Re: (OT) Rules "inspiration" (was [OT] Bring and Battle

>Roger Gerrish wrote:
>
>> Being on  good terms with the 're-engineers' of WH40k v3 I think I
can
>> safely say that FMA (as excellent as it is) has had no influence on
the new
>> design, it evolved quite independantly.
>
>...and I'm quite sure that the uncanny resembelences Tuomas' City of
the
>Damned WHFB Skirmish game has with AA's Dresda is purely a coincidence
>too...
>
>Steve

Well, having just got hold of a copy of the latest WD today (yes, I
actually went and BOUGHT one....) and had a skim through their "preview"
of
the new 40K rules, I'm pretty satisfied that, rumours to the contrary
notwithstanding, any resemblance to the FMA system is pretty negligible.
They've changed a few bits in an attempt to streamline the game for
faster
play, with fire combat now being more squad-orientated (though still on
a
roll-per-figure basis), and they are trying to tone down the
horrendously
overpowered special characters (hmmm, wonder how popular THAT'LL be with
the munchkins...??).
The overall feeling is that someone at GW has finally realised (after
all
these years) that while their basic WH mechanisms make a perfectly
acceptable skirmish game (possibly why Necrophilia (er, sorry,
Necromunda)
has been so popular) they get pretty clunky with large unit actions,
which
is at odds with GW's fundamental need to sell vast amounts of figures.
The core system of Warhammer (whether 40K or Fantasy) is still basically
the same as the old three-book first edition published in 1982 by
Citadel
(before they merged with GW itself) - all the peripheral bits have
mutated,
but the fundamentals haven't changed much.
It looks to me (on cursory inspection, admittedly) that they've trimmed
off
some of the fat and simplified some things in order to try and speed the
game up with larger armies, much as they did with Epic - it may work
well,
but it'll be interesting to see how the "unthinking hordes of
pre-pubescent
psychopaths without girlfriends*" take to it....

Jon (GZG)

* This isn't my line - it's a quote from the wonderful strip "Captain
Concept", in the sadly short-lived UK games mag Concepts that published
a
few issues many years back. Took the p*ss out of GW something rotten,
which
some industry commentators believe had something to do with its early
demise.......  ;)