I actually don't hate the new wounds rule. Yes it's random, yes there are going to be times that it might feel bad for both players, and watch out airplane aisle sitters because there's a big but coming. BUT, it creates interesting choices.
If I'm Kroak's opponent, how do I deal with him? Do I try to do chip damage to him in every phase possible hoping to get lucky with a high roll at the end? Do I instead devote more attention to him to try and take him out in one blow? Do I not bother and instead just try to mitigate the other ways that he can threaten me (take out vassals, Astrolith, etc)? All three are valid options thanks to the rule, and all three have significant implications as to how I position and commit my forces.
On the other hand if I'm fielding Kroak, the fact that he now is vulnerable to death by chip damage from shooting or magic makes him less of an "Automatically hide in the corner and wreck people with boardwide casts" option. So I have more incentive to make more interesting/different/varied depending on the circumstances plays. And that's not to mention how it influences list building, do I take guard to effectively ensure invulnerability or is that too much of a points investment? Do I bring an Oracle to more easily hide from chip shooting without losing effectiveness?
Even the two criticisms I acknowledged have some counterpoints:
1) Randomness - 3d6 is much less random than 1d6, and there are plenty of rules in AoS that are just as swingy if not more so which hinge on a single dice roll.
2) Players feeling bad - Hopefully players have some sense of the risks/possibilities introduced by this rule and so when something crazy happens like a 3 wound phase killing Kroak or a 16 wound phase being shrugged, it's not an entirely unexpected event. It certainly isn't much different than activating a unit that has an expected wounds output that should delete whatever it's fighting but then rolling poorly and having your opponent overperform when fighting back turning what seemed like a sure victory into a loss.
I'll admit, I haven't yet played dozens of games like many folks on this forum, but my experience in game design tells me that more interesting choices usually mean a better gaming experience.
Anyway, thanks for reading my unsolicited opinions. I'm pumped for the model regardless of the rules
