40K Deep Thought: Is the FOC Obsolete?
Originally, back in 3rd Ed, it was introduced to ensure people didn’t completely min-max as they did in 2nd Ed. Yeah that didn’t really work. Over time, the FoC itself has been largely let be, but the scenarios and scoring unit rules have be tightened up.
And I now question whether the FoC is really needed at all. Consider the average army that you see. Even the cheesiest of cheesey forces include a decent selection of scoring units, regardless of their source (usually Troops of some kind, occasionally other units granted scoring status by a SC or other rule). This because you need to take and hold objectives to actually win the game, unless you plan on an all out ‘wipe out my opponent every time‘ strategy.
Because of this, I’m starting to find the FoC a wee bit restrictive. After all, some people really like their big guns, and will take 3 heavy support choices, and not take Fast Attack. Others the opposite, and indeed everything in between. Yet those slots you don’t use, they just sit there, unfilled, whilst the restricted access to those you do favour see certain units crop up time and again, whether through personal preference, or a unit being perceived to be better than it’s competitors in the same slot.
And this to me doesn’t really match up with what GW want the game to be. Jervis has said on numerous occasions they’re not that into artifical restrictions, such as making a given unit 0-1 per army (Special Characters excluded for obvious reasons!).
So what if we played without the FoC completely? I feel the design of the missions, and the fact that you select your army, then determine the mission being played is self enforcing restriction enough when coupled with the traditional points system.
Then leave your thoughts in the comments.
