Field test the field test

On Tuesday, our normal WM night, a few of us tried a few small games of the new Mk II rules. I played two games, we decided that we should start small and we tried out the 25 point dual. This had two benefits. One it kept it to the two iconic items in the game, Jacks and Casters, and two the new warjack benefits were what we all were hoping would get a boost.

In both games I played Styker (6 'jack points) with Ol' Rowdy, Centurion, Lancer, Hunter (total of 30 points of Jacks)

Game one Phillip played Severious, Crusader, Character crusader, Repenter and shooty Menoth 'jack with the baseball bat. The game was good, except for the freaky bad damage dice rolls on each side of the table. Despite the bad rolls, the fire on Stryker burned him up in the end.

Second game was vs. Erik who played Kharchev, 2 Juggernauts, and Behemoth. This game was characterized by my inability to seal a deal. Loss for Cygnar.

Here are my general thoughts on the new warjack mechanics. I like them alot. To be more specific, their are a few items that I think make a huge difference in the game.

• Crippled weapons - The new rule does not take the weapon out, but forces you to roll one dice less for an attack. For hot Jack on Jack action, this is pretty much a non issue, especially with Ol' Rowdy with MAT 8 vs. Khador Jacks. A '1' misses anyways, so why boost at this point. It kept the 'jack useful for a few turns, plus forced the enemy to 'finish the job' instead of ignoring the 'Jack
• Crippled Movement, no longer forces 1" of movement. Just no charge/slam. This is great since it still gives you some mobility, especially in close quarters, but still gives the other guy the easier to hit.
• All systems to kill. Again, this was great. It forces the enemy to keep resources on target to finish the job. Old Rowdy with only two movement boxes versus Khador Jacks is still going to get a single big ass POW 18 hit off, Better be careful.

Next week I hope to tackle the units. I think these changes are going to be bigger to the mind set, but I think it will be doable.

Loss of Flavor. This seems to be the current buzz. I get that and to a point I agree. PP seemed to have cut the wonderful unique flavor of some units a bit too deep in the quest to simplify the number of unique powers. Is it going to ruin the game? I don't think so. I think the 'flavor' will come back when the art/story/color comes back instead of a play test booklet. PP's stance seems to be that the 'faction' still has flavor, which it does, but players, to include me, still loved our unit/solo/caster special flavor that enamoured us with the Iron Kingdoms. Time will tell what the impact is going to be, but I don't see a 'big' change in MkII units to add those items back.

More to follow...

jp
The Return of the Warjack!