Is "Inspiring Presence" too powerful?

[RuneBrush]

From the games I've played (not many for the new edition I'll grant you), I've found the new Inspiring Presence to be pretty decent.  You've exchanged duration for flexibility (only one turn but you trigger it when you need to).

What I like is that it adds an extra trick for those low bravery armies that you could normally hit hard and watch then wilt away.  Without it there would be certain situations where you'd just go "I might as well remove that unit now".  The more I think about it, the more I realise what a nice ability it is - your opponent thinking "I only need to inflict 15 damage on that unit and the rest will run away" and you spend a command point to keep them in the fight a bit longer.  I suppose that it does nullify one phase for one unit, but you're not going to be able to do it all the time.

[AaronWilson]

Personally I like it and it can still be played around, especially now it is a reactive thing. If you're playing against multiple blobs , kill enough of each unit to force multiple harsh BS tests, so they can't inspiring presence it all. If they have none big blob, focus fire. I think IP is needed as without it, blobs just double dip as you killed 15-20, then they lose 10-15 more due to BS. 

[Aginor]

1 hour ago, stato said:

Isnt that just the Prismatic wall endless spell?  If you dont have a wizard to dispel it then thats not even a CP to make whatever is behind it immune to shooting.

Not quite IMO. You still have to roll dice to cast it, you still have to use a resource and movement (a spell slot of a wizard in range). The unit can also still be hit by shooting, if your enemy moves their shooting units so they get a better angle for shooting. It also doesn't help much to protect big units (it is not that big after all). The palisade also takes up space, so it blocks your movement, and it blocks your own shooting as well.

[AaronWilson]

I think also the palisade on a 5+ gives units close to it -1 to hit? So there is another drawback to it. 

[Mayple]

It has been stated, but to use inspiring presence you have to use resources you'd need for other command abilities. Often the ones that would grant you the offensive capabilities to count back.

You say inspiring presence is equal to not playing a phase of the game, but I'd argue that it is in fact the only thing that makes that phase remotely enjoyable. It creates a platform for decision making, which is what gameplay is all about. No decision making = no gameplay.

 

Battleshock immunity bubbles are the worst though

[S133arcanite]

What about the Shrieker Host?

[Aginor]

Edit@AaronWilson

That's correct. If you place it too close to your troops it will have a negative impact on them, too.

[ianob]

Its fine.

[Mephisto]

Out of curiosity, @amysrevenge, do you play an army that tends to go first and get the charge a lot?

Personally, I don't think it's broken. It's different from the last edition but it importantly adds a meaningful choice. Adding meaningful choice to a strategy game isn't a bad thing. The person in danger of being shocked off must decide if saving this unit right now with a command point is worth not having that extra command point to ensure their counter charge roll doesn't mess them up. Or maybe they need their command point to set up a combo that they now must forgo if they use that point. 

On the other side of the table, the person setting up 'the big charge' must consider that the opponent can make the intended target shock immune. So now maybe you charge with two units at two different targets to ensure that one gets shocked AND the opponent wastes a command point saving the other or maybe you do go all in to ensure you blow up one unit on damage alone. 

The ability to reactively shock immune your troops also factors into decision trees for set up and when playing for or against the double turn.

Again, it encourages interaction and meaningful decision. That's not a bad thing.
 

[amysrevenge]

2 hours ago, Mephisto said:

Out of curiosity, @amysrevenge, do you play an army that tends to go first and get the charge a lot?

I almost never play the same army twice in a row, and never with single drop deployment to go first  (not a lot of battletomes in my life). I'm definitely not being selfish here, as battleshock is rarely a problem for me (especially with IP in my pocket) - that's kinda the problem.

I should also clarify that I don't just mean Inspiring Presence. I would like to do a Find->Replace through all text in all books in the entire game switching "immune to battleshock" -> "+10 to Bravery".

[Mephisto]

My comment wasn't meant to imply selfishness. I was just curious your perspective. I know my take on Inspiring Presence is different from another person's because I play a defensive army... except for the three games I played my friend's Skyborn Slayers while my army was under construction and then I did the very fun alpha strike, blow people the hell up with starsoul maces thing. Good times. 

Anyway, I clearly don't think Inspiring Presence is "too powerful." Don't get me wrong, I think it's powerful but it is appropriately powerful for a thing that literally everyone gets and requires a precious resource. You spend the point. It should work. That's elegant. That's simple. Concise rules are important. 

Heck, I take it as a kindness that GW moved the ability from an already bloated Hero Phase and into the BS Phase which is, let's be honest, barely a phase. It's more like the clean-up step in Magic the Gathering except sometimes you do math.

[Carnelian]

I really like the new version

It's more limited but much more flexible and leaves open more tactical options so it's a win all round in my book