40K: Army Difficulty
No one likes being told that their army is easy to play or easy to master. That’s all subjective in the eyes of the beholder. However, certain builds in any given army book can be easier to play than others. There’s no arguing around that other than the reasoning of target priority. Pure shooty lists or pure CC lists will focus around which targets to get rid of first and that’s pretty much all the skill that’s needed.
For example, a standard RB spamming Wolf list with max units of Long Fangs would be a no brainer for me. I would rate that army 1/5 in terms of difficulty. You can essentially blind-fold a monkey and have it point and roll dice for hits and wounds and you’ll probably come out alright. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I can make a huge deathstar with Thunderwolf Cavalry and gear the entire army towards mindless hand-to-hand combat. I will allocate wounds all over the place on my individually configured TWC and I’ll spread AP3 or lower wounds on my Storm Shields. My sole objective is to get into combat and kill whatever I touch. In terms of army difficulty, I would probably give it a 1/5 as well.
So what about a balanced list? I think a balanced list is obviously much harder to play than a pure shooty or pure CC list. The reason why is because you actively incorporate all phases of the game into your play. You have to factor in movement, shooting and assault and analyze how your army must work together to achieve victory. An example of this would be some Grey Hunters in some Rhinos, a min squad of Long Fangs, a LRC filled with some Wolf Guard Terminators and a squad of Thunderwolf Cavalry led by a Wolf Lord. The list is so balanced and well-rounded that I would give the army a solid 3/5 in terms of difficulty to execute and play right. Why not a 4? Because the army you’re playing is Marines. With above average stats and armor all over the place, making mistakes is a lot more forgiving compared to a T3 unit with a 5+ save. Not to mention Grey Hunters are by far the best troop choice in the game right now with the Rune Priests’ a strong contender for HQ.
A balanced Eldar list would probably score a 4/5 compared to a balanced Marine list. Why? Because the entire army depends on specialized synergy in combination with psychic powers in order to function to optimal levels. You need Doom cast the target unit of a Dire Avenger’s Bladestorm and Guide helps Fire Dragons find their mark in times of need. Unique Holofields and Energy Shields keeps the transport’s contents safe and Fortune on Turbo-boosting Seer councils can be deceivingly durable. Since I’ve played both Eldar and marine-variants, I can safely say that Eldar is more difficult to play. There’s less mistakes to be had because what you have is so specialized and limited.
Now that I have some rough definitions thrown down, let’s examine the army difficult scale again. How I rate army difficulty as a whole depends on the codex and edition I’m playing in. Since I’m a Space Wolf player, I’ll go ahead and do a sample rating of how difficult my army is. I like to look at all the possible builds my codex can do and then average out all the possibilities. Since I already denoted that RB and TWC spam is as difficult to learn and play as counting Skittles, I’m going to assume that Wolfwing and balanced style lists will balance it out. Regardless, we’re still playing Marines (and better Marines mind you) and no matter what you do with the book, you’re still going to have a pretty easy time. Space Wolves for me has a difficulty rating of 2. That pretty much means you can’t go wrong with the book regardless of what you do. Does this mean that the book is overpowered? Heck no it doesn’t. It just means that beginners will have a very easy time picking it up and doing well.
But what about competitive play? Marines in general are harder to play at higher levels when you take a more balanced approach. That’s why most of the lists we see out there are mono-focused and single-minded. You either go mass shooting or mass CC for the most part and I guess there’s nothing wrong with that (except for boredom and your opponent shaking his head). Lists like those are easy to play and with the correct match-ups in a tournament, it’s not difficult to go all the way. That’s why whenever I play MEQ, I tend to take very balanced lists. I don’t believe in the whole pray for a good match-up RPS mentality in tournaments, I believe in building a all-comers list that’s capable of fighting any and all enemies. Sure, I might get shot to bits in the shooting phase by superior shooting or get hacked to bits in dedicated CC, but I know that my chances against those type of lists will be the same regardless.
With that being said, let’s look at some other armies out there. There are 14 different armies out so I’ll try to keep it short. I might also blurp out a thing or two about why I rated it so below.
Blood Angels – 2/5
The ability to take a lot of AV13 armor and FNP/FC bubbles makes BA slightly better than vanilla Marines. Mephiston is a beast and the flying Librarians provide a lot of flexibility. Even if you take a balanced approach with Devastators or Tactical squads, FNP is still saving a lot more marines than you want to admit.
Chaos Daemons – 4/5
If you take the Fatecrusher build, you’ll degrade yourself to a 1. A lot of random chance and combined arms is needed to make a successful and balanced Chaos Daemons list. If you like random in the form of pure chaos, then go for it. Not recommended for beginners since a few uneventful scatters can bring the demise of your entire army.
Chaos Space Marines – 3/5
Older book, Dual Lash max Oblits list gets a 1/5. That list should of never been born since it’s basically the reason why no one footslogs anymore. Too bad the rest of the army consists of overshadowed options that building a balance list to fight all-comers is rather difficult.
Daemonhunters – 4/5
Not much to say here. Pure Grey Knights needs 2x-3x LRs in most lists but it’s going to be hard-countered soon. Even with a lot of LRs, meltas can inflict horrible amounts of damage to your list. This book can go up to 5/5 in terms of army difficulty since everything is outdated and overpriced. Definitely not recommended for beginners even though the army’s models are gorgeous.
Dark Eldar – 5/5
The only true glass cannon army in the entire game of 40K. It’s also the game of 40K in 5th Edition where everything is mech is you’re AV10 open-top. In the current meta, there’s nothing in the book that screams domination and everything is priced fairly. Almost all list variations will be about the same difficulty to play. Hellions with the Baron might make it in with a 4 but even so, they’re still very vulnerable compared to other armies.
Eldar – 4/5
A lot more durable than Dark Eldar but contains the same principles of T3 and low armor saves. This is balanced out with the ability to take multiple builds ranging from the Seer Council, to Wraithlord castles to Jetbike armies. I would probably give Seer Councils and castle lists a 3 and Jetbike lists a 4. Balanced lists are most certainly a 4 or 5 because you really need perfect execution and combined arms to win the day.
Imperial Guard – 2/5
I don’t know what to say here. I thought back in 4th Ed. that IG were definitely 4/5. They didn’t have the resilience of marines, packed heavy firepower but they actually paid for it. In this edition in the land of Mech Guard and Leaf Blower lists, I’m going to rate IG as a no brainer. Sure, target priority still exists, and yes, you can deliberately make your army suck with Penal Legions and Ogryns, but you don’t deserve to have so many AV12 tanks on the table regardless. Undercosted all the way. So intense.
Necrons – 4/5
Mass destroyer lists with Monolith spam can get a 1/5. Otherwise, good luck trying to make a balanced Necron list without getting face-rolled by Blood Angels or IG. The book is old, the options are overcosted and there’s not a lot you can do with it.
Orks – 3/5
Despite the Nob Bikerz and the KFF running amok in almost every army list, Orks is definitely a solid 3. Their balanced approach is incredibly fun and difficult to play even though most Ork lists still rely on combat to win games (as intended!). Balanced Orks is really fun and takes a good amount of skill to execute properly. That’s because they have to balance the attrition war in addition to everything else – knowing which units to sacrifice so the rest of your army can get into advantageous positions.
Space Marines – 3/5
Maybe even a 4 if you take a balance list. Vulkan and his Hamminators can step back at a 2 depending on how many LR full you’re going to take. The only reason why that option is not a 1/5 is because the short-range on the meltas and flamers gives the opposing army plenty of time to focus down targets and deal with bits and pieces of the army. Balanced lists featuring any of the other SCs or generic choices will undoubtedly increase the amount of skill needed to carry vanilla SMs to victory in later game.
Space Wolves – 2/5
Already covered above. The big bad Wolves are basically Marines with a billion other special rules and options.
Tau Empire – 3/5
Always been low on the chart I think. Once you start min-maxing Suits and Broadsides, the scale drops down to 1 or 2 depending on how much cheese you throw into the grinder. The entire army depends on target priority and making things work at long range. Kroot can be decent at melee but I personally wouldn’t rely on them that much. Balanced Tau lists are one of the hardest lists to make since if you don’t have enough shooting, your army will just fall apart once the enemy closes in.
Tyranids – 4/5
With the current codex in the current edition, I would rank it 4/5. Back when every Nid player that wanted to play serious ran Nidzilla, I would spit on a 1/5 for the army. Now that the army relies on anti-armor more than ever and has to take a large pool of units in packed FOC slots to stay competitive, the army difficulty has drastically increased from the previous edition. A lot of players need to break the shell of 4th Ed. Nidzilla and re-examine their books in search of new answers. Some believe that no such thing exists and the recent FAQ is testament to such things, but there’s always those willing to try a little bit harder. There’s a reason why there’s countless threads on multiple forums raging on the state of these bugs.
Witch Hunters – 4/5
Once again, older book and overcosted units. Like Daemonhunters except that SoB are less durable and don’t ride in AV14 everywhere. A balanced sisters list can be deadly in the hands of a master, but for the majority of the players out there, they might be too difficult to get a hold of.
Not much else to say here. Some armies are harder to play than others and that’s the truth. If everyone made balanced lists and played each other, the disparity between armies might be a little less obvious. Sadly, there’s always going to be one or two powerlists out there that competitive players will take advantage of. Almost always, the powerful lists are going to be the easier ones to play simply because they focus on one phase of the game. The problem with that is that a balanced list that’s stronger in the other phases of the game might find a hole in that player’s gameplan and exploit it to the fullest. Needless to say, that type of execution will require more skill to pull off.
Please, feel free to drop some comments here below, or check out my gaming blog for more details on army building and strategy. What’s your take on army difficulty?
