elite bloat?

[toaae]

Didn't battalions go up to 6 elites from up to 3 with 9th edition? That gives more breathing room in the elite category at least.

 

This happened in 8th edition, in comparison to the old Combined Arms Detachment.

 

It was widely speculated that this was because they "blew up" command squad-esque units into small units and individual characters.

[Magos Takatus]

The reason behind some of this stuff getting moved into the Elite slots is especially baffling. The Tech Priest Datasmith can only find use with Kastelan robots and it's model is only found in the box for the Kastelan Robots. The only advantage I can think of for to it not be part of the squad is that it could leave one unit of Kastelan Robots to join another. Apart from that moving it to the Elites swallows up a slot that could be better spent on an entire unit of Electro Priests instead. It's bad enough for marine characters to be relegated to Elites but to armies with less powerful characters it makes even less sense.

 

What I found interesting was that for Adeptus Mechanicus it felt to me that the choke point was in the Heavy Support slot but counting the entries there are only three available and there are a lot more Elite slots due to dual kits bloating the list. Due to there being a lack of vehicle squadrons for the Onager or the Skorpius it feels to me that Heavy Support is a very tight slot to try to fill. Goodness knows what it would be like if Ironstriders and Kataphron Destroyers were moved there. (I am begging GW not to make that change in the new Codex, if they ever deign us worthy to buy a copy :p )

[jarms48]

Is it really a problem? Id like to have lots of options with specialists tbh Guard is a great example because their Elites slot is all the weird and manifold elite or specialist branches or a hugely varied fighting force. Troops on the other hand tends to be a bit more limited because its the basic, well, troops of a faction and thats going to be a handful of options at most by design.

 

There are often some choices, especially in the marine dex that could shift slot but given 9ths mantra of changing things that exist purely because of tradition i suspect they already thought most of them over in some depth, see scouts moving to elites for example, so things are where GW wants them.

 

The biggest problem with the marine codex tbh is its three codexes in a big coat   

 

Guard could easily rid themselves of at least half a dozen Elite options. For example:

 

1) Bring back Infantry Platoons in the Troops slot.

- 1 Platoon Commander

- 2 - 3 Infantry Squads

- 0 - 1 Special Weapon Squad

- 0 - 1 Heavy Weapon Squad

 

2) Make Veterans Troops again. 

 

That's already 3 Elite slots freed up. What else can we do?

 

3) Folder Command Squads back in with Officers. Make the Command Squad act like GSC Patriarch Familiars, a 0 - 4 upgrade option. Which indirectly buffs the non-combat Command Squad options as they'd now have the Character keyword. 

 

That's another 2 Elite slots freed up, thanks to both AM and MT Command Squads.

 

That's 5 Elite slots, so a little bit more manageable. There's potentially more you could do, but it's a bit of a stretch. 

 

4) Make Ogryns Troops. They're pretty bad compared to Bullgryns. This at least gives them Obsec and lets them be spammed. 

 

5) Go back to the old Advisor route. Folder standard Commissars  back into the Command Squad thus into the Company Commander or Platoon Commander datasheets. Which indirectly makes them more reliable in melee, as you could take wounds on the Bodyguards first. Personally, I feel like Astropaths Priests and the Master of Ordnance should remain split as they serve different roles. The standard Commissar is there to buff infantry. Though this would make the Regimental Standard redundant. 

Edited May 17, 2021 by jarms48