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I'm trying to focus on more fluffy and fun formations with the space marine armies I've been assembling.

But there seems to be an illusion of choice concerning the Gladius Strike Force Vs everything else. However I kind of despise the min/maxed system of play which results from this.

I really feel these formations have potential, but I'm not seeing much else work out when it comes to getting critical mass on the table in terms of bodies.

Short answer is no. Long answer is that none of the formation bonuses come even remotely close to free transports.

But, don't discount them as useless either, they just arnt as good as Gladius. Iron hand's version can make a disgusting command squad and has natural access to the sky hammer annihilation force. The RG one is brilliant for the true tactician and really let's you play like the fluff. The WS one is sublime for true bike armies and the salamanders one feels so fluffy.

It's just at the end of the day, any of those benefits don't compare to several hundred points of free objective secured models.

Well it depends on the formations that you want to use. The gladius is so good because everything is obsec and you can get free transports and you get the doctrines. The Iron hands one is just as good if you use the demi company and then get a command squad. you can make an obsec deathstar which is something really good. The white scars and salamanders are kind of underwhelming (in my opinion). The imperial fists would be decent with centurions in drop pods with the sternguard. And the raven guard is the best one in the supplement. I have been really tempted to build night lords and have them use the rules of the raven guard

Imperial Fists get twin-linked Bolt Weapons, which is kind of cool, but not free Transports cool. Still, a 1st company task force made up of all Sternguard is going to be a pain to deal with.