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Hello.

Brushing the dust of my dark eldar I got to think that they probably will play a lot like my GSC. This got me thinking, is there a way to group different armies into categories?

Dark Eldar and GS both have some OK shooting, but the real strenght is mobilaty (often with transports) and melee attacks.
Chaos Knights and Knights play very unique, but can they be grouped.
Blood angels melee and orks both play very similar. Push up with good melee units. One with jump pack, one with whaag.
Slow moving sturdy midrange armies are probably a category. Tyranids and votan comes to mind. Deathguard beeing on the exstreme end of the scale.
I do not know gunlines well enough to group.
Shooting marine armies and thousand suns are probably similar, and are probably in that midrange category.


Mind you I do not know if it is possible. There are also stand out exceptions. Tyranid harpies really break the mold. As does tyranid kraken who advance and charge. Some armies are so flexible they probably could fit in several categories (but not at the same time/with the same armylist.)

Any thoughts?

My main thought is you’re working off old Codexes, as Kraken’s Advance and Charge is gone in the 9th Codex.

Not quite. Neuronthrope with resonance barb, onslaught psykick power and opertunistik advance.

While 3d6 choose two or your choise +2 is not a guaranteed cast of onslaught (casts on a 6), it is reliaable enough that kraken can build around their auto advance 8 stratagem.

In fact in the old book tyranids where fast a tricky often winning in the movement phase. In the new codex they push up slowly and fat (with some slight exceptions.)

Not really sure it works out like this any more.

In the past I'd have said there were assault-pressure armies, gunlines, and "come at me bro, I've got 3 bricks of 10 Terminators and just won't die".

But I feel that's sort of gone out with the ark. Kind of feel all current competitive armies have to be mobile pressure lists - whether they take units to apply that pressure in assault or with shooting is down to the codex.

I think you can taxonomize lists, but doing it to factions is impossible since factions change and GW doesn't design in a way that lends itself to that sort of taxonomisation, like you'd be able to do in Starcraft even if units were changed or added you'd still have a feel that the designers were trying to keep intact.

If you look at at Gladius Relics of War you can see they picked a list of units from each of the 40k factions they implemented with a theme in mind. Like the Space Marines are defensive, Orks are aggressive and so on. You can play Space Marines more offensively or Orks more defensively, but there's a definite slant there that I think 40k model- and game designers don't care about.

Trends in how factions play in 40k is usually determined by random pts imbalances rather than an effort on GW's part to make factions different from each other. Generally, people pick their sub-faction based on which units they like or think are undercosted in combination with the sub-faction. 7th edition with the Decurions was the exception to the rule because GW heavily leaned on the scales pushing people to use those detachments. So Space Marines became the transports faction and Necrons were the slow durable infantry faction.

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Blood angels melee and orks both play very similar. Push up with good melee units. One with jump pack, one with whaag.

 Niiai wrote:
Hello.

Brushing the dust of my dark eldar I got to think that they probably will play a lot like my GSC. This got me thinking, is there a way to group different armies into categories?

Dark Eldar and GS both have some OK shooting, but the real strenght is mobilaty (often with transports) and melee attacks.
Chaos Knights and Knights play very unique, but can they be grouped.
Blood angels melee and orks both play very similar. Push up with good melee units. One with jump pack, one with whaag.
Slow moving sturdy midrange armies are probably a category. Tyranids and votan comes to mind. Deathguard beeing on the exstreme end of the scale.
I do not know gunlines well enough to group.
Shooting marine armies and thousand suns are probably similar, and are probably in that midrange category.


Mind you I do not know if it is possible. There are also stand out exceptions. Tyranid harpies really break the mold. As does tyranid kraken who advance and charge. Some armies are so flexible they probably could fit in several categories (but not at the same time/with the same armylist.)

Any thoughts?

I would say that in general:

Armies that have access to good close assault troops are "melee armies".
Armies that don't, and must derive a significant majority of their capability at range are "shooting armies".
Notably, all melee armies except Daemons [Orks, Tyranids, CSM, SoB] can shoot, and shoot very well, and are set apart as "melee armies" by having the choice to leverage exceptional CQC ability compared to the shooting armies [IG, Tau], which are characterized by a lack of effective CQC ability.



If an army fields more than about 30-50 basic infantry by default, it is a "horde army". Typically this entails coming in squads of 10+
If an army fields less, it is an "elite army". Typically, this entails coming in squads of 5.



If an army generally wants to field a large number of units with the minimum side, it is a "MSU army".
If it doesn't, it isn't.



Now, for the real definitions:
A MEQ army/unit consists of models that are BS4 [3+], Sv3+, with a bolter or similar weapon. This is SM, CSM, SoB, and GK.
A GEQ army/unit consists of models with that have are Sv5+ or Sv6+, sometimes extended to 4+, and typically a "base" BS3 [4+]. It includes Guard, Orks, Tyranids, etc.
A TEQ unit consists of models with a 2+ save.

I never found a consensus on what the wide on what the mid-range units were. I've often had Fire Warriors counted as GEQ because they're T3 and BS3, but Necron Warriors as something else because despite not having a 3+, they have a "bolter" [S4, AP5, Rapid Fire].