CWDT: Broken!

So with all the alleged codex creep and the birth of ROCKETHAMMA i'm curious to hear our local community thoughts on what is and isn't working.

I will allow this format:
I think X is unbalanced because of Y. I will give this well thought answer as a follow-up.

I will not allow:
ZOMG ER GRTZ MECH GUARD!

Responses are allowed to people's points as long as they are thoughtful and not disrespectful. I want dialogue, not forum e-peen swinging.

I'm pretty sure that i don't know what half of the things in your post mean or stand for.... However, I think I am strangely comforted by that fact. Perhaps, I am not addicted to the internets as badly as I thought, after all.

I think guard are broken, simply because of the ability to fire 5 (special) weapons from the backs of chimeras. Remove this one ability and I feel like the dex becomes much more balanced.

But wait you say - don't you play mech guard, jester? Darn tooting right, I do. That is when I am not in a burn out phase, anyway.

I think the Tau Gun Drone on vehicle rule is dumb with the KP format. Its clearly just a loophole that didnt translate with the new edition and makes a lousy, free weapon turn into a free KP.

Besides that I agree with what Jester said about IG.

The other exceptional codexes are good right now because they are the new ones within a newer edition. Hopefully the next one they release will be just as "broken" and help balance the way armies load out. If they make DE crazy good at shooting with great escape ability and alot of people start taking them, then people playing who play SW and BA will have to adjust their list to deal with that.

I think Tau are broken because they're supposed to be trained shooters, yet still only have an overall BS of 3. Its a bit embarrassing. I think to fix it, give Crisis Suits all 4, keep Fire Warriors at 3, but let them take a Targetting Array (+1 to BS) at 10 points a model, and make TAs 30 points each for Crisis suits. And some better weapons would be nice.

To be completely honest, I don't think that anything currently legal to play is honestly broken. There are most certainly balance issues, but truly broken I don't believe so.

Honestly I'm getting a little tired of hearing that Guard are broken. Yes they've got an extremely good codex, but with any good shooty army once the get charged its virtually over. I know this isn't always the case, any one can whiff an assault. Ex: I've seen a Nurgle Prince lose an assault against Guard Vets and die to fearless wounds... That aside I think the Chimera is the only thing keep guard competitive. Yes 5 special weapons out of one vehicle is a little nutty, but the only units in the book that can really take advantage of that, the CCS, is an HQ so you can field a maximum of 2. If Guard couldn't shoot that many times out of their vehicle they'd be done. They simply don't have the staying power to withstand the return fire/assault if they don't seriously cripple something first. For example, I've had 3 Zerkers blow up a chimera, both killing half the unit inside and pinning the remainder and then have the same 3 charge in the following turn and clear them out. Now I really don't want this to sound like I'm trying to call anyone out, or to put down other peoples opinions. That is not my intent, this is just the way I feel about Guard in particular. Honestly the only thing in the whole book (allies aside since they're really in another book) that bugs me, is the Vendetta. This is the closest thing I feel the game comes to being broken.

I'm going to look at it briefly and add up each of it's individual parts in order to make my point. The most obvious thing is that it's a fast skimmer transport, a little weird in what used to be a low mobility army, but what the hell I'll give 'em that. Eldar Wave Serpents are equally armored fast skimmer transports and cost 90, but the Vendetta doesn't have the energy field which I'll generously grant at 35 points making the base vehicle 55 points. Next obvious thing is 3 Twin-Linked Lascannons, now on a Razorback 1 TL-Lascannon costs 35 and on a Predator they're 45, again I'll be generous and we'll go with the lower amount, so 105 points for Lascannons. On top of all this it also has Scout, so does a Baal Predator, which clocks in at 45 points more than a standard BA Predator, only part of that can be because of scout so I'll say Scout on a vehicle equates to roughly 25 points. For those keeping track at home, our total is currently up to 185 points. Now add in its Extra Armour (15 pts in current books), Deep Strike (No real way to calculate the difference here), and Grav Chute Insertion, you've got yourself a vehicle that should easily cost the player 250+ points. Yet, thanks to GW and their desire to sell models this beautiful little flying predator with a transport capacity only costs the IG player 130. But that's old news, I don't think there's a serious player who isn't aware of how poorly costed the Vendetta is.

That rant aside, even with such a steep price cut on a unit that would still be great costing 200 points, it suffers from the same thing all vehicles do. Weakness to single high strength shots. This brings me to Capn's mention of ROCKETHAMMA, which I'm assuming is the abundance of Devs/LFs w/ MLs in the current tourney scene. The Missile Launcher has mad a huge comeback because of all the light armor running around in the 'competitive circuit'. IG rely mostly on Chimeras (12/10/10), Vendettas (12/12/10), and Artillery (12/10/10). Wolves and Angels are sticking primarily to Rhinos and Razorbacks (11/11/10). The success of these lists is due primarily, imho, to target saturation. In this regard the Long Fang and Combat Squadded Devastators really shine as you get 2+ S8 shots at up to 6 different vehicles from 48" all while being extremely resilient to Melta and Lascannons (Especially when sitting in cover), and much better off against Autocannons than more light armor.

In response to jordan's comment on the Tau, I've honestly always thought that the Tau were less 'trained shooters' as much as they just 'had the best built guns'... Also don't forget, Tau have extremely short life times compared to the rest of the races in the 40k world (about 40-50 if I recall). Space Marines are super soldiers built specifically to fight and live hundreds of years if not killed off, and Eldar live thousands of years and have extremely heightened senses. So BS3 seems to pass the 'common sense' test, but that rarely ever applies to GW worlds so take it or leave it as you see fit ^_^ .

~Edit~ Also: I'm pretty sure that, judging from the above post, I have absolutely no idea what the word briefly means... *Grumbles and walks off to find a dictionary*

Yeah, I'd agree with most everything you said actually. The Tau codex isnt terrible right now. The troop choices are pretty solid and the heavy/elite slots are great. The biggest thing I'd like to see is an HQ that isnt complete crap and revisions to the fast slot.

Both Warhammer Fantasy and 40k have done a real good job of removing most things that are 'broken.'

The one army you keep hearing about are Guard. Just looking at it they seem broken, but I don't think this is the case. In 40k you have almost a cyclical power curve. For a while Nob Bikers were king of the hill, then it was Lash Prince. When a new army comes out it often times pushes one of these power builds to the way side. With the release of 5th ed and massed tanks Lash lost some power, and Psyker Battle Squads did a good job at scaring Ork players.

Why Guard gets a bad wrap is two fold - for one it has done really well at tournaments with the Leaf-Blower list, the second is that since it came out the new Codeci that have dropped since then didn't have a big guard counter in it. This means that Guard has been able to use a very similar list for quite a while with no huge counter.

That being said, it appears that Blood Angels are starting to have really good luck against the Guard. I know that Jeremy ran into some stiff competition down at BOLSCon with it, and you are hearing more and more that Blood Angels are holding their own against it.

Moving forward a couple of months we have the release of the Dark Eldar - if there is any army that has the potential to be anti-Guard it is this army and the Necrons. They way Dark Eldar play right now they have TONS of anti-tank if you tool em up right. If they do em right and have a few units that are a good Guard counter I think we will see a pretty good shift in the perceived balance of 40k.

Fantasy has also done a good job in balancing the armies against each other. Used to I felt that is was worthless to play my Ogres - especially against any top tier army. This edition I feel like I have a fighting chance no matter what army I am facing.

There are a few things that are a bit over the top in fantasy - Power Scroll and Purple Sun - but they are few and far between. I will expect to see such things at a tournament, but in friendly play there just isn't a place for stuff like that.