I was lucky enough to get a sit down and take it easy game in last night, and we decided to try out the 7th edition or revised edition rules of sideboarding and percentages. I have been anxious to try sideboarding, and had some good ideas for it right off the get go.
The rules we were using for percentages and sideboards is not by any means a complete list of all the rules. Its what we have rumored for the revised edition, and I am sure they are not a complete set of everything that we would need to know. We did want to try these out though, and of course it lead to a very interesting and close game.
I am not going to do a full batrep on this (I just dont have the time this weekend as I am packing for Valhalla, and trying to get another game tomorrow night). I want to talk specifically about sideboarding, and a little about percentages.
the rules were were using are at this link.
http://natfka.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-closer-look-at-sideboards-percentages.html
I was looking at an Eldar list from my opponents side of things. We each took 3 sideboard lists for our 2000pt game. We would of used escalation and stronghold assault as well, but I knew he was not bringing any over, so I suppose you could say we ignored those possibilities.
I was facing mostly an Eldar Waveserpent list as his primary
his 500pt sideboards
1. Commander and 2 Riptides
2. Farseer and Bikes
3. Commander and Crisis Suit Teams
I was fielding my Astra Militarum for my Primary with a Veteran Chimera force with Vendettas and aegis
my 500pt sideboards
1. Big Platoon
2. 6 Hydras
3. 4 Basilisks
The game was a lot of fun with these sideboards. We ended up playing crusade with the Eldar going first. He took his Riptides, and I choose my Platoon in response (because of the mission mostly).
What I want to talk about were some of the points that came up during the game and list construction.
Tailoring Your Lists to Mission, Terrain, and Opponent!!!
One of the cool things about the sideboards is that we were able to adjust to the mission (assuming mission and deployment are chosen before sideboards). This type of adjustment was awesome and something that a lot of people have not yet considered. This allows to you compensate sideboard sets to the mission, and be able to respond better. I have had many lists where I was hoping not to roll up a certain mission, and this helps a lot.
Terrain as well. I used to play a lot more tournaments, and there was nothing worse than getting the table that completely sucked hard on the terrain in opposition to your army. With fortifications in your sideboards (and stronghold assault), you can really make up for that, and choose whether or not you need the added or extra fortifications in your lists. Very cool! Btw I even remember a table while playing up in Olympia that before the event began I said, "if I get stuck on that table, I cant even fit my models on it to deploy." It was true, and I was lucky enough not to get stuck with that table.
Your opponent. Well we all know that most people try and set up an all comers list, rather than tailor the list to fight your opponent. In fact its often considered bad form to do so. Behind the scenes talk has revealed that the game was meant to have some of this and for most part we have just not taken to it.
I think being able to select a sideboard according to what you will be facing is excellent. It stops a lot of the oh crap, game over, when the first dice have not even been rolled. You can adjust to a Heavy Armour list, flyer spam, flying monstrous creatures, or a massive blob squad. It just all depends upon how you design your primary and sideboards.
List Makers Dream.
I like making list. I could repeat that 100 times and it still would not get the point across enough. Its just fun. Sideboards gives you options and the opportunity to really think about how you want to field your army. Your side boards could be complete opposites of each other, in an attempt to keep your opponent wildly guessing, or it could be something solid that fits right into the theme of your army. When I was making my lists for the game, I was calling sideboard 1 "cover the board", 2 "control the skies", and 3 "shock and awe" (lots of big blasts).
Percentages
This was the part of the rumor that I was most not liking. In fact while making my lists I was running into some serious issues. The first of course being that my Tank Commander list I was thinking of going with, just was not working. 25% really limits the use of Tank Commanders and means that only the cheapest of the Russ's can be used for this. I found this very limiting.
Daemons will find some of the same issues I think when it comes to fielding a flying circus, or even Eldar with a jetseer council list.
Otherwise I found the percentages not too concerning to field. Obviously the math is not that much more difficult, and if you can add up the points for your army, percentages are not a big deal.
Of course I am quite sure we don't have all the details on exactly what those percentages are yet, but it will have a serious impact on some list types and while not really effecting others. For the most part I tend to field heavy troop choices to begin with, and beyond the HQ limitations I found, it really did not change a whole lot of what I normally do on the table.
In fact in some areas it opened some new doors. Cheap Troops with Transports. Always a favorite of mine over the years. Lots of tanks. Up to 75% troops opens a lot of doors in regards to how much I can field troop wise. I am assuming that there is no double force org at 2000pts anymore.....
Grey Knights with their cheap inquisition forces in Razorbacks. I knew there was a reason I had 10 Razorbacks, and can field them all for under a 1000pts. Cheap troops can very easily become an overwhelming force without an Foc.
Of course we do not have the rules yet, but these are topics that came up during the game and afterwards.
Conclusions
Over all I like these changes, I am hoping that these are very close to what we are going to be seeing. I think these rules would be a major move to game balance that the game needs especially when it comes to stronghold assault and escalation. These add a huge tool to playing the game, and I believe is a response to the community at large.
While I did find some disconcerting issues with percentages, I think there is a good chance that this will be a very positive move for the game.
In regards to the game, it was very close, but I was able to grab more of the objectives than my opponent in the 6 rounds we played.