It seems my last post was on 20 October 2015, just over 5 months ago. According to Iron Grudge (great little app), the last game of Warmachine I played was on 22 October 2015 using Calaban and a proxied Blindwalker against Shae and a Galleon. I remember I won the game convincingly, even considering the extra unit of Swamp Shamblers I'd placed on the table...
What I do remember however is how much of a negative play experience this game was. It was maybe my 3rd proxy game with the Blindwalker and my first game with Calaban in a long time. I wrote up a large, very negative article about the Blindwalker following this game, as well as a "Calaban 2.0 - Post Blindwalker" article.
However I can't bring myself to post them. I don't know whether it's because I don't want to be crushingly negative without some follow-up in terms of constructive or positive thought, or because I just don't really care about Warmahordes Mk2 anymore.
The Mist Weaver spoilers made it quite clear to me that I am not going to be playing Warmachine again until at least Mk3 (with one notable exception).
There are a lot of deep systemic and meta issues in both the game and Privateer's game development/growth model that has finally reached a boiling point for me after seething for so many years, as anyone who has read this blog can attest. While I think rage and whining are part of the lifeblood of competitive gaming, there is cause to pause for thought when passion turns to apathy.
Coming back to the Mist Weaver, ignoring the fact that it is a very weak Minion model outside Gators (the ever-present Minion power problem), it has also put the nail in the coffin of Gator design and given me late-Mk1 Skorne flashbacks, when Skorne went from slowest grind/denial faction with no pathfinder and limited ranged power to fastest faction with great assassination tools and pathfinder everywhere in the space of a single book.
I started Gators when power attacks were necessary, when they had basically no guns and made up for it with some anti-ranged tech. Now you have almost no power attacks, and you have a gunline to rival Legion/Cygnar as a legit list build featuring arguably the best ranged unit in the game and arguably the best battle engine in the game, all backed by a bevvy of Eyeless Sight/Magical shooting. I loved the Sacral Vault as a game piece, but with the Croaks and now this Mist Weaver (plus that useless medium based Bog Trog guy), we're too far gone. This approach to PvP games design is not for me.
There remains little flavour (thematic or strategic) in the game's design - just skews and SKUs, and a game which has meant so much to me over the last 10 years running on auto pilot.
See you on the pitch.
