Playing 30k in 40k settings.

[MakoBoy88]

Hello all.

Later on in the year, there is a 40k tournament that i am entering. Its a local club setting. There is some discussion at the moment as to whether 30k legion lists are legal to play, and even if they are, are they balanced.

I know the world of 40k is about to be turned on its head by the new edition, and i dont intend for this thread to be a bitch or winge about it, but really as a crucible to share your experiences about whether the systems are balanced?

Have any of you guys played 30k agaist one of the 40k lists and found yourself OP, or them OP. How do they stack against other marines as lets be honest, 2/3 of most local club tournaments are filled with Marines of some creed.

What do you think?

It has been suggested that the legion i make, (Which is now Salamanders), i should just make into a 40k list and be done with it. But that kind of refutes the point as far as i am concerned. So, any thoughts?

 

[November]

From my own point of view, I agree that this is the big probem with a 30K army - what i'd suggest is that you take a look at models/an army that will let you play either a 40K force (using the SM codex for example with the Salamanders rules) and also as a smaller (relatively) 30K army.

[Flint13]

I play a 30k force against several different 40k armies on a pretty regular basis. So far using the rules for both the Terror Assault doctrine and the vanilla list for the Night Lords, I've had a blast against Orks, Dark Eldar, Chaos Space Marines, Tyranids and Imperial Guard. There have also been "games" against Tau and Eldar. 

 

30k armies are generally a solid middle tier when compared against their 40k counterparts. The only real points of contention I've found are similar to those of the Chaos Dwarves in WHFB. Since they are Forgeworld based armies, folks tend to have less general knowledge of them for whatever reason, and some can blame a loss on that. 

[Brofist]

I also play lots of 30k in 40k and my experience is exactly the same as Flint13's. Even the strongest legion armies are upper mid tier compared to the big armies out there right now. The biggest issue people have are special rules and not knowing what to expect against units. I always explain what each unit can do before I start playing, which helps a lot.

 

One caviat- 30k armies scale pretty quickly. Depending on how many points you can bring you could struggle to field a balance army... or bring more firepower that most armies without allies.

[Massaen]

I always found the legion middle tier at best under 2000points. They are too inflexible due to the cost below this

[Russ Brother 92]

My experiences have been much the same as mentioned by Flin13 & Bulbafist (great name btw.) in that my 'lower' level 30k force is able to put up a good fight and stand a decent chance of winning against 'sensible' 40k forces, but will often (perhaps due to my play style as much as imbalance) be flattened by the 'flavour of the month' forces like Tau, Eldar etc - at higher point levels (2k+) it can get far better and imo. far more balanced as 30k is designed for the bigger games but 40k doesn't lose out either.

[Tiger9gamer]

Personally I am planning on building my next army as HH to play in 40k because I see it as an army going back to some old tactics to get the job done. while I wouldn't expect Ultramarines to go back to 20 man squads, forces like the Salamanders or Iron Hands probably wouldn't care all that much and just use what works. My fingers are crossed for rule in the future that lets codex space marines use legion rules in place of chapter tactics, but since that is weird I am probably just going to use HH.

 

Plus, I feel Forgeworld has gotten the flavor of the Legions and armies down more than GW. at least they know well enough to give the stealthy legions infiltrate as a rule =P

[Flint13]

Haha, I have no idea why my post got half a dozen likes, but I won't complain ^_^

 

But the sentiment of a list rundown tends to be common courtesy in my area. I suppose it's partly the short explanation of each unit to a player unfamiliar with it that helps. I'm certain there are many a novice player fresh from listening to a string of horror stories from a bitter friend who will straight up refuse to play a legion list because "That's forgeworld, man(girl.) All their stuff is broken."

 

... while stacking up Riptides and Wraithknights

[daveNYC]

Key thing to remember if you're pitching bringing in 30k lists is that the units have a high upfront cost which is balanced out by additional models being cheap.  So those 10 point space marines arguments only really come into play if you're fielding huge units, smaller units end up with a much higher cost per model.