40k Editorial: Return of the “Ban”-Wagoneer
Everyone wants to change the psychic phase – but like the old saying says “There’s a sucker born every minute”.
I’d like to discuss the new psychic phase. It is quite controversial and already there is a lot of voice on the Internet (again from a minority) offering advice how to fix it. Keep in mind you now need to roll three times as many dice as the Warp Charge (WC) level in order to reliably cast a spell:
WC 1 – 3 dice
WC 2 – 6 dice
WC 3 – 9 dice
WC 4 – 12 dice
It’s obvious there are a lot of armies that don’t really have a real chance to successfully cast WC 3 or 4 even though now it’s possible in theory for a Level 1 Psyker. Take a moment to remember there is also the movement, shooting and assault phases—not all armies can be designed equally nor could they ever.
Ask yourself these two simple questions:
1) Should we alter these other phases as well to better balance the game? For example eldar, Astra Miltarum and Tau typically can outshoot any other army… And we all know that the shooting phase is still much stronger than the assault phase.
2) Is the new psychic phase potentially so powerful it will dominate the game?
Some people are so upset about the new psychic phase and Daemonology in general that the campaign against Battle Brothers has taken a back seat—that’s really saying a lot too and I’ve just got to ask myself the question:
Should we allow others to dictate to us how the game should be played beyond the basic mechanics for mission types and approved army builds (i.e., FOCs)?
Invisibility
There is a lot of fuss about the new and improved version of Invisibility. In my opinion there were a number of other spells just as powerful if not more so not so long ago in sixth edition such as the previous version of Terrify… Even Abbadon might have run off the table in fear while just having been locked in a brutal close combat (some people said it was an equalizer—LOL). Now Invisibility is a major threat to Tau (i.e., markerlights) and Eldar (i.e., Serpent Shields)—that’s a big reason why there is such a ruckus now too.
Daemonology
This new lore is the proverbial magic bullet that broke loose the currently epic viral pandemonium circulating all over the Internet. It’s the hottest topic, everyone has an opinion and debating what should be done. The rulebook has been out for just under a week now… Who here has thoroughly digested all the rules and played several games? Maybe it really is broken—even if so I think everyone whose an avid gamer should have the opportunity to form their own conclusions based upon their own experience. We should all be able to draw our own logical conclusions within a month and that’s all I’ve got to say for now on the subject of Daemonology.
The Return of Vehicles – A Possible Equalizer
It just seems like every edition that armor is really good or overall really bad. Fifth edition was a time when we saw lots and lots of parking lots as vehicles were very hard to destroy and basically had an infinite number of hull points… And so goes the priority of melta weapons versus plasma with each edition as well. Vehicles have some great new buffs – most importantly the new Armor Penetration Table. The design team was quoted as saying they really wanted to make it a lot harder to one shot vehicles so your infantry is safely tucked away from all those evil enemy maledictions whilst embarked and that’s a good thing which will go hand in hand with the need for speed to reach out quickly and grab all those shiny objectives. Armor value 13 and 14 were really good in sixth edition but now they’re God like if you’re willing to pay the points. So consider this while taking a step back to look at the bigger picture… And rest assured you’re going to see a lot of Wave Serpents… Count on it.
What Would Really Break the Camel’s Back…
An army that automatically casts successful spells and I wouldn’t put it past the design team to create such a gnarly hated beast. For now though that is not the case and in truth psychic powers overall are not nearly as reliable unless you decide to build an army whose specific intent is to dominate the psychic phase… Rest assured these types of armies will end up facing off against each other in mirror matches if the current conjecture turns out to be true—sounds like a really fun game too.
Epic Fail
Measures were taken towards the end of sixth edition to nerf the 2++ re rollable save but Jetseer Council and BeaStar still took home more than their fair share of the gold which equates to some massive epic fail – so the question should be asked – if they couldn’t fix it then what makes you think they can fix it now? Hit and Run was key to the great success of Jetseer Council and BeaStar. The lack of it was the proverbial Achilles Heel for ScreamerStar which is hard proof but nothing was done to fix this key component which is one of the main reasons why the conversion of the 2++/2++ to 2++/4++ didn’t get the job done and it was truly a glaring oversight for whatever reason.
Conclusion
So there you have it. Some people trying to ‘fix the game’ is currently a bigger part of the game than the game itself.
It didn’t used to be this way either and I don’t remember a lot of nerd raging back in the golden days of third, fourth and fifth edition. Oh well. What do you REALLY think is behind all the calls for house rules?
