Goatboy here and today I want to talk about the three main 40K army archetypes we currently play with in Warhammer 40k 11th Edition – and which is the best for you.
What I mean by army archetypes is looking at what your basic army rule is and how it actually works. There are three primary ways your rules work in the game. Let’s break them down with some examples so you can see which one might actually make for the best army for your personal playstyle. The three archtypes are:
CHOOSE – An army rule that offers you a choice
ALWAYS ON – An army rule that works all the time
GATHERING – An army rule that works by gathering a resource of some sort
All of these are basic ways to increase your armies’ simple Datasheets and creating a cohesive path to win the game. You can see how one of the three is set up for newer players to mess with while the other two require a little bit of forethought to pilot on the table.
Always On Army Rules
Let’s start with the easiest with the rules that just always work. Let’s take Chaos Daemons as an example. Their rule is The Shadow of Chaos and it is a rule that is always working. Yes you can control how you increase the shadow but with the way the army is built and some of the Datasheets there really isn’t any kind of choice you have. You just check if you are in the Shadow of Chaos and if you are you get X rules. This creates a pretty simple army that can easily just do the mission it has chosen at hand and not really worry about their choice other than going after an objective. You can also see this in the Emperor’s Children rule of Thrill Seekers that just always is working. There isn’t a time you don’t get to advance/shoot/charge or fallback/shoot/charge. It is a very simple rule with some caveats but it always works too.
Choose Army Rules
The next one is the army rules that offer a choice. Currently a good example is the Space Marines and their Oath of Moment rule. The rule allows you to pick an enemy unit and choose to put a level of hurt onto them. The entire crux of the rule hinges on you picking your option and hopefully utilizing that to get a task done. There isn’t anything else granted beyond picking your choice and destroying it. You are not gathering any kind of resource to try and utilize later and really the only true skill avenue is making sure you picked the right now. Or at least picked one that is mostly right. I think the choice options for armies are usually pretty good, help push some skill level in the game, and usually create fun interactions. Another interesting choice option is the World Eaters that have a random nature to their game with the Blessings of the Blood God. You don’t always get all your choices but you get to pick one from the options you rolled.
Gathering Army Rules
Finally you have armies that get access to some kind of resource they can utilize thru the game. Sometimes those resources are built up and other times you start each round off rolling something and seeing what you’ve gathered up. A good example of this is the Aeldari and the Drukhari that have examples of a resource based game. The Drukhari gather pain tokens and start with some to spending during their turn. They get that by doing some things or having access to relics that increase this pool of pain. The Aeldari on the other hand get access to Battle Focus dice they can utilize to power different movement based aspects of their army in order to win and control the game. Both of these type of options represent an interesting set of choices for the player to figure out the best times to utilize these points.
Ranking the Army Archtypes
The ALWAYS ON Army Rule archtype is best for newer players, or those who want a simpler army design with fewer moving parts to worry about, and instead lets you focus on quickly engaging with your opponent.
I always feel like the CHOOSE Army Rule archtypes are one of the better parts of the game – a nice tactical middle ground. It gives you a lot of interesting game play and normally is created with powerful interactions in mind.
I think the GATHERING Army Rule archtypes may be the most challenging to master and really work best with players who can plan ahead, or are very good at improvisational play and can think on their feet.
Which one of these Army Archetypes do you like the best?
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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.
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
