Escalation: You got some Apocalypse in my 40k!

[Chicop76]

Ummm you serious. I think I won't play for a while if a weapon like that pretty much instakills any thing I use.

[Irisado]

No need to not play for a while.  Assuming you have friends who don't like Escalation either, there's no need for you to use it at all.  It's not compulsory.

[CoffeeGrunt]

You pay a premium for D weapons in Escalation, though. Sure, the Revenant has two D weapons with two blasts each, so it'll easily erase two targets a turn, but it also costs 900 points and is only AV12. There's many ways to bring it down.

[Unusual Suspect]

You pay a premium for D weapons in Escalation, though. Sure, the Revenant has two D weapons with two blasts each, so it'll easily erase two targets a turn, but it also costs 900 points and is only AV12. There's many ways to bring it down.

It also has (except perhaps first turn or immobilized) a 4+ "Nope, this ain't even a save, but NOPE" roll, at worst a 5+ roll, not including cover.

And then there's that 36" movement...

I'm not saying it is unbalanced, but I don't see it as a particularly pleasant thing for an all-comer army to face.

I plan on bringing an escalation army list if people decide they want to use Super Heavies (Including a Super Heavy of my own, when I'm done building it), but I don't think I'll be using them in my "normal" games.

I must say I do really hope the meta of Escalation, at least, tones down the appearances of the more egregious deathstar units (Damnable Screamerstar... where's your rerollable 2+ Invulnerable saves now, huh!?!)

[CoffeeGrunt]

Y'see, I've never faced a Screamerstar because I don't go to tournaments. We're going to be having an Escalation Tournament at my local soon, though, and I think I'll just take a heavy Anti-Tank list with a shedload of other shooty-shoots.

[Waaaghpower]

The biggest problem I see is that certain armies STILL don't get access to the D. Orks, Tyranids, and Chaos come to mind. (Some do have a D in close combat, but that's not the same.) This puts them far behind in escalation games.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Those armies are able to field redunkulous amounts of Fearless cannon fodder, though, and therefore don't have any issues tying down something big and weathering the fire getting there.

To a Hormagaunt, a D blast is the same as a Whirlwind blast.

[Unusual Suspect]

Chaos arguably should not be on that list anyway, as I'm 99% sure that Chaos Warhound Titans are on the Forgeworld list of acceptable Lord of War units.  Warhound Titans, Chaos or Imperium, have access to D class weapons (on par with a Revenant Titan for less points, even).

[CoffeeGrunt]

Tau have to go to Forge World for their D Weapon, and even then it's a single shot, not a Blast.

[Kur'os]

Though I will admit that I was absolutely against Escalation at first, I have since changed my standpoint after seeing Stronghold Assault.

I see the two as a matching pair and should be treated as such. 

Army doesn't have access to D weapons?  Take void shield generators.  With the amount of shields ANY army can take, you can easily neuter a Lord of War. 

-Kur'os

[Waaaghpower]

As an Ork player, I'm still wondering how we're supposed to deal with most super-heavies. We have no heavy-hitting anti-tank outside of close combat or ramming with a Deff Rolla, and nothing that can get to a target quickly. Void Shield Generators can help mitigate the damage somewhat, but we still have absolutely nothing that can actually kill a titan. The closest tactic I've thought of is using Zagstruk and 20 Stormboyz to lock it in combat for a turn or two, but that only works for a little while and then you're still left with no options for killing the thing.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Await a new Codex. That's all I can offer you, Greenskin.

That or Deffguns. Against Thunderhawks and Revenants, Deffguns. Those are the D3 Autocannon ones, right?

Yeah, use those and glance the buggers to death.

[Unusual Suspect]

I'm also fairly sure all Lords of War you'd possibly see in a <2000 point game also have an AV of 12 or lower on their back arc.  Do Orks have a decent way of Deepstriking (or otherwise depositing) high-strength high-quantity shots roughly where they are wanted?  Rokkits, maybe?

Otherwise, I'm with CoffeeGrunt.  Get a new codex.  :-X

[Waaaghpower]

We have 2 Deep Striking *units*, and one of them is our psyker on a roll of 5.

[Irisado]

How often do you think that you're going to face superheavies, titans or other similar units?  When I first saw the news I was horrified, but the more I thought about the more I came to realise that it won't affect me.  My friends don't use superheavies or titans, and they're so expensive to buy, that I really don't think that this is going to represent a sea change in how the game is played.

As a result, I think that fears about having to totally change armies, army composition, or codices are likely to be misplaced.