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In theory, I like the idea of special detachments and formations. They have the potential to buff fluffy-but-normally-ineffective options in a list and make them worthwhile. Want to field a bunch of eldar rangers because you run Alaitoc? Have some sort of special rule to reward you for that even though rangers don't lend themselves well to being taken in bulk. Want to run a wych cult? Here's a detachment that makes them not terrible en masse. That unit you always wanted to take but couldn't quite make it work? Take it along with these other misfit units, and we'll give them some snazzy formation bonus.

Unfortunately, some formations/detachments don't seem interested in utilizing this potential. Specifically, the Gladius Strike Force makes you take a bunch of less popular space marine units but gives you free points worth of transports to make up for it. Which could sort of kind of work in theory. After all, those points you aren't spending on transports are totally going to go into upgrades for your marines so that they can be well-equipped for the tabletop, right? Wrong. What we seem to be seeing is lots of naked devastators, assaults, etc. being spammed to get even more raw points on the table. Then these ill-equipped marines scoot across the table and die in droves until the pile of marine corpses manage to score the objective.

So my passing thought is that the Gladius no longer grants free transports. Instead, have it provide each squad in the formation with free points of gear. So if each tac, assault, and dev squad is getting, say, 40 points worth of upgrades for free, they can now hand out the special and heavy weapons they need to actually damage stuff, and they're doing it more cost-effectively thanks to the formation. If you wanted to, you could theoretically put all those points you're saving into giving them transports, but you'd still be forced to bring upgraded marines to the table rather than spamming naked guys.

So that's my passing thought. What do you think? Have I missed something obvious? Is it a terrible idea for some reason? Or would this be a solid way to make the Gladius into a means of buffing devs/assaults/tacs rather than just encouraging people to spam bodies?