Have Forgeworld must Play

I have had it with GW and Forgeworld. My beef this time around is not with the models or even the rules produced by either. The problem is nothing meshes together. FW makes models and rules, GW makes models and rules, they are both under the same umbrella as a company but you can't really use the FW stuff in a GW game. The reason normally given for this is, 'The Forgeworld books are not widely available, so we can't include them in the regular game.' and 'The Forgeworld rules are not as well tested as the regular GW rules so they will upset the balance of the game.' What a pair of BS answers. The one that makes my head want to explode is this one, 'Work it out with your opponent before the game.' So lets get this right, I give my opponent the ability to veto my list because he doesn't like FW stuff. Can I do this in the next game where I am facing 3 Landraider or the latest leaf blower IG list? Of course not, it would be silly to even ask. Something has to change. Forgeworld should be allowed in any game.

So why the push to get it in? For starters the models are cool. Most gamers are impulsive and buy models based on their look more than their tactical ability. Being a Tau player I have a set of heavy marker/gun drones. Are they any good, not really, they are somewhat of a waste of a heavy slot but they look cool and dwarf the regular drones. By the same token the new XV9 suites and commander are down right deadly and a much needed boost to and out of date codex. Looks at the Chaos Drop Pod. What Chaos player would not want to place one of those on the table. Sorry, its rules are slightly different than the normal ones so you can't use it.

Next up the rules availability. I can here the whining now, the books are too expensive. Right, and how much did you spend amassing the 5000 point army you are running now or the third army you have started this year, not played but started. You bought that crappy Planetstrike book, you subscribe to the 50+ page add book know as White Dwarf and some of you actually bought the collectors edition 40K rule book. The Apoc 1 & 2 books, stick them in your bag, take it with you to the game store and start playing. Even better most of the new stuff gets released as experimental PDF rules before the book comes out. Use it until the book is finally released.

I have the rules and they are bad, the point balances are off and the force organizing is useless. Bad rules are what makes 40K, well 40K. The rules have always been bad, full of wholes and designed to sell models instead of play the game. This is the GW way. With the spotty, staggered release dates, army of the week mentality and needing to sell stuff this is never going to change but we still play the game. At least this way you can keep the number of units growing somewhat to open up new tactics and ways of play. Sure there are a few out there that are royally scary like the dreadnought assault drop pod but still that is no reason to make a blanket statement that all FW stuff is bad.

Bottom line is this, it is a game. Why limit the fun by kicking out a whole segment of figs because of a few bad units. Let them in and expand on the gaming universe. Raise the game play bar a little and see what happens.