Not so long ago a fellow 40K player spoke to me in passing that he thought the various sub-factions were taking away the flavour of the various codexes. That made me ponder whether he was right or not.
Personally I don't think having sub-factions does take away from the main codex. My only concern is that only certain sub-factions get special rules. There are more Aeldari craftworlds than the main five for example but what do you do if you play one of the smaller craftworlds such as Yme-Loc or Altansar? They are relegated to using someone else's craftworld rules and two players could end up facing off but with identical army choice but different sub-faction choices.
Splitting factions into sub-factions was one of those changes that really got the thumbs up from me in 8th edition. No longer would you see a Pedro Kantor count's as in a non-Crimson Fists army. He's unique to that chapter so he should only be with that chapter. It is one of those issues that plays well into my canon fluff mindset. Even so I still see battle reports on Youtube that feature Blood Ravens (or insert chapter of choice) with a red painted Guilliman declaring themselves as Ultramarines. AAARRGGGHHHH!!!!
I do think sometimes that sub-factions could have been handled better. Some abilities just don't balance up against others, or don't seem in keeping with the fluff that that specific sub-faction have. I would have liked to have seen not new rules but army composition requirements. For example, Craftworld Saim-Hann is all about jetbikes and skimmers, so they should be forced to take at least two units of jetbikes. Thousand Sons should be forced to have two units of Rubric Marines, and so on. That to me would be how you force a given sub-faction to play to more to it's fluff. I know it wouldn't be popular and some armies just don't work that way (Necrons or Tyranids?) but it would mean that most armies would be fielded more appropriately.
How do you guys and girls feel about sub-factions in the game? Do you think they should have been included or would you see them done differently?
I think that each book should have more generic traits and, in the case of marines/csm, more relics and unique warlord traits like in 7th. Chapter approved is a great way to introduce this.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. That would be a great way of doing. The Chapter Approved books could also change the various sub-faction rules from time to time.
DeleteI personally do not mind sub factions, if there is a purpose to them. The existence of published sub factions codifies rules to provide gameplay variances that may well go to support why you chose your faction in the first place. I do place the caveat here however what I think it’s much better when/if they are going to support the fluff of a faction rather than simply being manufactured to fit a required 5 flavours per faction quota. As more codexes come out we are starting to see (by different names) the same rules appearing across all the factions, in terms of a level playing field that’s good, but I worry that some factions are just being lumbered with the “whatever is left” rule that doesn’t really match their play style etc.
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