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Does the CP system reward players for making "fluffy" armies? and if so, is the benefit that comes from making a spam list outweigh the value of the extra CPs?

Eh. I think it more rewards people for taking multiple small units. Which is fluffy if your army's fluff is multiple small units, but not fluffy if your army's fluff is larger units or horde units.

Fluffy armies come in all shapes and sizes, from combined arms detachments through to armies of bikes, or tank squadrons or terminator armies.

It's the Detachments system which allows players to build fluffy armies.

The Command Points are to reward players taking combined arms detachments and troop heavy detachments which is great. It's not necessarily there to encourage fluffy builds but the detachments already have every possibility covered.

Lastly, although it might seem to favour MSU, the deployment mechanics are a direct counter to this. Using MSU to fill up your detachments will increase the number of deployment drops you have and reduce the chance you have of choosing to go first or second.

Overall it's a fantastic network of systems in my opinion.

If anything, it disincentivizes fluff and promotes spam.

Depends. "Spam" is very much fluffy for some armies.

 Bottle wrote:
Fluffy armies come in all shapes and sizes, from combined arms detachments through to armies of bikes, or tank squadrons or terminator armies.

It's the Detachments system which allows players to build fluffy armies.

The Command Points are to reward players taking combined arms detachments and troop heavy detachments which is great. It's not necessarily there to encourage fluffy builds but the detachments already have every possibility covered.

Lastly, although it might seem to favour MSU, the deployment mechanics are a direct counter to this. Using MSU to fill up your detachments will increase the number of deployment drops you have and reduce the chance you have of choosing to go first or second.

Overall it's a fantastic network of systems in my opinion.

My thoughts exactly. In fact it's pretty easy to build army lists specifically to farm as many CP as possibly but end up with a bad army.

Fluff is one set of armies, spam another set, and there exists the intersection of fluff and spam. 8e benefits spam as a whole, some of those armies which might be fluffy. It doesn't provide as much armies for fluffy armies which might not necessarily be spammy.

phydaux wrote:
Does the CP system reward players for making "fluffy" armies? and if so, is the benefit that comes from making a spam list outweigh the value of the extra CPs?

Its mostly a system to be exploited. Either maximizing CPs or avoiding units you don't want to take. Some armies have it easier and can take the desirable stuff while accumulating piles of CPs.

"Fluffy " and "Spam" means whatever the heck people want them to mean, usually "List I like" and "list I don't like", and that's really the only major distiction most of the time. A "Fluffy" list (or anything, really) is really just based on a person's ability to justify its composition in a way the fits the collective's head canon. and I would say the other end of "spam", the highlander styled list, can be just as uninspired and mood breaking.

To me the CP system rewards THEMED lists, which is distinct from yet similar to a "fluffy" list. Want to make that vehicle based list? go for it. Want to make an army that focuses entirely around mobile and fast units? Have at it. This system works a LOT better than formations or the special characters FOC slot switching, nor do we have to hope for GW or FW to decide that maybe THIS particular play-style needs its own sub faction

Everything in 40k is Fluffy, because you can add Fluff to basically everything you can imagine.


Things could be much better if we stop using the term "fluffy" to refer to armies and watch them from balance standpoints.

Yeah, full Deep Strike army can be very fluffy, but maybe isn't balanced.

For "fluffy but maybe unbalanced armies" theres Narrative.

EDIT: Luke_Prowler said it already.

It's funny, I was actually kind of excited to hear GW say Fluffy armies will be playable, or better or whatever term they used. Then I read the rules and detachments and realized it doesn't help fluffy armies at all, and it certainly doesn't help my Deathwing army in any way shape or form. I'm hoping the individual codexes with special detachments will alleviate this issue though so we'll see.

bobafett012 wrote:
It's funny, I was actually kind of excited to hear GW say Fluffy armies will be playable, or better or whatever term they used. Then I read the rules and detachments and realized it doesn't help fluffy armies at all, and it certainly doesn't help my Deathwing army in any way shape or form. I'm hoping the individual codexes with special detachments will alleviate this issue though so we'll see.

I'd not hold your breath, there isn't going to be special detachments in the codexes.

Rumors on unique detachments are currently fifty fifty, so it's firmly in the wait and see category.

EDIT: Misread the thread

There's nothing fluffy about the CP system, and since there are spam detachments for every FOC slot it doesn't really prevent you from spamming whatever you like.

Generally no. Ignoring the Brigade detachment, the system gives you pretty constant CP rewards for taking a couple HQs and then a bunch of the same thing. The Battalion detachment gives you a small incentive to take Troops, but not much of one since it comes with a higher HQ requirement, and regardless it doesn't seem to be the case that Troops choices are generally fluffier than others when taken in large numbers.

The Brigade is neat. This is giving you a big reward for bringing, essentially, a Vanguard, a Spearhead, and an Outrider detachment, plus 6 Troops. It definitely tries to promote bringing a varied list. But it doesn't work too well for all armies since some have a much easier time filling out a Brigade than others. Mostly this is a problem with Astra Militarum.

It would be nice if the detachment requirements were based on points or at least power level rather than merely slots filled. At least then more factions might be tempted to try for a Brigade. And that would open up room for multiple tiers of Brigade-style detachment.

If I'm reading things right then it seems to me that, instead of a "Troops Tax" that forces you to bring Troops units that you may or may not want, this edition has an "HQ Tax" that "forces" players to bring extra HQ units.

Hero Hammer Character Spam, anyone?

Yeah the 2 minimum HQ tax is something I find obnoxious.

But... We like our special snowflakes...

Especially our Boys In Blue: