Postby Julian » Wed Jul 08, 2015 4:24 pm
I've seen both methods, the points can be thrown off with certain units, and of course there are the rumors that GW will be putting in some balancing information later.
It is upsetting they did not include a way to balance the armies but I also didn't have to spend $85 for a rulebook and $50 for a codex so I could easily see in the future the rules being modified on the fly since they are free everyone can download the most updated version.
The 'friendly' game setup for me works well. We both bring what we have and counter deploy trying to drop something that matches what your opponent just put down. If everyone has a few heroes, a wizard, a monster, some war machines, and then infantry the game tends to balance itself out and if you play a game and something seems overpowered the games go fast and that unit can not be taken the next game or taken with something extra added to help counter it (yes, I would not take an overly powerful unit against an opponent that can't counter it, that's how I choose to play, to me some of my least fun games are when I just steamroll over the other player due to tactics, dice, army comp, etc) I'd rather play a close game that I lose than win a one sided match.
The part I like most is the removal of the 1+, 2+ saves, everything can wound everything else and every melee seems to result in removed models (there were just too many close combat tarpit fights in 8th where nothing got accomplished, if it was away from the rest of the battle it was annoying at times to go do the rolls remove 1-2 models on each side, declare a tie combat and move on). There are some unfair matchups, don't put your core troops up against a monster, they may wound it a bit but will probably get wrecked (or do it to tie it up and peel a few wounds off it so your hero or monster killing unit can come finish it off) but it depends on your tactical choices. Shooting is very relevant, no more shooting a whole unit of archers to kill 2 models (still can happen but these kills count against battleshock as well). Cavalry is nasty on the charge, as it should be.
All in all I find it fun and I like that if some army I don't collect puts out a cool unit of models I can grab em, paint em, and get em on the table for a game alongside what I do have. I do hope some sort of balancing/list creation guide comes down the line but even if GW doesn't do it the players will.