Hi All,
We are continuing through my list of Crusade Rule Power rankings. Today we are looking at B-Tier. The most crowded section. Please forgive the change in formatting as i lost my other rankings graphic!
Within B-Tier there are several groups, let’s start at the bottom.
Group 1: These armies have updated rules, but are rather monotone or dull in their execution. You could probably swap these in any order.
- Death Guard and Thousand Sons
- Both of these armies started pretty strong but limited value is seen when you compare them to the Chaos Space Marine codex. The Death Guard codex is still an early release and suffers from the pre-Drukhari issues of being constrained in power. The Thousands Sons rules are a bit better but still very focused on a narrow mechanic that isn’t as customizable as the Ad Mech’s options. Both of these armies have gotten expansions in later books which help a lot but struggle to break out of this group.
- Ad Mech
- Ad Mech have a really fun archeo-tech mechanic…..and not much else. It doesn’t help that it is hard to get these items and your agendas are pretty bad. Like the Orks if your opponent isn’t running vehicles a narrative campaign will be very dull.
- Grey Knights
- I should probably swap these with Ad Mech as if you don’t have a Chaos opponent you are a Space marine player with a few extra options. However if you are playing against Chaos you have one of the strongest narrative rule sets in the Crusade system.
- Orks
- Orks can create some amazingly strong characters but their Scrap mechanic is so limiting. It’s hard to get enough scrap and it’s benefits are very mediocre. Add in the fact that you have a decent chance of killing or scarring your own HQ units easily.
Group 2: These armies are in a unique spot in that their rules can will easily harm you if your aren’t careful/are unlucky. Both armies are Knights which are very hard to balance in a strict crusade campaign. Players rarely have adequate anti-tank early on so the games might be very swingy.
- Chaos Knights: Chaos knights get some boons, and a slightly buffed version of the abilities found in the Imperial Knight codex. The main thing that causes me to rank them below their loyal cousins is that you need to take certain debuffs as you proceed through their custom rules system.
- Imperial Knights: a slightly better version of the Chaos knights. Keep your honor up and you will be fine.
Group 3: These armies are very close to being tier 1. The Custodes are held back by the very limited nature of their rules. They have some cool facets but their quests are pretty short and don’t have a lot of depth. They do force you to take some different agendas but I feel they could have done more. Their rules do allow for some very powerful characters.
- Custodes: As already said Custodes have some good rules for making deadly characters but I really like the Artifacts of the Vaults system.
- GSC: The GSC had one of the first armies to use planet capitulation rules and, while challenging to implement in a narrative, they don’t benefit as much as other armies. Furthermore they could lose all progress in their factions rules if they lose on the key battle. They have very fluffy rules but don’t benefit from them as much as they should. This fact is the one thing that keeps them from “ascending” to A-Tier
So what are your thoughts? Did I do anyone dirty here? Say so in the comments. Next time we will look at A and S Tier and see who is a little too over-tuned.
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