Wednesday, November 3, 2010

True Line of Sight = Y2K

By my reckoning the True Line of Sight (TLOS) is Warhammer's equivalent of the Y2K bug.

At the introduction of 8ed we heard that moving to TLOS was going to be a cause of friction in the Fantasy community. I hated its inclusion in 5ed 40k (sufficient for me not to want to play the game) so was waiting with trepidation for the shitstorm to explode.

Fast forward four months (is it only that long?) and the noise has been deafening...ly quiet. In fifty games I have not had one disagreement over TLOS and touch wood this will continue. People just seem to get on with it and adapt. Generally I assume everything can be seen and if there is doubt I use a tape measure/pointer to determine if that is the case. There is a little known rule in the book that everything in the first two ranks of a unit can see (and by extension/implication can be seen). That's good enough for me.

There also was much gnashing of teeth that existing terrain collections couldn't cope.....well guess what? They can! It just means that your big beasty can be seen. I can live with that.

What is interesting with the "current terrain collection can't cope" crowd is that there appears to have been little traction in replacing the offending pieces. Far easier has been to impose changes in the core rules. What I generally sense is a 7ed hangover that dovetails with a general unwillingless to let go of those great skills they built up distinguishing 13.9" from 14.1" (grrrr bad Pete).

The inability to "hide" your uber unit is just another piece in the Brave New World that is 8th Ed. Perish the thought you'd have to adapt!

1 comment:

  1. I totally agree Pete, I am finding I enjoy 8th a whole heap more than i did 7th. I definitely think the scenarios are needed and that changing the core rules is a step in the wrong direction. In saying that, comp is definitely needed I think to stop the more ridiculous builds.

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