Reply To: Lore vs. Game

[onlyonepinman 18062xp 1]

Sounds like you need to pick a new game…  Saga for example.  Although Oathmark adds a nice twist on this by allowing generals to recruit whatever they want into their armies rather than limiting armies to a single species.

Truthfully, the lore should back up the game and the game should replicate the lore – this is something GW in particular are absolutely terrible at.  Their lore is generally speaking quite fun, it’s not really my jam anymore but it’s brought me lots of good memories over the years.  But they it does suffer from constant one-upmanship, where everything has to be the biggest, toughest, scariest bad ass in the whole galaxy to the point where nothing really makes any sense.  Terminators vs Genestealers is a prime example of this (as per the old, sadly now deleted, FlashGitz animation).  Terminators are supposed to be able to survive the equivalents of ground zero nuclear blasts (or worse), climb out from underneath collapsed buildings requiring little more than a new lick of paint.  But put them up against genestealers and they may as well be wrapped in bog roll – it just doesn’t stack up.  Lore writers probably need to dial things back a little bit in that respect.

But, when the lore and the game are in synch, you are correct, this leads to some armies fielding hordes of models.  Lore could be rewritten such that things like Goblins weren’t so terminally awful in combat but would you want that?  However if army lists are designed correctly by the writers, there should be the option to field a range of units, from Goblin rabble, Orc soldiers (equivalent to a human) or some form of elite soldiery.  In that respect most armies SHOULD be roughly the same size regardless of whether they are Elves or Undead.  The option to field a horde should be there but you could just as easily field more elite units instead.