The Cursed Blade drukhari subfaction has basically the same strat (maybe exactly the same strat?) as Catachans. It's a decent representation of the concept. In the case of the Cursed Blade, I could see them maybe making it a bit more reliable (or possibly even lowering the
CP cost to 0) due to how situational it is. My melee unit has to be standing on terrain (doable, but more dependent on my opponent's choices than my own). My opponent has to fail to shoot a very squishy unit to death, and then decide it's a good idea to charge the remnants of my melee unit with a melee unit of their own. And then, after I spend
CP on the strat, there's still a significant chance that it just straight up doesn't do anything.
FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
JNAProductions wrote:Because melee needs to be worse, right?
As a specific unit ability, or as a purchasable "fortification", sure. Balance as appropriate.
As a universal, no thanks.
Honest question: do you think Melee is "bad" in this edition? Because I play Custodes, and everything I see is currently jaw dropping in it's melee power. Sure there are powerful shooty units, there always will be. But the new Blood Angels stuff looks scary good. I'm actually concerned about the power creep happening on the melee side. What happens when you get to an almost purely melee faction like Custodes or Orks? Do all orks become D2 weapons S6? Do Custodes start swinging base 3 damage halberds and 4 damage axes? I think 9th is shaping up to be VERY melee friendly.
For a better response to your question, I do not want melee to suffer more, I just thought it was a cool idea to be able to set anti-infantry traps.
My two cents: 9th edition has helped melee out a lot by making it easier to get into melee and reducing the number of screening units. However, many melee options (including most options in a given faction) still aren't "good."
Marine melee is pretty good because marine units are tanky enough to feel good about charging something on an objective and then weathering the subsequent volley of fire directed at them. Custodes melee is good for similar reasons and has the added benefit of being killy enough to shift marines in a marine-heavy meta.
But hormagaunts and genestealers? Too squishy to endure followup fire power, and also not all that killy. If either of those units charge my dark reapers, they'll do well, but they're more likely to end up charging a disposable squad of dire avengers and then get deleted for an overall loss of points. Ork boyz? Similar problem. Nobz/Meganobz? Pretty killy, but too squishy/expensive/slow to be something you see a ton of competitively.
tldr; Is melee "bad?" Right now? Yes for some armies. No for others. And many melee units feel like they need a significant redesign to catch up with the times. My howling banshees are supposed to be good at hurting marines, for instance.