"4th Edition Thought..." Topic

There's definitely some mixed reactions to the announcement of 4th Edition and I'm admittedly mixed in my own reaction.

However, there's one thing that Flames has over sci-fi or fantasy games, and that's the fact that they can't invalidate old figures in tournaments to prop up the sale of new figures. (I guess they could try, but that would be hard to enforce.)

You won't see, "Your old 1943 Soviet riflemen won't be allowed any more and replaced with the new peak eared riflemen with super PPSH's with chain saw tips."

I, for one, am thankful for that, as it's one thing to buy new rules, but a whole other level to require everyone to buy new miniatures to go along with them.

To be honest I can't for the life of me find any significant changes from 3rd edition to TY, but maybe I just don't play it enough.

TGerritson, you don't have an evil enough mind to sell rules and figures both.

Sell a bunch of Finns, Russians, winter scenery and early war rules for Third Edition. Now go to Fourth Edition. No new figures. No new scenarios. No update to the theater and army books, so everything is a little out of synch. Do North Africa or China instead. When Fifth Edition comes out--maybe Sixth--hit the Russo-Finnish stuff again. But change the companies so no existing army is quite right. Change the number of castings on a base. Then sell new army boxes to match the changes.
Oh. And somewhere around Sixth Edition discover the Platoon Sergeant, or the CSM. Separate stands--which no one has--and bonuses--which no one can do without. Get them included in your new army box, or pay extravagantly for blister packs of senior NCOs.

It's not as simple and straightforward as Squatting an army, but it gets you there.

That assumes I play with just Battlefront minis. Luckily, I don't.

To be honest, my initial reaction to the news was, "Well shouldn't I just wait for 5th Edition?"

However, I do like Team Yankee, and the notion of cards for units is appealing.

As it currently stands, the number of castings on a stand is irrelevant.

One thing Battlefront has done is to keep changing the design of current figures. Some will say that they liked the old castings better. In many cases, I agree.
They have also gone with plastic in almost all new releases.
I should note that this in no way invalidates figures and models one currently has.
So this is not like when I tried to get into Warhammer Fantasy and found out that my Forest Honkins no longer existed. All 150 of them! Nope. Battlefront can hardly deny the existence of Finns or Poles.
Nor can they change the design of a Pershing or T-34/85. Your old models will be just as good as ever, no matter the edition.

I used to make my own FoW cards (see link to my template below). By the way, for FoW I found merging the QRS with the unit stats was an even better solution. Kept paperwork to a minimum and off the table, and no searching for the right card.

Oh yes, I blew the QRS up into large type. It rant to 4 pages but when nicely bound was MUCH easier to use than either the cards or the QRS/books.

link

Hey thanks for the template Mark. That's good stuff.

I am, of course, not renowned for my good cheer and trusting attitude. That said:

--People who only sell rules and/or scenarios have a financial interest in them being useful to as many wargamers as possible, regardless of scale or basing.
--People who only sell figures have a financial interest in the figures being useful for a wide variety of rules.
--But people who sell both rules and figures have a financial interest in writing rules in such a way as to make you buy more figures and replacement scenarios.

I'm sure this is not always and everywhere their primary concern, but it is my default explanation for their behavior: someone has to demonstrate to me that it is not true in particular instances.

-But people who sell both rules and figures have a financial interest in writing rules in such a way as to make you buy more figures and replacement scenarios.

I'm sure this is not always and everywhere their primary concern, but it is my default explanation for their behavior: someone has to demonstrate to me that it is not true in particular instances.

OMG, the evil capitalists, only out to make a buck. Don't care about the poor customers.

Really, it's time for everyone to grow up.

I have no problem with capitalism in wargaming. After all, I'm the guy who's always saying that even one man band companies are businesses.
My problem is the expectation, nay the DEMAND, among fanboys is that I am expected to buy the newest edition because all the Cool Kids are.

I had a steep learning curve "forgetting" 2nd ed to play 3rd. In fact there's a few things I wish were brought along that weren't.
I am not looking forward to "forgetting" 3rd to play 4th, when 3rd is a perfectly good game as is.
As I noted previously, I have taken myself out of the voting in our group because I do not do tournaments any more. My friends who do tournaments are taking a wait and see attitude.

When I tried to download the files it gave me a "not found" and a 404 error. Anyone else have success?

My problem is the expectation, nay the DEMAND, among fanboys is that I am expected to buy the newest edition because all the Cool Kids are.

Who are these "Kool Kids?" Wargamers are all just geeks and nerds one way or another. You can't be "cool" if you are pushing around toy soldiers and you are even less cool when you are complaining about how people choose to push their own toy soldiers.

I am not looking forward to "forgetting" 3rd to play 4th, when 3rd is a perfectly good game as is.

Drive on with 3rd edition by all means! If it's working for you, great!

VB

Extra Crispy,

The files on your site are not found on your server (we get a 404 error).

My problem is the expectation, nay the DEMAND, among fanboys is that I am expected to buy the newest edition because all the Cool Kids are.

So you're miffed at BF because they have the temerity to issue a new edition which your gaming buddies will now want to play?

Maybe you should be miffed at your gaming buddies for not sticking with 3rd edition.

I tried to Flames of War but got to many headaches, my rules form Meccano Magzine are a lot more fun. It's amazing how many rule sets add complication and think it's like the real thing. Getting shot at causes two sensations wanting to run or getting pxxxxd off. Those feelings are hard to replicate by rolling dice.

Puddinhead, you have a rare talent for deliberately misunderstanding what people write.

I'm, for one, happy about this. 3rd Edition was always a pain to me, especially hit allocation. Team Yankee was a breath of fresh air! It kept the things that worked, tweaked others, and revamped a thing or two. Toss in the stat cards and you have a winner to me. I'm not a tourney player either… I want a clear, fun game and that's what 4th Edition looks like. At least to me anyway.

I would also point out that they are going through pains to ensure that your current armies are playable with this edition, so I'm not seeing the evil capitalist side of things here either. It seems like they've made a better game and want to support it.

YMMV