Hello, fellow Warhammer 40k fans! SaltyJohn from TFG Radio, and one of the Las Vegas Open Head Judges, here to bring you my weekly article on the ITC. This week let’s look at outrage in the world of 40k.
There hasn’t been much in the way of change to the ITC Rankings the past few weeks. With So Cal Open the last of the “Super Majors” we’re likely to see this season I thought I would focus on something, that while not new, has increased perceptibly in the 40k community recently. Outrage. Outrage, over well, everything? Anything? Before that though a quick look at the top 10 as it stands now and the top 5 teams.
The past few weeks have had some larger than normal outrage moments within our community. While I am all for a good meme fight over our plastic army men it has seemed to become a bit much lately. I don’t know exactly what it is, it could be Iron Hands or the fact the season is firmly in it’s doldrums. Regardless there’s been quite a bit of it. Before discussing a bit more about it let’s see a few of the memes from the past few weeks.
So there are a plethora of options to look at from the 40 outrage machine. Space Marines and Iron Hands, in general, seem to trigger many people in the community. The FLG ruling about fly rule models and “if it fits it sits” for So Cal Open and beyond. Rules bloat in general, and the September FAQ being anticipated for the whole month yet again and then having little in it the people wanted. Several events had various degrees of problems ranging from problems with unapproved conversions to the run of the mill rules problems. The internet outrage machine in the 40k community has seemed to take these issues and really run away with them though.
If you know me well then you might think it’s strange that someone who makes so many memes about the more outrageous aspects of 40k and the community to think we may be going a bit too far. However, I make fun of most sides of these outrages. I also generally don’t meme if I am going to discuss something seriously. So let’s discuss a bit of this seriously for a moment. When discussing the new Space Marines and Iron Hands we should try to keep a bit of perspective. I think it’s best to remember that the first LVO of 8th was absolutely dominated by Aeldari/Ynnari, especially the top 8. We survived, thrived even, and still, it took a few tries by GW to get Ynnari/Aeldari to where it was balanced. We survived Castellans with Astramilitarum CP batteries. We survived flyer spam, so far. Perhaps this can be weathered too.
Knee-jerk overreactions seem to be a time-honored tradition for us in the miniatures gaming world, but really, it’s a time-honored tradition of gamers in general. Take a look at updates to video games that are played competitively. Overwatch, Starcraft 2, League of Legends, Apex Legends, PUBG, you name it and pay attention to it, and you’ll find the knee-jerk outrage machine at work. Perhaps what it really is our instinctual human resistance to change. People freak out about change all the time. Anyone remember the silly outrage when Instagram changed its app icon? I remember. I remember wondering how an icon changing could trigger so much outrage. But there it was, all over the internet. Perhaps this is part of the human grieving process. We don’t get to decide what is or is not important to others. As a member of this community, you will have no doubt run into the attitude that “your plastic army men hobby just isn’t important in reality so get over it”. That certainly feels unfair to us, even if intellectually we can understand that the person saying it is right to a certain extent. It’s a complex issue, but understanding where people are coming from with their outrage can help us to better address, but not kowtow to, their rage.
Rules bloat is a harder issue, in my opinion, to figure out and get past the outrage over. It may even be the most legitimate of the issues people have with 8th edition this far. The edition that was lauded as simpler and better as a result of its simplicity now has 34, or so, codices and 100s of pages of FAQ and Errata to sift through when you have an issue. As someone who compiles all the relevant FAQs and Errata each year for LVO prints them out, and organizes them in a binder with tabs for reference I can state that it’s a lot of information. It’s an issue I can’t actually see an easy solution for.
One of the things the outrage is definitely overblown for is the ruling about vehicles with the Fly keyword and how they interact with ruins for So Cal Open, and probably beyond. The ruling, while it may create the feels bad for a few players, is good for the game overall. What would really be beneficial, and one thing 8th has lacked so far, are some real clear terrain rules. I know, I just finished talking about how the rules bloat in 8th is getting out of control and here I am advocating for new terrain rules! What I would like to see is all the current rules, FAQs, Errata etc to be consolidated. If that was done and they added in some clearer terrain rules I would be quite happy. I would bet the 40k outrage machine that’s been in overdrive lately might even shift down a few gears too!
Ok, serious conversation over. One more meme for the road!
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Can we get a “defined” rule on what you mean , if it fits it sits? I know its not on the GW site but is this going to be a new ITC approved rule so it will be seen in 95% of the tournament on the U.S. side? if so will it be in the championship mission packet ? Things like that and magic boxes and such would be cool to put into the mission packet as it makes it easy to find.
If by chance its already there then I’ll report to my local tech priest for servitor duty.
It never ceases to amaze me that people think magic boxes are an ITC thing. It’s literally playing ruins with 4 walls and a roof out of the book. The only change we made was to say you can’t use the Fly keyword to go into a ruin that you normally couldn’t go into it. That’s it, lol. Magic Boxes are right out of the BRB.
Also, again, this rule is for SoCal only at this point. It’s on the SoCal Open page, but it’s not an ITC wide ruling. We want to try it out and see if it has the intended effect.
The problem with “magic boxes syndrome” is that it requires people to extrapolate information in the rules to apply to something not expressly in the rules. Most people can’t do that.
It’s literally right there on the page, we just gave a name to it, haha.
I know, I think you just have more faith in people than I do. 😉
Lol, probably =P
I thought the ITC was first floors of ruins block line of site. And THAT forms the magic box. Not that you made them. Just without those stupid ass ground windows no one can see inside
Not all buildings have windows on the ground floor, my friend. And if you didn’t rule buildings with windows that way and you could see through them, lol, it would be very bad on a table with GW ruins. Shooting armies would be able to see the entire table. I don’t think that requires explanation as to why that would be bad, lol.
I know, but thats where people get magic boxes from, because ITC guarentees you will get you know
ACTUAL los blocking units can go and hide in those.
I dont have a problem with it. but thats where people think the ITC made magic boxes, simply by guarenteeing real terrain.
but i mean forcing armies to bring some sort of infantry/assault elements can only help diversify
Yeah, that’s exactly the point. GW terrain especially, which the game is meant to be played with and is beautiful, is actually awful at blocking LoS. We use a ton of it in our tournaments and so had to roll with a change to the way they work or have shooting galleries.
thats exactly why i play ITC for my general games.
i was just theorycrafting why people may be blaming itc other than you know, general whining. I still like magic boxes
But if it has walls that block LOS, it’s not a ruin.
Ruins have holes to see through.
Says who?
I think the issue here, with the outrage thing, is that GW have completely failed on learning from past mistakes, and have once again put rules that are just inconsolable. Ironstone is probably the most egregious of these; Serpent Shield is the very reason Wave Serpents went up in points, and it was 100%, so how can one justify giving that ability as an aura to an already inherently resilient faction for free? Much like the prevalence of Castellan’s Volcano Lance nullified an entire class model statlines, the Ironstone does the same for entire classes of weapon profiles. I mean, how in a game designer’s mind is it right to look at that and think “This is good for the game.” after how far the game has come until this point? The feeling one gets is that their recent successes were ultimately just lucky, and that GW doesn’t actually care that much about us as players instead of payers.
I am also convinced that the ironstone was a big mistake. The problem with the ironstone is they created a relic that you can get for 1 CP that provides a special rule that, if added directly to the vehicle, would increase the cost of the vehicle 50 to 100 points. Secondly, this particular relic has the capability of invalidating a lot of 2 damage weapons like Plasma, autocannons, deffguns, etc. You can’t build an army around heavy weapons that potentially would be nearly useless against one of the most common armies. Yes, there are a few armies that have the capability to snipe this character out, but this is not something you want to build your strategy around. This hearkens back to the days of 7th edition when you had to build your list with 10 Str instant kill weapons to combat the Iron Hands FNP 1+ Deathstars. Was it beatable, yes. Did you want to play a game where you can only reasonable field one build of an army to win, NO.
Maybe Fire Dragons will see the table again.
You would still need to get at least 15 or so within 6″ to kill a repulsor. Even if you do, you will almost never have Doom cos they can they will have a deny attempt, and the 75% chance with strats. And after that, they will all die with plenty of shots left over.
You know, we’ve all heard the “if it sits it fits” rhetoric before in the O.J. Simpson trial so… What’s the big deal?
If the model does not fit, you must a-quit placing it there. =)
lol
I have a larger issue with the article. Why can’t I easily click on the memes and save them to my phone to spread the love? This is an outrage and needs to be fixed. Lol
It’s a safety feature built into the site to prevent people from spreading boomer-level memes.
Dare I ask what a Boomer level meme is?
SoCal Rulings:
The only rage I’m gonna feel is if the bar is gonna charge more than $9.99 a beer.
God. Damn. It.
*eyeballs Reece*
*stink eyes Reece*
*puts one hand on his shoulder, and the other hand behind Reece’s head in a Tony Soprano hug*
*smile*
*supposed to be a disarming smile*
“So, we understand each other, right?”
😉
Casey
The Beer Hammer guy
lol you got me there, buddy =P