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I'm definitely going to get a lot of flak out of this thread, especially from the puritan 40k crowd, but I'm codeveloping a dynamic 40k points system that attempts to re-point every unit and wargear. It's designed solely for our private gaming group and no one is forcing anyone to use it, but anyone interested in playtesting it or giving it a go can certainly try it out.

Anyways, I've come to the testy subject of taxing 40k Formations and decided to start with Space Marines first as a baseline. Here's what I came up with so far:

- Battle Demi Company: 50
- Anti-Air Defence Force: Free
- 1st Company Task Force: 30
- Strike Force Ultra: 30
- Reclusium Command Squad: Free
- 10th Company Task Force: 15
- Stormwing: 15
- Centurion Siegebreaker Cohort: Free
- Land Raider Spearhead: 30
- Librarius Conclave: 50
- Armoured Task Force: 15
- Suppression Force: 25

Angels of Death:
- Stormlance Battle Demi-Company: 60
- Hunting Force: 30
- Stormbringer: 15
- Speartip Strike: 30
- Pinion Battle Company: 60
- Shadowstrike Kill Team: 35
- Bladewing Assault Brotherhood: 20
- Skyhammer Orbital STrike Force: Free
- Skyhammer Annihilation Force: 65
- Shadow Force: 15
- Ravenhawk Assault Group: 10
- Raptor Wing: 25

Any constructive and friendly criticism on how to tax formations is welcome. Other wise, carry on.

Quick question, what criteria are you using to assign point costs?

It's more or less subjective based on the special abilities of the formation and widespread community feedback on which formations are more popular to use in the competitive setting.

For example with the Armoured Task Force, I figured being able to ignore crew stunned and crew shaken should be about 5 points per vehicle and you need a minimum of 3 vehicles, so 15 points. It could also be 10 or 15 points, but I think 5 was fair considering you have to be within 6" of a techmarine which does put a leash on the ability. And the +1 to repairing vehicles I thought would also be worth 5 points since a servo harness does the same thing, but includes a 15 point plasma pistol (which I think is worth 10) and a 5 point flamer.

So why is a demi company 75 points? It is a bad combined arms detachment other then it gives you a single tactical doctrine.

That is a very valid point. The Demi Company was probably the hardest thing to figure out, but with that considered, I'll probably lower it down. I guess it goes along with how much do you think Objective Secured is worth per unit. I think it should be at least 10 points so being able to tack it on an additional fast attack, heavy support, HQ, and possibly dreadnoughts in the demi-company I think should warrant it to be at least 30 points and another 15 for tactical doctrine? I think 40-50 points sounds like a better ballpark for it.

Not really. It is only taken because if you have two you get free vehicles.

On its own, I can just take a bunch of Scouts and Bikers and get all the OS I want. Why is it necessary I have Assault Marines or Devastators with OS? It really doesn't help.

I suppose it depends on the context of the missions how useful OS is. Vanilla maelstrom, probably not so much because of how dynamic the objectives you need to score are, but in Eternal War and a lot of tournament missions where the objectives are static would obsec can matter. Putting it on devastators help you hold your homefield objective easier and while no one uses assault marines anymore (unless they're being fluffy), you can put obsec on bikes and land speeders. Also, I didn't even think about everyone's favorite command squad on bikes with storm shields, apothecaries, and whatnot. However, the demi companies are probably the hardest thing to find a good cost for so I'm open to suggestions.

Except you can already get OS Bikers by buying a Bike for your HQ (which you're already likely doing) and Scouts get Storms.

So you lose OS on Devastators (which isn't that big a deal because anything near them will kill them) and on Command Squads (which is admittedly neat). So by getting OS on them I'm bring forced to buy Tactical Marines? No thanks.

 NInjatactiks wrote:
It's more or less subjective based on the special abilities of the formation and widespread community feedback on which formations are more popular to use in the competitive setting.

For example with the Armoured Task Force, I figured being able to ignore crew stunned and crew shaken should be about 5 points per vehicle and you need a minimum of 3 vehicles, so 15 points. It could also be 10 or 15 points, but I think 5 was fair considering you have to be within 6" of a techmarine which does put a leash on the ability. And the +1 to repairing vehicles I thought would also be worth 5 points since a servo harness does the same thing, but includes a 15 point plasma pistol (which I think is worth 10) and a 5 point flamer.

I don't really know marine formations to comment much, but I'm not sure you're taking quite the right approach to your pricing guidelines. If you base the formation tax on the minimum number of units and their benefits, then you essentially aren't paying for those benefits on any of the other units in the formation. Instead, why not simply tie the tax directly to the units involved?

So for instance, a formation might allow you take 1-5 of unit X, and it comes with benefits Y and Z. So rather than saying Y and Z benefits are worth 10 and 15 points respectively (25 points total) and multiplying that cost by 1 because the formation only requires 1 unit of X, why not make it 25 points per unit of X taken?

The demi-co also locks you into a captain/chaplain for your HQ. I honestly think it’s a pretty good balance of locking you into “tax” units and giving you some benefits for doing so.

+ ObSec on 1-3 units (the tacs and maybe bikes would get it anyway in a CAD)
+ Tac doctrine

- Taking more tac squads then you want (even as a fluffy bunny Ultramarine player I rarely took more then two)
- HQ restriction
- it’s composed almost entirely of mediocre to poor units, and the good stuff you can’t spam, or take support for (pods for dev cents)

The full company Gladius is the problem, not the lone demi-co. Obviously you have some formations you are calling “free” so are willing to comp some for their taxes/restrictions. IMHO, the demi co is in this group.

As is the 10th co TF. Sure you get stealth if you don’t move and precision shots the first turn. Nice little boost. But you give up ObSec, which the non-bike scouts normally have, as well as their DT. Seeing that grabbing and holding objectives is roughly 90% of a scout’s job, that’s a big deal.