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Based on some rumours of possible replacements for the FOC in 7th edition, I tried to write my 'ideal' percentage-based army composition rules.

Dedicated Transports: do not count towards the points value of the unit they are chosen for, but no more than 20% of your army's points may be spent on dedicated transports.

HQ: you must take one mandatory HQ choice (of any value) from your primary detachment to serve as your Warlord and may take any number of additional HQ choices if their total cost (excluding the cost of the unit which serves as your warlord) does not exceed 20% of your army's points total.

Troops: you must spend at least 20% of your army's points value on troops options, including at least one troops choice from your primary detachment for every 1,000 points (or part thereof) of your army's points total.

Elites: you may spend no more than 40% of your army's points total on Elite choices, with a maximum of one unit from the same army list entry per 1,000 points (or part thereof) of your army's points total.

Fast Attack: you may spend no more than 40% of your army's points total on Fast Attack choices, with a maximum of one unit from the same army list entry per 1,000 points (or part thereof) of your army's points total.

Heavy Support: you may spend no more than 40% of your army's points total on Heavy Support choices, with a maximum of one unit from the same army list entry per 1,000 points (or part thereof) of your army's points total.

Primary Detachment: at least 50% of your army's points total must be spent on units from your primary detachment. The remaining 50% may be spent on formations, allied detachments, fortifications and lords of war.

Allied Detachments: must include exactly one mandatory HQ choice, at least 1 Troops choice and no more than 1 Elite, 1 Heavy Support and 1 Fast Attack choice. You may include more than one allied detachment so long as each one satisfies these requirements. Points from allied detachments count towards the maximum percentages allowed for HQ, Elite, Fast Attack, Heavy Support and Dedicated Transports.

Formations: do not count towards maximum or minimum percentages for HQ, Troops, Elite, Fast Attack, Heavy Support or Dedicated Transports. You may only take formations associated with your primary detachment's army list.

Fortifications: you may take one fortification network or fortification, with a total value of no more than 30% of your army's points total.

Lords of War: you may take one lord of war choice, with a total value of no more than 30% of your army's points total. You may only take a lord of war associated with your primary detachment's army list.

The biggest problem with a percentage-based system is you reward people with effective Troops and Elites-as-Troops characters, and punish people with less effective Troops. The suggestion for implementing Allied detachments is interesting, though.

Don't horribly mind most of that as percentage systems go.

My only concern is only 20% on HQ.

So that is 400 points at 2k. Which really limits armies that have things like command squads or expensive HQ choices.

parking lots will suffer for 20% dedicated transport. armies like orks with heavy support transports will be the only ones that can still go full mech.

AnomanderRake wrote:The biggest problem with a percentage-based system is you reward people with effective Troops and Elites-as-Troops characters, and punish people with less effective Troops. The suggestion for implementing Allied detachments is interesting, though.

Well, the FOC system already favours armies who can take better troops and troops are generally the most balanced element of the current codexes. Any composition system (including no restrictions at all) is going to favour someone. I went with what I felt would be the 'least worst' solution.

Breng77 wrote:My only concern is only 20% on HQ.

So that is 400 points at 2k. Which really limits armies that have things like command squads or expensive HQ choices.

Note that the HQ choice which provides your warlord doesn't count towards that 20%. So you can put the full 20% towards your command squad, retinue, royal court, warlock council or whatever so long as you aren't taking other characters and you can still take a seriously tooled-up warlord in small games.

some bloke wrote:parking lots will suffer for 20% dedicated transport. armies like orks with heavy support transports will be the only ones that can still go full mech.

Yes. Unfortunately, it's difficult to make a generic rule which seriously limits wave serpents and night scythes without also restricting chimeras. Still, I think that 4 Chimeras at 1,500 points is enough for a reasonable force of mechanised infantry. If you pack them with veteran squads, that's half your army already.

Only one Battlewagon per 1,000 points is going to make it harder for orks to field effective all-mech too. They can make a list where everyone has a transport, but a lot of them are going to be riding in trukks or looted wagons.

I think a % based FOC would be awful. Scoring units is already enough of a reason to take troops. If your goal is to reduce spam then I propose the following FOC, based on the total points value.

(<1001 points)

0-1 HQ
0-1 Elites
0-6 Troops
0-1 Fast Attack
0-1 Heavy Support


(<2001 points)

0-2 HQ
0-2 Elites
0-6 Troops
0-2 Fast Attack
0-2 Heavy Support


(>2001 points)

0-2 HQ
0-3 Elites
0-6 Troops
0-3 Fast Attack
0-3 Heavy Support

% is actually better than such limitations. As allready been noticed - troops are one of the most ballanced foc slots amongst themselves. Dedicated transports and heavy supports should not singlehandedly win games as it is now. You know, it's called 'Heavy support slot' not 'Heavy - i kill everyone singlehahdedly and you just sit here on this point doing nothing - slot'.

Unfortunately, it's a common sight to see 100-200 pts of troops riding in 600 pts of dedicated transports that do all the job. And min scoring units hiding somewhere while everyone else is killing the enemy.

Sure there are some problems with troops also, for example current AM and probably orkses will come on top of everyone else if it's gona be a pure troops vs troops fight. But this problems are easier to solve imo. And you'll still have means of dealing with them - noone restricts you to zero heavy support and stuff. Just making it more reasonable. And don't forget that stuff like rhinos are dirt cheap and won't face any problems with this system. While wave serpents, scythes and battlewagonz will be restricted. Like they should.

That's the issue with using general rules to try to fix specific units. You might be limiting wave serpent and night scythe spam but are also telling a DE player that at 1500 pts they can only bring 4 or 5 transports which is pretty well neuters the army. Fixes need to be applied to problematic units, not changes to the game to accommodate them. I suppose you could create separate percentages per army but that seems cumbersome.

I think your percentage system is too complicated. The number of units isn't important.

Primary Detachment: 75-100%
HQ: 1-25%
Elite / No Category: 0-20%*
Fast / Heavy: 0-40%
Troops / Dedicated Transports: 25-60%**
Fortifications: 0-10%
Lords of War: 0-25%
*No Category is for things that don't take a FOC slot. Like bodyguards or Priests.
**Dedicated transports must be taken with a unit of equal or greater value than the transport

Secondary Detachment: 0-25%
Allies count in the appropriate FOC section. Only 1 ally per secondary Detachment.
Formations do not, but do count toward the secondary detachment limit.


I'm not sure if Fast and Heavy should be combined. Maybe they should be kept separate at a max of 25%.