Balancing 40K

[Zodd1888]

Super simple. I like it.

 

Edit: Solves CP/Strategem issue. Doesn't solve Elite/Horde issue.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Zodd1888

[chapter master 454]

Super simple. I like it.

 

Edit: Solves CP/Strategem issue. Doesn't solve Elite/Horde issue.

 

That is a larger issue all together.

 

Certainly like the idea of taxing however it may be that to some extent I wonder its effectiveness really. If we really are worried about CP spam, then taxing 1 CP isn't going to stop too much silliness as after all we have stated they have plenty to go around. I would push a harder tax, possibly a multiplier rather than addition. After all, takes a lot for some standard Imperial Guard commander to call in an orbital bombardment or the like. It means bigger stratagems become stupidly expensive and thus aren't available outside of the intended army while smaller stratagems can be used but not heavily.

 

In terms of Horde vs. Elite, it is an issue that just seems to be an issue whole unto itself. In terms of design, I find it annoying that large blast weapons really do not cut the mustard vs. horde when they really should. This comes around to how the random shots application has been relatively good in some regards and terrible in others. Good in making the game go faster and reduce arguments over false placement of the template because of parallax disagreements and also stops people wasting time over "I'm allowed to have them 2" apart thank you" whenever blast did appear. As it stands, blast doesn't do nearly enough to thin out hordes and those weapons need serious buffs or price drops, one or the other because some a stupidly priced.

[Tyriks]

What were formerly blast weapons should not be flat d6 shots. It should be something like d6 per 5 models in the target. Or some other way to scale, maybe they all have a flat number plus a scaling rolled number (so something like RFBC gets 6+d6 per 5 but a mortar team only gets 0 + d3 per 5 because it's a much smaller explosion. Blast weapons were formally the go to for hordes and now they are almost universally bad at it.

 

Or d6 per 5 but with a cap based on the weapon. So blast 5 fires as a heavy weapon but caps at 5d6 shots for something massive. Smaller stuff could be blast 1 for just d6, et cetera.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Tyriks

[Stercus]

My main thought on balancing 40k is, well, why bother?

Not balancing it has served GW very well for 20+ years and frankly, if it was a perfectly balanced and nuanced system what would we all argue and debate on here ad nauseum?

Broadly speaking, for all it’s flaws, we all enjoy and participate in this hobby and I don’t think mending it would change that. Would perfect balance and equality between factions really increase your enjoyment that much? I’m not so sure. Yes, the napoleonic wars might have been fairer if the Helvetic republic had real counters to the Austrian-Hungarian empire, but that wasn’t how the situation existed. Maybe, the imbalance in the 40k rulesets simply reflects reality in that not all factions are equal in genuine conflict.

Sometimes if ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Sometimes, even if it is a bit broke, don’t fix it anyway.

[Tyriks]

Would perfect balance and equality between factions really increase your enjoyment that much?

Has any post in this thread shot for "perfect balance and equality?"  No.  We are aiming to get closer.  And yes, that would make the hobby more enjoyable for me.  By a large margin.  

[Lord_Caerolion]

I also like that idea, doesn't sound too punishing but is significant, and is very thematic. I think you'd need to be careful with it though. I'm imagining an inquisitor warlord in an imperium detachment allowing regular command point use to other more specialised detachments because they all have the imperium key word.

 

It'd also be a bit weird with the Ad Mech stratagems that target Knights.

 

An Imperium Detachment wouldn't allow any army-specific stratagems though, as they require a Blood Angels Detachment, etc, in order to be used. It could be done that an Inquisitor has a rule that it allows all Imperial detachments to ignore this rule. So you could have a Blood Angels Detachment, with an Inquisitor leading in an Imperial Detachment, and the Blood Angels could use their Stratagems at normal cost, rather than having to pay +1 CP.

 

To be honest, I just don't want to see "only the Warlords Detachment can use stratagems", as otherwise the allied Space Marines decide to keep all their scanners at home, etc.

[Zodd1888]

 

 

Super simple. I like it.

 

Edit: Solves CP/Strategem issue. Doesn't solve Elite/Horde issue.

That is a larger issue all together.

 

Certainly like the idea of taxing however it may be that to some extent I wonder its effectiveness really. If we really are worried about CP spam, then taxing 1 CP isn't going to stop too much silliness as after all we have stated they have plenty to go around. I would push a harder tax, possibly a multiplier rather than addition. After all, takes a lot for some standard Imperial Guard commander to call in an orbital bombardment or the like. It means bigger stratagems become stupidly expensive and thus aren't available outside of the intended army while smaller stratagems can be used but not heavily.

 

In terms of Horde vs. Elite, it is an issue that just seems to be an issue whole unto itself. In terms of design, I find it annoying that large blast weapons really do not cut the mustard vs. horde when they really should. This comes around to how the random shots application has been relatively good in some regards and terrible in others. Good in making the game go faster and reduce arguments over false placement of the template because of parallax disagreements and also stops people wasting time over "I'm allowed to have them 2" apart thank you" whenever blast did appear. As it stands, blast doesn't do nearly enough to thin out hordes and those weapons need serious buffs or price drops, one or the other because some a stupidly priced.

It'd be putting a dent in the issue without blowing up the game, IMO.

 

If you were going to be silly and run a double brigade soup with a metric bajillion CP you've implemented a tax. Breaks down to a 100%/50%/33% increase in 1/2/3 CP strategems in their economy. That's impactful.

 

Though I think we're both of same mind for the most part on both topics.

Edited February 26, 2018 by Zodd1888