So I spent the majority of today playing in a Warhammer 40K tournament up at Castle House Games. It was a 'Ard Boyz practice tournament. What that means is that there is an official tournament in May, called 'Ard Boyz, and it is a qualifier for bigger and grander tournaments in Vegas later in the year. The format for 'Ard Boyz includes somewhat large than normal armies and lots of really corny/cheesy lists that you would never field normally because they are just stupid good/bad. Today was a practice event to get used to the army size and the tournament style. It was still an official tournament for Castle House as well; so prizes and such were to be had.
I of course fielded pretty much everything I own. When you don't have a ton of stuff to work with you can't really play around with the options that much. But I tossed down a list that had a whole bunch of Blood Angels Space Marines with jump packs and mean tempers. :-p And I ended up doing okay. Middle of the rankings I think. And I won the "Favorite Army" award, which got me a $25 gift certificate (just as good as winning 2nd place I think LOL). So it was a good day overall.
But on the downside of the experience, man GW's games are so....annoying! I've just started to get used to how things happen and then today I encountered so many things that just TOTALLY broke the rules and defied what I thought was possible in the game. And its not like I'm lacking in experience in playing and therefore just haven't seen enough. In my opinion its an issue with the game and the business model it is run on.
Here are the two main issues I have with the game, issues that both came up today.
1. The obsession with mechanized forces (i.e. Vehicles). Vehicles seem to be the be all and end all of every dang army. If you don't take vehicles, you're doing it wrong. If you want to make your army feel more thematic and cool; like for instance have all of them wearing jump packs and leaping across the battlefield to slay their foes; TOO BAD! That option doesn't included vehicles so therefore the rules severely gimp it. Do you want to fulfill the mental image in your head of huge, powerful space marines controlling the battlefield with the power of their armored suits and nothing more? TOO BAD! It's really annoying not to be able to effectively field the army I want the way I want.
2. I played an army today that was just insane. They are called Necrons. It wasn't really the base rules of the army that were bad; but man there were some crazy special characters and special rules that just made them feel way too overpowered. The explanation my opponent gave when I pointed this out, "Oh ya this codex came out back in like '92, its like from 2 Editions ago" That is HORRIBLE!! The business model that GW is following is leaving some forces in play that are no longer balanced and designed for the way the new base rules work; and its really annoying! Is is REALLY so hard to get out all new books for the existing armies each time you release a new edition? You don't even have to change that much, just update and re-balance stuff. *SIGH*
Anyways, despite my whining I had a good time, I still mostly enjoy the game, and I'm looking forward to trying out some new army ideas I came up with today.
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