Redbeard wrote:I played my first 7th games over the weekend. I really did not like the Maelstrom of War effect on the game.
It took any concept of mutli-turn strategy out of the game. Instead of thinking ahead where men needed to be, the only real approach was to take highly mobile units that could be anywhere they needed to be on a moment's notice.
I had a unit of eldar jetbikes, and my opponent did not. I won something like 16-6.
This was not really reflective of how the game was going. Instead, I just had a unit that could hop from one place to another quickly, allowing me to cycle through cards much faster than my opponent. Realistically, our game was decided on turn 2, at which point I had seen and scored five cards to his 2. His remaining cards were all either objectives well across a hammer&anvil deployment, or things that were unlikely (declare a challenge, when neither of us were fielding particularly assaulty lists),and he could only discard one/turn.
Meanwhile, I was consistently able to score 2-3 a turn, thanks to the mobility my bikes provided, and he couldn't even plan in advance to contest where they'd go, because I didn't draw new ones until the beginning of my turn. It was more like solitaire than a wargame. At the beginning of my turn, I'd see where I needed to move my unit, move it, and score points, all without interaction from my opponent.
We discussed this after the game, and came up with some ideas to make these more fun and interactive.
1) You may immediately discard and replace any card that is impossible to achieve. (Destroy a fortification if your opponent did not bring one). Not ones that are hard, or unlikely, but truly impossible.
2) All mission objective cards are to remain hidden until scored. Because bluffing is fun, and you shouldn't know what your enemy's plans are ahead of time.
3) You can choose to keep or replace an objective when you score it. Because while requirements in war may change, your commander is not so schizophrenic as to require you to advance 20 yards, and then turn around and retreat 20 yards.
4) For all 'Secure Objective X' cards, replace with the following:
"Reveal this card when one of your units gains control of Objective X. Score 1 Victory Point if you control Objective X at the beginning of your turn. Score 1 Victory Point if you control Objective X at the end of the game."
This makes the process far more interactive, as now scoring a point isn't simply a matter of putting a fast unit there, you have to work to ensure that the unit can remain there, and your opponent has an opportunity to prevent you earning the point.