Looking towards 9th.

With the news of 9th and all of the previews we've been getting over the last couple of weeks, I thought I should have a look towards how my armies will fair. 

While we still don't know the full extent of the rules changes and how they are going to impact on specific things, such as Creeds special rules, we can get a good overview of these things. From the rules that we have seen and the rules that were released, after we got the leak, all point to a rules set that's is very similar to what we have now, just with a few tweaks to clear up a few areas that were a bit grey. As things stand, I do like the majority of the rules updates but there are a few areas, namely terrain, that I'm less keen on.  

 The first thing to talk about is the changes to detachments and the way in which you build your army. Having to pay for each detachment and from what I can tell, only getting refunded on the "core" detachments (patrol, battalion and brigade), my armies are more than likely going to change, how much we'll have to wait and see. This change was introduced as a good thing and for many people it probably will be. For me it's less so. I know that the main aim was to get rid of things like the "loyal 32", something that I know a couple of club players, one a Custodies player and another a Knights player, made use of. I have never fielded a "loyal 32", maybe a loyal 132 but never just the 32 to get extra command points. This usually meant that even at 1500 point games, I was walking in with a minimum of 20 command points (brigade - guard, battalion - scions and battle forged), now I will get a maximum of 14 for the same set-up. That puts me down over 25%, which is not great. I will have to be far more conservative with stratagems in the future! 

I'm also, strangely, looking forward to the points increases. This should mean less troops on the board for me to deal with, both mine and my enemies, although the smaller board size might mean the difference is not as noticable. It will be interesting to see what the different points increases does to the various units, which become more attractive and which less so. There are some units that I think need more adjustment than others but I will go into that in another post, related to the guard in 9th. 

Taking of table size changes, this is one I'm actually liking. Not so much the change to the "standard" table but the introduction of small tables for smaller games. I've already started working on a new board for the smaller games, using some scrap board I had lying around. I plan on running most games at the sub 1000 point level, so the smaller board size is great and will encourage a lot more gaming at that size, especially down the club with the limited time available. 

As I mentioned earlier, the only thing I'm not so sure about is the new terrain rules. While they sound like they will add a lot to the game, they also sound like they add a lot of rules. Trying to remember all of these during the game could be fun.

All in all, I am looking forward to 9th, although I won't be jumping in straight away, as I'm not playing and I don't really fancy splashing out over a hundred quid on the new boxset.