So I had the opportunity for a game today with another player. Unfortunately I didn't actually get to play (thanks X-Wing!), but I did get some pretty solid insight into "Warscroll Only" version of game balance. I feel, it fails worse than "Wounds Only". Just going on warscroll count, which was 5, it ended up being 78 wounds to 40....and a model count of 50 models to 15.
That made me realize both camps are right. We need a balance that utilizes both types of restrictions: Warscroll and Wound. Now, any of us who patrol the interwebs with any regularity know that there are people working on balance systems. Most of these are extremely complicated, some utilizing their own points systems. Others utilize a even more complicated FoC reminiscent of ETC rules: You can only have X Warscrolls each consisting of Y number of wounds, unless you take Z model then its reduced to V wounds....Far too complicated for this game.
Additionally, after playing against Seraphon and Chaos, and playing both of those armies and Undead, I think the community needs to restrain models being brought into the game after deployment.
I propose using a scaled game with a single additional game-wide rule. You and your opponent agree on a game size; Skirmish, Engagement, Battle. You would then follow the rules for that game size:
Skirmish
Max 3 Warscrolls or 30 Wounds, whichever you reach first.
Single Models with more than 10 Wounds may not be used.
Warscrolls may not exceed 20 Wounds. (This includes models added to your army.)
Engagement
Max 6 Warscrolls or 60 Wounds, whichever you reach first.
Warscrolls may not exceed 20 Wounds. (This includes models added to your army.)
Battle
Max 9 Warscrolls or 90 Wounds, whichever you reach first.
Warscrolls may not exceed 20 Wounds. (This includes models added to your army.)
These are, of course templates. We could adjust these as the community feels its needed. This way we can stay away from a forced tournament style of rule additions, while maintaining some semblance of balance. Thoughts?
Lastly, we all seem to miss 8th edition. With that in mind, I feel that it missed the mark on some key points. These were things that unbalanced the game, requiring your friendly neighborhood ETC to come in and attempt to balance. While I really do enjoy AoS and where its going, I do miss the structured gaming of WFB 8th. I am going to start a new post with the expressed intent of making a WFB 8.5. Something that can be agreed on, or at the very least as a discussion to lend some ideas to your own gaming group. Please feel free to jump in there as well.