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zedatkinszed

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    Beer & Pretzels Gamer

    Posted · Edited by zedatkinszed

    Right. I mean look at Warcry and how objectives change that game rather than playing it as a simple slugfest.

    I think there is a cultural issue with the question of balance. The pick-up game phenomenon - something I have NEVER done btw. Any game I've played is by arrangement and generally long planned for. But it seems to me that the loudest voices in this debate are hyper competitive ppl who want to play Warhammer like MTG or Yugioh or Pokemon. The Honest Wargamer was big into the idea of T-Sports (e-sports but for the tabletop). Warhammer just isn't designed for that. 

    I mean I know so so so many people love tournaments etc. But Warhammer is much better as a narrative event (I don't necessarily mean using AOS's narrative rules but rather the whole event having a theme and a general RPG element to it ala Holy Havoc and NEON) than a pure match-play tourney. It is not designed like poker or darts or League of Legends. That's the elephant in the room and TBH I only got comfortable with the truth of that after I turned 30.

    Back in the day tourneys were part of wider conventions these days it seems the inverse or reverse is the case - the convention is tacked on to the tourney. Maybe that's just my perspective though.

    Beer & Pretzels Gamer

    Posted · Edited by zedatkinszed

    Just my 2c but having played Warhammer for nigh on 25 years I strongly believe that while many people THINK they desire balance, balance is not desirable for the game of Warhammer. So for me the real wicked problem is the perception that the game NEEDS to be balanced to be "fair" or "accurate" (how can a fantasy game ever be accurate...) or "good" is the issue, YMMV.

    Bear with me. War is not a balanced phenomenon. Take the Romans fighting the Celts. Roman soldiers were trained and equipped at high cost. Loosing Roman soldiers had an impact on the General's prestige and the morale of his troops - in so far as loosing men was as bad as loosing battles. The Celts on the other hand ran naked to their deaths and considered it an honour to die. The cost of deploying a celtic warrior was far less than a Roman one. And celtic warriors would embrace suicidal tactics. 

    Take Alexander the great, or rather his dad, Philip of Macedon. The Greeks basically had a perfectly balanced system of war, strong units of Phalanxes on the left, shield walls and long spears. Their wars were glorified rugby scrums with polearms. Then Philip comes along with a longer spear and elite cavalry, and destroys everyone, paving the way for his son to conquer the known world. 

    War is not balanced. War games shouldn't be either.

    That's where two factors in wargames come into play economics and tactics. The economics is the "points value" which btw AOS tried very hard to escape from and failed. 40K did a better job by creating "power levels". Anyway, either of these systems gives the two players an even playing field of spending power. This was never something that happened in any war and in fact IMHO the only really interesting WHFB battle scenarios were the ones where there was a deliberate points difference with specific victory conditions.

    Fundamentally if you want a perfectly equally balanced wargame - play chess. If you want to experience battle as it is/was, as an unequal contest that requires thought, skill and luck to defeat a more powerful, better equipped, and more numerous opponent then Warhammer is fine.

    Sure there are issues with rulesets - but that ain't "game balance" it is "beta-testing".

    • Like 2
    cburns

    Posted

    I like this. Well done.  I love the eyes and the overall tone of the painting.

    Have you ever heard of the  PMP league (W.hammer Youtubers) on Google+ ? It's a great group of people who give great feedback. It's run by Vince Venturella of Warhammer Weekly and once a month work submitted to the end of month review gets a video review and feedback. I highly recommend it if you want to win a GT event's best painted.

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