I've already mentioned a couple of reasons.
1. MSU
2. Time consuming
3. Natural breaks/pauses between games
4. Game balance is questionable, I know that this was how it was played a couple of editions ago, but they could have come up with something better.
Say player 1 deploys 50% of his points(either narrative or matched), then player 2 deploys 100%, then player 1 deploys the remaining 50%. (an example just from the top of my head)
1. There's no way of knowing at this stage whether MSU is going to be a popular army concept for this edition. I think, therefore, that it is far too soon to be concerned about that. In addition, if you know that you're likely to end up finishing deploying first, you can plan for it in terms of how you deploy your units and your strategy.
2. It may take a bit longer, but in my experience of playing using that deployment method, it doesn't take that much longer.
3. I never paused while my opponent was deploying under the previous system. Unit-by-unit adds to the tension and makes deployment more engaging for both players in my experience.
4. The alternative you've suggested seems very odd to me. Either way, they've told us which system they're going to use, so I think that it's better to focus on what the rules are, rather than what they could have been.
It might not be reinventing the wheel, but when they serve us rules, that I immediately see flaws in, I will be disappointed. Coming up with houserules myself or with some buddies, is still inventing.
You must have been disappointed with every edition of 40K in that case, because each one has had immediate flaws with some aspect of the rules
. Thus far, I see fewer issues with this set of rules than many of the others that have been produced for 40K.
A house rule to extend the game by a turn is not inventing a rule. Inventing a rule would be devising a rule which is new. All you would be doing by extending the game by a turn is merely modifying one of the rules.
How an extra turn would radically change the game balance?
- Well, some armies are simply not as durable as others.
- One army may have a lot of more victory points left to score, than the other.
- Et cetera.
None of that strikes me as radically changing the balance of the game. Also, all of these issues could apply equally to a six turn game. Etcetera is a word used by some of my students when they've run out of arguments to make in their essays, but want to seem as though they haven't, so that doesn't convince me that there are a lot of arguments to make here
.
My issue is not with the reduced gamelength itself alone, it's because GW has come out bragging a game will be much faster now and this is their solution, instead of reducing tedious dice rolling.
To those that claim the game is mostly over long before turn 5, I feel sorry for you since you are either:
1. A victim of a poorly balanced game
2. A very good or very bad player, with bad matchups
3. Having extreme dicerolls, one way or the other.
How do you know that it's their solution? Where has GW said that the game will be faster because it has been reduced by a turn? I agree that there is still too much dice rolling, but there has been a reduction in some dice rolling compared to seventh edition, so at least they are trying in some respects.
As for the last part of this comment, you're generalising without having the evidence to draw such a conclusion. You'd need a massive amount of date from games taking place in all sorts of different environments to be able to draw this conclusion. Most games of 40K that I've played have never gone beyond five turns because of time constraints or because the victory conditions were met by one side or the other. That does not mean that what you're saying cannot happen, but it's impossible to conclude that it's the only set of conditions which results in a five turn game.
I think, therefore, that GW is making progress with eighth edition. There are still elements that I am concerned about, but, on the whole, the changes feel positive, and I do feel as though that if there are any issues, deployment and game length are not among them.