Steamroller 2013

It's up!
http://privateerpress.com/files/Steamroller_2013_Rules_3.pdf

Changes:

• Objectives - need to be within 2" now (was 4" last year)
• Warcasters cannot contest, warcasters who control "dominate" the objective/zone/flag
• less than 1 point solos can control flags/zones now, as can solos bought as a group without having to comply with unit rules as well.
• Killbox is 14" now but only the edge of your base has to be more than 14" away for you to be safe. You also don't die but instead give your opponent 2 control points
• All zones are 12" by 6" or 12" diameter circles. 
• 12 scenarios, down from 18
• no more flank scenarios, no more radials, no more reinforcements (flanks and reinforcements are optional rules).

The specialists option is particularly interesting. If I do run a proper tournament at some stage it will be with specialists. What that option does (it's not a base rule, not present in all tournaments) is it allows you to write a 35 point list with 10 points of substitutions that you can exchange for points in your main list. For example here is my Shae list:

Mercenaries

A Pirate's Life (Phinneus Shae)

(Tier 4) 

PCs: 35 / 35

34 models

[00] Captain Phinneus Shae (0 / 6 WJ remaining)

[04]  >> The Commodore Cannon & Crew

[06]  >> Nomad

[06]  >> Nomad

[03]  >> Buccaneer

[01] Bosun Grogspar

[01] First Mate Hawk

[01] Doc Killingsworth

[01] Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier

[08] Sea Dog Crew (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Mr. Walls, the Quartermaster

[02]  >> Sea Dog Crew Rifleman (2 Riflemen)

[06] Press Gangers (9 grunts)

I can't have a 3rd rifleman in my specialists, they have to be separate selections (you also can't go from min to max or vice versa when subbing out units). I have 10 points so my specialists are

[00] Captain Phinneus Shae

[06]  >> Nomad

[04] Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

You need to indicate any model relationships in your specialists (attached, marshalled etc.). The problem with Shae is that he struggles against high ARM so if I pick Shae and my opponent throws down a high ARM list I can substitute in some ARM cracking power. That's the theory behind specialists and I like it. A lot of times I'll include Aiyana and Holt in a list just for the Menoth match up, this allows me to make them substitutions and main list something more general. 

SR 2013 BETA rumours

SR2013 Beta is out but only Pressgangers have a copy (BOOO!) and they've been instructed not to post them online this year (BOOO!) which is probably a bit painful for those running a tournament with the rules pack as they are supposed to do but last year there were issues with people people confusing the beta rules for the final rules and a lot of stupid questions on the Q&A forum. That said the pressgangers have made the gist of the changes known:

4 out of 12 scenarios have killbox and killbox has changed again. Now you die if you are completely within 14" of a table edge at the end of your turn. You can measure the closest table edge once per turn to check for example during your caster's movement. This is no doubt because of Lylyth3, as she is on a huge base it's pretty unfair the way it is (where the closest point on her base could not be within 10" of an edge) meaning she had to be almost 4" closer to her opponents than a small based caster.

There are more ways to score and the points required to win a scenario have gone up. You can now score by "dominating" the closest flagjective to you with your caster. Generally you score one point for doing that, 2 points for controlling the zone closest to your opponent and 3 points for dominating that flagjective.  However you need 4-5 points to win.

Radials scenarios are gone. Reinforcements are now optional rules (along with flank deployment) so there are no longer scenarios with reinforcements but you can still play tournaments and casual games with reinforcements. The rules are still there.

Casters can no longer contest zones. So you can no longer just park Terminus/Venethrax/Vindictus/Butcher in the zone on full focus camp and completely stop your opponent from scoring.

That's all I know so far so until I can con/bribe a copy of the beta rules from a pressganger I don't have much more to add.

What does this mean for the game?

Not much. Killbox is creeping forwards and is in more scenarios with disadvangtages to the squishier higher focus casters, they also won't like going forward to dominate zones. Harbinger, Severius1 and Haley2 in particular like to spend most of the game in their own deployment zones so this may hurt them a bit. In the end though I still see them dominating. It's not enough to make them bad but it will mean playing those casters requires more skill, their control shenanigans may even be more effective with more ways to score points. It also hurts the midline casters, at least the beefy ones that like to get forward as they can no longer contest and force their opponents into dodgy assassination runs. That said they are still going to be tanks and now they can sit on their own objective and score while their army does its job. If there is a winner it's the assassination casters. Caine2, Siege, Kreoss1, Stryker2, Vlad2, Asphyxious2... they are going to be able to force the opponent to choose between risking assassination or giving up scoring on the closest objective. Fast armies are going to be at a premium too, if you can get forward into your opponents flagjective early and pin them back you may be able to win the game that way. That means theme forces may see an upswing. In particular Absyonlias, Kroess2, Constance Blaize, Grissel1 (there are a lot more but those off the top of my head) can get a substantial chunk of their army on the other side of the table before their opponent has even moved. Again though it's not a huge difference, with the extra points required you are still going to have to take the far objective if you want to win a game so I'm not sure how big a difference it will make.

The other thing to note is this is still the beta. There are going to be a bunch of tournaments run on this package all over the world and it's going to be pretty thoroughly tested and will no doubt be changed before it gets finalised.