Thoughs on our psychic phase dominance

[Holier Than Thou]

No one is thinking that rule of one shouldn't exist or that our SMITE should'd be nerved. 

Simply our IC should have the normal version of smite, as TS IC.

I fully believe the Rule of One, as it is now, should not exist.

 

An army that dominates the shooting phase isn't restricted to only shooting with each weapon type once. An army that dominates the assault phase isn't restricted to only attacking with each weapon type once. Why should Psychic Powers be any different?

[Seizeman]

Because without the rule of one you loose a lot of design space. If the rule did not exist, we would just spam sanctuary and vortex, pretty much ignoring every other power, and become a very unidimensional army. Those powers would then have to be nerfed, and the whole psychic phase would become boring. By only being able to use one of each power per turn, it forces players to think where to use each one to maximise its potential, instead of just spamming one. The limitation allows the designers to create interesting and powerful powers without fear of creating an unbalance. This way, psychics are powerful and very attractive, but not spammable, which I think shows good design.

 

The recent faq about flyers serves the same purpose. Thanks to it, flyers are powerful and attractive, but you can't take too many of them, so a certain balance is mantained. Without that rule, you would have to either let flyer spam exist (like the stormraven spam we had recently), which is unhealthy for the game, or nerf them to unplayability, wich is also unhealthy.

[Reclusiarch Darius]

Yeah after playing GK on the table, I think the matched play restrictions are quite reasonable. Certain psychic powers/strategems are borderline OP as a one of, they'd completely break the game if they could be spammed relentlessly (which is why I'd avoid Open/Narrative play like the plague). I was initially very annoyed at the Psychic Focus rule, now I think it should be extended to normal Smite. 

 

Smite spam alone makes GK very powerful. Doing 1 auto wound doesn't sound like much, but its additional casualties/damage that can rarely be prevented (requires usually an enemy psyker to be in range, a strategem, or some kind of defensive ability like DR). When you bring lots of GK squads, it starts to add up quite fast. Even against normal units, those extra casualties prior to shooting help a lot, especially against stuff with high Toughness or excellent saves.

[Sweetcurse]

Then there's that fluffy Nova winning AM list with 6 Primaris psykers throwing that many regular smites while bubble wrapped making my GK army feel like a bunch of chumps. I get and agree with the nerfed smite, but seems others can throw around as many or more full smites a turn.

[Gentlemanloser]

I disagree that our smite spam is op.

 

Normal smite spam (from 55 point inquisitors) is for sure. 18" d3/d6 is hideous.

 

Our 12" d1 is more of a bonus really. Against the units were going to be storm boltering, you're just taking another 1w mini off before you drop 20 / 40 storm bolters and annihilate that squad anyway.

 

And chipping wounds off big guys is ok, but there's a lot of FnP out there. And when you see your GMNDK doing 20 wounds in the fight phase. Well a few mortal wounds (that can be denied, can be forced into chaff targets) doesn't seem a problem.

 

Drop 10 inquisitors, have them ride razors and ravens. And abuse the character immunity. And 20 to 35 mortal wounds a turn. That's a different story.

 

Normal smite should probably get some restrictions.

 

Ours shouldn't.

Edited September 8, 2017 by Gentlemanloser