GW’s preview of the updated Competitive Missions makes me ask the question – will they try to make ‘Battleline’ matter in Warhammer 40K?
Goatboy here. Currently Battleline options are other one of the few things you have in your army (Knights and Armigers/Wardogs), powerful choices (CSM Legionnaires, Custodes Guard), or just piles of garbage (Space Marine Intercessors of all varieties). What could we do to fix them? Let’s talk it out a bit and see.
Battleline Today
Currently, Battleline is a weird rule. It doesn’t feel as worthless as say, something like Battleshock, but instead just feels like a haves versus have-nots sort of rule. You either have good ones or just have terrible ones you never take. It really seems to revolve around your Battleine choice of having a certain set of abilities and then hoping they are cheap enough that having those rules is worth it. Which, of course, sounds easy to do but seems to be hard to get to work in all of the armies available in the game right now.
First, we should set a standard for something to be Battleline. This should be pretty easy and something to hang a set of rules/options on to build off of. From there we tweak a few things to match your army. That should hopefully be easy if the army is themed well enough.
Battleline Units Should be Cheap
The big first rule is they should be cheap or the cheapest option in the army. I know that you worry that if you make a cheap option too good, it will show up a bunch. But in the case of Battleline options being set up as core building blocks for your army, they should be cheap enough that taking 2-3 units shouldn’t feel like a tax on your list. They should take up some room, be useful, and not cost you an arm and a leg when you compare things to the rest of your army.
Battleline Units Should be Useful
The next big rule I think is Battleline Units should be useful. This isn’t just to say they should be deadly, but they should provide something useful to your army. This could just be as simple as granting your army a sticky objective holder. It could just be an emphasis on your army’s theme like decent assault options for an assault based army. It could be just as simple as being a great choice to hide a character in to. They should be useful in some way to make taking them a good choice rather than a choice you feel like you have to.
Battleline Units Should be Tied Into Your Army’s Rules
Finally, I think they should also be able to integrate into your armiy’s rules. In the current game of 40K that usually means do damage to the opponent and while we can’t all have awesome damage inducing Battleline we can have stuff that does something to the enemy. This could be things like riding in a cool vehicle and being able to stage an assault/control option in the middle of the table. This could also be something that somehow feeds rules into your army, like some kind of Command Point farming or control aspect. I could even just be something that helps power up other options in your army as well. These units should feel useful in some way other than just being something to waste some points on and painting time on.
I really want Battleline choices to be something you see on the tabletop. It feels like a missed opportunity for some armies and will see if they get tweaked up in the future to be useful. They need to be the common choice for your list and really point to the theme that your army wants to try and succeed with. They don’t have to be badasses on the tabletop all the time, and do just as well just working within the framework you have set up with all your choices. Warhammer 10th Edition’s Battleline units shouldn’t be another version of the Loyal 32.
How would you make Battleline units matter?
Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on – or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.
