Sorry GW, but I don't want my Apocalypse Gamers Edition.
Now I'm sure some of you have all ready started screaming at your laptops; "Why did you order it then? Can I have yours? Why are you making such a fuss, just buy the regular edition!"
So maybe I should amend my previous statement;
Please, please GW, do not deliver my Apocalypse Gamers Edition on the day of launch. I think it is pretty unlikely that would happen anyway, but let me explain my reasoning.
I am probably one of the few people in the gaming community that doesn't want to get their hand on this new tome as soon as the stores open. I can't wait to read it, I can't wait to find out how rules for some of the scariest pieces of equipment in the 41st Millennium can be brought to the battlefield under 6th Edition, I can't wait to see huge 4 page fold-out spread of lavishly painted miniatures arranged as an epic charge or a doomed last stand... I also won't be at home to collect my delivery if it arrives. Something tells me the huge double-large case won't fit through the letter box. I'm also reasonably confident my neighbours don't really want a huge box cluttering up their house for half a day.
See, I am all ready going to be playing an Apocalypse game this Saturday; one last huzzah for the Old girl before we send her off. As an epic finale to the campaign I have been running with the Leicester Sabres, players will be battling it out over the desolate forge world closest to the sun of the Gaios system in a desperate attempt to control the immeasurably powerful, warp-infused contraption beating at it's very core. A machine that could... well, in case any of my players are reading this, I can't say. Suffice to say that it had the power to create an impenetrable cloud that engulfed the entire system and attracted the attention of all the major players in our favourite dystopian future galaxy.
Now, aside from the fluff of this particular game, I wanted to talk a little about how I have been playing Apocalypse over the last few years, what I'll be doing differently, and... well, I won't go in to rumours. Chances are if you've found this blog, you will all ready be following several others that can go in to much greater detail than I, so I won't waste your time.
Back in the murky annals of time, 4th Edition 40k got a great supplement called Apocalypse. Finally, the rules were broken down and you could use every single model in your collection. Additional things were added to help turn huge masses of models into things that could still be dealt with in a reasonable time-frame. Super-heavy vehicles could launch ballistic weapons that could take out whole platoons, rather than just squads. Mobs of Monstrous Creatures could romp across the table, smashing aside whole companies of heavily armoured vehicles. It was a great time to play. Very few people had more than a few thousand points of models, maybe the odd Forge World kit. If you wanted a really big game, you would have to band together with your friends, split in to teams and clear out whole rooms. The first few months of Apocalypse, I player loads of 40k. Not just to get a handle on the new expansion, but because it got me really excited. I was assembling my Leman Russ Armoured Company like a production line and revelling in finally being able to field all of my Vindicators and Predators in the same game. Everyone was playing for fun because we didn't really know what combinations were especially effective (there were just too many to work it out!)
Fast forward 6 years (has it really only been that short a time?), Apocalypse got confused as 5th edition and new codices came and went. Some formations became obsolete, a few became utterly broken. Even an expansion to the expansion in the form of Reload and many Imperial Armour books couldn't reignite the fun in the game. 6th Ed only made the issues more contentious; the result being I think I have only seen or heard of one or two Apocalypse games being played in the last year, outside of The Big Game in LA and a few in-store events at GW, which are really just large, multi-player games rather than really being Apocalypse. People were trying to play it competitively, which doesn't really make sense in a system designed to not have rules on how you can make your army up. More and more I saw game organisers restricting what could and could not be used, or nerfing just how powerful certain weapons were by reducing their Strength or the size of their blast. Even for my game this weekend, I have a limit on bringing Super-heavy vehicles and gargantuan creatures based on how many points the players are including for other stuff. I also have a limit on what they can bring from armies other than from the codex they have been using throughout the campaign, but that is more based on fluff aspects of the campaign than a fault in Apocalypse.
So that is how Apocalypse has changed in my eyes. There have been some amazing kits come out to support it, particularly from Forge World, which I am sure wouldn't have gotten the green light 7+ years ago. At least, not in such numbers. But to me, it has lost a lot of the excitement that the big games had when they first came out. So what would/have I changed for my game tomorrow?
Well, I have all ready mentioned I have put a limit on Superheavy vehicles. I think I actually set the bar a little low (with a maximum of 500 points of Superheavy per full 2k they spend on other stuff), particularly based on what my players have been asking that they could take. There wasn't anything overly extravagant really, but I must have miscalculated the amount of points they would likely end up with when I set out the campaign. On top of that, I am putting strict limits on the Strategic Assets. With up to 6 players on a side if everyone turns up, not to mention formations, it would be quite possible for the game to get bogged down or game-changing assets forgotten. Instead, each of the three teams will get one at random from a selection of sealed envelopes I have all ready prepared, entrusting it's use to a single player. If players choose formations that come with assets, those assets only apply to the units in that formation (so if it came with Flank March, only that formation will be surprising their opponents, careful planning would only let that one formation turn up on turn 1. You get the idea.)
To hopefully help stop the game becoming a full on clusterfuck, if you'll excuse the language, that barely seems to move, I have created a way for any unit to get around the board(s) quickly. There's just no guarantee they will actually end up where they intended. Again, I can't give out too many details until Saturday, less any of my players gain unfair advantage. I have also changed the win conditions for the game. Quite simply, there isn't any. Now, I have to admit for a more normal Apocalypse game, that would be deeply unsatisfying as a player. Being linked in to the campaign though, it makes sense; the actions through-out the game will change the overall outcome of the campaign, so the actual battle results matter very little. I may have even made it so that all of the players can conceivably lose. Not that any of them could, but that all of them would. In fact, that is reasonably likely.
Obviously, that doesn't really address the issue in normal Apocalypse games. Just having two massive armies wailing on each other until the last turn is never that much fun, especially if one side gets first turn and decimates the other with a lot of Strength D weapons. With a limit on the Superheavies, that issue goes away to some extent, but one of the ways of playing I have found most enjoyable is counting the Objectives scored at the end of every player turn. The side that goes first is less disadvantaged in the final grab after they have had their last opportunities to move. Scoring units, often overlooked when selecting the army over bigger guns, become vital parts of the game through out. Out manoeuvring your opponent and blocking their advances becoming tactical and intriguing, although this can make Flank March a must have, regardless of which army you are using. I also think that only Troops, and maybe Elites and/or HQ choices, should be scoring in Apocalypse. If not normal vehicles, Superheavies should definitely be denial units, and the same for Gargantuan Creatures. Speaking of whom, I would make them easier to hurt. Point for point, they are far more dangerous than Superheavy vehicles. That was true even before hull points meant a lot of units can actually glance many Superheavy vehicles to death in one or two rounds of shooting. Even if it was something as simple as reducing the number of weapons they can fire if they are taken below half wounds, or a simple +1 to your 'To Hit' rolls because they are, quite literally, the size of the broad side of a barn. They will still be near-unstoppable leviathans of death, but could be dealt with by units that aren't purely set-up to deal with them exclusively.
Well, before I start to sound too much like a whining, wish-listing newbie, I'll sign off for now. Once again I have managed to skilfully avoided finishing writing my review of Blog Wars without you notic... oh bugger. Hope you enjoyed that any way. What would you do differently in Apocalypse? What are you looking forward to in the new edition? Anyone fancy facing off against my Imperator Titan once I've gotten round to finishing her?
Matt
Now I'm sure some of you have all ready started screaming at your laptops; "Why did you order it then? Can I have yours? Why are you making such a fuss, just buy the regular edition!"
So maybe I should amend my previous statement;
Please, please GW, do not deliver my Apocalypse Gamers Edition on the day of launch. I think it is pretty unlikely that would happen anyway, but let me explain my reasoning.
I am probably one of the few people in the gaming community that doesn't want to get their hand on this new tome as soon as the stores open. I can't wait to read it, I can't wait to find out how rules for some of the scariest pieces of equipment in the 41st Millennium can be brought to the battlefield under 6th Edition, I can't wait to see huge 4 page fold-out spread of lavishly painted miniatures arranged as an epic charge or a doomed last stand... I also won't be at home to collect my delivery if it arrives. Something tells me the huge double-large case won't fit through the letter box. I'm also reasonably confident my neighbours don't really want a huge box cluttering up their house for half a day.
See, I am all ready going to be playing an Apocalypse game this Saturday; one last huzzah for the Old girl before we send her off. As an epic finale to the campaign I have been running with the Leicester Sabres, players will be battling it out over the desolate forge world closest to the sun of the Gaios system in a desperate attempt to control the immeasurably powerful, warp-infused contraption beating at it's very core. A machine that could... well, in case any of my players are reading this, I can't say. Suffice to say that it had the power to create an impenetrable cloud that engulfed the entire system and attracted the attention of all the major players in our favourite dystopian future galaxy.
Now, aside from the fluff of this particular game, I wanted to talk a little about how I have been playing Apocalypse over the last few years, what I'll be doing differently, and... well, I won't go in to rumours. Chances are if you've found this blog, you will all ready be following several others that can go in to much greater detail than I, so I won't waste your time.
Back in the murky annals of time, 4th Edition 40k got a great supplement called Apocalypse. Finally, the rules were broken down and you could use every single model in your collection. Additional things were added to help turn huge masses of models into things that could still be dealt with in a reasonable time-frame. Super-heavy vehicles could launch ballistic weapons that could take out whole platoons, rather than just squads. Mobs of Monstrous Creatures could romp across the table, smashing aside whole companies of heavily armoured vehicles. It was a great time to play. Very few people had more than a few thousand points of models, maybe the odd Forge World kit. If you wanted a really big game, you would have to band together with your friends, split in to teams and clear out whole rooms. The first few months of Apocalypse, I player loads of 40k. Not just to get a handle on the new expansion, but because it got me really excited. I was assembling my Leman Russ Armoured Company like a production line and revelling in finally being able to field all of my Vindicators and Predators in the same game. Everyone was playing for fun because we didn't really know what combinations were especially effective (there were just too many to work it out!)
Fast forward 6 years (has it really only been that short a time?), Apocalypse got confused as 5th edition and new codices came and went. Some formations became obsolete, a few became utterly broken. Even an expansion to the expansion in the form of Reload and many Imperial Armour books couldn't reignite the fun in the game. 6th Ed only made the issues more contentious; the result being I think I have only seen or heard of one or two Apocalypse games being played in the last year, outside of The Big Game in LA and a few in-store events at GW, which are really just large, multi-player games rather than really being Apocalypse. People were trying to play it competitively, which doesn't really make sense in a system designed to not have rules on how you can make your army up. More and more I saw game organisers restricting what could and could not be used, or nerfing just how powerful certain weapons were by reducing their Strength or the size of their blast. Even for my game this weekend, I have a limit on bringing Super-heavy vehicles and gargantuan creatures based on how many points the players are including for other stuff. I also have a limit on what they can bring from armies other than from the codex they have been using throughout the campaign, but that is more based on fluff aspects of the campaign than a fault in Apocalypse.
So that is how Apocalypse has changed in my eyes. There have been some amazing kits come out to support it, particularly from Forge World, which I am sure wouldn't have gotten the green light 7+ years ago. At least, not in such numbers. But to me, it has lost a lot of the excitement that the big games had when they first came out. So what would/have I changed for my game tomorrow?
Well, I have all ready mentioned I have put a limit on Superheavy vehicles. I think I actually set the bar a little low (with a maximum of 500 points of Superheavy per full 2k they spend on other stuff), particularly based on what my players have been asking that they could take. There wasn't anything overly extravagant really, but I must have miscalculated the amount of points they would likely end up with when I set out the campaign. On top of that, I am putting strict limits on the Strategic Assets. With up to 6 players on a side if everyone turns up, not to mention formations, it would be quite possible for the game to get bogged down or game-changing assets forgotten. Instead, each of the three teams will get one at random from a selection of sealed envelopes I have all ready prepared, entrusting it's use to a single player. If players choose formations that come with assets, those assets only apply to the units in that formation (so if it came with Flank March, only that formation will be surprising their opponents, careful planning would only let that one formation turn up on turn 1. You get the idea.)
To hopefully help stop the game becoming a full on clusterfuck, if you'll excuse the language, that barely seems to move, I have created a way for any unit to get around the board(s) quickly. There's just no guarantee they will actually end up where they intended. Again, I can't give out too many details until Saturday, less any of my players gain unfair advantage. I have also changed the win conditions for the game. Quite simply, there isn't any. Now, I have to admit for a more normal Apocalypse game, that would be deeply unsatisfying as a player. Being linked in to the campaign though, it makes sense; the actions through-out the game will change the overall outcome of the campaign, so the actual battle results matter very little. I may have even made it so that all of the players can conceivably lose. Not that any of them could, but that all of them would. In fact, that is reasonably likely.
Obviously, that doesn't really address the issue in normal Apocalypse games. Just having two massive armies wailing on each other until the last turn is never that much fun, especially if one side gets first turn and decimates the other with a lot of Strength D weapons. With a limit on the Superheavies, that issue goes away to some extent, but one of the ways of playing I have found most enjoyable is counting the Objectives scored at the end of every player turn. The side that goes first is less disadvantaged in the final grab after they have had their last opportunities to move. Scoring units, often overlooked when selecting the army over bigger guns, become vital parts of the game through out. Out manoeuvring your opponent and blocking their advances becoming tactical and intriguing, although this can make Flank March a must have, regardless of which army you are using. I also think that only Troops, and maybe Elites and/or HQ choices, should be scoring in Apocalypse. If not normal vehicles, Superheavies should definitely be denial units, and the same for Gargantuan Creatures. Speaking of whom, I would make them easier to hurt. Point for point, they are far more dangerous than Superheavy vehicles. That was true even before hull points meant a lot of units can actually glance many Superheavy vehicles to death in one or two rounds of shooting. Even if it was something as simple as reducing the number of weapons they can fire if they are taken below half wounds, or a simple +1 to your 'To Hit' rolls because they are, quite literally, the size of the broad side of a barn. They will still be near-unstoppable leviathans of death, but could be dealt with by units that aren't purely set-up to deal with them exclusively.
Well, before I start to sound too much like a whining, wish-listing newbie, I'll sign off for now. Once again I have managed to skilfully avoided finishing writing my review of Blog Wars without you notic... oh bugger. Hope you enjoyed that any way. What would you do differently in Apocalypse? What are you looking forward to in the new edition? Anyone fancy facing off against my Imperator Titan once I've gotten round to finishing her?
Matt
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