Warhammer 40K: If You Want A Balanced Game You’re Going To Have To Cut A LOT Of Units
Sometimes balance requires harsh measures. But as we all know, the Grimdark is an unforgiving place.
Warhammer 9th Edition has a balance problem. I think just about all of us are aware of this issue. Looking at results from major events we can see that there is an issue here. This edition has seen some really major power creep. Lately, we’ve gone through a cycle of single codexes dominating the meta. Currently, Nid’s are the top dog, but we’ve seen others in their place. This isn’t a result of changing strategies, but rather new releases unbalancing things. People want some balance, but with the way the game is now that can never really happen. Let’s take a look at why.
The Game Is Just Too Big
40K is Enormous!
Warhammer 40,000 is a HUGE game. Currently, there are 17+ core factions in the game, supported by more than a dozen supplemental factions, numerous sub-factions and a number of Armies of Renown. Don’t forget that number is to be growing all the time (Leagues of Votann). Aside from the number of factions, there is also a huge number of units in the game.
Back in 8th Edtion Robbin Cruddice, the head designer, wrote in a White Dwarf that when writing the Index books they had to write over 1000 datasheets. In the years since then, a ton of new units have been added to the game. We’ve gone from 5 books with all the units in them, to more than 40 books. Whole new armies had been added. That’s not even counting Forge World and Imperial Armour units. I’d guess the actual number of legal datasheets is closer to 2000 at this point. When you add in the fact that most armies have several sub-factions that can significantly modify datasheets you could realistically multiply that number several times.
Just the simple number of 2000 units should tell you all you need to know. There is no way that that number of units could ever be realistically balanced. Even if you discount sub-factions and stratagems it can’t be done. Given that every 40K unit is essentially unique, the designers were faced with an impossible task. I haven’t even talked about aura’s, and other strange unit interactions, which given the huge number of units is a major factor. 2000 units can’t be both unique and balanced. It even can’t really come close.
Armies Are Too Big
Even leaving unit balance aside, the size of 40K doesn’t allow for armies to be well balanced either. Twenty-ish factions is a high order to try and balance, with some naturally being weaker than others. The issue is also compounded by the fact that factions have wildly different numbers of units. Space Marines have access to over a 100 units. Conversely pure Harlequins have 9 units (counting the Webway Gate). It’s next to impossible to achieve balance with such a disparity of forces. The book with a larger number of units will always be more flexible and able to do more than the smaller book. Even if the larger book has a huge number of “bad” units, it has so many overall units it can kind of ignore them. On the other hand, one or two bad units can cripple a smaller book.
I talked a lot more about this the other week when I discussed how the game needs smaller sized armies. That is armies with fewer units. It leads to both better-balanced armies on the large scale, and a lot more internal balance.
Can Anything Be Done
As I said, rules aside, the game is simply too big to ever be balanced. But there is a way to fix this:
Remove a ton of units from the game.
This is a radical idea. However it’s the only way to really get balance. The simple fact is, as I’ve said, the game is too big to be balanced. The only real way to fix that is to remove a ton of units. Even ignoring the Forgeworld units, most armies have a pretty large number of units that wouldn’t really be missed. These units see only sporadic play and don’t have a real role in the game anymore. I’ve talked about a few Space Marines units like this before, but there are many more.
Even some new units wouldn’t be missed…
Overall I’d look at removing about half of the non-Forge World units. I’d also remove the vast majority of Forge World units from the game. These units could of course all be moved to legends. Let people keep using them, just be aware that they are no longer balanced. If you reduced the standard Matched Play units down to around 500, you’d also be looking at a MUCH more balanced game. Something like 25 armies, each with around 20 units (remember Harlequins function with 8-9 units!), would still allow for variety but also for a balanced game.
A More Balanced Future?
Think of games like Magic the Gathering or X-Wing’s newer editions where there is a smaller subset of “tournament legal” units the company updates from time to time, out of the much larger pool of units from all time.
It’s been argued that you don’t really want a perfectly balanced game. That might well be true. However, I think most players long for more balance than we currently have. The only real way to get a more balanced game is to remove units. There are plenty of reasons to keep the large unit count of 40K. Of course you moving units to Legends does give you a bit of both worlds, with a streamlined “lean and mean” Matched Play game and a more sprawling Legends game. Overall I think from a pure gameplay perspective cutting the number of units in the game in half, or more would lead to a much better game.
Let us know if you’d support having less units in the game for Matched Play, down in the comments!
