I’ve been dragging my feet. I don’t want to write an FAQ/Errata and attempt to bring a bit more balance to the game, and I’ve been waiting on James Workshop to release his document that can/will bring a bit more balance to the game. Unfortunately that time has not come, though there are rumors that it will be this week or next (not even rumors, GW announced an errata by end of month, though they also said it won’t contain balance changes).
Currently the game isn’t in a healthy spot for competitive play. I know that, you know that, I’m pretty sure people that don’t even play know that. Since launch the same 4 (ish) armies have absolutely dominated with GSC making up a lot of ground over the last 1-2 weeks as people figure out how to exploit them. Custodes, Aeldari, and Imperial Knights are still sitting pretty high, and TSons still on the line of leaving the “goldilocks” zone. There are inherent issues right now in game design/balance, and while I initially was happy to see GW not taking a heavy-handed approach, it is clear that there is still some work to do.
Before I dig in, I want to preface everything by stating a couple of things. I love running and playing in tournaments. They are a ton of fun when the game is in a healthy spot. I don’t love knowing that any tournament I go to is just going to be me bouncing from Custodes to Craftworld to Knights every round. Its boring. Its stale. And it just shows me that currently the game is in a very Pay-To-Win “magic-esque” state right now.
The other thing is this: I don’t hate 10th. I know I talk a lot of shit, but I do enjoy 10th. It isn’t perfect, the issue I have is that the imperfections are glaring, and really hold it back from being as good as it can be. As such I’ve created a small rules/balance packet for my events, in the hopes that I can bring some semblance of fun to tournaments, and encourage players who don’t play some of the top armies to still get out and play.
I COULD go through it line by line, but I’ don’t want to write a novel. Instead I’ll touch on some key points:
- Potential Infinite attacks – Such as the Helbrute or Death Company Dreadnought. These will be limited to 1 additional shoot AND 1 additional fight per phase. This isn’t to punish players with those models, it is to reign in the potential of getting an early charge off and being able to run rough-shod through an army, plus the potential for free movement is absurd
- Indirect – Reverting back to 9th edition dataslate rules, so its not a hit mod but a bs mod. It’s not a perfect fix, but it goes a long way.
- Strats with Restrictions – If a stratagem has a restriction, then it is restricted. No rule that allows free bonus use can be used to activate that stratagem again (unless it specifically names the stratagem in the rule, ie the hexmark destroyer explicitly states it may bonus overwatch, so it overrides the overwatch restriction)
- Terrain – each player may pick either 2 pieces of terrain 6 x 12 or smaller, or one piece larger that is on their table half and those pieces will be considered to be 20″ tall with no windows or doors (They must be ruins that are selected)
- Tabling to Auto-Win – This rule is scrapped for my events. I literally watched 2 games where a guy crushed his opponent on points, only to get tabled at the bottom of turn 5. What a shitty interaction.
These are the keynotes. in addition the rulings from Tacoma are incorporated. If you’d like to review the whole doc you can find it here. The intent was to touch as little as possible, get feedback from players, then adjust a bit more after some events.
I don’t pretend to know everything, nor do I think I’m somehow more qualified than others to fix what is wrong in 40k right now. I just think that we, as players and organizers, need to start coming together to create a semblance of peace and order in our community and games. Let’s work together to fix the issues in a game we all love!