Two days, two rants.
So today I talk about Planet Strike and how it failed to live up to its hype.
First off, the good.
1- Cool terrain. All if it is pretty nice and easily combinable with the Cities of Death stuff.
2- Interesting new way to play. Definately puts a new spin on the game of 40k.
The bad:
1- Terrain. Wait? Didn't I just say it was cool. Why yse I did. Here is a cookie for you. Just because it is cool though doesn't make it good. Remember Cities of Death? Maybe. Have you ever played Cities of Death? No. Why? Because it required you to spend money on terrain rather than more 40k. Who wants to do that honestly? So many different things. You needs a bunch of bastions, all sorts of defense lines, turrets, landing pads. You could probably get a decent 1500pt army for what you need to play planet strike, unless you make your own terrain. Though making your own probably costs as much as a 1500pt eBay army. Thats why Apocalypse is great. Past the rule book, it is free.
2- Not Even. Certain armies rape in Planetstrike while others blow hard. Don't even think of playing as the Tau. And there is very little in the book to try and even the playing feild. And don't say assets. Planet Strike has a poor asset system. Anyways, Deep Strikers win. Period. End of story. You land and assault. Done. If you can deep strike and have meltas, just save time by declaring victory when you arrive to the battle. Then have a popsicle to celebrate.
3- Gimmic. It really is the same gimmic battle each time. People often choose the same assets game to game. You deep strike. You punch buildings. What I really want is new Missions for normal 40k. Release an expansion on that GW. 5th ed is just so static. Yeah, there are the 'ard boyz missions, but those are designed for very competitive 2500 pt play. I have seriously dug up old codices and rule books to play those missions. ALL THE WAY BACK TO 3rd ED! (Which I recently re-aquired to much delight, more on that later).
4- Who plays it? I hear of a game every so often, but all in all, it doesn't get played that much. Why not? Because I can just play normal 40k or I can whip out some super awesome super heavies for Apoc, which is cooler anyways.
5- Force orgs. Why bother with these weird big force orgs. If I was using Force Orgs that big, I'd just play Apoc. Seriously. You could have made it like a fantasy system where you need x number of core for y number of points. Every 1000 pts, the numbers increase. Then you'd have your precious ratios correct without these silly huge force org charts that really only restrict apocalypse sized armies.