Ramblings on: My Favorite GW Game
I was poking around the forum of another game site this morning and one of the topics which caught my eye was: “What is your favorite GW game?” Well that was a simple question to answer: “Warmster, Epic - Space Marine/Titan Legions, and Man o War”. That answer didn’t sit well with me though. It took me some time to figure out what was wrong and it was because I ignored the spirit of the question. It didn’t say list your favorite games. It simply asked: “Which is your favorite?” Implying they wanted only one answer while I gave three. It did get me thinking though and I played the famous Desert Island Game with myself and revised the question in my mind to “If, of those three games, they only played one in the afterlife which one do I hope they play?”
That question has stumped me. Obviously if there was only one of those three in the afterlife things like model restrictions/availability wouldn’t apply, things like painting and scenery modeling wouldn’t matter (both of which I loath), and if playing in the afterlife I’d only be playing against opponents whom I enjoy playing with; I’d rather play the game on the table rather than arguing the vocal inflection of the word “the” in a particular sentence and with someone who knows there’s more to playing a game than just winning…So it got me thinking on the individual merits of each game. Would it be the tactical depth that Warmaster offers? Or the pure variety that Epic has? Or would pure campy fun win outright with Man o War? Here are some of the considerations I was thinking of:
Warmaster - The rules are very tight. With only a few exceptions there isn’t much that can be exploited. The army lists are similar to each other where there aren’t extremes and there are checks and balances worked into the army list to keep the players on a relatively even playing field. For me though, the game lacks character. With all the focus on balance and making sure the game is won or lost on the table and not during troop selection the game loses character. Especially when compared side-by-side to the character the other two games have. The Warhammer world is a rich world but that doesn’t shine through in this game. The variety in the army lists is there, but the character between the different armies is lacking.
MoW - This game has character and is packed full. So much so that it actually becomes a fault with the game. There are gross imbalances between the different army lists, the most extreme being a fleet that solely relies on boarding other vessels against the fleet whose specialty is killing crew off so it can’t board: With the later being more powerful and effective. This game is pure fun though and the rules do sacrifice realism for playability and because of that there are situations where you just have to say “Huh?” The lists are also very restrictive where a fleet may have the majority of the troops being compulsory troops and when 500+ points out of 1000 are a “must have” that doesn’t leave much in the way of variety. Not to say that there is much variety when the average fleet has 4 or 5 units to pick from. This game does require a good degree of properly applied tactics to bring guns to the target and position your ships.
Epic Space Marine/Titan Legions - This is the mother load of variety…With the exception of armies. Compared to the first two games this one is limited by only having seven different races to pick from (as well as a few “specialized” army lists for some races). Within the army lists though, each race has a vast selection of troops. The majority of which have special rules to import character to each unit. The rules are simple and for the most part do a good job at bringing in realism to the mechanics. For me this game is more forgiving when it comes to poor tactics and a better army list can beat a poorly selected list even if the better list has poor tactics applied.
So which game is it? Given my scenario I know two major things: 1) Being the afterlife I’m going to be playing this one game for a long while so variety is important; 2) Having a pool of players that I enjoy playing against causes balance to not be a huge factor
So that took Warmaster out of the running. Overall the armies (compared to the other two) are dry and if I’m going to be playing this for eternity I want to be thinking about more than just game mechanics. So that leaves me with Man o War and Epic. Between those two, I suppose my vote has to go for Man o War. Though there are gross imbalances between the fleets and a relative lack of selection between the individual lists, there are a lot of lists to pick from each one requiring their own tactics and play style. Epic wins variety hands down but overall Epic I feel has the least level of tactics and forethought of the three. Warmaster is the superior game of the three with tactics and Epic is the superior game with variety but MoW has a nice mixture between the two…But of course…I’m sure in another year I’ll think of other excuses to elevate one of the other two games to the top spot on the list.
‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT
