I felt I should post up my thoughts on the new game. It might help to vent.
It has been obvious from the complete lack of balance in both warhammer and 40k that GW are phoning in the rules. Despite having produced more and more of their most beautiful models to date both through the end times and in 40k. However it seems they've decided just to give up. I do understand that from a company management point of view this might seem like a very good idea. Alongside the stripping down of staff from stores, the 'Eavy metal team and closing of stores. Cheeky rules re releases such as the new edition of 40k with terrible magic rules and vehicles that supposedly anti vehicle weapons cant actually kill outright or the imperial knight book which added four new weapon options to a codex that already consisted of very few rules and while I admit there was more errata/added formations outside the old book than pages in it having to pay for a new full price book after just a year is to me offensive, particularly given the complete imbalance between imperial and eldar knights and the lack of chaos knights.
Terrible rules have probably been responsible for some of their problems with sales such as the wood elf book releasing the gorgeous treeman and new combat units that were all nerfed in the book and made to look unplayable next to the boosted archer types most people would have already owned models for. The imperial guard as astra militarum was another, new gorgeous storm troopers that replaced models people probable already had but didn't fit in with the esthetic of the rest of the army. A new very expensive in money terms transport that again has an odd look and feels worse than a chimera with front AV11. Ogryns... why bother? These cost almost as much as terminators in points for one extra shot and no armour worth mentioning and no equivalent combat benefits. The hydra that sixth edition rules turned from one of the most playable tanks in 40k to one of the worst that duels as the wyvern that seems alright as a one of. Deliberate moves to make you buy multiple books such as the skitarii and adeptus mechanicus being seperate even though the mechanicus book clearly having a heavy support choice for its troops due to a lack of models and the skitarii having no HQ are also insulting and books like the eldar making wraith guard and knights have d weapons regardless of balance to try and sell more and jetbikes all being able to take heavy weapons in a clear middle finger wave to the dark eldar kin again simply to sell models with no regard of what will happen to the game.
So the solution is to give up making rules for one game system. Throw away the support of those who have supported it for years and to give up. The new rules make imbalance even worse and actually quite hard to balance your army for even casual games against friends. When a war scroll can contain three highelf mages on dragons, the emperor karl franz or twenty zombies these are clearly not comparable by war scroll or by wounds.
The models are undoubtedly gorgeous, but why buy them if the game isn't worth playing. Something as tactical as push your guys in the middle and hope you roll first for combat multiple turns in a row just isn't a game I'm interested in. Nor is one where to use certain units you need to move 60 zombies per turn. Going to be great fun pulling out the vampire counts now eh?
My biggest question and complaint is why this is a separate game to warhammer?
The problem with warhammer was supposedly its complicated rules and large model count which acted as a barrier to new players. Well why not introduce a new game in addition that stepped up to it. That the models for simply ranked up in greater numbers? Even if warhammer was relegated to the specialist games tab that would have been something. I don't understand how GW expect to make more money off a game that makes people buy less books, less terrain, less models, less paints, etc.
Competing with the popular newer skirmish games such as warmahordes and mallifaux was a good idea, but at the expense of one of their core products seems like madness.
It has been obvious from the complete lack of balance in both warhammer and 40k that GW are phoning in the rules. Despite having produced more and more of their most beautiful models to date both through the end times and in 40k. However it seems they've decided just to give up. I do understand that from a company management point of view this might seem like a very good idea. Alongside the stripping down of staff from stores, the 'Eavy metal team and closing of stores. Cheeky rules re releases such as the new edition of 40k with terrible magic rules and vehicles that supposedly anti vehicle weapons cant actually kill outright or the imperial knight book which added four new weapon options to a codex that already consisted of very few rules and while I admit there was more errata/added formations outside the old book than pages in it having to pay for a new full price book after just a year is to me offensive, particularly given the complete imbalance between imperial and eldar knights and the lack of chaos knights.
Terrible rules have probably been responsible for some of their problems with sales such as the wood elf book releasing the gorgeous treeman and new combat units that were all nerfed in the book and made to look unplayable next to the boosted archer types most people would have already owned models for. The imperial guard as astra militarum was another, new gorgeous storm troopers that replaced models people probable already had but didn't fit in with the esthetic of the rest of the army. A new very expensive in money terms transport that again has an odd look and feels worse than a chimera with front AV11. Ogryns... why bother? These cost almost as much as terminators in points for one extra shot and no armour worth mentioning and no equivalent combat benefits. The hydra that sixth edition rules turned from one of the most playable tanks in 40k to one of the worst that duels as the wyvern that seems alright as a one of. Deliberate moves to make you buy multiple books such as the skitarii and adeptus mechanicus being seperate even though the mechanicus book clearly having a heavy support choice for its troops due to a lack of models and the skitarii having no HQ are also insulting and books like the eldar making wraith guard and knights have d weapons regardless of balance to try and sell more and jetbikes all being able to take heavy weapons in a clear middle finger wave to the dark eldar kin again simply to sell models with no regard of what will happen to the game.
So the solution is to give up making rules for one game system. Throw away the support of those who have supported it for years and to give up. The new rules make imbalance even worse and actually quite hard to balance your army for even casual games against friends. When a war scroll can contain three highelf mages on dragons, the emperor karl franz or twenty zombies these are clearly not comparable by war scroll or by wounds.
The models are undoubtedly gorgeous, but why buy them if the game isn't worth playing. Something as tactical as push your guys in the middle and hope you roll first for combat multiple turns in a row just isn't a game I'm interested in. Nor is one where to use certain units you need to move 60 zombies per turn. Going to be great fun pulling out the vampire counts now eh?
My biggest question and complaint is why this is a separate game to warhammer?
The problem with warhammer was supposedly its complicated rules and large model count which acted as a barrier to new players. Well why not introduce a new game in addition that stepped up to it. That the models for simply ranked up in greater numbers? Even if warhammer was relegated to the specialist games tab that would have been something. I don't understand how GW expect to make more money off a game that makes people buy less books, less terrain, less models, less paints, etc.
Competing with the popular newer skirmish games such as warmahordes and mallifaux was a good idea, but at the expense of one of their core products seems like madness.
