights before, and I have faith in the ability of GW (and their accountants) to do the right thing. What I worry about is the game needs to do the right thing in weeks, not 2 years down the road.
The wargames industry is growing like a weed and strong competitors are circling at all times, always siphoning off players to other systems when the giant GW systems make a misstep.
GW – do the right thing – if not the the players – for yourself.
