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Recently I have been writing a list for my 2k Tau army. When I finished the list I can honestly say I was 100% happy with it's composition. But the fact that I've been playing WHFB more then 40k lately became apparent when the list came out to 2250.

So because I like the list as much as I did I choose to sacrifice some things from my army to drop 250 points instead of completly re-writing it. This left me with 2 options, I could either drop one squad worth a lesser amount of points and re-arrange some of my wargear which would change up almost everything I liked or I could drop one entire squad worth more points and keep my over all composition. Since then I've made my choice for my list.

But then I got to thinking about all the times I've had to do this before with both 40k and Fantasy and so I'm wondering how others handle this when faced with this situation. When you need to drop points how do you do it? Do you get rid of one large unit? get rid of a couple small units? take a little from everything? or completly re-write the list? In short what method do you use to decide what you need to drop in order to reach the points you need?

The few times this has happened to me I tend to follow these general rules of practice:

1) What do I want the army to do.
2) The units I have chosen thus far, do they work towards this
3) Is there anything in a unit I don't need. i.e. could disruption fields be dropped from Necrons (not that they're ever worth taking...)
4) Could two units be merged in someway? Either combining them (if squad caps permit) or trading them in for one cheaper unit that performs a similar task
5) Do I own the units in question? If not, can I save money on them by using soemthing else in their place?
6) If all else fails, start all over again. But this time instead of counting up, count down. (work from the points limit down, not from 0 up to the points limit) I find this solves the problem of overspending somewhat.

That may have been useless, but it does from time to time work out. As long as the army does what you want it to in the end, making cuts isn't always hard

Often I rebuild a list. It's hard to have the same balance after dropping a unit. And if a unit is that expendable, why was it in the larger list?

The big things that scale in 5th edition 40k are troops (to hold objectives) and anti-tank (to deal with landraiders and others). If I have a heavy anti-tank load at 1850, I'm more comfortable dropping that to get to 1750.

Just to clarify (in case anyone thinks this) I'm not asking for advice on how to write my list as I've already figured out what I wanted and this isn't my first time at the rodeo. So it isn't about my personal list or me personally. I may need to re-write my OP to better represent my question.

I'm simply wondering how others would go about the same situation, Storm Lords response on how he would handle it is a good example of the type of answer I'm looking for. The same can be said for Polonius and his method.

I usually find myself taking away unit upgrades from multiple units, champions or musicians usually go first. It's always the little stuff that seems to add up. Helps keep the overall army while not changing what it's doing.

I'd advise a complete re build! it's going to make a better army imho then one hamstrung by missing 250 points it was built to uinclude

I usually work the other way - start with absolute essentials only and then see how much room I have left for toys.

I have a sulk for a few minutes and then take out all the unnecessary parts of the list that are for fun rather than utility, however it is rare that I go more than 20 or so points over the list so it is never much of a problem to cut down.

The blood of 72 Virgins...wait what are we talking about?

I also agree with the rebuild.

As for what I consider not including when I rebuild, I start with support units, specifically ones that I'm only bringing one of. The core has to come first, while toys don't need to be there. After that, I usually reconsider upgrade loadouts. Perhaps those three plasma guns could be 3 meltaguns instead.

I tend to work out a 'core' force of around 1,500 iish. This is something which shows up in all my games. If the games are larger, then other units get dropped in willlynilly, just to see what they are like.

You might be able to tell, I'm in it for the gameplay, not the result. But I do tend to do really rather well!

It depends; more units is always better, but if I have to remove upgrades for units that are essential to them I'd rather remove the unit entirely

If i get to a point where I am over points I tend to strip upgrades off of units. Unessecery stuff first like hellfire rounds on a captain or something.

I like to sacrifice a Goblin model before writing an army list, cut it's head of with an Exacto Knife.

Seriously though if you need to drop points, I would look at trimming the fat in the ways of Wargear and Squad upgrades before trimming out whole squads.

But when I write lists, it's rare to see me top 2k points, so I end up just trying to get to the point where I can't buy anything else.

Mr Mystery wrote:I tend to work out a 'core' force of around 1,500 iish. This is something which shows up in all my games. If the games are larger, then other units get dropped in willlynilly, just to see what they are like.

You might be able to tell, I'm in it for the gameplay, not the result. But I do tend to do really rather well!

A consistent core will stand you in good stead versus these guys that can't resist chopping and changing.

I start with the base 2 troops and a HQ, and build on it. Too many points, I cut the cost by removing war gear or "Special ed" stuff.

I might keep a couple of eliets, but in the new way, I ve been generally sticking with a couple of troop slots with the transports, special and heavy weapons, and kept the leadership to a minimum, just to keep bulking up basic troop, and that was that. Keep it simple, until you play a game or three to blood the list, then add or subtract, based on the way that you want to play the army out.

I play IG and Orks, so numbers are a good thing.