Since the last time I wrote about this it ended up on Digg and people thought I had something against the game itself, I just want to begin by saying that I think 5th edition is the best so far. Instances where there used to be two or three minor variations on the one mechanic – weapons that used the flamethrower template hit everything they touched, but weapons that used the circular blast template could miss things they were only partially covering if you rolled a 3 or less, for example – now use the same rule every time. It’s also much less arbitrary and more intuitive, so, for example, rather than having to work out whether a unit is visible by using tables and height categories, you simply look from the perspective of the attacker and decide if they’re sufficiently obscured or not. Changes like this mean you’re forced to cooperate with your opponent rather than play purely to win, which is going to be a problem in competitive tournaments unless they start giving every table its own referee, but will also make friendly games faster and easier to manage. It’s become less competitive and more role play-like, with the emphasis on playing with people rather than against them. This is a wise move, since the creative, world-building aspect has always been the primary drawcard, not the mechanics. The artwork is beautiful, ditching the remnants of the older “embarrassing, self-consciously gritty comic book from 1993″ look and turning into William Hogarth meets Heironymous Bosch.
Good. Right. Cocks. Read the rest of this entry »
