Goatboy here with a simple, elegant Warhammer 40K Keyword – that GW should add to balance 10th Edition.
Goatboy here with some Hot Mess thoughts on introducing a new keyword to help “balance” armies out a bit. A new method that goes beyond the whole 3X of non battleline units and instead adding something to help control how GW wants armies to look and feel on the tabletop. If you look at some of the armies shown in White Dwarf or the armies presented with the battleforce boxes we can see that maybe GW could control the building process in a better way.
Meet the Unique (X) Keyword
The keyword I want to introduce would be a simple option like Unique (X). This would be a way to categorize a model/unit in a way to help limit the copy paste action we see in some of the top lists and maybe create balance with still having powerful units. The keyword would be modified within the whole Incursion, Strike Force, and Onslaught by just limiting unit choices that can fit into that shell. Think about how the fluff would talk about certain units and armor being unique but somehow every roving army has 3 units of them.
Here’s how I would do it:
“Unique (X): this keyword represents the maximum number of times the unit can be included in a Strike Force sized army. Apply a modifier of -1 for the unit maximum for Incursion (including down to 0), and a modifier of +1 for Onslaught sized armies. “
Unique (X) Keyword In Use
So here are a few examples a unit could be:
Unique (3), meaning that you can field 2 in an Incursion, 3 in a Strike Force, and 4 in an Onslaught army.
Unique (2), meaning that you can field 1 in an Incursion, 2 in a Strike Force, and 3 in an Onslaught army.
Unique (1), meaning that you can field 0 in an Incursion, 1 in a Strike Force, and 2 in an Onslaught army.
Unique (0), meaning that you can field 0 in an Incursion, 0 in a Strike Force, and 1 in an Onslaught army.
Unique (X) Keyword Implications
Here’s some sample Units that the Unique (X) keyword could be used on to ease down on some spamming – just as examples to get your gears turning…
Space Marines: Terminators, Centurions, Dreadnoughts
CSM: Obliterators, Possessed
Astra Militarum: Rogal Dorn
Orks: Mega Nobz
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Would these unit limit limitations be too much? Would this let GW make some awesome options, but the Unique keyword would limit it to one or two per army? Would it be worth it as it would invalidate some people’s armies or options they have? I know GW has given up on the whole Force Org methods we had in the past but what if we got that back by just creating limits?
Are unit limits ok in 10th Edition? Would it be balanced or would the armies with more “options” just be better? There are so many Marine units that kind of do the same things right now so while you could say make the Vindicator unique they could have 3 other tanks that almost do the same thing. How would this be fun for an army like Emperor’s children that don’t have a ton of options available.
Right now we have points hitting armies to help balance things and will have to wait and see if it works. I also wonder if balance could just be better by having army rules spread out between units more in order to create armies that do better with tons of choices instead of just each army being solved with “3-4” duplicated units. If we put balance at the top of the army build instead hoping it works out after adding all the units up it might make for a balanced game.
What do you think? What units would you assign it to, and what values would you give them?
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Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on – or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.
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