Yesterday's blog about Broken Rules has caused a disturbance in the warp, here are your views recorded by Rembrancer Walker:
The Heldrake was fine, when first released, as you could just avoid the template by getting out of its ark of fire. Then they said it was a turret weapon that torrents from its base, and it become horrible. Rescind that FAQ and people wouldn't bat an eyelash at it really, and know one would be taking three of them in one list.
The Wave serpent issue can be addressed one of two ways I think. Either make the Shield a one use weapon, so once you decided to shoot it, that's your shield gone for the game. Or (and I prefer this option) remove it as a Dedicated Transport, and make it a purchasable transport, although I don't know the Eldar codex well enough to say which slot it would best fit in, Fast Attack?
Also the units aren't broken, until a player breaks them. I play against Heldrakes and Waveserpents quite often playing against Alasdhair, and they are obviously tough units, but he doesn't spam them into oblivion. Which makes the game more enjoyable for both parties.
Edd Quick:
uncompetitive
— adj
not able or willing to compete
Does the unit in question cause the opponent to be unable to compete?
It seems to come down to cost. Players should certainly have the choice to invest heavily in a powerful, survivable unit; they should lose out in another area of their army. However, if the price investment is low relative to what the unit can achieve then they don’t lose out. This might give them an edge over their opponent, but the difficulty is in measuring what a unit can do – depends how it is used, whether it is prioritised as a target, what the opponent has to deal with it etc etc. Ultimately, the units listed above can all potentially, (I think) be taken out in one turn by a cheaper unit of some kind. Riptide – any instant death weapons in CC, Helldrake – anything that fires at its arse, the Eldar vehicle: A unit of termagaunts with adrenal glands… So where do you price them? I don’t think they are uncompetitive; they just make the competition harder. At the end of the day, 40K is not representing a pretty little game on a pitch with spectators, drawn out lines, off-sides and fouls – it’s representing f##king war!!! You should be scared of these machines!
I have two Heldrakes, but I never field them. It dramatically reduces the amount of fun my opponent will have, and that's not really something that I want to do. I think a lot of people tend to forget that it's more fun to have an exciting game than one you're guaranteed to win.
Also, it's almost like Games Workshop writes rules for people who want to have exciting games rather than people who want to win :P Yes, you can bring three heldrakes, or spam Wave Serpents, or bring tau just for the riptide (or Skyray, no names mentioned ;) ), or you can bring a list of things that you think are fun or cool and play with them. I know who I would rather play.
Mik Calow:
Totally agree Alasdhair, a "game" is meant to be enjoyed by all its players, not the cost of the enjoyment of some of its players.
Simon Rooke:
Nice blog - Everything seems a bit tough at the moment. This January is the 5 year anniversary of my codex, so at the moment i'm happy with a competitive game. If someone fielded the above mentioned filth, I usually have to think of an Orkish tactic (Usually throw the warboss against it -or- roll 100+ dice a turn and hope!)
Dan Porter:
Broken can be a lazy shorthand for "I can't think of a way to beat you with my favourite list" as well as being something objective. I also think a number of games companies deliberately create a model/rules arms race to drive sales. Or maybe I'm just a cynical old git.
Hell turkey broken? Seeing how all chaos players field them, the guy who wrote this is F high. Wave serpents are still usable, not that popular because of other choices, but still used when the point limit is increased and you don't use allies, they start appearing, how I still see them.
Brad Moshenko:
I like a lot of the ideas that they have introduced with and since 6th but I think they are going to have to balance everything due to them.
Kenneth More Taylor:
Lol. The helldrake gets first nod as broken? What a joke. Kenneth more Taylor
Daniel Owen:
It's games workshop. Broken rules are their foundation.
Allan Begolo Wyatt:
Broken rules is for people who would rather complain than problem solve. :)
Angus Tyrrel:
One powerful rule/weapon does not a broken unit make. The heldrake is unfairly called broken in my opinion. It is a must-have in an otherwise sub-par codex. If you don't run a BaleDrake you are setting yourself up for a uphill battle. The same cannot be said for armies like Necrons, Eldar and Tau where they have access to a number of powerful units that are not auto-includes because another unit elsewhere can fill the "power void".
Ryan Duddridge:
Its not necessarily the individual unit entries that are broken. sure, a heldrake is hard to play against, and a riptide can ruin your day. it only becomes "broken" when people spam them - which is unfluffy unless you can come up with a genuine bit of background to your army as to why they rely so heavily on these pieces of kit.
Travis James Rey:
I do fine without my Drake, have done so for over a year. Long live flexible ideas! When I play against Drakes though, it's only tough if you don't plan your game preparing for it (tactics-wise).
Aaron Melnychuk-Smith:
Those are situational at best. The units listed in the above post always work and work well against everything.
Andrew Hilton-Wigg:
Broken... or abuseable?