Not sure if this is the right place to post this. If I am hijacking the thread, I apologize in advance.
I played in a 1vs2 500 (ish) PL game on Sunday. One of the players on the other team was late in getting there and it only allowed for a few hours of gameplay. A few thoughts.
Disclaimer: I collect models and am really into the lore. I am a casual player at best. Take these thoughts with a grain of salt.
1. List building was a challenge for me. I had to unbox and lay out every model that I had, and figure out how to fit them into detachments. With 40k I know what I like to play and I know approx. how many points models are and how to run them. This will come easier with more games and as I learn the system. I was also using a tablet for the data cards. PRINT THEM OR BUY THE CARDS. It will speed your list building (until battlescribe supports new apoc) and will help speed up the game. With this in mind, I recommend list building before you head to the store.
2. I was the only one at the store who ordered the game set and expansion cards. Splitting up and deck building with one set of cards (between three people) was a pain. There is a mechanic were if both players want the same cards, they are put aside, shuffled and distributed evenly between the teams. I wish they offered the core deck for purchase separate. I think the cost of the core set and the cards was a turn off to a lot of people at my game store. We made due with one rule book and one set of tokens just fine. On the tokens, there are a lot, but they are very high quality and punch out easier than any others that I can remember.
3. The mission we chose had us bid on how long it would take to deploy our armies. There were boons and penalties for going under or over this time. That was a blast! I skimmed through the other missions and they look like they are going to be fun to play.
4. The orders and command assets are an awesome mechanic. The alternating detachments and applying damage as the last phase of the turn is an awesome mechanic as well. I spent all of the time during my opponents activation reviewing and pulling tactical cards to play during my activation. The blast marker mechanic was cool because I had to gamble on how much damage I would need to apply to a unit to kill it. (I played against necrons, fyi it was a lot).
5. I did not realize it until after the game, and maybe you all picked up on it right away, but the morale system is a definite way to get something off of the board. Blast tokens count against morale. If you need something dead and you do not want to gamble on the opponents saves, stack enough blast tokens to offset their morale.
6. I know apoc is designed to streamline and make the game fast, so I might be a hypocrite on this one, but I miss armies\units\models having special rules. A lot of units individuality is seems to be gone. Again, I know this is intentional. I am just saying, to me, it is very noticeable.
7. I miss rolling tons of dice. A lot of my big weapons and squads would only roll one or only small amount of dice. Rolling one dice for the basilisk cannon or only two for a manticore rocket seemed really underwhelming(It doesn't also help that I duffed rolls on 6 different artillery pieces...grrr....). I know they did this for streamlining, but I still miss the feel of feeling like my artillery is bringing the sky down by rolling a ton of dice.
We finished one round in a little over two hours with us stumbling through the rules. I think it can go faster as the system becomes more familiar. I have been counting the days down for this release. I was a little surprised that no one at my flgs ordered the rules and I was barely able to scrape together two other players for a game. I am also not seeing tons of bat reps or forum posts on the b&c. I was hoping to see breakdowns of list building and strategies. Am I missing the big discussion thread somewhere?
Edited by Enuncia, 08 July 2019 - 08:23 PM.