Lord Damocles wrote:
You seem to be more concerned with having to buy an extra book, than actually having more options.
My example for Berzerkers would give you more options than World Eaters have currently, for example, and would allow for such Berzerker units to exist outside of World Eater specific armies. You don't need more individual factions or more rule[books]s to have more options or more models.
In isolation, your suggestion of representing the Berzerkers unit with the rules for Legionnaires + the Mark of Khorne doesn't necessarily reduce the available units to players. But the problem is that your suggestion DOESN'T exist in isolation. How flexible can you make the basic Legionnaire data sheet? Can it be used to represent all of the divergences that are possible with a dex for each God?
Units can diverge on composition, load out, special rules and models. Does your single datasheet idea have the capacity to do all that? The models are a somewhat separate issue - if the datasheet allows you to build a unit looks like acts like Berzerkers (ie. no psyker, geared for close combat with axes, advantages in melee) then MAYBE
GW is still incentivized to make models for all four legions. But more likely, they aren't. If it's all represented by the same datasheet, why make five boxes of models to represent it?
So the Plague Marine, Berzerker, Rubrics and
EC Legion likely either cease to exist, or in an alternate universe may never have existed. This is the possibility part that I was refering to: if there is a Nurgle dex, that creates more design space to make things that fit Nurgle's aesthetic/ army concept, rather than restricting development to what can be reasonably jury-rigged from existing rules. Now, the Deathguard have a lot of units, but the other legions all need another wave of models and their dexes existing is kind of a prerequisite to that. Since a Khorne dex exists, releasing new Khorne units is a thing that can happen. But believe me, if there was only one
CSM dex, the odds of a cool Khorne unit being developed are slimmer. And you're never going to ever get a multi-unit release if you don't have dex.
Ynarri, Corsairs and Harlequins won't grow without dexes. Eldar might still grow, but those three subfactions aren't likely to grow,
Hey Ynarri players: You just got generic Drukhari units added directly to your dex. How many of you would have preferred a basic Ynarri infantry unit all in its own- even added as a Kill Team and ported to
40k with a PDF? Which would make it feel more like a real army?
Lord Damocles wrote:
I assume that you object to Marines getting such disproportionate focus given your post, yet my suggested list of consolidations MOSTLY reduces the number of Marine variants, which would BENEFIT your non-Marine factions.
You'd think that... But I'm not sure it's so simple. Marines would lose the most, but would feel it less because of where they are starting from. If you're playing Drukhari, you feel the loss of even a single equipment option disappearing.
I'd much rather fix the disproportionate support of marines by beginning to offer mixed Imperial forces in starter sets, or rotating Imperial forces in starter sets. I'd like a return of a Warhammer Quest game for
40k. Blackstone Fortress was a goldmine for
40k in the same way Kill Team is. Allowing Crossover from Necromunda into
40k in some capacity would be a real boon to non-marine factions too- looking at you, Leagues of Votann, and you too Inquisition/ Imperial Agents. Even just moving to a four year edition cycle would make a huge difference by giving the company time to provide more support to neglected factions.
Now look, I'm not going to say that a condensing of printed resources into a handful of Superfaction Books couldn't work. Of course it could.
I'm saying that in the hands of
GW, it's far more likely to result in a drastic reductions in options and flavour for everyone than adapting the huge, complex monstrosity that we have in meaningful ways until we move closer to a place where everyone can be happy with the path the game is on.
