Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Rather than hear about "So and so is broken" or "ZOMG SO WORTHLESS!!!" I'm curious what people think is the most balanced codex. Which one do you think and why?

Orks.

They can do anything, but not everything.

I'd have to say C:SM.

Not particularly strong in anything except being rather resilient and being pretty versatile with many possible builds.

There is the issue of TH/SS termies but they are pretty expensive on their own and they also must get a land raider in order to get somewhere efficiently.

My vote goes to C:SM too.

EDIT: As long as you dont use Vulkan, 6 Land Speeders, 30 Tactical Marines, a Land Raider and 5 TH/SS Terminators.

Ediin wrote:My vote goes to C:SM too.

EDIT: As long as you dont use Vulkan, 6 Land Speeders, 30 Tactical Marines, a Land Raider and 5 TH/SS Terminators.

QFT. Vulkan's good and all but damn!

IG. It's balanced in my favor.


Joking aside, none of the books are really balanced, because GW doesn't really care about balance or rules. Each writer just does a bunch of stuff that he thinks is cool and management thinks will drive sales that month.

xxBlazinGhostxx wrote:QFT. Vulkan's good and all but damn

I know. Almost every SM player in my neighbourhood quit playing Dark Angels, Black Templars, Ultramarines and other chapters and started painting Salamanders.

DAMN YOU VULKAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rather than rag on Vulcan, hows about discussing other codeci? Or is Nilla marines the only balanced book?

I'd agree about SM, which is kind of what they're there for, the jack of all trades army

Good shooting, but not Tau
Good tanks, but not guard
Elite infantry, but not CSM
Good in CC but not a specialty chapter

I'd say that Ork and C:SM are the most balanced, which isn't all that surprising to me.
Space marines can do everything good, but can't do one thing perfectly.
Orks can do one thing perfectly, but can't do everything good.

What do you mean by balanced? all the options in the book are good but nothing so good it overshadows anything? Or do you mean a book that can do a little of everything if you want to?

I mean a codex that is reasonable. Not like IG where they threw in everything and then forgot to stop giving.

You mean a codex which is balanced against the other codexes.

I think we can all point the finger at a couple of overpowered codexes and a couple of underpowered codexes.

The rest probably lie in rough balance with each other except for one or two extreme builds.

In terms of balance. I would actually say orks. Devastating in both range and CC.

Shock attack gun, big gunz, battlewagon, looted wagon with a Kannon...

Nilla marines of course. But thats what marines are there for. The big U.

Tyranids can be balanced in both CC and ranged. As can the C;SM codex.

I think codex COMPARISON wise, Nidz are for the most part pretty balanced (which is why they didnt cause a stir when released)

They still have a tin of horrible choices though

I think Orks and Nids are the most balanced ones.
Others are old and designed for the 4th ed. like Necrons, CSM, and Eldar.

+1 for Orks, they have the most amount of successful builds, but all of those can be beaten with skill/TAC lists.

Going to have to give it to the bugs...there is a unit for every situation...but what else would you expect out of such evolution?

ductvader wrote:Going to have to give it to the bugs...there is a unit for every situation...but what else would you expect out of such evolution?

But not every unit has a situation! (I'm looking at you pyrovores)

Haven't you ever been in the situation where you wanted to barf up a huge gout of inflammable chemicals on someone the other side of the room, but you couldn't be bothered to get up from the sofa?

That is why Pyrovores evolved.

Ediin wrote:My vote goes to C:SM too.

EDIT: As long as you dont use Vulkan, 6 Land Speeders, 30 Tactical Marines, a Land Raider and 5 TH/SS Terminators.

IMO this is the perfect example of a "balanced" list, as it can hold objectives, kill vehicles and infantry, and do most anything else it needs to well.

Yeah, something stinks about this whole thread.

By "balanced" do you mean the opposite of "cheesy"? If that's the case then "balanced" is actually a synonym of "beatable"

What is the most beatable list? Necron, probably. What is the least beatable? Probably Blood Angels. Does this make necron"balanced" and blood angels "unbalanced"?

Or perhaps "balanced" means "beatable, but I don't slaughter them just because they have a bad codex". Perhaps it means "whatever my army is, because I don't want to believe I only win games because my codex is more powerful than others".

I'm sensing a lot of self-esteem issues wrapped in vagaries, and crammed into a thread here.

wow its like arizona's new anti immigration law!
anyways, moving away from bad jokes centered on politics, you have a valid point ailarios
however I think the best definition is the one people have been giving, about how the codex has variety of lists that are successful, rather than say...IG or Tau who depend on one or two lists
to that end i think Orks Nids are the most balanced, as all the space marine codecies are too...biased. The vulkan problem everyone has mentioned, as well as the (so far unmentioned) love of lysander. To clarify, those are two lists that it seems EVERYONE who wants to win plays. Orks and nids, if people play them to win, they choose how they want, as the two armies are quite mutable, despite their presumed emphasis on CC
there's a great thread on here about shoota boyz vs slugga boyz, and i think that most clearly emphasizes my point. Orks can succeed with a variety of lists rather than the one or two list types

IG does not depend on "one or two lists." They have a wide variety of builds and effective units, including units capable of CC. They can be very "balanced."

Ailaros wrote:Yeah, something stinks about this whole thread.
I'm sensing a lot of self-esteem issues wrapped in vagaries, and crammed into a thread here.

Yeah, I'm sensing some too. An overabundance as it were; verging on the pronoid. How about calming down and taking it a bit easier there, Spartacus?

Codex tyranids is pretty balanced. good but not stupid good, as near as I can tell there's no auto-win army or must have unit in this book, it really is about how you play. If vulkan's power wasnt so obviously awesome I'd have to agree codex marines but I feel that vulkan makes the other SM strategies obselete. codex space wolves without the thunderwolves would be a very well balanced book but the thunderwolves are so awesome that it unbalances it a bit. codex demons is pretty fair..... codex chaos is old but not over or underpowered just on its own merits. AF

I honestly don't think there is a such a thing. Every codex can be broken if you dicklist.

Orks or Chaos Marines. Mostly because they have more units, it's harder to find the broken ones.

Ordo Dakka wrote:Orks or Chaos Marines. Mostly because they have more units, it's harder to find the broken ones.

Neither Orks nor Chaos Marines are "most balanced" because they both have glaring weaknesses.

Space Wolves (without thunderwolf cavalry).

Orks are pretty balanced.

Tyranids are pretty balanced. They have to be when walking around on two legs.