Recently, I posted a discussion/opinion on the “Charged Out Rule” and whether it was good for the game. You can read the full post in the link there, but my eventual conclusion was that it likely was a good thing overall for the growth of the game and bringing in new players, though it certainly came with drawbacks. I invited readers to comment and give their opinions, and you did in pretty substantial numbers. Some interesting and nuanced takes were handed over to me, and I wanted to share some of them with you to provide more context for the issue if you’re a player without a solid opinion on the rule change. I generally encourage people to think for themselves (I definitely can be wrong!) and it looks like people were more than willing to do just that when it comes to the Charged Out rule. I’ll categorize the responses by “For”, “Against”, and “Mixed”. This isn’t a comprehensive summary of all the feedback I received, so I’m sorry if I missed yours, but I’m always willing to entertain more.

FOR

“Good article! I do like the new rules for charging, personally, but agree that maybe that could be changed. For example, maybe they could keep the same rules as now (can activate again if all fighters have charge tokens, but just can’t make super actions), BUT perhaps put a penalty on it. Like if you Move a fighter that has a Charge token, you reduce their movement by 1. Or if they attack, reduce the dice by 1. Something like that. I feel like the pros outweigh the cons overall. Other than warbands that start with 3 fighters, you only get to use this rule once you’ve lost at least 1 fighter anyway, which puts you at a large disadvantage already. It also makes it less hopeless when you’re down to 1 or 2 fighters at the start of round 3, for example. Plenty of people might just forfeit the game at that point, if charging fully locked you out of activating. It also reduces the obsession with putting as many Push tech cards in your power deck to avoid charges (though Push will forever be wanted by smart players regardless, haha).”

“Honestly I have only found the rule overpowered when facing Domitan, for every other warband it seems fine”

AGAINST

“I personally hate the rule. I would change it so that with a charge token you can only attack an adjacent fighter”

“You should not be allowed to move with a charge token. The move action part is the worst part of the rule as it effectively neutralized an opponents’ activations. Because you just have to keep moving or the rest of R3 if you don’t want to lose the fighter and it eliminates positional play”

“Thank you for a fairly balanced overview of the Charged Out debate. Full disclosure, I’m in the “Against” group, and I think you missed an important point from “our” POV: The Charged Out Rule increases the lethality of the game quite a lot. You covered that part in the balance discussion, i.e. it’s a buff to elite aggro. But something you didn’t cover: It also means more people are removed from the board (in my anecdotal experience, board wipes are more common now). So actually we arrive at the exact problem that the rule should prevent – people don’t get to play with their toys, since they lose their fighters much quicker now.”

“What is the difference between drawing cards in R2-3 when everything is dead vs in round 1 because you charged with everyone? You’re still spending part of the game drawing cards. It’s actually worse this new way since it’s pretty unlikely you can use the cards in round 3 to affect the game with no fighters left on the board.”

“My experience at the last tournament I organized is that you really need the steam to take down that beefed up fighter in round 3. Otherwise they just go loco on you and you have no real way of avoiding or crippling them with the charged out rule in place”

“The problem with the Charged Out rule is that it shifted the balance too much towards ultra elite, with the rest of the rules not balancing that out. As an example, I think that as long as the charge out rule is in play, the warband with the MOST fighters should get the extra crit on the first initiative roll. And if warbands are tied, you revert to whoever finished deployment first. There’s no reason Domitan should get the extra crit advantage, because they now have zero activation economy lost by having only three fighters in round 1.”

“I recently bought Exiled Dead and ran into trouble when my opponents started playing Farstriders and Rippa’s. I pretty reliably kill 1-2 fighters, and now my opponent’s last fighter gets to zoom around as if on speed. It’s very different to how it used to be and the games feel almost too overpowering.”

“Hate that rule, it feels unnecessary and a dumbed down rule change for those who either can’t live with bad decisions/luck or those who can’t plan ahead.”

“Short answer” No. It is not good for the game”

MIXED

“I’m honestly pretty neutral. I defend the rule from time to time, mostly since people who dislike it seem to REALLY dislike it”

“I can see it being changed to something in the middle in the next core box or setting change”

Wrap

A lot of stimulating discussion later, I have softened my mixed/for stance and am now much more mixed. I still believe that the Charged Out rule is here to stay for the foreseeable future – it does persist into the new Wintermaw rulebook, for starters – but if the community at large has a strong enough opinion about it things could certainly be updated in future rulebooks. I do believe a solid argument has been made that it shouldn’t remain in its current state where elite ranged aggro has too much advantage. I won’t pretend to have the perfect answer to the issues, but I can see a future where you cannot use range 3+ (or can only attack adjacent) and/or cannot move after a charge token being a reasonable solution to the current issue. The change to the crit priority is an interesting one but with so many implications I’m hesitant to say whether I like it or not just yet.

If you want to propose a change directly to the rules team, such as ‘you should only be able to attack adjacent targets’ or ‘you shouldn’t be able to move with a charge token’, you can send your thoughts directly to the design team at WHUnderworlds@gwplc.com

Until next time, whether you’re charged out or not, don’t forget to spend that glory!