I have not gotten much done this past week as I was really busy in the store handling customer issues and getting our D&D World premier day coupled with a 30,000 point Apocalypse style game. A customer for a very long time was also back for his week of spring break from West Point to spend time with his family and to get in a few games at the store.
The reason I am writing all of this? What does this have to do with my bitz box? Well, since you asked. I am writing about my apocalypse game that we played on Saturday. We had an odd number and I had to participate to keep things even. I chose to bring my Mentor Legion drop army coupled with a Baneblade tank I have in our display case. I don't particularly care to play Apocalypse games right now. Don't get me wrong I think the games are fun to play, and the game got in 6 turns in 6 1/2 hours (which is a good pace for 10 players). But rather I was just filling in a spot and ended up lending a hand where I could, but I really didn't feel invested in the game. I also got frustrated with a Eldar Scorpion Super Heavy Tank with it's crappy 'D' strength weapon which seemed to pick on me throughout the entire game. It had bothered me so much that I threatened to ban D strength weapons from the next game (by downgrading them to a Str 10, AP 1.) Needless to say I enjoyed the company of my fellow gamers, but for the most part I didn't enjoy the game.When asked about my lack of apocalypse enjoyment I had ultimately concluded that I didn't enjoy myself because I did not have, what I would consider, an army made for an apocalypse game. All of my armies that I build are made for tournaments. Tournaments are not apocalypse. Let me say that again, Tournaments are not apocalypse and therefor need a different mindset to be able to enjoy them. I used to have a lot of Imperial tanks and could participate more actively the larger games, but I am seriously behind on the curve at this point. I had also gotten frustrated at the guy with the Eldar Super Heavy Tank. I had felt that I was particularly his chew toy with that damnable D strength Pit Bull. But upon closer observation I had mostly gotten frustrated with the fact that I did not have something to threaten his tank, and therefor felt it could run ram-shod over my guys. My Baneblade did not have the opportunity to do anything of consequence in the game and was dead by turn three. My anger at his tank surviving the game until the last round of hand to hand combat really could stem back to the playbox. He had a cool toy and I wanted one too. (really stupid when you put it in those terms, but accurate).
Fact of the matter is, the guy with the Eldar SH tank paid a lot of money to buy that tank, It was painted by me as a wedding present and he has as much right to enjoy his toy and play with it in the only style of game where it is allowed. I was being a sourpuss and threatened to ruin his fun as well. Now for the record, I will not be banning 'D' strength weapons in our club's future apocalypse games, as I had threatened to do so when I had a hot head. Instead I will be set on my own plans to begin adding to my armies so that I too can have cool toys that will be the envy of every adult kid at our Apoc games. I need to make a mess of stuff, and with an already busy schedule, it will be daunting. But I really want to get my hydra flak guns up and built (fortunately I have Ork trukk chassis on the way!). I will be building a super Zepplin with will be used as either a Reaver Titan, or a Leviathan Command HQ, Or perhaps a Capital Imperialis?
So this weekend I did enjoy the Apoc game more than I had thought at first notion. Yes, I didn't bring the right stuff to feel competitive on a field where you remove guys 30 at a time. But, I resolved to begin adding units to my Vostroyan IG and my Mentor Legion Space Marines so that they will not only be competitive in small games, but can give as good as they get in the lager fields of battle. And although my guys got slaughtered but good, they did manage to hold one objective and they did manage to kill a lot of Tau stuff.
Hey Apoc games can be fun and they can be played in a reasonable amount of time if your club can keep a strict use of the time. It gives everyone a chance to play with forces that they normally couldn't in formations that would not fit on a normal sized board. They also let us play with much bigger toys, and that is really the heart of it, isn't it? So i resolved to add more forces, and to remember everyone comes to have a good time and overall that is what we all got.
The next time we have an apocalypse game I hope to have a better force and a better attitude about these monster games.
I don't mean to tell you how to play, but if you're looking to have fun while letting everyone else enjoy themselves, adding a reaver titan to your force isn't exactly going to accomplish that. Reaver titans are by far, the most underpriced apocalypse unit that is feasable to use in a game. And judging by the force I saw on your table, no one has the ability to really counter it. An arms race that reaches a reaver is one thing, but jumping to it because of a single shot D weapon is not exactly steady progression. Let me suggest a warhound with two TL-turbo lasers first. As an example, a reaver can one turn kill a warhound - so it's not exactly cool for the otherguy who spent good money on his nifty toy.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, no offence meant, just 2 cents.
Rich, I ran into the same problem when I played against that Scorpion tank (Eldar Super Heavy). My Baneblade was targetted all game until i was able to knock out that Destroyer Cannon.
ReplyDeleteI like Apoc games, but I think that the Destroyer weapons is too obscene. I would rather see it a STR 10 weapon, or possibly even a STR-11 weapon. That way at least Armor 14 still has a slight chance to hold up to it, and also you still have to roll to wound on say, anything Toughness 5 or more.
I also don't like that Destroyer weapons ignore any cover saves. I'd like to see that curtailed a little bit.
Seeing a titan scale zep would be really cool!
ReplyDeleteThe Zeppelin is already in the planning stages after my current projects. I am not sure if the titan is the way to go, but there was a lot of anti-tank on the other side of the table. (just the way the team-ups went). The notion of a titan for my Zeppelin is not as necessary as something that will look really cool first, then find something that will be a reasonable match.
ReplyDeleteYou could always do a giant mechanical spider like out of the Wild Wild West movie... It would certainly be an interesting model on the table.
ReplyDeleteWe've had similar issues with our Apocalypse games (www.apoc-eclipse.com). We've made a few house rules that help a lot.
ReplyDelete1) Reduce the size of all D-strength templates by one size. 10" becomes 7", 5" becomes 3", 3" becomes 2" and so on. It makes those weapons most powerful against large tough things instead of lots of infantry.
2) Allow infantry in 4+ cover or better to Go To Ground and get a 6+ cover save against D-strength weapons. It's not much, but at least someone will survive the hit and might be able to claim an objective.
We have several people who attend our unlimited-point games who never plan on buying anything Apocalypse-only because it just isn't their style. We want to make sure that they have as much fun as everyone else.
Cheers!