RWS500 - Feedback

[Gareth]

An event report will be compiled by the weekend.

This thread is for feedback on issues, and constructive discussion on the scenarios used, composition, and any changes to the rules set. Think about what you played in the event, what you liked, what you didn't, what you would change and what you would keep.

Seems a few people agree that Fireball was powerful, but with 10 players and 7 armies being able to (Tom never took a mage, Andy took Metal) have access to it, was it the armies chosen, that made it overpowering. What suggestions would you make?

Things like that in a fair discussion, will help the next one be better. I'm going to let you chat amongst yourselves, whilst I strip and paint some mini's for a few days.

G

[Etched Oracle]

Fireball was very powerful. Whilst I never like to see something nerded 'just because it was too powerful' ratter then outright broken, it really did have a big impact on such a small game and potentially could dishearten people from playing them in future. Or everyone will play with tooled out mages and nothing else.

Aside from that, I found it thoroughly enjoyable. I'd suggest a less complicated scenario for Round 3 as that did cause some confusion which when we're playing on such a tight time limit can be frustrating.

[jaqenhgar]

it was great fun, worked really well and managed to finish all my games so the timing seemed right.

I agree fireball was very powerful, maybe 2D3 for the winds of magic instead of 2d6 would help, then if you are lucky you could cast the more powerful version but on average 4 power dice meaning only the mid range fireball is going to get cast. This may still be too powerful though with such small model count armies?

I think Gareth and Justin suggested no signature spells.

Another option could be only allowing the lower power spells so the fireball can only be D6 S4 hits at 24".

Personally the restriction of 3 ranking units i found quite hard to fit into a high elf army, but maybe that was because I wanted to take a mage as well. What about min 2 ranking units for a bit more flexibility and that would also create larger units if people wanted?

[-=IP=-]

First of all i have got to say that i relly enjoyd that event. Great people, great armosphere and couldnt expect better organisational skill (Gareth)
Scenarios were great, very good idea in my opinion. Deadly fireball? It all depends i think. We cant forget that some armies with high T and high As or horde armies can laught at fireball. You have got to be very lucky to avoid mistacst as well. You (Gareth) can always try to get rid of magic phase but insted allow people to take magic standards, and more expensive magic items. You can cancel out one special/one rare restriction to allow people making more flexible rosters. Thats all for now.

[Agincourt]

First of all many thanks Gaz it was a great fun event and 500 points made for some really interesting battles.

Well done Sam... HE RULE!!!

Fireball, yes it's powerful - and a HE army using it won the tournament.
But the other two HE armies only finished mid table. I myself had a win a draw and a loss, so for me fireball was 'fair'.

WIth FB I destroyed 3 units archers, 1 crossbows, one light cavalry, and an attached mage. I also had 5 miscasts and was very lucky I only took one wound and killed one spearman in total! I didn't suffer too much in reply... So probably my oponents would say FB too powerful. I would say HE mages cost 100 points and need an advantage for spending those points.

Brettonia 2+ armour save +ward save knights wiped my entire army. AND he never even charged... so that was just with swords!!! Yes I destroyed his peasant archers with FB, but 2 FBs and 55 rolls to hit (and I had re-rolls) only killed two knights in total...

Scenarios. You made it hard for three things:
Anti-Magic - I thought worked well enough (I had one miscast in that game, but four miscasts when there was no problem!)
Anti-shooting - -1 at long range didn't feel harsh enough. OK you might miss, but you don't blow up, so mages and cavalry risk getting killed in other scenarios, but shooters don't. Maybe there is an electrical charge in the air and using powder has an extra misfire explode, or if you misfire you automatically explode. But certainly there needs to be a loss-based risk to shooters. Tricky for bows, maybe they break their strings in the wet, every 1 you roll is a broken string and they can't shoot anymore, etc. but it's still not a loss of points...
Anti-cavalry and movement - prob worked well enough, but cavalry cost a lot of points. I spent 4 rounds moving carefully, round five marched into attacking position, lost 1 man, round six charged and lost another, so for just moving on open terrain and losing 60 points felt a bit harsh to lose 2 of 5 cavalry.

[-=IP=-]

I would say HE mages cost 100 points and need an advantage for spending those points.

EXACTLY !

You have got to remember that mages (apart form some WoCH ones) are very fragile, havent got As. They are easy to single out in combat, they can miscast and kill themselves. People are intelligent and they have learned lesson. If You (Gareth) will leave magic as it is for the next time i can bet that people will adapt to cope with it and Fireball will be less deadly.

[jjakaalbinoboy]

Personally the restriction of 3 ranking units i found quite hard to fit into a high elf army, but maybe that was because I wanted to take a mage as well. What about min 2 ranking units for a bit more flexibility and that would also create larger units if people wanted?

I realise I didn't participate but in list creation I did also find it quite hard to fit 3 ranked units into the points limit in Warriors of Chaos (mainly due to Marks of Chaos)

[sprogmcjob]

i found that games where magic dint take place to be really intreasting the game where a mage was taken ruled the game (as justin can testify his mage and the firball was a big factor (not sole but big) in his win
short of not haveing magic or haveing larger point games (750pts) where both sides can include mages without the army being focus on one man
who knws either way garth did another great job the only disappoint i felt was that it wasnt even players so he couldnt participarte in the games

[jjakaalbinoboy]

gareth did another great job the only disappoint i felt was that it wasnt even players so he couldnt participarte in the games

Yeah, my fault, really sorry guys!

[stygmatyr]

Great event Gaz
The scenarios worked well, though the third stitched me up, stopping Chris's mage fleeing the table y 1" and fireball was very powerful.
I think the problem with fireball is its a signature spell so almost guaranteed to have, and with only one lvl 1 mage to use the power dice you can throw them all at the higher powered version. Either limiting the winds of magic or no signature spell could help, though playtestung would be the way to find out