7th ed rule discussions
Today I wanted to talk a bit about the Insane Courage rule. This was the one rule that David Bowman pointed out that he didn't like about the game. So I thought I might delve into it a bit to see what he was talking about.
Now I've played for many years using this rule. We've called it the gentlemans rule. It didn't apply to fear breaking but any other we did.
So I did not see the harm in it. But lets take a closer look at the rule.
1. It states that no matter how badly you lose, you can always stay on a double 1.
2. And anyone is allowed this even if outnumbered by fear causers.
Who does this rule hurt?
1. He has to hurt anyone who never runs away. Why, because they do not benefit from it at all. All it can do is hurt them. So any undead armies, daemon units/armies, unbreakable units such as swarms, slayers, flagelants, spawn, etc..
2. What armies does it help the most?
A1 answer here has to be Lizardmen. The ability to roll 2 1's on 3d6 is a heck of a lot easier than rolling 2 1's on 2 d6. Difference is 7.4% compared to 2.7% or almost 3 times as often. So Lizardmen are really helped with this rule.
Now add in the BSB nearby and the odds go up a lot more.
Others that are helped are anyone else that runs any army with guys who can break from comat.
So the rule is not even/fair across the board. Some might even call this the Lizardman rule.
But which type of players does it help more.
1. You cannot really use this as a stratagy. You can't say, "I'm going to run these slaves up against the skeletons and count on that 2 1's to keep me there." That would be rediculous. You could, but it would only work once in 36 tries.
2. As a fear user, you cannot count on him auto-breaking any more. 35 of 36 times he will, but just when you need it, he won't break.
3. So who does it help the most. It helps the lucky dice roller who doesn't really know what he's doing but lucky dice will keep you in the game.
So I think I'm jumping on board with David on this rule. It will occasionally screw up your best laid plans, but it will rarely help you out.
Good luck
posted by Ben at 12:49 PM
2 Comments:
Well for one thing I don't think it always helps you that you hold, playing skaven I hope to break almost as often as I hope to hold. So this "bonus" can be a double edged sword for the armies who "benefit".
But of course my lizards rarely want to break from combat so they wont complain.
But apart from that warhammer is a game of dice, I find undead and to some extend deamons to be a bit boring because they cut down on the random factors that is a big part of the game. Never breaking themselves and autobreaking enemies, it's just too predictable.
Insane Courage have put a little bit of randomness back in the undeads and I like that.
For any fear causers I guess that in 99.9% of all combats they will have a greater chance to fluff their attacks than winning with enough to force an Insane Courage test and then see the snake eyes come up. So for non-fear causers the change is minimal IMO.
Just some thoughts.
Cheers - Overhamsteren
I think Insane Courage is terrible. It increases the luck factor over the skill factor. There will always be a significant luck factor, but it shouldn't be increased.
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