The LAF Games Workshop Discussion Thread

[Andrew May]

rump of enthusiasts

 

[TWD]

Not all rumps of enthusiasts are enthusiasts of rump
 

[Belligerentparrot]

I always tell people...Games Workshop has never written a brilliant rule set.  They've made a lot of fun ones, but no one has ever read a rule set from GW and thought "this is technically brilliant!".  Never, ever.

I actually think 2nd ed. Space Marine is a brilliant ruleset: the orders system, the importance of breaking units and capturing terrain rather than wiping out the enemy, the balance between fire-power and close combat, the army cards, the simple yet effective dice mechanics.... it is the only GW game I have played consistently since the early 90s.
_{Lets not mention the abomination that was Titan Legions}

[Sir_Theo]

And I've recently acquired a copy of Man O'War (still in transit), of which I hear nothing but good things...

Excellent purchase. Man O war is a brilliant game

[Chico]

The trouble with Warmaster is/was (I still play it now maybe once or twice a year) is that you can and do quite often see more than half your army sit there doing nothing as they fail order after order.

As a Greenskin Warmaster player I have 2 main choices, go with Crown of Command on my General and risk failing a a test (If you fail a test with your General your turn ends, no other Hero can order) or rely on a low Leadership Hero to maybe get 1 or 2 orders in before failing and hopefully it doesn't mess up when it's needed most.

More than once I failed the first order with the General and by effect lost a whole turn.

Honestly if I didn't already have a force I wouldn't buy into it now adays.

[Hupp n at em]

The trouble with Warmaster is/was (I still play it now maybe once or twice a year) is that you can and do quite often see more than half your army sit there doing nothing as they fail order after order.

As a Greenskin Warmaster player I have 2 main choices, go with Crown of Command on my General and risk failing a a test (If you fail a test with your General your turn ends, no other Hero can order) or rely on a low Leadership Hero to maybe get 1 or 2 orders in before failing and hopefully it doesn't mess up when it's needed most.

More than once I failed the first order with the General and by effect lost a whole turn.

Honestly if I didn't already have a force I wouldn't buy into it now adays.

Whether that's a feature or a bug is entirely dependent on your perspective... do you want your fantasy army to behave like historical armies of the middle ages/antiquity did, where command and control was difficult and orders being spread by runners or horns or whatnot could be confused or delayed?  Or do you want a more chess-like, gamey (not using that as a negative) system with predictable moves?  With it being such a core mechanic of the game, I'd argue that the ruleset itself skews toward the "simulation" approach vs the chess one.  It could probably have been done better by not relying on the d6 to determine that though...but that limited range of random results distribution is a well documented result of using d6's, and I think has led to the greater use of more-sided dice like d10's and 12's in recent rulesets.

[Hobgoblin]

In that regard, does anyone have any opinions on this? (Strengths and weaknesses of Warmaster and Mayhem: I've played only the latter, but am interested to know how it compares to Warmaster).

[Chico]

Whether that's a feature or a bug is entirely dependent on your perspective... do you want your fantasy army to behave like historical armies of the middle ages/antiquity did, where command and control was difficult and orders being spread by runners or horns or whatnot could be confused or delayed?  Or do you want a more chess-like, gamey (not using that as a negative) system with predictable moves?

It's a good point, myself I want a game where all my expensive little lovingly/time consuming painted toys do something in a game (Even of that's something small like moving, being a threat or just fodder). Sadly 90% of my gaming time is at a local Club where I have to spend money both to travel there and for the night itself so the idea of paying twice (for the figures then to use them) for the Army to go ''Nope, I'll just sit here all day'' isn't all that thrilling.

It's a fine balance between having a predictable Rule system and a random one, for example my favour rules sets atm are Bolt Action and Gates of Antares were there is a high randomness factor but not too random and ways to limit and control it for Army choices.

Also fun fact I was staff at GW Watford a few months/half a year (Might even be longer after, year or so :/ ) after Warmaster came out, I hated running intro games of it as it was so out of the norm for a GW gameset that there were many cries of rage and confusion hehe.

[beefcake]

I'm also a big fan of 3rd edition Blood Bowl. I've been recollecting (not remembering but actually collecting... again) teams recently. I got a skaven team, boxed set (not the box) plus Hakflem and headsplitter for about 35 pounds. So glad I got them as I used to play a skaven team but sold it off. Also managed to get a large human team and undead team plus wood elves. All I really want now is a goblin only team. they are so much fun with the secret weapons they have. I'm trying to get my son into laying it too. I think I'll let him get a hand on my Heresy miniatures Ogre team (4th ed?). That should give him some big bashing potential.

[weismonsters]

Space marine 2nd ed and original space hulk were nice games.

Advanced space Crusade, not so much...

[stone-cold-lead]

That time of year again!

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Space-Hulk-2016

[nic-e]

That time of year again!

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Space-Hulk-2016

Huh....Now it's very tempting to treat myself as a post degree reward.

[Dr Mathias]

That time of year again!

 

[Gibby]

Huh....Now it's very tempting to treat myself as a post degree reward.

Do it!

[weismonsters]

I just assembled one of the new Lord of Change miniatures. It is huge - same size as the Heresy Netherlord which is also ssat on my worktop, and  absolutely towering over my other Lord of Change. An impressive beast.