In order to help people along who are interested in starting new armies for 8th Edition, Brian and the Great Lakes Warhammer League have released their version 1.0 rules for Army Composition to be used in the League and GLWL Events. If you're interested in the league, I played last year for the first time and had a great time, winning my division but not scoring enough points to advance to the final tournament. You can check out the GLWL HERE.
Great Lakes Warhammer League (GLWL)
Summary of 2011 Army Composition & Magic Rules
Version 1.0
The following army composition and magic rules have been put in place to encourage
players to build 2500 point armies which are balanced in nature. It is the opinion of the
League Office that when all players participating in a competitive event build balanced
lists, the likelihood of getting a bad match-up based on the army list build (i.e. the “Rock /
Paper / Scissors” affect) is reduced and the enjoyment factor for the vast majority of
players participating in the event is increased.
GLWL Composition Rules
1) You may NOT include any Special Characters (e.g. Karl Franz, Teclis, Malekith, etc.),
or named unit champions (e.g. The Changeling, Kouran of the Black Guard, etc.), in an
army without prior approval of the League Office.
2) You may NOT duplicate Rare choices in an army, unless the units are 100 points or
less. For example, an Empire army may only include one Steam Tank.
3) You may include a maximum of 4 War Machine choices in an army. For example an
Orcs & Goblins army may field 2 Goblin Bolt Throwers (a 2 for 1 choice), 2 Goblin Rock
Lobbers (2 Special Choices), and a Goblin Doom Diver (a Rare Choice).
4) You may include a maximum of 3 units with Fly special rule in your army list.
Characters that have the Fly special rule or are riding mounts with the Fly special
rule do count against this limit!
5) You may include a maximum of 2 units with the Thunderstomp special rule in your
army list. Characters that have the Thunderstomp special rule or are riding mounts with
the Thunderstomp special rule do count against this limit!
GLWL Magic Rules
Power Dice You can use a maximum of 12 power dice in each magic phase, regardless
of the source.
Power Scrolls: Power Scrolls are banned. You may not include them in your army.
Questions ?
If you have any questions related to this document, please e-mail Brian @
mi_whplayers@yahoo.com
Booooooooo.
ReplyDelete1) I abhor this. Named characters are part of the game, now, woved into army lists. 40K's gotten over it; that Fantasy has this knee-jerk response that anything with a name is bad is something I find intensely frustrating.
2-3) I've been happy enough with the published army comp rules. These feel like they're imposed for the sake of imposing additional rules.
4) Eh? See above, I guess.
5) This strikes me as being pretty arbitrary. It's okay to load up on characters with TS, but not units? So it's okay to have Necromancers on Corpse Carts, but not unmanned Corpse Carts?
Magic Rules) Power dice explicitly contradicts the FAQs. Boo. Power Scrolls... they're in the book. Banning them is ridiculous.
I'm glad I'm not playing in this league: the additional comp rules strike me as being, at best, arbitrary. The game hasn't been out a freaking month; y'all should play the game, as published, for just a little while before layering more kruft on it.
As someone who is curious about WHFB, and as someone who lives in the Great Lakes State, I would appreciate an explanation behind these stipulations.
ReplyDeleteI'm not making any judgments; I am just curious.
enormous-noise.blogspot.com
You should send an email to Brian and ask.
ReplyDeletePersonally I haven't minded it. I assume it's based on his MANY years of running the GLWL, tournaments, participating and placing in comp'd tournaments, and his experience with 8th edition so far. The league isn't supposed to be 'Ard Boyz over the course of 6 weeks. It's fun to play against other balanced lists.
I may not agree with all of it, but I do see where he is coming from. Some of the special characters in Fantasy are down right game-breaking. I disagree that Special Characters are a part of Fantasy like they are in 40k. In 40k it is generally even EXPECTED.
The Rare thing, I can understand as being his experience. 2 Hell Pit Abominations, 2 Steam Tanks, 2 Hydras... etc. do not make for a fun and competitive leage. Like I said, it's not 'Ard Boyz. The same thing with 3 cannons, 3 grudgethrowers, 3 bolt throwers, and 2 organ guns in a single Dwarf list.
The magic phase restrictions I thought was interesting. Getting a Powewr Scrolled 13th Spell of first turn has one me the game on the first turn in 4 games already in 8th Edition. I can see why it was banned. The spell dice restriction I already felt the power of when facing Lizardmen. I am grateful for it, but I am sure there are plenty of Lizardmen, Dark Elves, etc who have issue.
So again, shoot Brian a civil email and ask him why. He is good about responding to emails fairly promptly.
Thanks for letting me know about this group! I will have to look into it more ...
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found it, it really is a good group of people.
ReplyDeleteWow, those rules just scream that he does not want to play the game that everyone else has agreed to play.
ReplyDeleteWhatever these rules are trying to do, I am sure that the Law of Unintended Consequences will have a field day.
Off the top of my head, I think that the limited number of warmachines means that a Beastman army that is rocking some chariot spam would do just great.
Also, by the rules, 4 DoomWheels would be just fine as they are not WarMachines, nor do they have Thunderstomp.
There is a limit on Rare selections over 100 points, so only 1 Doomwheel.
ReplyDeleteSorry, missed the one about the rare selection.
ReplyDeleteI was just trying to point out that the rules are arbitrary and can be easily manipulated by looking at what will not be there and planning accordingly.
While I can understand the first 5 rules trying to keep things balanced I don't understand the magic changes at all. Magic is the only thing appealing to me in WHF over playing a game of 40k. I thought 8th edition put every army on a more even keel. Seems too early to start banning stuff outright. In the end I don't really care as I don't play in the GLWL.
ReplyDelete