Gearing the rules towards modelling

[Rasclomalum]

I personally care a lot about the modelling aspect of the game, and I guess I am the kind of person who likes to come up with backstories to my army lists. This often leads me to model characters with less than optimal wargear options, based purely on my interpretation of the rule of cool. Perhaps unfortunately in this case, I also care about the competitive aspect of the game, and no matter how cool the idea of a power armoured Chaos Lord, equipped with an armour-crumpling Power Fist and a sure-striking Combi-Bolter, advancing with his battle brothers to the front in a Rhino may sound in that narrative-conscious part of my head, I know I am setting myself up for failure.

 

The problem as I see it is that the rules are designed in such a way that they effectively limit the competitive players palette of modelling options. Now, it could be argued that some builds will always be more effective than others and that no one is strictly forcing you to run a Nurgle biker lord with fisticlaws. Still, there are things I would change in order to make the game more conducive to modelling, by making more builds than the select few we usually run at the very least viable enough that one wouldn't have to feel stupid running them.

 

Note that these proposals are merely musings and not to be taken too seriously, and that they are thought of with Chaos characters in mind. Still, I don't think any of them are exactly game breaking.

 

1) Give all Chaos characters a bolter in addition to their other weapons. This would make footsloggers somewhat more viable and give thst BS5 of Lords and Warpsmiths some extra consideration.

 

2) An expansion to the former proposal would be to make Combi-bolters assault weapons and perhaps allow for independent characters to take special weapons such as proper plasma- and meltaguns.

 

3) Specialist weapons - I sometimes fail to see the need for having this category. Seems like a holdover rule now that specialist weapons of any stripe confer an extra attack. Seems that the only reason it exists is that removing it would make power swords obsolete. Other than that, nothing about, say, Huron getting an extra attack for axe and claw seems terribly out of bounds. Giving someone that combination would just be a cheaper but worse version of fisticlaws.

 

4) Expand wargear options for some independent characters, apostles in TDA and Warpsmiths on bikes (iron priests can do it!) just makes sense and would probably make these units see the table more often than is now the case.

 

/rant

[incinerator950]

Warhammer 40ks greatest strength is undeniably one of its biggest drawbacks.

[Nehekhare]

model first, then find codices/rules to play it effectively.

[Trevak Dal]

model first, then find codices/rules to play it effectively.

 

9/10, you'll have a better time of it with Loyalists or Heresy.