Another codex is out, and marching on to the next. Again the cries of bland come. Eh, not really bothering me. The dark eldar, like the other 7th codexs is a mix of goodish. Its not bad, its not great. Its has strong parts of it, it def has weaknesses. There are some odd decisions. But you know what there isn't? A super death machine.
And some people want that, but sadly this is not where 7th is going. Honestly, if we dropped eldar from the list of armies, the rest can compete and have solid chances of doing well, each having hard counters and being able to counter others, but none having a top, I win every day army. Are the new books great? Not really, but whats happening is important. Its a rebalancing of the game, in a painful but necessary way.
I have to ask a question. How many new deathstars are there? The answer, there really isn't. Yeah thunderwolves add some flavor to bikestars, but effectively little difference, and really not something that is just rocking it either. Its there, but nothing like a true deathstar. Even the eldar one has taken a hit. Will it go, I don't know, I want to say yes though. With the psychic phase, loss of baron and gruesome trophies changing too, a few other minor shifts, its not as strong as it was a few months ago. And where are the others? Bike star is there, but it was never the strongest. Its tough, but not invincible tough.
So while we have gotten "bland", its what happens when you forget the cheese. I hope it continues. Till eldar gets redone though, the elephant in the room remains. The psychic star is a shadow of its former self, and I don't see it lasting or hanging as it did. But eldar don't need it. The god damn wave serpent is enough to upset the game, just one unit. Only the Knight can argue to come close to meta affecting power. And even then, the Knight is far more balanced in comparison to what you pay for and get.
You have to ask a question of what you want to see in 40k armies. Power is great, but too much blows it out of the water. We have been down this road. Thankfully the path has turned. Is it a joy filled path of bubble gum and rainbows? Not really, its a bit dreary sometimes, but the beatings have stopped, (except from that fairy looking asshole), and there may be a field coming up.
The problem is that nothing has come out the brings down eldar, and people want eldar to go down. I think this is part of why people are upset. Sure we want a "good" codex, but really I think a lot want something to come that can just stomp eldar. And it hasn't come. Thankfully it probably won't. Waiting through till we have gotten through the 7th redo's, we may come out to a balanced game (relatively), that lacks the super powers of 6th. If that is bland, I'm ok being a little bland then.
GG
I think people are just too used to the old GW trends where power was maintained by putting out a stronger, or equally strong, codex with each army. You're right, the trend has shifted and instead they are mellowing things out for balance; a far smarter move. However, we don't get all armies updated at once and so we have these odd stretches where an army or two is dominant until they are also updated. There's no helping it and if people would just understand what GW is doing then they might (might), bitch a bit less.
ReplyDeleteI disagree, they will always bitch and moan, cos they will always find something to moan about. I've got my issues with GW and the rules, but overall I have nothing to complain about.
DeleteEvery so often there needs to be a reset, otherwise we'd end up with a codex with hundreds of units and thousands of characters. Elder and Tau are over powered for the moment, but as Thor said, there is always an army that's on top. Although you can guarantee that the same people who are bitching about how powerful Eldar is now will be the ones bitching about how badly nerfed they are with the next codex. Personally, I think that GW are doing a good job of streamlining and simplifying the codex's and giving each army a distinct flavour.
The internet clamors for change, and simultaneously hates it with a passion. I'm really loving 7th, and all the new codexes. They are amazing in actual play. Tournament players have seen more variety and less cookie cutter lists then ever before. It's a wonderful time to be playing 40k. It will only get better as all the codexes are brought into line with the new line of thinking.
DeleteIt always amazes me the fickle nature of those that play (claim) 40k. They want faster updates, oh wait now its too much. They want armies to be balanced, now its bland. New armies based on fluff, oh wait not that one I wanted the other one.
DeleteThe trends do seem to point to more diversity, which is great. There are a lot of different army lists out there right now.
Agreed, I think they've come to the realization that continual escalation is unsustainable over the long run. I do hope that the inevitable nerf batting of the Wave Serpent comes sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what it's like in the states but there are definatly some counters to the wave serpant, drop pod marines and bikes come to mind, centurians or legion of the damned with 2 meltas and a multi melta, necrons full stop. Or my personal favourite a stormtrooper command squad and 2 5 man melta squads. I've never played the seer council but the serpant is definatly my go to. The guard are defiantly near the top twit in my group, with the steel host most players can't handle the shear amount of av 14 or half dozen chimeras and taurox's running around grabing objectives. I agree with the blandness and miss the fun or morbo but the sheer amount of characters was starting to get silly with all the combos especially if you haven't a clue what your oppositions guys do
ReplyDeleteOh there are, but they are just so good for what you pay. And they completely cover the whole fragile but powerful aspect of the Eldar by having one of the toughest vehicles in the game mixed with amazing shooting and mobility. I would simply settle for a serpent shield nerf, they can keep the rest, but that shield needs to be beaten to death.
DeleteI'm enjoying it. A necessary reset.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see a reworking of terminators and walkers to make them viable.
The dream must be that every unit in every codex can be used competitively. Although that may be impossible, at least the gap is closing.
I'd love it if every unit was competitive, but I'll settle for all just being good/ok, if not equal with the rest of the units.
DeleteI really don't like the Tau getting even more Battle suits yes I know it's there thing but give it a brake just for a bit.
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm with you, the firewarriors used to be the core of their army with kroot being good auxileries. Now they are forgotten on the side for the other things.
DeleteIf the serpant shield was 4+ and 1 shot I would call that fair
ReplyDeleteI think shots wise, D6 is fine, but the range should be a lot shorter, like 12 or 18 inches, it's a shield not a heavy weapon after all. Gives you a choice, keep the shield or chance using it and take out the unit that's going to shoot/assault next turn.
DeleteBut I suppose this is the issue, everyone has different ideas about what is the best solution.
Its the range, high strength, and ignores cover that creates the trifecta of awesome that it is. I think 2 them need a hit, the range needs to be reduced heavily, and drop the S to 5 so it can still hurt weak vehicles but isn't such a monster. Ignores cover is fine as it conceptually makes sense. Its mainly the huge range it has that makes it so good. If it was D3 + 1 or 2 shots that would be fine too, but I'd be ok with it as is if it took some hits elsewhere.
DeleteAs you said, everyone has their own idea
Or go the old way, make it a one-use. Yes, you can have all that high-strength ignore cover shooting, but only once per game and then you're sitting out in the open, with no 2+ glance in case you need it. Then it won't be the standard go-to auto-include weapon, it becomes a last resort.
DeleteAs for blandness, the new AM codex is definitely more boring to play. Yes, Marbo was too good, but that doesn't mean they have to remove all methods to gain flexibility by outflank/infiltrate/scout. I've tried playing AM without allies, but unless you go for lots of tanks it's most effective to just sit back, shoot, and wait for things to end. But hey, there's a thing with more variety, it's called 30k. I am Alpharius...
The new book is certainly not as diverse as before, but there are many different ways to play it and still be successful.
DeleteI agree, you can be very successful with the new book. Both footsloggers and tank armies got better, the access to Ignore Cover counters Jink overkill very well, so I haven't had that much problem with Eldar lately.
DeleteBut the playstyle is now very straight-forward (literally), that's not my style, I prefer dynamic units to create pressure, instead of sitting back while applying overwhelming firepower. Most games I added RavenGuard (40k) or Alpha Legion (30k) to gain some scout, and mostly the standard guard units stay back with heavy weapons until everything was over, anything else was diminishing their effectiveness.
I am with you here, I was a little upset that the new IG book lost most of it's outflank abilities. Creed's change and Al'rahem's removal was a hit to my tactics.
DeleteBut I can't complain, the book is very well balanced. Yes there are some units that aren't as good (i.e. riders, ogryns and harker), but most of the other units are very usable. And also salamander squadron is nice for outflank, if you use Imperial armour..
Well said. If this is what people call bland, I'm all for it. Personally, I find it boring knowing that every army will include X, Y, or Z because they blow everything else out of the water. Better balance across the books and (mostly) within them means we have a greater variety of competitive builds to work with. Fluff bunnies can actually bring a list that competes and power gamers have that many more options to tweak with. Everybody wins!
ReplyDelete