If Tiberius Were King For A Day: Top 5 Rules Changes I'd Make

Good morning gamers,

In our last post in this mini-series, I looked at five profiles (well, four profiles and a unit upgrade) that I would "fix" in order to make thematic profiles/upgrades more competitive. All of these involved a minor tweak that would give the unit/upgrade a place among its current competitors - and I don't think any of them were THAT earth-shattering or meta-breaking. Today, we turn our attention to five rules changes that I would make that fix known problems in the game or make things viable that should be (but aren't right now). Like the last post, I wanted my changes to be minor in nature (no big overhauls) but have actual consequences - and I think only one of these is an actual overhaul of a major system (maybe two of them), but I think all of them make the game just a bit better. Let's take a look!

Rule #1: Barriers 

If you talk to competitive players, this is the thing that gets people - picture a board with a barrier between two armies as shown below:

If the Orcs get to move first, they can move into base contact with the barrier and gain an in-the-way bonus from shooting attacks AND an in-the-way bonus from strikes in melee. All you have to do is touch it, like this: 

This is really good and this is how people are "supposed" to play with barriers. However, what you can ACTUALLY do in the game is move near the barrier without touching it - and this will not only still give you the in-the-way from the barrier (probably), but it will also prevent your opponent from charging you (since he can't fit his bases on your side of the barrier) AND it will prevent him from reaching the barrier because your control zones extend beyond the barrier:

The Orcs are all showing off different ways of not touching the barrier - and only the second guy from the top is chargeable . . . if the charging model gets a 6 . . .

The Dwarves, in this situation, can only rely on shooting to clear out the Orcs - and with the barrier in the way, that's really hard. Dwarf Rangers have a better chance than most of actually getting the 6 to Jump, but it's still going to be hard. Most competitive players will tell you, "Yeah, we all know it's a thing, but we don't do it because we want to be good sports and have a good game." This has been a known glitch in the game and I propose a really simple fix to the problem: a model may not come within 2" of an obstacle without coming into base contact with it. Theoretically, you can do something similar with a wall, keeping a model next to a wall to prevent an opponent from getting too close to an objective marker or something - but the principle is the same: force players to either defend the barrier or not go near it. I chose a 2" restriction so that the new rules change that requires you to get a 6 to charge after a Jump/Leap wouldn't continue to preclude models from jumping barriers. This seems like a simple and easy change to me, but drop me a note in the comments if you think this is too simple or misses something.

Rule #2: Pikes and Spears

Historically, pikes and spears were used in blocks - everyone in a formation had it, including the guys in front. This has long been a question for me in MESBG: when you field an army like Arnor and everyone's got a spear (except maybe your Hobbit Archers or Rangers of Arnor), shouldn't there be some benefit for having a spear in the front rank? Early on in my MESBG days (back when it was LOTR SBG), I was like, "Well, cavalry always had problems charging into ranks of spears and pikes, so what if we turned off cavalry bonuses?" That was . . . too powerful for 1pt/model. In recent years, I've recommended that at least one Legendary Legion (if not the rules period) should allow a bonus if a pikeman who hasn't move was charged, simulating the "brace for impact" strategy that pikes and spears have traditionally used. 

But after that article was released, we got the Knights of Dale profile in Defence of the North and suddenly, my crazy ideas didn't seem so crazy. Knights of Dale have the Active special rule Wall of Blades that says "This model gains a bonus of +1 To Wound when making Strikes with their spear against a model that charged them this turn." Getting a +1 To Wound while charging is pretty good - especially on a S3 model. So why is it that the elite guys in Dale are the only ones who have figured out that you can get +1 To Wound by standing still? I mean, we see people sending out a hedge of spears in Minas Tirith, Erebor, and Mirkwood - why can other factions not have something similar?

While I think every faction that has a spear or pike getting +1 To Wound would be a bit crazy, I do think there's something here, so I propose the following variant of Wall of Blades be added to the general spear rules: a model armed with a spear or pike that is supported by at least one other spear-armed or pike-armed model and hasn't moved this turn gains a bonus of +1 To Wound when making Strikes with their spear against a model that has charged them this turn. Knights of Dale gain two advantages over this rule from their Wall of Blades rule because they can gain the +1 To Wound without being supported and they can gain the +1 To Wound even if they've moved. This rule would make spear-blocks and pike-blocks leery of just charging into an enemy spear block and might encourage harassing the enemy with skirmish models.

While this one might be a bit controversial, I don't think the next one will be . . .

Rule #3: Bow Classes

Okay, one of the best things about the new edition of the game is that they standardized a bunch of rules - for example, instead of Elven heroes having the Lineage of the Firstborn special rule that gave them all Terror, they got Terror. Having to do two lookups was silly, and while there are still things that do this (you pay for an Elven Cloak that gives Stalk Unseen . . . it's a little different since it's equipment that gives rules, but still), the rules team has done a fantastic job of minimizing the number of lookups we need to do to know what something does - it's clear when you read it.

Except when it comes to shooting weapons. For some reason, while special rules got the pair-down, ranged equipment didn't. I mean, consider the following weapon types:

• 6" range S3 throwing weapons: throwing daggers, throwing axes
• 18" range S2 bows: shortbows, Orc bows
• 18" range S3 bows: Dwarf bows, Uruk-Hai bows
• 24" range S2 bows: bows, Dwarf Long Bows
• 24" range S3 bows: longbows, Elf bows, Esgaroth bows

I think these five categories could be fixed - change all throwing daggers/axes to "throwing weapons", change all Orc bows to "short bows", change all Dwarf/Uruk-Hai bows to "composite bows" or "heavy short bows", change Dwarf Long Bows (why was there a space in there to begin with?) to "bows", and change Elf bows and Esgaroth bows to "longbows". It's simple - it cuts the chart in half and across the races you know exactly what they are.

A quick note on throwing spears: throwing spears currently have an 8" range at S3 and cost more than most throwing weapons for that increase in range. Personally, I think the increase in price is good, but they should just have the standard rules for spears and have the same range as other throwing weapons (just like they used to). Your thoughts welcome on that - but you may want to hold them until we talk about . . .

Rule #4: Bow Limits (and Costs)

Bow limit is an artificial construct in this game - most armies can only get 33% bows, some can get 50% bows, some armies/Legions can get all-bows, and SOME lists have models that "don't count towards your bow limit", so you can spam them sometimes but not at other times. For most armies, it isn't complicated, but for some it is - and even when you have your everyday 33% bow limit, new players often ask on the Facebook groups if you round up or down (it's in the book, but . . . you know . . . it's buried in a book full of rules). 

It's been proposed by players like Matt Iverson that ranged weapons should just be more expensive and that bow limit should be removed entirely - this would eliminate an artificial limitation on the game, make players pay more for shooting units (which can be oppressive), and most importantly, allow you to run all-bow armies with basically everyone if you're willing to pay the points for them. Last week, I talked about changing the Galadhrim Guard upgrade to allow Galadhrim Warriors to not count towards your bow limit when brought with Haldir (with heavy armor) or Galadhrim Captains (without mounts) to simulate the Deeping Wall relief force sent from Lothlorien - this is something you can't do right now (at least, not without my recommended change), but could be done with one simple change: increase the cost of ranged weapons that have more than 12" range (and units that begin with ranged weapons that have more than 12" range) on warriors by 2 points and on heroes by 10 points.

Some of the biggest things shaking up the meta right now are shooting lists - Uruk-Hai crossbowmen at 11pts/model are expensive, but in the Assault Upon Helm's Deep LL, they can be fielded en masse because of how cheap your heroes are (and how many guys they can lead). Similarly, Moria Goblin Warriors with Orc bows cost only 5pts/model and can be fielded en masse (now up to the number of Orcs in your army) in the Assault on Lothlorien list to deadly effect. I recommended increasing the cost of Galadhrim Warriors by 2pts/model to get them not to count towards your bow limit - and I think if all bow-armed models costed 2pts more per model, you'd see a very organic 33% limit on bows across all armies (or drastically reduced army sizes) without an actual bow limit in place.

Building on what we discussed last time, you could field Haldir and 15 bow-armed Elves for about 300 points if you increased their cost by 2 points/model (and you can currently do a similar thing with Legolas and 15 Mirkwood Rangers for about 325pts without any rules changes, so long as you keep the Halls of Thranduil army bonus or run the Rangers of Mirkwood Legendary Legion) - and you could field a Captain with 12 bow-armed Elves for about 250 points. Would it be oppressive to face almost 30 bow shots at around 600 points? Sure - but this is a thing now. How do most people solve it? By running lots of models (or high defense models) and charging those Elves (I mean, they just have Haldir and a Captain - and they're all D5, so they'll die easily).

When this is applied to those Legions that are shaking up the meta with their archery, it becomes even more apparent: Rangers of Gondor would go up to 10pts/model, Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows would be 13pts/model, and Moria Goblin Warriors would go up to 7pts/model - for every 3-4 bowmen you take, you're losing a guy (and probably a higher defense guy, since he could be taking a shield). Could you see an army of just Uruk-Hai crossbows? Yes - but your current strategies for dealing with archery-heavy lists (ridiculously high model counts, fast armies, or Blinding Light) would not only work better against these lists (because they'd be smaller), but you'd have much less to worry about once you got there.

I'm not sure that blowpipes or throwing weapons need the points increase - their shorter range means that you generally need to endure one round of shooting before you close, so their oppressiveness isn't felt as much. Long-range weapons (18" or more) can be absolutely oppressive - especially if there's a river that needs to be walked through or if there's ground that needs to be climbed. As such, I think the 1pt/model for these weapons should remain the same, but longer-range weapons should cost more.

While we're here, I'd like to sneak in some related changes: throwing daggers for Wood Elf Warriors should only be 1 point/model - and throwing spears for Warg Riders should be 2 points/model. I don't know who has it out for Wood Elf Warriors, but no other model in the game pays 2 points/model for a 6" range S3 throwing weapon. No one does - and Dwarf Rangers have a 3+ shoot value, so don't say that it's because they have a better shoot value than anyone else (and rules writers, please don't increase the cost of throwing axes on my beloved Dwarf Rangers just because I brought them up). 

Additionally, Warg Riders don't hit very often with their throwing spears, but they can still get throwing spears for cheaper than anyone else. In previous versions of the game, these guys couldn't use their throwing spears when on foot (I don't mind that this has changed), so having them cost 1 point/model was fine by me - but now that they can use them on foot, it just doesn't seem right to me that they should be able to get +2" of range for the same cost as other factions pay for normal throwing weapons (and for 1pt less than a Wood Elf Warrior). Okay, I got that off my chest - let's wrap this up with a discussion on one of my favorite elements of the game (besides throwing weapons): casting magic.

Rule #5: Casting Magic

There are some armies in the game that have oppressive magical powers (Angmar's got a few different options, the Black Riders Legendary Legion thrives on its magic, and the White Council/Vanquishers of the Necromancer Legendary Legion are full to brimming with magical power), but for most factions, you're likely to see one or no casters in the list. This is probably because magic, at its core, is finnicky - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. 

As I've written about before, the sequence of casting and resisting favors the defender in many ways (the resister wins ties, the caster needs to get his "final result" before the resisting model rolls a single die, and if the spell is resisted, the resources spent by the caster are wasted, to include any Might spent channelling the spell or boosting the result). The only "advantage" the casting model has is that in most cases, the caster has more Will points to spend casting spells than the resister has Will to resist spells (many heroes have 1-2 Will points, which are likely to be eaten up attempting to resist a single spell). Of course, if the defender gets a natural 6 to resist on a Will point he spent (not a free Will point, like you might get from the Resistant to Magic special rule or the Fortify Spirit magical power), he gets that Will point back . . . yeah, casting magic is a risk - a huge risk.

But why is it that if you get a natural 6 on your resist check you get it back and you don't get the Will back on a natural 6 to cast? I know Brorgir gets it back - and Elf Stormcallers get all the Will they spent back if they get at least one natural 6 - but why isn't getting Will back on a natural 6 when you spend Will to cast or resist a magical power just part of the rules? Yes, you might see Barrow-Wights getting an extra Paralyze attempt or two - and that would be nasty. Yes, the Witch-King might be able to cast/fight a bit longer than usual thanks to that reroll from the Crown of Morgul - and that would be nasty. Could Druzhag or Ashrak be able to do more than they currently do? Possibly, yes. But there are many casters (any of the Combat mages, most of the Multi-Purpose Will mages, all the auxiliary mages) who can go from doing 1-2 things to having the potential for doing more who would benefit. And I think it makes the game a bit more consistent (6s are good - get natural 6s if you can).

Conclusion

Some of these changes might be a bit controversial - and that's okay. If you think I went overboard on any of them, let me know in the comments below! With some profiles and general rules behind us, our next post in this series tackles the all-too-commonly-critiqued Legendary Legions. While I and the guys here at TMAT have made remarks about the many changes we'd make to the Legendary Legions that have been released so far, I'll distill my discussion down to the five that I think need the most fixing - and as I've tried to do so far, I'll try to keep my changes small (but the impacts big and balanced). Until next time, happy hobbying!