40K Deep Thought: Formations Need to Go
Players rarely agree on how to alter the game moving forward, but one thing seems to bring many together – formations are a problem.
Recently one of those “what rules need changing” thread was doing the rounds on the BoLS Lounge. These things are always coming and going, with dozens of suggestions for minor tweaks here and there to various rules.
So, how would you fix/tweak 40k rules wise to make it better?
The REAL Problem…
What caught my eye however wast he clearminded assertion by Lexington that regardless of what hundreds of minor rules tweaks the designers could make, formations was the real piece of concentrated evil lurking at the heart of the game:
“I think the #1 method for fixing 40K right now would be removing or altering Formations. Currently, and, sadly, intentionally, they’re broken as all get-out.The easiest way to do this would be to remove any special rules and bonuses from them – they’re just an alternate way of choosing your army list. No freebies, no nothin’.”
And I think Lex is right. Forget about D, forget about super heavies, leave allies alone, even learn to turn a blind eye to invisiblity – first of all get rid of the number one mechanic that hands out freebies to one side or the other as a reward for buying a bunch of duplicate models that GW has lying around their warehouse.
If there is a dark beating heart of the allegations of “pay to win” and the number one place where players can get points and rules bonuses for free – its formations.
And we all know it.
The Fix
The fix would be shockingly simple – just make them optional. A single (Optional) box that says “formations” on the next edition’s FOC would fix it all up. Then GW could still crank them out but players would not feel bound to play with them – just like the community has pretty much rejected unbound lists.
It would certainly increase my interest in playing and buying more models from GW.
How about you?