u/CitiesInHills

So far, I'm getting everything from my checklist for what I wanted from this game and I'd like to keep this trend going with my last remaining wish which is for us to get dedicated servers for MP campaigns and battles.

Like a lot of players, I have friends across the globe and peer-to-peer just doesn't work for connecting with my friends in Asia & Oceania. Every time I or those in my friend group have tried playing TW campaigns or custom battles with them, the gameplay devolves into a slideshow thanks to P2P. The game already has so much going for it and I would hate to see the same mistake made of the MP side being as neglected as it has been in past titles.

From the Steam page and the multiple recorded or transcribed dev interviews we've had so far, we know that the game will be taking more inspiration from the tabletop than its WHFB predecessor with the following:

• Player Customization:
  • Aesthetic customization
  • Faction & Army customization
    • Tactical Abilities, Traits, & Wargear
• Unit Leaders & Specialists
  • Unit Leaders such as sergeants leading a squad of intercessors
  • Intra-Unit Loadout Customization
• Cover Mechanics
• Stratagems such as orbital bombardments
• More Dynamic Deployment Zones
• Complex Mobility & Reinforcement
  • Deep Strike, Teleportation, Webway Gates, etc.
• Some form of mission objectives in battle

Given the strong focus on adapting complimentary elements from the tabletop, I have a few other things that I would hope to see adapted as I think that they could improve the gameplay experience considerably.

Firstly, I think that the traits you'll be selecting for a given army will be equivalent to detachments from tabletop. These detachments are getting a change in 11th edition to be something that you have the ability to mix and match, operating within a points system. So you have a max of 3 DP (detachment points) to spend for a typical 2000 point game and Detachments can range from 1 to 3 DP depending on their strength and the breadth of their effects. I would like for this mix and match system to be present when customizing our faction or our armies rather than being restricted to just choosing one trait.

Secondly, 11th edition is changing its mission system quite substantially. Previously, both players were restricted to playing the same exact mission type despite any difference in their army playstyles with a general focus on securing capture points and a largely random system for secondary objectives. Now, the detachments one chooses will affect something called the disposition of the army which is effectively the playstyle or playstyles that you would want to engage in with that specific army build & detachment(s). In addition to that the kind of objectives you need to accomplish are now linked to the combination of your disposition and your opponent's with each determining a set of bespoke objectives for you.

To give an example, let's say you're playing Orks vs Astra Militarum. You want a close range shooting & melee oriented rush army so you would pick your detachments that best compliment that and the Purge the Foe disposition from the list of dispositions available to those detachments. Your opponent wants to play a traditional defensive gunline backed by artillery so they pick their detachments and the Take and Hold disposition. Then, each of your mission objectives are determined by this disposition matchup of Purge the Foe vs Take and Hold, and each of you are given a set of bespoke mission objectives tailored to your disposition vs theirs. Secondary objectives are then tailored to whether you are attacking or defending.

I would love for this system to play into the kind of battlefield objectives that we'll be getting as it would further enhance the differentiation in playstyles and the impact of player customization even further.

Thirdly, I want to see generic and named leaders able to join units for their own protection and to provide that unit with certain benefits, and for the general balance to not skew too heavily towards inordinately tanky SEs since this would detract from the terrain and cover based combat system that is being set up. Calgar should be accompanied by his thematic Victrix Guard, a Chronomancer should be able to lead a unit of Immortals to improve their survivability with time manipulation, an Ork Warboss should be leading a unit of Nobz or Boyz that can tank hits for him so the default tactic of sniping the leader to weaken morale is not so easy, etc.

Lastly, I would like something that places limits on army composition and helps to maintain lower tier battleline units in armies into the lategame and preserve the elite status of elites rather than them acting as mere upgrades. Adapting the tabletop's army points system and unit type caps would be ideal for this in my opinion, but players should have the ability to turn them off in the pre-campaign options screen or at any point during a campaign so people aren't forced into this if they don't want to be.

Do you have any thoughts on this or on what you would like to see be adapted from tabletop?