[v5.0] Army balance

From: Jarreas Underwood <jarreas_at_...>
Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2002 20:08:05 -0400

>You hit it dead on, "the uniqueness of each army"
>makes the comparision difficult.
>
>darius spano

Ok, two points and what I think about it.

One, you can't just compare infantry with infantry, armor with armor and so
on. Unless your opponent is playing an all-infantry game, your infantry
will be facing more than infantry - they'll be facing tanks and artillery
as well. Point values need to be comparable between all units in an army.

Two, a while back I posted about how each army has it's own balance, so
unit costs can be evaluated independently of which army they belong to.
Things like Chain of Command and Hive Mind Radius affect *how* a unit may
be used - it doesn't affect the unit's weapons, armor or other abilities.
An army "flavor" may limit the types of units available (like Tyranids and
artillery) but that sparceness doesn't limit the available unit's
effectiveness.

  For example, Ork Boyz are limited by proximity to Nobz. This limits how
they can move, and thus limits the army. On the other hand, an Ork army
gets Mekboy Custom Repair Cards - this increases the effectiveness of the
army. Neither the Nobz limit nor the Mekboy Cards change how effective the
Ork tanks are in combat.

If an army as a whole is balanced, unit costs shouldn't depend on the army
- they should depend on the unit's stats, which is what's used in my
analysis. So here's my listing of army advantages & limitations. Feel free
to comment, but please *give a reason* for your comment. Better yet,
suggest alternatives to things you find objectionable. Thanks.
-Yar

+++++ Army Advantages <=> Disadvantages

Every army is unique. The fundamentals are the same - company, support &
special cards, for instance - but how they're put together and how they
function on the battlefield varies widely. Sometimes these differences
limit the army, such as the Hive Mind Radius, and sometimes they're useful,
such as Mekboy Kustom Repair Cards. These advantages and disadvantages
should, in general and in the long run, balance each other out. If you
think that the army is unbalanced because of their bonus or penalty, say so
and let's find alternatives.

  Note: I'm staying away from Titans. I'll analyze just about everything
else, but units with a Hit Location Template have too many special rules.
The weapons can be broken down, and perhaps the hull cost extrapolated from
that, but I'm leaving that for someone else. Especially when you consider
trying to analyze the damage resistances of Gargants and Bio-Titans... ugh.

+++++

Planetary Defense Force:
Good: cheap hordes of infantry, free fortifications & Objectives, may
change terrain around
Bad: poor quality infantry, lousy morale, Chain of Command, must completely
set up before opponent

Imperial Guard:
Good: best well-rounded army in terms of support available - large groups
of average infantry, excellent cavalry & artillery, pretty good choice of
tanks
Bad: Chain of Command

Space Marines:
Good: armor save for basic infantry, highly mobile transports, 2+ morale
Bad: no Super-Heavies,

Titan Legions:
Good: Imperator Titan, Titans as Support Cards, Battle Groups (optional)
Bad: Titans are expensive, poor choices of non-Titan support

Eldar:
Good: free cards, free Avatar, WRH vastly under-priced, Skimmer
Super-Heavies that can do Pop-Up attacks
Bad: small detachments, lousy artillery, Titans are fragile if the enemy
has artillery

Ork:
Good: Mekboy Kustom Repair Cards, best tanks in the game, cheap hordes of
infantry, funky stuff that can score instant kills on anything
Bad: Nob command radius, funky stuff that sometimes kills you

Chaos:
Good: Chaos Cards, incredibly good core units (Greater Daemons)
Bad: poor long-range troops, limited support selections

Squats:
Good: cheap Praetorians, high Break Points, longest-range artillery in the
game
Bad: more victory points awarded for breaking infantry (if you can)

Tyranid:
Good: Hive Mind Cards, vicious bio-Titans, good core unit (Dominatrix)
Bad: Hive Mind radius, poor troop choices other than infantry, infantry and
more infantry

Slaan:
Good: No idea.
Bad: No idea.
Received on Wed Jun 05 2002 - 00:08:05 UTC