One of the great conundrums of 40k these days is Detachments and how to handle them. Some armies can be failures without access to multiple HQ slots (Orks) and others rely heavily on Fast Attack (Sisters). Other armies can feel impressively unfair to play against with just one Combined Arms Detachment (Eldar).
I have an idea which might be helpful in this regard. This has not been playtested at all. I am posing this idea here with community feedback in mind.
How to use Competitive Play Detachments (CPDs)
In this format, Organizers would restrict all Detachments in their tournament to these alone. Also, Organizers would have to maintain a list of Command Benefits they plan to allow at their event (or allow all of them). Also, this format is agnostic as far as Forgeworld, mission type, superheavies, and Stronghold Assault are concerned. The hope is that this format would preclude the need for heavy regulation in that matter.
Note the use of the term “Source” and “Faction Symbol” in this article. I use these terms because the concept of Factions is highly ambiguous by RAW, so I chose to differentiate in this way instead. By “Source”, I mean an individual publication such as “Codex: Space Marines” or “Dataslate: Officio Assassinorum”. By “Faction Symbol”, I mean the symbol accompanying the new publications. In older books, assume the Units’ Faction Symbol is that of their core Codex Faction. For example, Iyanden units have the “Eldar” Faction Symbol.
What does this mean and what does it matter? Well, that should become clear as I describe the detachments below.
Primary Competitive Play Detachment
Required:
- 1 HQ
- 2 Troops
Optional:
- 1 Elite
- 1 Fast Attack
- 1 Heavy Support
Restrictions
As per any Detachment Restrictions/Command Benefits allowed by the event. Additionally, An army must contain at least 1 Primary CPD, though the Warlord need not be chosen from this Detachment. The Warlord may be chosen from any Detachment except an Allied CPD. Units chosen in this Detachment must all be selected from 1 source.
Command Benefits
As per any Detachment Restrictions/Command Benefits allowed by the event.
Supplemental Competitive Play Detachment
Required:
- 1 Troops
Optional:
- 1 HQ
- 1 Troops
- 1 Elite
- 1 Fast Attack
- 1 Heavy Support
Restrictions
As per any Detachment Restrictions/Command Benefits allowed by the event. Additionally, a player may not take a Supplemental Competitive Play Detachment until their army already has filled all slots in their Primary CPD. Additionally, a player may only select further Supplementa CPDs if all selections in all other Supplemental CPDs are filled. Lastly, units in this Detachment must share the same Faction Symbol with units in the Primary CPD. Units chosen in this Detachment must all be selected from 1 source.
Command Benefits
As per any Detachment Restrictions/Command Benefits allowed by the event.
Lord of War Competitive Play Detachment
Required:
- 1 Lord of War
Restrictions
As per any Detachment Restrictions/Command Benefits allowed by the event. Additionally, an army is restricted to only one of these Detachments. Also, the unit in this Detachment must share the same Faction Symbol with the units in the Primary CPD.
Command Benefits
As per any Detachment Restrictions/Command Benefits allowed by the event.
Fortification Competitive Play Detachment
Required:
- 1 Fortification
Restrictions
As per any Detachment Restrictions/Command Benefits allowed by the event. Additionally, an army is restricted to only one of these Detachments.
Command Benefits
As per any Detachment Restrictions/Command Benefits allowed by the event.
Allied Competitive Play Detachment
Required:
- 1 HQ
- 1 Troops
Optional:
- 1 Troops
- 1 Elite
- 1 Fast Attack
- 1 Heavy Support
Restrictions
As per any Detachment Restrictions/Command Benefits allowed by the event. Units chosen in this Detachment must all be selected from 1 source and must have a different faction symbols from the Primary CPD. The Warlord may not be chosen from this Detachment.
Command Benefits
As per any Detachment Restrictions/Command Benefits allowed by the event.
Formation Competitive Play Detachment
Required:
- 1 Formation
Restrictions
As per any Restrictions/Command Benefits of the specific Formation itself which has been allowed by the event. Also, only 1 Formation CPD is allowed for each other Primary CPD and Supplemental CPD in your army. For example, if you have 1 Primary, 1 Allied, and 1 Supplemental, you may select up to 2 Formation CPDs (1 for the Primary, 1 for the Supplemental… the Allied Formation doesn’t count). There is no Source or Faction restriction on the Formation CPD beyond that of the Formation itself.
Command Benefits
As per any Restrictions/Command Benefits of the specific Formation itself which has been allowed by the event.
So…
Thanks for reading. Please do pop a comment below and let me know if there are ways this can be refined or if I should just set fire to it. Some assistance figuring out what might be a good answer to rolling Imperial Knights into this system would be helpful. I would hate to have to deal with specific codices or units directly since the whole point is to create generalized Detachments to use in our games. Also, as with anything on the internet, this may have already been thought of before. Be sure to speak up if someone else is trying something similar with success.