Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K Hot Mess: Battleline Units
I just noticed almost no winning 10th Edition 40K lists are running Battleline units. GW needs to fix that!
As I pour over winning 40K armylists to figure out what I can write about it did come to my attention that almost all the armies didn’t even have any Battleline units! I mean, sure the new Chaos Knight army is all Battleline, but most of the armies that had units in booties did not utilize really any Battleline boots.
Do Battleline Units Have a Place in 10th?
It’s a shame too as while there is some fun in building lists with various methods of mayhem. But we have to wonder – was all this freedom worth it? Have we lost the soul of the 40K battlefield in losing the need to utilize your Battleline (or Troops as us old timers knew these units as). I know we have all talked about it before, but should we even still have Battleline units in the game?
Do we run the risk of making a Battleline unit too good that having 6 of them on the tabletop would end up being too much for game right now? Do we make a tax for all armies to try and utilize Battleline units? The worry is that what is a tax for one army could end up being a bountiful option for another. Can we at least just make the Chaos Daemon Battleline units good?
So how do we fix them? Make them cheap as heck so taking them seems like a slam dunk just by having bodies on the table top? Do we just make everyone take them due to how their detachments work now? Do we somehow fix how games are scored to make them good?
Fix Battleline Points
The first thing, is we need to make sure the Battleline units are all within the same range of points, unit sizes, and what not. I think anything that is Battleline should have a similar level of points to unit size, wounds, and options whether it’s a Space Marine Intercessor, or a T’au Empire fire Warrior. This way, everyone has access to something that is evenly balanced between all the armies. So if it is a tax to take it – it isn’t too bad to have it in your list.
Fix Battleline Scoring
You could also do something where these units can score more points during a game. Maybe they get a bonus if they deploy the teleport homer. Maybe they can get bonus points if they hold an objective. Right now it seems to be sticky objectives is how they push them. However, with armies becoming so hard-hitting it is less of a thing to sticky an objective. Why not do something where they can hold it and get more points?
Battleline CP Bonuses!
On the realm of holding objectives why not let your Battleline units that hold an objective let you roll X amount of dice to try and “channel” extra CP? For each objective they hold, you can roll an extra d6, and if you roll one 5+ you get a CP? Would that be too powerful to add on for them?
Part of me loves the freedom in list building now, but that is the guy who loves to play a ton of monsters. I do think having a bit more interaction between those Combat Patrols and real army lists would be better for the game as you try and design where new players go after buying their first dip of plastic crack. It just makes some sense to me to let those Battleline units actually do something instead of – just sitting on the shelf badly painted.
How would you fix Battleline Units in 10th?
