The Unthinkable

My main wargame would arguably be Warmachine. I don’t get the opportunity to play it more but that’s mostly my fault. I am, at heart, a little too competitive. Because I don’t play enough, I would rate myself as upper middle.
Warmachine has suffered from several problems, few of which wreck the game itself. The two biggest problems seems to be a slight lack of balance ad a rules glut.
It was the former that bothered me. There were definitely games in Warmachine where you were playing a rock army and faced a scissor or paper army. As in, you either had little chance to fail or win. That I never cared for. You could, of course, retune and tailor your army to beat that scissor or paper but part of the game is not knowing the army you’re going to play against. That’s part of the fun.
However, it was the rules glut that Privateer Press was frustrated with. Every figure had to have kewl special abilities. And once that door is opened, you now have a problem that future releases have to be even more appealing to get players to pick up the new miniatures. In none of the new figures are appealing, then the game collapses.
So Privateer Press has redone their game. A new set of base rules and they’ve revamped all the figures, changing or discarding abilities and altering point costs. It’s a bold move. One that’s left a lot of fans rather frustrated.
The problem is, to avoid the rules glut, you have to remove some of those rules. Refining them only works so much. There were too many rules that allowed you to act on your opponent’s turn, so most of those were cut out (but strangely, not all of them). The problem with acting out of turn became who got to complete their action first. And what if my acting on your turn activate one of your special abilities that allowed you to attack or move your figure again! It became quite the nightmare.
So fine, they removed a bunch of abilities. Naturally, when I have 10 chocolate bars in a week and you take 4 of them away and say I can do just fine with 6 chocolate bars…dude…6 is not the same as 10!!! It doesn’t matter that I didn’t need the 10 chocolate bars…I had them and they were mine and I enjoyed them. Now to say that I only have 6…somehow it’s hard to get excited about just 6 chocolate bars…
Now I’m hungry…
Anyway, I’ve only given it one play in the new rules. I tried some things out as did my opponent. Things that I wouldn’t likely have taken previous to this. I busted out my favourite Warcaster (think of this as an uber wizard who’s like physical buff and can cast crazy powerful spells every round), Kreoss. And while I tried in vain to kill my opponent, the Old Witch, on my turn she did not die (on average rolls I should have killed her). Then, due to a complete fluke, she burned to death at the beginning of my opponent’s turn. I guess you take a victory where you can.
My first impression then, is that this is a great game. I was pleased that several things were toned down but that the game was still workable. People will complain endlessly that they miss ability X or that ability Y was taken from them and it’s not fair ‘I tells ya!’. But one thing that they can’t say is that the game doesn’t play well still.
But it’s still not going to be a fair game. There are still some Warcasters and combos out there that are stupidly easy to pull off. And it is a shame that Privateer Press hasn’t bother to correct those problems.
See, tournaments are a big, big thing to Privateer Press. I wouldn’t play in a tournament because there are too many douchebags in the world, but I love to hear about them.
There are four factions in the game: Khador (the Russians), Cryx (the undead), Cygnar (the ranged/lightning guys) and Menoth (the religious zealots). I know it sounds strange but it’s fun and it works.
Anyway, Khador wins the majority of the tournaments. Followed by Cryx. Then Cygnar and Menoth are probably tied for last place.
So it was with great surprise that in this massive level of change, Khador seems to gotten away with the least amount of change. In particular they had the most powerful Warcaster, Vlad. Vlad has actually managed to defeat half of another player’s army by himself. He is extremely powerful and special tactics were invented on how to defeat just him. I just wanted to see him toned down…and in some ways he was. And then they gave him a brand new ability that makes him just as awesome again. In fact, if he didn’t have that new ability, I wouldn’t feel so threatened by him.
So it makes me think, did each faction have a different editor? Did they not acknowledge the fact that Khador consistently wins more than most and Vlad is at the top of the list of victories?
This is not to say that every faction doesn’t have that Warcaster. Menoth, my faction, has the Harbinger which can protect her people from dying which can be hella frustrating for your opponent.
So they successfully fixed the rules glut. But it seems, that they failed to fix the game balance. After these changes, I can’t imagine Menoth will ever start winning tournaments again. But Cygnar might be very competitive against Cryx for 2nd place. Khador, I suspect, will be at the top still.
We were told, as players, that we are doing a field test of all the figures and rules. To see what works and what doesn’t work. If there are anything still unclear about the rules. But we were told that most likely, nothing will change. Except that they have said that if enough people report a problem or concern, they might consider a change. I’m curious as to how much weight a persons voice carries?
I know (from some personal experience) that you cannot build a perfect and balanced game. But it’s my hope that you can at least have a game where one faction or figure doesn’t roll over others. I find all too often, my opponent has a better combo than me and due to a spell, a feat (an uber spell) and a sweeping assault, I’m vanquished without so much as a “hey!”.
Warmachine has been and always will be, a game where knowing what your opponent can do is just as important as knowing what you can do. I’ve never seen a person win by beginners luck. There is just too many factors to take into account. Case in point, most games of Warmachine are won in a single sweeping round. The game ends with the death of the Warcaster, so you have to not only attack the opponent but protect your Warcaster. The moment you slip up in the later is the moment an opponent can sweep in for the win. Warmachine has a lot of crazy movement where it’s hard to see all the angles that an enemy could move in for the win, so it’s usually impossible to have complete protection from all harm.
Now there is slightly less to remember. Most units had something taken away from them and there are less out of turn instances with the game. Does this alone make it better? In many ways, yes. But people are still going to cry that you nerfed this unit and didn’t nerf that unit.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go to the Privateer Press forum and scream bloody murder over the nerfing of some of my beloved Menoth figures.