Being a game that is best played from a competitive mindset, I can understand why people take the best stuff they can, but at the same time a stagnating meta leads to stagnating challenge. On the other hand, I think the number of OP models and the number of total garbage models is really small. There is a lot of stuff around the "pretty damn crap" bracket which could use a little sheen though.
I've made posts about things I would change in Gators (very little, without an edition change), and also a post about how I would approach changing warjacks within factions. All theoretical, naturally.
Here are 5 things, outside individual model power balance changes, I feel should be addressed going forward.
1.Tough spam
So anyone who has read any other article on this blog knows I think tough spam is a major issue in the game. In fact they are probably tired of me whining about it (1).I think it's one of the few things in this game that I dislike more than Gargossals, but where I feel Gargossals simply reduce the potential for excellent playing experiences, tough spam can and usually does create negative play experiences for both the spammer and the guy on the bottom.
The main culprits here are the Piper and the Witch Doctor. These can grant tough to ANY UNIT IN THE LIST. If that doesn't cockblock design space, I don't know what does. I think neither of them should grant tough at all. The Witch Doctor can just make something Undead (which is a REALLY good buff in itself) and the Piper can just make something fearless (being able to give Dirge and Pathfinder is already quite legit). Straight "nerfs" to both, still good models.
Secondary culprits are Terminus and Irusk2 with their giant FU auras of tough. These types of auras should be removed because they are just stupid. They're on all the time and you don't have to sacrifice anything to get them. If they were tied into a feat or similar it wouldn't be so bad, but they aren't. Remove those entirely, still good models.
Tertiary culprits are 4+ tough things like Irusk1's feat, Doc Killingsworth, Boomhowlers and so on. These aren't so bad because they exist in a vacuum - you know from now until the next edition what exactly can be affected by these things and when. Irusk1's feat lasts for one turn, Doc can only be taken in a specific list and can be sniped out with a little luck (and isn't 4+ tough himself). Boomhowlers are a bit OP but it's not just because of the 4+ tough (which, again, is a competing alternative with 2 other really good effects after initial engagement). These don't bother me as much as the primary and secondary culprits which are the equivalent to rolling your face on a keyboard in terms of game skill and strategic brilliance.
I don't mind tough granting models in the style of Kovnik Joe because he only does it for a specific unit and it is at the sacrifice of making that specific unit have "normal" damage output that turn rather than calling down half-naked, steel-clad valkyries to skewer your opponent on spikes (metaphorically speaking).
I don't mind Trolls either. They are still a bit frustrating but usually more frustrating to the Troll player than not, and their limitations as a faction (bricky and not too sneaky) don't allow them to take advantage of tough spam like other factions can. It almost feels... you know, balanced.
The Skorne Minion Task Master "UA" on the other hand is kinda dumb in that it will apply to ANY MINION UNIT EVER MADE, which is just another thing new Minion units will have to be balanced around. Unless the unit doesn't work for Skorne, but the fluffers on the PP staff will probably never let that happen. At present it's not a big deal because there are only 4 combat minion units - Gators, Slaughterhousers, Brigands and Bog Trogs. These all have low DEF stats so no drama with No Sleeping on the Job. Slaughterhousers are already tough, Brigands are overcosted, Bog Trogs should be ambushing so will be too far out and Tough on Gators isn't a big deal because they are only a 5man unit (at 2pts each). Whether Shamblers + Task Master becomes annoying/OP or not remains to be seen. In the end, the Task Master probably means Minions will never get a high DEF unit.
Basically, any ability than can grant tough without restriction and on a large scale is stupid and should be eradicated from the face of the earth.
2. Efficiency of focus when spent on warjacks relative to when spent or camped by caster
Basically, the problem with warjacks is that each point of focus is usually spent more effectively on either camping or casting spells, and therefore warjacks are less resource efficient than a competing choice after warjack points have been spent. There are two exceptions to this: CoC and PoM.
CoC gets around this problem via the focus induction mechanic. Basically, this means that the first focus spent on each warjack each turn is worth TWICE as much as a focus point spent elsewhere, because that focus point will replicate itself on another warjack. This allows you to do amazing things like running your entire battlegroup for one focus on turn 1, and is 100% based on your ability to plan ahead and activate things in the right order. This rule makes me want to high-five DC and buy him a beer or eight.
PoM gets around this problem by making warjacks mostly independent from the warcaster's focus pool. They do this by having a large range of support models that buff warjacks offensively and defensively such as Choir, Vassal and Reclaimers, as well as warjacks that pretty much run themselves like Sanctifiers and the Avatar. If a warcaster chooses to give a warjack a focus, they are getting a really high quality, high polish attack out of it. Ultimately, PoM uses Army Points as a warjack resource.
Khador, Cryx, Cygnar, Ret and Mercs don't have anything like that.
Each has a few casters with amazing battlegroup buffs , but still have a limited focus pool which is more efficiently spent camping for ARM or buffing infantry units. There are of course exceptions to this observation, like Mortenebra's all-in Rube Goldberg assassination machine or eVyros Synergy griffon spam. Or Stormwall being a god amongst titans.
Even PoM or CoC do not run all warjack lists. The lists are pretty balanced on average looking at every caster. These two factions usually run lists a bit more like Hordes lists. There is still only so many resources to go out, even in PoM and CoC, just like there are only so many beasts you can run before they all go crazy. For the most part, you're looking at 0 - 20% of non-WJ points spent on jacks in competitive lists. I would say Hordes is closer to 50% on average, with a much larger deviation depending on faction and warlock. Someone like Madrak might just take a single Dire Troll Mauler, whereas someone like Vayl puts up to 80% of her army points into beasts (the other 20% being beast support pieces).
Quick suggestions to get an idea of what I am suggesting, paraphrasing what I wrote previously:
- Khador: All jacks have innate Powerful Attack (boost attack and damage rolls for 1 focus per attack) and Mechanics grant free Pathfinder charges or free power attacks to warjacks as a special action (thus Mechanics become like a Khador Choir).
- Cryx: Warcasters can "heal" helljacks (not bonejacks, because healing arc nodes is stupid) during their activations like warlocks heal warbeasts, and all helljacks/bonejacks have Cull Souls which counts towards their focus allocation.
- Cygnar: All warjacks have a Grenadier/Stormclad-like ability that grants them a buff if they positioned a certain way from a unit type, ie. Cyclone gets boosted attack rolls when shooting at model/unit previously hit by Long Gunner models that turn.
- Retribution: Something to do with power fields, like every focus spent by the jack heals d6 from the field irrelevant of the generator system. Unspent focus on jacks could also add to ARM while the generator is online. This gives them something tanky they otherwise don't have to tarpit and hold zones.
- Mercs: Maybe just way better jack marshall options, or the equivalent of Minion Lesser Warlocks (where you get a lesser warcaster/super jack marshall and character jack combo).
In order for warjacks to become a more competitive choice in list building, each focus point spent on warjacks has to be at least as efficient as a focus point spent elsewhere, all things considered. The release of the new journeyman warcasters will probably lead to slightly more warjacks being put on the table by increasing the supply of focus on the table. That's nice I guess, but it doesn't really solve the core problem.
3. Exaggerated Khador arcnode / Morvahnna douchisms / rubberbanding
Everyone knows it's stupid but hey, it's completely legal. Why not do it? I would if I played an asshat faction with asshat models.
The main problem with this is primarily with full unit recursion, because any mechanic this powerful that is uncounterable is not really interesting games design. You reduce Morvahna's feat and Regrowth by fully wiping out a unit, the same way you deal with Maelok's Revive, or the Revenant Crew of the Atramentous (who are vastly underrated). But that is almost impossible when one model from that unit is sitting 5" behind the enemy caster, feigning distress. So I suggest this asshattery be dealt with by adding the following rules to Units:
1) Models out of formation when the current unit leader model is destroyed cannot be field promoted.
2) If no model can be field promoted while no Officer models are part of the unit, the unit is removed from play. If an Officer model leaves play and the unit does not have a Leader model, remove the unit from play.
Something like that anyway. This can represent the unit collapsing from lack of leadership and scattering to the winds or whatever, makes it that if you kill an entire unit and one guy is rubberbanding, then the unit goes pop.
The second issue is the exagerated Khador arc node. The Khador arc node is basically leaving a single model in the unit as far away from the leader model as possible while maintaining formation, so that he can be within range of those RNG 6 buff spells. This is perfectly fine in my opinion.
The exaggerated version of this is to leave a model from the unit standing next to your warcaster, way out of formation and running 0" toward its leader every turn. Any unit buff spells targetting him will affect the whole unit. This is stupid, and Privateer Press also seems to think it is stupid since they errata-ed the Bane Thrall standard bearer to not grant his buff while not in formation. Which brings up the question of why it hasn't been errata-ed yet. One would think it's not as simple as these 3 rules I made up in 10 seconds seem to indicate. Or that they in fact are totally cool with Pendrake/Bloodtracker/Croctor parties in the backfield so they can sell all the Morvahnas. Then again, it did take them a long ass time to errata the Shield Guard/Cover/LoS thing.
3) Any spells targeting friendly models not currently in formation automatically miss / Friendly models cannot be targeted by friendly spells while outside formation / something to that effect.
And now people can have a chance at killing your entire unit of Bloodtrackers before you feat them back. It's not easy, but not easy is better than impossible.
4. Spells are spells, animi are animi.
The 'spell vs animi' thing can be annoying to keep track of. It means for example that I always have to cast Spiny Growth on my warlock with my Snapper if I want MHSF to not ignore it. Is that really a decision I have to make (ie. skill), or just something annoying? At least in my lists, it is the latter.Have animi be animi, and spells be spells plox. If a warlock casts an animi, it can be cast just like a spell as it currently is, but is still an animi in effect.
There are probably some unintended consequences here that will break open the game, like Wrongeye's dual faction allegiance having some supposedly unintended consequences with Galleon.
5. Water re-examined as a terrain piece
I play Blindwater so one would think I shouldn't care, but shallow water is very negative towards warjacks to the point where I never see it on the table except for Swamp Pits and the almost entirely inconsequential Blindwater Pact templates. Therefore it is not only bad for terrain diversity, it is bad for me.Shallow water could be considered rough terrain (as present) and non-amphibious models who are knocked down or made stationary in shallow water cannot shake. That basically makes throwing beasts, warcasters and warjacks into water reasonably sweet while not completely hosing warjacks (the few that I see these days, anyway). It smooths out the effects across the board, makes water not the worst thing of all time for Warmachine, and makes amphibious more than just shitty pathfinder.
Deep water can remain as is and will continue to never see table time as it completely screws anyone and anything that is not amphibious.
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Aside from individual models and the above rules, the only thing I really dislike about the game at present are Gargossals and the way they flatten the tactical depth of the game. I don't think there is really a way around it. The main issue I have with them is their general invulnerability to the majority of game effects, with a handful of exceptions like attack damage, Black Oil and a small handful of special rules and effects (ie. Backlash, Voltaic Snare, etc.) But they are pretty balanced for what they are, just not really tactically interesting in the greater scheme of the game.
I have a 35 pt event coming up in about 2 weeks, but SR 35pts is kinda stupid after you've played a lot of 50pts so I'll probably just bring stupid lists and hope to outstupid my opponent's list. Using skill, of course. Look for the write-up of me losing my first round then.
(1) This is the best reason for it to be #1 on the list.
