Our Community is in a state of turmoil right now regarding what this game should look like since Escalation and Stronghold Assault were released. There is a lot of confusion out there right now on what people will be allowing in leagues, tournaments, and of course what to expect when you get a random pick up game.
The game has been changing rapidly, and like most people, our community is hard on change, even when it was what a lot of us have been asking for. So this type of turmoil is OK, its OK for us to figure out how we want to play the game.
While some of you do not care about this, tournaments and organized play are big. Its not just about tournaments, but all sorts of leagues and other game scenarios that are organized the world over. When it comes to garage play, of course you can hit the tables how you like. As soon as its a league or something larger, issues must be confronted.
Here are two opposed views of the how to handle these upcoming events. Both are some of the better well written articles I have seen on the subject. One is Adam B over on Frontline Gaming, while the other is about the changes that are happening to the Feast of Blades Events.
I am not reposting these articles, except for a few brief quotes, so please head over the the respective sites and read what is going on.
via Adam B. over on Frontline Gaming
http://www.frontlinegaming.org/2013/12/10/guest-editorial-on-escalation-by-adam-b-from-the-dice-abide/
"Super heavies are here, there is no need to get your panties in a twist, no reason to sell your army because you just can’t take it, no need to really panic at all really, the only thing you need to do is learn to deal with it."
"Super heavies are here to stay, just like flyers, allies, and everything else that people have said, “ruins 40k!” is “over the top and over powered” or even accused of being a money grab. You’ll find that it’s much more gratifying to come up with solutions than just complaining"
The rest of his article goes into details on ways to deal with super heavies, and fight them on the tabletop, including some very hard counters that will make these super heavies have hard times at tournaments.
via3++ Regarding the Feast of Blades Events
http://www.3plusplus.net/2013/12/feast-of-blades-will-be-enacting-restrictions-and-bans/
"With the recent release of Stronghold Assault and Escalation, 40k is, to put it bluntly, no longer suitable as a tournament game. The inclusion of Strength D into the game, following months and months of “power combo” lists taking top tables at tournaments has made it more than evident that this game as written simply isn't designed for or appropriate for ANY sort of high-level competitive play."
"GW is no longer creating a fun tournament environment, so it falls to us. In the same way that casual gamers are adults who can agree on how they would like to play, the tournament scene will adjust itself so that it creates fun, memorable, and challenging games of 40k. Anything else would be a failure on our parts"
So what the Feast of Blades is doing is banning units, limiting units out of codices to 0-1, reducing D-Weapons, and really dissecting the game to try and make the game suitable to what they see the game should be.
On Faeit 212
Where do I see things?
Personally I see that when the game is getting dissected like what is going on with the Feast of Blades, that you might as well be playing a different game. Or at least just going back to 5th edition. I don't mean that in a mean or divisive way, that is just my opinion on the matter.
Adam really for me hits the nail on the head. We have all changed our lists over 6th edition to have far too many S6 and 7 weapons. People have declared armour dead, and with the inclusion of super heavies, you had best have a strong line up of heavy weaponry as well now, as you must be able to bring forth the guns to take on a Lord of War should it appear.
Once again I will profess that I love the variability of the game in 6th edition. Lords of War and Fortifications push that envelop, and with Forgeworld being official and updated into 6th edition, the options are just fantastic.
Change is hard, and we are constantly going through it in this hobby the last couple years, from flyers, to double force org, to superheavies. While I am not going to force anyone to play 6th edition 40k as it stands, I think its time to look forward and accept the game as it is and how it will develop in the future.
