Escalation and 40k Tournaments

In case you haven't heard yet, two new books have been released by Games Workshop.  Stronghold Assault is the first, and it adds new fortification options.  Escalation is the second, and it adds Super Heavies to the "normal" 40k ruleset (e.g. Baneblades, Stompas, Eldar Revenant, etc).  

This has caused quite an uproar, to put it mildly.  Naturally, I wondered how this is going to affect our local tournament scene.  I'm going to refrain from putting any of my own opinions in this post and instead post up relevant articles and discussions going on right now around the community.  I'll update this periodically when I find something interesting to put up.  Feel free to add your own comments/opinions below.  I will eventually write up my own opinion and add it to the rest.

This is pretty big, and potentially a very impactful topic.  If you are at all interested in tournaments, I encourage you to do some of the reading about what people are saying.

Links

Sir Biscuit, Feast of Blades tournament
http://www.3plusplus.net/2013/12/feast-of-blades-will-be-enacting-restrictions-and-bans/

Reece Robins, Las Vegas Open tournament and also Frontline Gaming
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/566740.page
http://www.frontlinegaming.org/2013/12/08/were-not-prepared-to-repel-firepower-of-that-magnitude/

Adam B., the Dice Abides blog
http://www.frontlinegaming.org/2013/12/10/guest-editorial-on-escalation-by-adam-b-from-the-dice-abide/

TastyTaste, Blood of Kittens network
http://bloodofkittens.com/blog/2013/12/09/gw-apologist-escalating/

I will continue to update this as I find more interesting things to read...

Warhammer World's Throne of Skulls, currently just a rumor via Faiet212
http://natfka.blogspot.com/2013/12/throne-of-skulls-bans-will-escalation.html

Definitely a cause for discussion for local gaming tournaments...

So now Warhammer tourneys will now go the route of Magic the Gathering and have tournaments decide what they want to ban from "competitive" play. GW cares nothing for tourney play nor will they sponsor anything outside of World of Battle or maybe Games Day so this whole idea of "game balance" is flawed. I think once people test these things out they will find ways to fit any and all of these items into games. One of the reasons I played Magic and now play Warhammer (both fantasy and 40k) is that I like to see the new things people come up with in their lists and the thrill of a fight with something new. Like I saw in almost 20 years of Magic play, and over 10 competitive, the top players will change and adopt new strategies and the Chicken Little players who like to claim "the sky is falling" will complain until a TO gives them their way or they choose not to play. In the end it is a game to enjoy and if something beats you find a way to fight back. If you choose to take the beating and blame your loss on a model instead of the general who brought the list to the fight then here is to hoping you improve you skill someday. Take the loss and learn from it and find the means to counteract it. While these items look overpowered at first they have weaknesses to be exploited to and it is just a matter of time and effort to find these weaknesses. Now instead of waiting for a new codex I think I will find a way to get me a Stompa for my poor Orks who are thoroughly disrespected in tourney play and now get to bring real gunz, WAAGH!

baltak wrote:

So now Warhammer tourneys will now go the route of Magic the Gathering and have tournaments decide what they want to ban from "competitive" play.  GW cares nothing for tourney play nor will they sponsor anything outside of World of Battle or maybe Games Day so this whole idea of "game balance" is flawed.  I think once people test these things out they will find ways to fit any and all of these items into games.  One of the reasons I played Magic and now play Warhammer (both fantasy and 40k) is that I like to see the new things people come up with in their lists and the thrill of a fight with something new.  Like I saw in almost 20 years of Magic play, and over 10 competitive, the top players will change and adopt new strategies and the Chicken Little players who like to claim "the sky is falling" will complain until a TO gives them their way or they choose not to play.  In the end it is a game to enjoy and if something beats you find a way to fight back.  If you choose to take the beating and blame your loss on a model instead of the general who brought the list to the fight then here is to hoping you improve you skill someday.  Take the loss and learn from it and find the means to counteract it.  While these items look overpowered at first they have weaknesses to be exploited to and it is just a matter of time and effort to find these weaknesses.  Now instead of waiting for a new codex I think I will find a way to get me a Stompa for my poor Orks who are thoroughly disrespected in tourney play and now get to bring real gunz, WAAGH!

And this is why I'll make sure to bring 4 Riptides to help take it down.....oh....and some Baracuda's too.....