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I have a couple:

"Battle-forged armies are professional and well-organized, truly terrifying on the battlefield. As a result, they can re-roll Leadership tests when resisting Fear".

Or,

"A battle-forge army adds +1 to its reserve rolls after turn 4, given their attention to logistics and unified strategy."

"For every dice roll a unit takes in an Unbound army, a roll of 1 will result in an implosion of the Unbound rules."

My initial thoughts on balancing an unbound list vs. a battle-forged list.

This also seems to check all the boxes as far as nerfing deathstars without telling anyone what they CANNOT bring to a game.

Tweaks to the Tyranids/MC side might be in order since that codex seems to be generally thought of as under-powered.




Battle-forged - you obey all FOC rules and stick to one Codex.

If you bring a battle-forged list and play against an unbound list you immediately receive the following VP bonuses.

You receive Victory Points determined by what your OPPONENT brings.

For every Codex/Dataslate/Formation after the first one that your opponent brings, you receive two VPs.

For every duplicate of a unit your opponent brings (other than troops and their transports) you receive one VP.

For every superheavy your opponent brings you receive five VPs.

For every flyer (including FMC) after the first one your opponent brings, you receive two VPs.

For every MC your opponent brings after the first one, you receive two VPs.

For every D strength weapon your opponent brings, you receive three VPs.

For every 2++ rerollable your opponent rolls during the game you immediately receive seven VPs.

Victory Point conditions stack and are cumulative. Ergo, the second FMC in your opponent's list will yield you five VPs (+2 flyer, +2 MC, +1 duplicate unit).

In all instances in which a dispute arises the maximum number of VPs must be conveyed to the battle-forged list player.

Honestly though they would just get the supposed sideboard bonus so they can possibly counter the opponents list.


Would prefer off board support like orbital bombardment or something.

Forged Army Rules

Army's picked from the FOC are more of united and tactical force chosen for their flexibility as such the army is more comfortable together and should benefit from a host of special rules to compensate for the 9 Riptide Army's that will populate the war torn battlefields of the 41st.... Notice we said "should" but we realize that CINEMATIC events are far more important so rather then say letting you pick three army wide rules from a list of good choices, you will roll a D6 and consult the chart below.

1- Rebellion!
Your army has turned against one another because Forged Narrative!!!!
Your opponent picks d3 units which are now his, not just for this game he literally gets your models, but this is great news because now you have room to purchase more fine citadel miniatures!!!!!
2-5 United Front
Everything in your army gets +1 leadership, yeah that'll help when your facing a 3 d weapon Titan list.
6- Perfect Tactics
You autowin!!!!
Pack up the game and tell tales of the FORGED CINEMATIC NARRATIVE you just experienced while purchasing more fine citadel miniatures at your local GW

There's a couple things I've been thinking of.

1: you get to bring extra points to the game (15-20%?)

2: All your units count as scoring

Due to the narrative being forged by these exceptional examples of these armies, they gain the following ability:

"Yell out the name of a God or Hero associated with your race...then...remove one enemy unit before the game begins, it is removed from the game and unable to participate in any fashion and any rule(s) contained within the unit will not affect the battlefield."

"Example: Little Matty Ward has a very fluffy Space Marine army and followed the FOC. Before the battle starts, he screams 'CALGAR!' and informs the enemy Eldar player that his Revenant will not partciplate in the battle."

I would not be surprised if only Battle forged army Lists may have Allies.

I would not be surprised if Battle forged Armies get extra tactical objective cards/get to play additional cards/turn.

I would not be surprised if battleforged armies' scoring units could claim objectives while embarked.

I would be surprised if everything could score, or even just Elites(Eternal War missions remaining is confirmed in the WD article so there would be no benefit in 1/3 of the missions, and there are characters out there that allow Elites to score).

For Unbound they specifically mention that you treat the models according to the ally matrix. Meaning you could bring an armfull of random models or just one giant squad of ICs that are battlebrothers. I wonder how many you could honestly take like that.

 Savageconvoy wrote:
For Unbound they specifically mention that you treat the models according to the ally matrix. Meaning you could bring an armfull of random models or just one giant squad of ICs that are battlebrothers. I wonder how many you could honestly take like that.

Why ever bother with deathstrikes when you can have 15 Chaptermasters for first turn orbital death

Great. Now I thinking of a council of Chapter Masters assembling for the sole purpose of putting their collective TDA boots to Chaos' posterior.

I'm still waiting to see someone propose a list entirely of Bastions with 3 men henchmen squads and lascannons/quadguns.

If you army follows the FOC, All units count as scoring and denial and they must anhillate the whole HEavy support for a kill point or first blood

It'll be a random chart with most of the bonuses being usless like your leader gets fear or soulfire.

Remember, the game designers don't actually play the game so expecting something constructive will lead to disappointment.

At the begining of your one phase discard one of your objective cards replace it without one of your choosing.

Yeah I gotta agree, it's likely a 10-20% point bonus you can take. That way you have to buy more models to play at the same "point level" as unbound

 MWHistorian wrote:
It'll be a random chart with most of the bonuses being usless like your leader gets fear or soulfire.

Remember, the game designers don't actually play the game so expecting something constructive will lead to disappointment.

This for sure.

On a roll of a D6

1. Unbound losses 25% of it's points when facing a Battle Forged Army. (i.e. 2000pt BF vs 1750pt UB).

2. All units in a Battle Forged army are scoring units.

3. Battle Forged armies are fearless.

4. Battle Forged Armies re-roll everything.

5. Battle Forged Armies get the choice of who sets up first, terrain distribution, who goes first, victory conditions, and/or game length.

6. Battle Forged armies have unlimited endless reserves (re-enter full units that were completely destroyed).

jamesk1973 wrote:
My initial thoughts on balancing an unbound list vs. a battle-forged list.

This also seems to check all the boxes as far as nerfing deathstars without telling anyone what they CANNOT bring to a game.

Tweaks to the Tyranids/MC side might be in order since that codex seems to be generally thought of as under-powered.




Battle-forged - you obey all FOC rules and stick to one Codex.

If you bring a battle-forged list and play against an unbound list you immediately receive the following VP bonuses.

You receive Victory Points determined by what your OPPONENT brings.

For every Codex/Dataslate/Formation after the first one that your opponent brings, you receive two VPs.

For every duplicate of a unit your opponent brings (other than troops and their transports) you receive one VP.

For every superheavy your opponent brings you receive five VPs.

For every flyer (including FMC) after the first one your opponent brings, you receive two VPs.

For every MC your opponent brings after the first one, you receive two VPs.

For every D strength weapon your opponent brings, you receive three VPs.

For every 2++ rerollable your opponent rolls during the game you immediately receive seven VPs.

Victory Point conditions stack and are cumulative. Ergo, the second FMC in your opponent's list will yield you five VPs (+2 flyer, +2 MC, +1 duplicate unit).

In all instances in which a dispute arises the maximum number of VPs must be conveyed to the battle-forged list player.

Not to pick on you, but an all DAVU + Wave Serpent would give out 0 bonus VPs under your suggestion.

Tyranids will probably get their own to 'set them apart due to their alienness'. My guess is:

Synapse range is extended by 6" if the synapse unit is within synapse range of another synapse unit. The model must be doing a handstand.

Termagants within synapse range get Skyfire.

 MrEconomics wrote:

jamesk1973 wrote:
My initial thoughts on balancing an unbound list vs. a battle-forged list.

This also seems to check all the boxes as far as nerfing deathstars without telling anyone what they CANNOT bring to a game.

Tweaks to the Tyranids/MC side might be in order since that codex seems to be generally thought of as under-powered.




Battle-forged - you obey all FOC rules and stick to one Codex.

If you bring a battle-forged list and play against an unbound list you immediately receive the following VP bonuses.

You receive Victory Points determined by what your OPPONENT brings.

For every Codex/Dataslate/Formation after the first one that your opponent brings, you receive two VPs.

For every duplicate of a unit your opponent brings (other than troops and their transports) you receive one VP.

For every superheavy your opponent brings you receive five VPs.

For every flyer (including FMC) after the first one your opponent brings, you receive two VPs.

For every MC your opponent brings after the first one, you receive two VPs.

For every D strength weapon your opponent brings, you receive three VPs.

For every 2++ rerollable your opponent rolls during the game you immediately receive seven VPs.

Victory Point conditions stack and are cumulative. Ergo, the second FMC in your opponent's list will yield you five VPs (+2 flyer, +2 MC, +1 duplicate unit).

In all instances in which a dispute arises the maximum number of VPs must be conveyed to the battle-forged list player.

Not to pick on you, but an all DAVU + Wave Serpent would give out 0 bonus VPs under your suggestion.

For every duplicate of a troop and/or transport beyond six that your opponent brings you receive one VP.

Got it!

"Battle Forged armies only play against other Battle Forged armies"

"Your opponent is now subject to the infield fly rule. If your opponent cannot recite the infield fly rule without looking it up, you may eliminate up to ninety-five percent of your opponent's total point value."

 MWHistorian wrote:
It'll be a random chart with most of the bonuses being usless like your leader gets fear or soulfire

This is what i'm expecting.

And that will be awesome. I'm looking forward to yet another opportunity to score bonus abilities for my Space Wolves that they already have...

Battle forged armies allow you to replace your bastion after the tall piece of terrain your opponent placed in front it.

 insaniak wrote:

 MWHistorian wrote:
It'll be a random chart with most of the bonuses being usless like your leader gets fear or soulfire

This is what i'm expecting.

And that will be awesome. I'm looking forward to yet another opportunity to score bonus abilities for my Space Wolves that they already have...

Pretty much the same sentiment here. Probably a random D6 table that looks something like this:

1 - An ability that affects reserves/outflank/deep strike, which would have been good if you could build an army around it that didn't have a 5/6 chance of being totally worthless.

2 - A USR that 1/3 of the existing armies already have or don't need.

3 - Some of your units get Fear, but only under some highly restricted conditions like "charging from terrain", making a terrible USR even worse.

4 - A once-per-game ability that will only help against one or two really specific types of enemy armies.

5 - An aura or special rule for your Warlord whose effectiveness is entirely dependent on whether you brought a beatstick HQ or a "command" HQ.

6 - The one power that is generally useful for improving most armies' synergy/survivability/damage output, but not enough to level the playing field if you're playing an outdated codex.

+1 VP

I like the "all units in a battleforged army count as scoring" one.

I would be astounded if the % bonus points for staying battleforged was in. It would actually be pretty good. Not as good as, say, NOT HAVING UNBOUND ARMIES, but yknow...I guess they just gotta please that one jerk in marketing somehow.

Whatever it is, I highly highly highly doubt that it will be good enough to make up the difference between a TAC battleforged list facing down two revenants or an octo-tide list or whatnot.


If someone asked me what I would put in, assuming that I couldn't just squelch the unbound silliness from going live?

"If you are playing a battleforged army against an unbound army, you may select the gametype, place all terrain and objectives, choose your table edge, place obstacles and minefields anywhere on the board, and choose on what turn (even the first!) that your reserves will come in. Additionally, you may declare the result of any random-game-length roll instead of rolling, and gain a victory point for every wound or hull point caused to the unbound army's models. After the game, regardless of the result, you are legally allowed to kick the unbound player in the face with our new GW cleated shoes, but not with any other kind of shoe, or shoeless."

Or

"Whenever a model in an unbound army is removed from play, the player who caused it to be removed from play may physically destroy the model in whatever manner he sees fit. Model remains must be given to the owner."

Eh, it got more satirical at the end, but I was mostly serious until the last couple lines of the first quote.

The Battle-Forged player gains hatred against the Unbound player

Edit: While I'm here, too much to ask for army specific ones? "Green Tide - A battle forged Ork army respawns all its troops" sorta stuff. Thats what I thought it was at first and was pretty excited, but everyone seems to think its some boring generic bonus

I suspect the bonus for playing a battle forged army will be strongly related to the Allies matrix, with perhaps only battle forged armies benefiting from Battle Brothers or similar.

Otherwise I expect some synergistic bonuses for having your units co-operating, kinda like some of the Apoc formations get.

I hope it's being allowed to slap an Unbound player at the start of every phase.