On Knights, power and sulking.

Well, I've just read the WD all about the Knights:
I really look forward to seeing what this great model looks like once built and painted by our A-team in my gaming group, and I hope they will bring it to a game soon, for use as a mascot, scenery or objective.
If you use it in your army against me, you get no lunch!

[same rant] I REALLY want to play 40K infantry, I am still lusting over my soon-to-come Raging Heroes, for my Sexy-Pirate-Girl-Counts-As-Dark-Eldar fleet, I am trying to summon up the courage to paint the RH I have better...but the power imbalance is stupid.

Last month I played my friend's cheesy Riptide/R'Van/Void Shield list, and much as it was a lovely day with a friend, good conversation, beer and pretzels, and I even won the game, it wasn't a tactical game of 40K, it was more like playing chess by hiding behind sofas and throwing chess pieces at each other until someone gets hit in the eye and Mum makes us stop.

If GW developed NecroMunter, a skirmish ruleset for Superheavies, then took them out of 40K, I would probably be working on my Skavenid, Pirate, or even New Army MW.
But I won't have them in 40k, just as I won't allow my son to use plotting computers and GPS guided hydraulic rams when we play pool.
[/same rant]

commandersasha wrote:

Last month I played my friend's cheesy Riptide/R'Van/Void Shield list, and much as it was a lovely day with a friend, good conversation, beer and pretzels, and I even won the game, it wasn't a tactical game of 40K, it was more like playing chess by hiding behind sofas and throwing chess pieces at each other until someone gets hit in the eye and Mum makes us stop.[/same rant]

This is hands down the best illustration of the power imbalance in the game at the moment   

As it turns out, everyone can take the Knight, so there technically isn't an imbalance there. The imbalance, as I suppose is your point, comes between trying to play an infantry heavy game against vehicles that can wipe out an infantry army in one or two turns of shooting. I have faith that they'll redress certain things though - I played in third edition, when everyone complained about my orks mobbing up and sweeping from combat to combat, and fifth edition when everyone went nuts over Dark Eldar swallowing their entire army in close combat in the first turn, Necrons flying around unstoppably and Grey Knights plodding across the board implacably to smash everything into tiny pieces. It'll swing back round again, either by branching out (Warhammer 40,000: Titanicus, maybe?) or adapting the core game to tone things down and boost things. The changes at the moment are tough, but we just need to grit our teeth and weather the storm   

Even though you don't think of hiding as an especially tactical way to play, it is still a valid tactic (and, let's face it, exactly what probably would have happened facing old Tau). You should still pat yourself on the back for the win against a nasty list   

I agree with your chess description of the game currently. Theres so many insanely tough and hard hitting stuff, I almost feel bad for my warriors hiding in the ruins. I see more and more batreps where people hide for five turns and make an objective dash in the fifth turn in the hopes of rolling a one or two to end the game then and there.
To me, the Knights are just another incarnation of this kind of unit and general direction the game is going in. At least the Wraithknight looked cool

It's not them, it's us.

After the weekend, I am even more torn: I want a Knight for my DEldar!

My thoughts are as follows:
For
-Stunning model. No, seriously, this is what I got into it for, an awesome final model, a great fun kit, and just looking at it I can see LEDs in the gun barrels and fibre-optics for a flail; maybe a spare Raider rudder to replace the chainsword as a huge but elegant scimtar, and enough room on the huge base for a diorama too!
-Keeping up with the power.

Against
-I morally disapprove of keeping up with the power
-I morally disapprove of the disgusting way that GW has presented this new army: The new codex has seven pages of rules. Just seven. The rest is pictures of other people's Knights. There isn't even much fluff: oh no, that's in the OTHER book, also £25.

Suffice to say, I will be photcopying my friend's 7 pages.  I honestly walked in to GW Eastbourne with a full bank account, and my wife had told me to spoil myself with a Knight and the codex, but when I saw the book scam, I walked out again.

But I want the pretty model!!!   [/u]