Switch Theme:

What's the point of limiting the number of Battleline units?  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
»
Author Message
Advert


Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
  • No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
  • Times and dates in your local timezone.
  • Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
  • Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
  • Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.




Made in ca
Storm Trooper with Maglight



Ottawa

The limit of 6 for each Battleline datasheet just seems arbitrary to me. The Rule of 3 on non-Battleline units is necessary to prevent spamming of elites and artillery, but Battleline units are supposed to be numerous. Taking more troops should be encouraged.

Compounding the issue is the fact that some armies have more Battleline choices than others. Imperial Guard have four options: infantry squads, Cadians, Catachans and Death Korps. Do Necrons have anything other than Necron Warriors?

.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2024/06/07 21:28:38


Cadians, Sisters of Battle, Drukhari

Read my Drukhari short stories: Chronicles of Commorragh 
   
Made in ca
Stealthy Kroot Stalker





My guess is to prevent MSU spam.

I could see some armies taking more than 6 of their battle line units in the smallest quantity, but not in the largest.

It also prevents some really skewed swarm lists. I have a hard time seeing lists that could deal with something silly like 250 Kroot Carnivores.

Armies:  
   
Made in us
Humming Great Unclean One of Nurgle





In My Lab

Or 170 T5 W2 5++ Plaguebearers at 2k points.

Will they be that Killy? No.
Will they die? Also no.

Clocks for the clockmaker! Cogs for the cog throne! 
   
Made in ca
Stealthy Kroot Stalker





 JNAProductions wrote:
Or 170 T5 W2 5++ Plaguebearers at 2k points.

Will they be that Killy? No.
Will they die? Also no.


Now I want to see 250 Carnivores fight 170 Plaguebearers.

Armies:  
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

With wargames there's always a bit of a battle between giving people the freedom to create an army as they want for different aesthetic and tactical elements; whilst also restricting them enough that they build armies that thematically fit with the game designers vision of how the game should be and for balance aspects as well.

Also a lot of the time spamming 1 thing can be an effective tactic because in the rock-paper-scissors situation if all your army is rocks and your opponent is a mix then you're only at risk from 1/3rd of their force being effective. So it can break balancing in the game.



As a product you also buy, having hard restrictions also helps budget and plan purchases for people. It also can help reduce the chances of people over-spending on one aspect and then never using it in game and creating a negative experience for them.


I do agree the limits in 40K and AoS these days are very basic. Now the upside to that is that its so basic it means GW doesn't really fiddle with it between editions all that much and its easy for people to learn.
It has lost out on some of the fine granular options that other systems can have, but GW doesn't approach balance and game design in a way that would take advantage of such systems anyway

A Blog in Miniature

3D Printing, hobbying and model fun! 
   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka





-Guardsman- wrote:
The limit of 6 for each Battleline datasheet just seems arbitrary to me. The Rule of 3 on non-Battleline units is necessary to prevent spamming of elites and artillery, but Battleline units are supposed to be numerous. Taking more troops should be encouraged.

Compounding the issue is the fact that some armies have more Battleline choices than others. Imperial Guard have four options: infantry squads, Cadians, Catachans and Death Korps. Do Necrons have anything other than Necron Warriors?

.

Necrons also have immortals.

The "rule of 6" is just a simple attempt to address possible spam issues rather than a fine-tuned solution. 6 copies of a unit is a lot. If you've taken 6 maxed-out squads of necron warriors, that's already 120 bodies. You've conveyed the concept of a silver tide at that point. You're not going to suddenly get some thematic message across by taking 130 or 140 bodies instead of 120. If someone was actually trying to run 7+ copies of the same datasheet in a 2k game, it's probably because they think doing so would break the game in their favor. For instance because doing so lets them field a skew list that stat checks their opponent into oblivion.


ATTENTION
. Psychic tests are unfluffy. Your longing for AV is understandable but misguided. Your chapter doesn't need a separate codex. Doctrines should go away. Being a "troop" means nothing. This has been a cranky service announcement. You may now resume your regularly scheduled arguing.
 
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

"Rule of" is more of an issue for some armies where units can be kitted out very differently. Tyranids have quite a variety of gaunts or warriors (rule of 3) in terms of what weaponary they can take.

A warrior kitted out for close combat is very different to one kitted out for range.

Now in fairness to GW this edition they have made that possible by creating two different profiles so you could take 6 warrior units - 3 ranged 3 close combat. Of course they then made it less fun by giving the close combat zero weapon choices even though the kit has them (and which still makes me think there's a new warrior kit coming at some point)

A Blog in Miniature

3D Printing, hobbying and model fun! 
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut




its where the old force chart and the "formations" stuff worked nicely, yes you could bring a lot of line troops, but you did at least need some "HQ" units

where it fell over was "HQ" needed to be split into "Command" and "support", so the mandatory ones had to be actual leaders but the other stuff they put there becomes "support"

what was needed was for formations themselves to have a min/max say per 2k points

so the all elite formations were say 0-1 where as the generic one was 0+ (and zero because pure specialist armies should at least be possible)

guess it was far to complicated in favour of "this box is a unit, you build it exactly as shown on the box" with a blanket "rule of three" to avoid having to try and actually balance stuff
   
 
Forum Index » 40K Proposed Rules
Go to: