Hi all and welcome again to the Rules Team blog
Today we will release a bit more of sneak peeks of the upcoming 0.10 Rulebook of The 9th Age, and the topic of today are the mundane close combat weapons found in the Rulebook. Many of you have already tested the two weapons that have suffered the biggest changes: Spears, and Parry. While technically Parry (Hand Weapon + Shield) is not a CC weapon, we will include Parry as just another CC weapon for simplicity's sake, as in reality most often the choice is between taking a Shield alongisde your basic Hand Weapon to benefit from Parry, or to get a Spear (alongisde a shield or not) or a heavier Halberd or Great Weapon. Flails, Lances and Light Lances have sensible differences so they will not change for the moment and will therefore not be discussed in this entry
As you have already tested, the boost to spears while interesting, is not enough to make them an interesting alternative to weapons such as Halberds or Parry. One of its disadvantages is that it is very specialized, while you usually have at your disposal other weapons which are more flexible and universal. In addition to this, its overall power is not so big, not even in its best matchup (in the end, we want some level of Rock-Paper-Scissor, but we don't want to throw it all out on this mechanic). For this reason, the change decided for spears has been to add to its current rules an universal Armour Piercing (1) that can be used against all enemies. This is quite a boost that we hope can make spears attractive, since even with the current anti-cavalry rules, spears were still not attractive enough. This universal buff will help spears have something to add in almost all scenarios (contrary to the current very specialiced and limited effect), and reinforces the spear's role as an anti-armour weapon. But since we know that this spears are also becoming quite powerful, we also will address the points cost of this weapon, specially when it comes with a free shield
Next one in line is the Parry mechanism (Hand Weapon and Shield). The change introduced to Parry has had a lot of enthusiastic followers, and has made Core units and Shield units very interesting again, where previously they were only used if nothing better was available. However, it has also given rise to some mixed and negative reviews from certain players, and what's more worrysome, some overperforming units and builds. While technically it has certain disadvantages, the truth is that in many occasions the Shield has become the best weapon available, matching and even surpassing sometimes the migthy Great Weapon. At first we tried to address this problem by increasing the points cost of the Shield, but we have come to the agreement that that path has already been strolled to the end. We were reachin a position where a Shield would cost up to 4pts on a 12pt infantry model. Which doesn't strike us as the kind of basic equipment that a Shield should represent.
On the other hand, we also have seen many units previously considered seriously underperforming, to now have a role in battle, and we had to act with care when addressing the shield to only hit those units that were overperforming but try to keep the lowly units with their needed advantage. To this effect we considered several optiosn and debated long and forth, but came to the following conclusion: Close Combat Attacks from opponents in the front can never score successful hits on to-hit rolls of better than 4+, before applying to-hit modifiers. This can only be used by models on foot and against Close Combat Attacks from the front.
The rationale behind this change is that the units with lower Weapon Skill, such as WS2 skeletons and WS3 Empire Heavy Infantry, have now a role with their shield as tarpits, and are pretty balanced and bring an interesting tool to the table. However it was high Weapon Skill units, specially WS5 and above, that were giving us the worse problems balance-wise, because on this units the change from being hit on 4+ to being hit on 5+ was much more noticeable (33% damage reduction compared to 25% damage reducion on WS2 units). While high WS units might seem at a loss here, we need to akcnowledge that this units were overperforming according to the data available. We have also addressed the point cost of the shield on this units and returned it back to 1pt/model. Even if they only benefit from the Parry when being hit by characters (and certain super-elites with WS6), we agreed that a Warrior of the Dark Gods paying 8% of its base cost just to improve its Armour Save by 33% was a fair price.
In addition, this change makes Parry not always the best option, as it will be most useful againt the enemy elites, but not so good against the enemy tarpits, so makes it more rewarding to have in your army a mix of Parry, Spears, and Halberd/Great Weapon, and have each unit matched against is relevant preferred opponent from the enemy army. In such a way, we encourage… [Read More]
Today we will release a bit more of sneak peeks of the upcoming 0.10 Rulebook of The 9th Age, and the topic of today are the mundane close combat weapons found in the Rulebook. Many of you have already tested the two weapons that have suffered the biggest changes: Spears, and Parry. While technically Parry (Hand Weapon + Shield) is not a CC weapon, we will include Parry as just another CC weapon for simplicity's sake, as in reality most often the choice is between taking a Shield alongisde your basic Hand Weapon to benefit from Parry, or to get a Spear (alongisde a shield or not) or a heavier Halberd or Great Weapon. Flails, Lances and Light Lances have sensible differences so they will not change for the moment and will therefore not be discussed in this entry
As you have already tested, the boost to spears while interesting, is not enough to make them an interesting alternative to weapons such as Halberds or Parry. One of its disadvantages is that it is very specialized, while you usually have at your disposal other weapons which are more flexible and universal. In addition to this, its overall power is not so big, not even in its best matchup (in the end, we want some level of Rock-Paper-Scissor, but we don't want to throw it all out on this mechanic). For this reason, the change decided for spears has been to add to its current rules an universal Armour Piercing (1) that can be used against all enemies. This is quite a boost that we hope can make spears attractive, since even with the current anti-cavalry rules, spears were still not attractive enough. This universal buff will help spears have something to add in almost all scenarios (contrary to the current very specialiced and limited effect), and reinforces the spear's role as an anti-armour weapon. But since we know that this spears are also becoming quite powerful, we also will address the points cost of this weapon, specially when it comes with a free shield
Next one in line is the Parry mechanism (Hand Weapon and Shield). The change introduced to Parry has had a lot of enthusiastic followers, and has made Core units and Shield units very interesting again, where previously they were only used if nothing better was available. However, it has also given rise to some mixed and negative reviews from certain players, and what's more worrysome, some overperforming units and builds. While technically it has certain disadvantages, the truth is that in many occasions the Shield has become the best weapon available, matching and even surpassing sometimes the migthy Great Weapon. At first we tried to address this problem by increasing the points cost of the Shield, but we have come to the agreement that that path has already been strolled to the end. We were reachin a position where a Shield would cost up to 4pts on a 12pt infantry model. Which doesn't strike us as the kind of basic equipment that a Shield should represent.
On the other hand, we also have seen many units previously considered seriously underperforming, to now have a role in battle, and we had to act with care when addressing the shield to only hit those units that were overperforming but try to keep the lowly units with their needed advantage. To this effect we considered several optiosn and debated long and forth, but came to the following conclusion: Close Combat Attacks from opponents in the front can never score successful hits on to-hit rolls of better than 4+, before applying to-hit modifiers. This can only be used by models on foot and against Close Combat Attacks from the front.
The rationale behind this change is that the units with lower Weapon Skill, such as WS2 skeletons and WS3 Empire Heavy Infantry, have now a role with their shield as tarpits, and are pretty balanced and bring an interesting tool to the table. However it was high Weapon Skill units, specially WS5 and above, that were giving us the worse problems balance-wise, because on this units the change from being hit on 4+ to being hit on 5+ was much more noticeable (33% damage reduction compared to 25% damage reducion on WS2 units). While high WS units might seem at a loss here, we need to akcnowledge that this units were overperforming according to the data available. We have also addressed the point cost of the shield on this units and returned it back to 1pt/model. Even if they only benefit from the Parry when being hit by characters (and certain super-elites with WS6), we agreed that a Warrior of the Dark Gods paying 8% of its base cost just to improve its Armour Save by 33% was a fair price.
In addition, this change makes Parry not always the best option, as it will be most useful againt the enemy elites, but not so good against the enemy tarpits, so makes it more rewarding to have in your army a mix of Parry, Spears, and Halberd/Great Weapon, and have each unit matched against is relevant preferred opponent from the enemy army. In such a way, we encourage… [Read More]
