Reading the new rules over the past few days I'm of the opinion that we'll see three extreme builds being trialled in the first few months of 8th Edn.
The first is the "big infantry block" build. This will comprise one of two builds. Either taking advantage of the new "Horde" rule - the best two being Chaos Marauders with Great Weapons or Dark Elf Spearmen - or adding more bodies to elite infantry units. The key with the bigger infantry builds is that they must have a degree of offense to be successful. Work the numbers on a block of Khorne Marauders and you'll see numbers plus a high number of Str 5 attacks makes them very potent.
The second build will concentrate on the new Magic rules. It will be focused on getting off one of the new mega-spells. So we'll see cheap suicidal casters throwing 6 dice in the hope that they'll get a game changer off. Hopefully tournaments will enforce selection of lore at the time of list submission otherwise the ability to tailor is too strong.
The final "extreme" build will be the warmachine build. With the shift to percentages I think that we'll see people who can trying to max out on warmachine. Dwarfs already do but Orcs and Goblins can now run 6 cheap chukkas, 2 Doom Divers and 2 Lobbas. With the removal of partials I think that this will prove too attractive to some - so expect to see more warmachines.
So what does this mean?
In the interim you'll need to build your lists to counter/neutralise these threats. However I do think over the next 3-4 months we will see a move back to the combined arms approach as people's "8th Ed" tactics develop. The rock/scissors/paper nature of the extreme builds will see them fall by the wayside. At that point the real 8th Edn meta-game will begin.
Hi Pete,
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing more of your thoughts.
You are probably right about the 3 types, and certainly right and things going to normal once they have tried out the new options.
Though I don't think war machine/shooting heavy lists will last all that long. The increase in closing distance hurts them too much. Short of the Battle of the Pass deployment you will likely find a lot of units in combat turn 2 during 8th.
The horde formation is just going to spring up a whole new generation of Deathstars. Either units that weren't able to Deathstar before (like Dwarves) or units that could but become much more effective at it.
As too magic, for the most part I would be relatively happy for my opponent to focus on getting a single spell off as it limits the damage that their magic causes to my battle plan. Plus they will kill themselves relatively quickly doing that.
It's certainly an interesting time for the game, interesting enough that I am following in the footsteps of Brett Favre and Stacey Jones and unretiring.
Lincoln.
Cheers Lincoln....and great to hear you're "un-retiring".
ReplyDeleteWhat I think is important is that on the surface at least most armies will be more competitive than at present. Possible exception is the Tomb Kings but they are next book.
Also I think once we settle down you'll see greater variety in lists than is currently prevalent.