Warhammer 40K: The Game Needs Smaller Armies

Let’s talk about how small armies are good for the game.

Warhammer 40,000 is an old game. Over the decades it’s become a massive game with a ton of armies. Many of these armies are old armies that have grown over the years. It’s far more common for new units to be added to an army than removed. As a result a lot of armies are now huge beasts. However this might just be pretty bad for the game. Let’s take a look at why that is.

Large Armies Remove Weakness

The game has a lot of huge armies. By large, I’m not counting about model count on the table, but by how many units are in the Codex. Space Marines are the most obvious example of this. They were already a huge army before the Primaris addition, and now clock in at well over 100 units. But most of the older armies, Guard, Eldar, Chaos, Orks, Nids and other are huge, and only growing. Necrons recently saw large scale expansion. CSM are set to get a ton of new units. 

From a game design aspect however large armies aren’t all that good. They come with some major issues. For one a large army is unlikely to have a lot of weaknesses. With so many units they are likely to have options to be good at everything. Shooting? Close Combat? Anti-Horde? Anti-Infantry? The big armies can do all those things. Not only does removing weaknesses make them less interesting to play, it also makes them lose character. To some degree all the armies become very same-y as their unit size increases.

Smaller Armies Are More Interesting

Smaller armies on the other hand are both more interesting and better for the game. A small army can have both some major strengths and weaknesses. Take armies like pure Harlequins, to Custodes or Knights. These armies all excel in one some areas, but also have clear weaknesses in others. By keeping an army small you can keep it interesting, and focused. A small army works in a certain way and can be very tight. In addition you end up with a lot less redundant units. You also end up having to make some real choices, when picking an army, about what you want it to do. A small army can’t just say “I want to do everything well” and do it. It needs to focus, and make trade-offs.

The Game Needs More Small Armies

Overall the game would be a lot stronger with a ton of small focused armies, rather than a few large bloated ones. Leagues of Votann gives me some hope. We should expect a smaller more focused book from a totally new (to modern 40K) army. I’d rather get several more small focused armies, than another 20 units for CSM. Armies of Renown could also help in this regards if leveraged a bit better. They effectively take a small slice out of a big bloated book and took it into a small focused army.

Honestly I wouldn’t’ hate to see each of the big really big books get say a dozen armies of renown and be forced to pick one, limiting the units you could use. Why isn’t there a First Born Army of Renown yet? A bunch of unique smaller focused armies would help the game tremendously and put us all into a better place.

Let us know if you think we need smaller armies in the game, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.