Hi everyone, just wanted to share some impressions after about 25 games of 4th Edition. I’ve played mainly as Dwarves, Elves, Kingdoms of Men and Goblins and against Trident Realms, Nightstalkers, Forces of Nature, Elves and Orcs.
First the positives:
- I really enjoy 4th Edition. As a ruleset, I think it is overall superior to 3rd.
- I like many of the changes to the army lists to help differentiate units and I think the point formula has helped narrow the effectiveness/efficiency gap between units.
- I like Command Orders system overall and think it really adds to the game.
- I think the shooting changes, LOS changes, combat changes, etc. are all generally beneficial.
- I enjoy the new scenarios, all are good.
Room for improvement:
- There is a very wide gap not just in the strength of Command Orders, but in their applicability. What I mean by this is that you can end up playing a game where you have an army with very situational Command Orders and you get to use perhaps one Command Order per turn or none. At the same time, your opponent is firing off very broadly applicable and useful Command Orders every turn with every Commander. I’ve observed that for the “newer” armies with more command orders, this doesn’t always mean they are out of whack power-wise, so it’s not necessarily a balance issue (with a few exceptions), but it does feel like a fun issue. Everyone seems to pay the same Commander point tax I assume for orders, but orders seem to fall outside the formula that prices things like spells, yet some Commanders get a lot more for that tax. I’d like to see each army that wasn’t in “Invasion” get one extra Command Order that is more broadly useful, just to give eacn player the feeling that on every turn their Commanders are getting some possible mileage out of the system. For example, a “Rally!” command that on a 5+ might restore a point of damage or unwaver a unit.
- Some of the army list changes are questionable, especially in the new unlock system. Some units that seemed iconic have been removed, some of the “make this core/specialist” result in odd list incentives, in other cases units are auxiliary when it might have been better to just limit them, some previous synergies are gone without being replaced. I’m sure the books will help in terms of adding units back in, but I’d love to see some of the synergy issues get a look before then.
- The Scenarios and Maps really need another pass to account for all the deployment configurations.
- Loot tokens and Withdraw. First, why are we still allowing Loot token pickups on Turn 1 and then adding to that now Withdraw with a Loot token? Why? Do we really want a game to be pretty much decided by who wins the die roll to go first? It’s long past time to bring the Loot-style scenarios into better balance - it will improve Kings of War to make these scenarios more tactical. No token pickups until Turn 2 and no Withdraw with a Loot token. I’d also suggest that the free individual pivot should perhaps not be a thing if your individual is carrying a Loot token.
- In general, I love that everything has US and can score now. However, I do think there is an issue with “trash” or cheap Hordes now that they have the same US as more expensive or elite Hordes. If you can get a big block of Nerve for less than many Regiments cost, why not take it? This can also encourage spamming “trash” Core units. I have two suggestions here. FIrst, perhaps there should still be a separate US category for units that really are at the “trash” level for their size, which reduces their US by one. Second, perhaps there should be a requirement within your Core like the Rule of Three that says before you can take more than X of the same unit, you need to also take something else from the Core category.
- I’d suggest that Blizzard and Blood Boil could use a little points bump.
- In terms of the balance of Commands, keeping in mind what I said above, be a bit more careful about handing out too much Heal/Barkskin style stuff, especially given that it stacks up with spells so you can have a spellcaster doing each effectively twice per turn. I would suggest taking a second look at Forces of Nature and Trident Realms and ask if you really wanted them to have quite this level of on-command Heal/Barkskin? I’d also ask if it would be better to have something flavorful like Thonaar’s buffed Green Rage be a once per game thing (he gets regular Rage the rest of the time) instead of every turn?
Thanks for reading.
