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Death Korps of Krieg

 Post subject: Death Korps of Krieg
PostPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:22 pm 
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1- Agreed. Though my version doesn't have Ignore Cover as that never passed a vote. I feel it's overpowered, although as it lacks Ignore Cover, not by as much.

2 - Assume the crew are sheltering behind the large gun shield.

3 - It wouldn't be a terrible thing if these went up by 25pts.

4 - They are in the list, you buy them as an upgrade for heavy gun platforms.

5 - Gorgons are about right for price. They're absolute deathtraps, and the short range of their weapons means it's unlikely you'll ever fire them when doing anything except Double-moving. They also help compensate for the fact that the main infantry companies are intentionally slightly overpriced.

6 - Thanks for finding those two typos. Trust me, there were many, many more in the past. :)





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 Post subject: Death Korps of Krieg
PostPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:36 pm 
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3 - Up in price or down in stats, two ways of bringing balance to the force.

5 - Try using them in-game. They have the ranged fire abilities of one-shot Griffons (Undoubtedly the worst choice in the IG list), and suffer from the same limitations (They are attached to an infantry formation that will never sustain fire). Their only use is in acting as a short-range battlefield taxi, or by moving to the front of the formation during an engagement to provide an armour save.

There's no way that they're worth more than 50pts each, despite their imposing appearance, they're really paper tigers.

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 Post subject: Death Korps of Krieg
PostPosted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:20 pm 
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5. Trust me, the Gorgons have been more extensively tested than anything else in the list, they're not worth more than 50pts.

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 Post subject: Death Korps of Krieg
PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:45 am 
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Hi Ben,

I've had a detailed look through the list in advance of our game on Tuesday and have some constructive criticism I would like to offer. First though, great work on the doc, looks really good. Nice background stuff too.

Obviously I am yet to play a game against this army but I've got some comments just based on looking at the list itself. During the rough and tumble of a battle it's often quite hard to assess things anyway, there's generally plenty of other things to be thinking about!

First thing, I would say there are just too many different units available to the list. As a sub-list of regular IG I personally think it makes sense to limit the number of different units available in order to give the army a stronger individual character of its own. And using seigemasters as the closest example they have much fewer options available to them.

Re the list, I like the general structure. Requires one to take a fairly balanced force. Some of the points costing I'm not too sure about though:

Centaurs - not sure if I'm reading this right, but I think it says 8 centaurs for 50 points. I think as a rule a unit should cost as least 10 points each, and that assumes the unit is REALLY bad. Centaurs are actually fairly reasonable; very fast, transport and a weapon.

Hydra platforms - seem underpriced

Gorgons - I'm with Hena, these are definitely underpriced

Leman Russ - the costing of all the variants is too low. IG pay 650 for 10. That includes a discount for a big formation. They pay 200 for 3. That makes regular Leman Russ 65-70 points IMO. Then adjust the other accordingly.

Warhound - maybe adjust this for the revised costing, not sure what your policy is here

Using seigemasters as the closest comparison, there are a number of discrepancies on stats:

Thudd guns, mortars and all the platforms should have a cc of nil and an armour of nil. These units are sitting ducks. Which is why they should generally be behind gun emplacements. I don't think they deserve to have a save. I think a close combat roll makes little sense either.


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 Post subject: Death Korps of Krieg
PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 1:04 am 
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I actually wrote the above post earlier this week, pre playing the game. I have now played against the army with my balanced Ork army (I lost, well played Ben!). I really enjoyed the game. The Death Korps have a really unique feel to them what with the trenches and the close combat orientation. I liked the bit when they went over the top and started bashing up my big guns!

In terms feedback, I still think the Gorgons are well underpriced. The -1 to hit they gave to your infantry was a really tangible benefit. And the one-shot barrage weapon was very effective (I really like the concept of this weapon). After doing some thinking I figured the closest comparison is the ork battlewagon. These are 125 points in the list (though perhaps a bit overpriced) and they don't even have reinforced armour! Weaponary is somewhat comparable, though CC, FF and speed are better. In any event they fulfill a similar function and if anything Gorgon's extra armour makes it better at this function. I also don't like the fact that you can turn the Gorgon into a fearless unit with a commissar as this makes it really hard to get off the table (think BTS  as well).


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 Post subject: Death Korps of Krieg
PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 1:12 am 
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Now we've actually played the game (And I had a chance to discuss some of your points in person), how do you feel it went?


IIRC your line about Leman Russ costing is a new comment.


65-70


65-66.6 actually, never as high as 70.


It's worth remembering that when you pay 65pts, you get one Vanquisher for FREE. IMHO that is more broken than any of the Leman Russ points costs in the DK list.






For posterity, here's my original reply from our club's forum:


First thing, I would say there are just too many different units available to the list.



IIRC the list has less units than the regular IG list; The major area where it has more choice is in Super-Heavy tanks, and this is largely only due to the fact that when Epic was released, SG and FW were having a spat, and SG refused to support any of the FW models in the official rules.

Thus we ended up with the terrible 'collectors' pages in the rulebook, with badly-thought out stats and no points costs, and a dearth of 'official' unit types.

There's nothing inherently unbalancing about the unit selection present in this army list, as ~50 playtest games have shown the list to be underpowered if anything.



Centaurs - not sure if I'm reading this right, but I think it says 8 centaurs for 50 points.

Check their armour save, and the fact that they're light vehicles. Cool

One or two lost vehicles essentially cripples a Storm Trooper formation for a full turn, potentially a full game?



Hydra platforms - seem underpriced

Note that they're 'light vehicles' rather than armoured vehicles, which means you can shoot them with AP weapons as well as AT.



Death Riders - there's no extra cost on these for their scouting ability. Maybe consider limiting to 1 formation per army if you want to maintain this costing.

The Death Rider platoon (6 bases) can scout, but there's no extra cost because they have scout in the core rule book for the same points cost?

The Death Rider company cannot scout, so they recieve a small points discount (But note that amazing 6+ save, heh).



Gorgons - I'm with Hena, these are definitely underpriced

They're death traps with popguns? the first time you destroy one (And simultaniously kill ~8 stands of infantry) you'll learn that they're definitely not underpriced.

Note as well the high initial points cost for the infantry companies.

It's good to remember that Hena (From the Tactical Command forum) tends to stick to his beliefs about rules balance even when proven wrong repeatedly; I'll say it again for clarity, the Death Korps list has been repeatedly shown to be slightly underpowered.

Now I don't mind that, because my ethos of army development is to start underpowered and slowly power up until its win/loss ratio is acceptable?

The sheer ammount of 6+ save units in this army list (As opposed to 4+ re-rollable saves) compared with a comparative lack of slots available for artillery means that the Death Korps list is a heck of a lot less powerful than the Siegemasters list? because even though the Siegemasters list has less unit types, they're also consistantly underpriced and overpowered across the board (The Siegemasters are second only to the Eldar in the ammount of nerfs they took in the 2008 handbook), which led to them being probably the most overpowered army in Epic when first released.





Warhound - maybe adjust this for the revised costing, not sure what your policy is here

The Mossino Campaign was put out before the 2008 handbook was finalised? assume that the handbook's points cost and stat modifications take priority (For example Demolisher cannons regained Ignore Cover late in the process, which also is not represented in the current DK list).



Thudd guns, mortars and all the platforms should have a cc of nil and an armour of nil. These units are sitting ducks. Which is why they should generally be behind gun emplacements. I don't think they deserve to have a save. I think a close combat roll makes little sense either.

IIRC the saving throw of a Thudd gun is the same as it is in the Swordwind book (No saving throw at all).

The only difference in stats should be that instead of
having no CC attack, they can make one on a 6+, as they are crewed by Death Korps infantry (Who are better at CC than normal guardsmen).

For the stationary platforms? well they are 'light vehicles'? that puts them in the same armour class as a Sentinel.

In 40k, the armour stats of a stationary basilisk platform are decently superior to that of a Sentinel, I don't see why the Sentinel should get a 6+ save in Epic, yet the platforms (Which are supposed to have better armour) should be given no save at all?





Hydra platform, maybe adjust down the AP? This gun is designed primarily to take down aircraft.

The stats of the Hydra's platform's gun are taken directly from the Chimera-borne Hydra from the core rulebook.

Remember that it's immobile unless I also use some trojan transports, and consequentially likely will never shoot at anything except aircraft.







I'd love it if you could post this over on Tactical Command when you can, so the locals there can weigh in with their thoughts.











Our game ended in a 2-0 victory to me. We chatted after the game and I pointed out an easy way that Nick could have forced a turn 4, and an easy victory thereafter (I had only two combat effective formations remaining*** plus 3 basilisks, whilst he had an unscathed Gargant with 2 power fields remaining, plus a decent chunk of his army that was likely to pass its rally rolls, two fighter bommers and a landa...)

As I said on the evening, I think it was tactical error on your part that lost you the game, because you sustained fire with your Gargant on the last turn instead of moving fowards to stop me from claiming 'They Shall Not Pass'.





*** A Death Rider company, perched right in LOS of his Gargant, and a Storm Trooper platoon in a Gorgon, again in front of his Gargant. :)





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 Post subject: Death Korps of Krieg
PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 1:22 am 
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(NickRice @ Feb. 23 2008,00:04)
QUOTE
In terms feedback, I still think the Gorgons are well underpriced. The -1 to hit they gave to your infantry was a really tangible benefit. And the one-shot barrage weapon was very effective (I really like the concept of this weapon). After doing some thinking I figured the closest comparison is the ork battlewagon. These are 125 points in the list (though perhaps a bit overpriced) and they don't even have reinforced armour! Weaponary is somewhat comparable, though CC, FF and speed are better. In any event they fulfill a similar function and if anything Gorgon's extra armour makes it better at this function.

I aknolwleged that the Gorgons are cheap as compared to other armies, but this (I believe) has been accounted for by overcosting the infantry companies.

If the price of the Gorgon changes, the following will have to happen:

- Price of Gorgon increased (Let's say to 100pts)

- Price of Infantry Companies decreased (By a comparable 100pts, as that's the cost difference when buying two Gorgons to carry them).

- In an infantry-heavy army (Let's say 4 companies), you now have 400 extra points to spend.


If you don't spend that windfall on Gorgons (As before), you'll now have an extra two... Shadowswords, let's say.

The army list was designed to have very expensive core companies to avoid the problem that plagued the Siegemasters army list... lists with no mobile units, but ~18 cheap infantry / artillery formations.

It's a monster, it's unstoppable, and I priced the infantry companies high to stop it happening.


I also don't like the fact that you can turn the Gorgon into a fearless unit with a commissar as this makes it really hard to get off the table (think BTS  as well).


In our game, I had 3 Gorgons on the table, and you killed two of them (With ease, I might add).

Having a Commissar in a Gorgon (Something I'd never considered until you suggest it I admit) is no different to having a Commissar in a Baneblade.

As the formation would be infantry + two war engines, mixed weapon formations like Leman Russ tank companies should eat the fearsome Commissar's Gorgon for breakfast. :)




I would love to play you again with the list, or even to swap armies some time so I can play against it!





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