Warhammer 40K: 10th Edition Combat Patrol Games – The Balancing Act Explained
Games Workshop is introducing 40k Combat Patrols as a quick and easy way to dive in. But what about the balance between armies?
Today we get a first look at how Games Workshop has designed the Combat Patrols to work in a new mode of play. Combat Patrols will allow players to pick-up a Combat Patrol box and play with just the contents inside. We’ve seen this teased but had questions about the balance. Turns out GW has a come up with a solution for this format and it’s honestly refreshing!
“So how does this game mode work? The Warhammer Studio have been hard at work tinkering with all the many disparate forces that are already available in order to create a fast, thrilling, and meaningfully balanced end product. This process involved lots of playtesting, with gamers of all experience levels competing with each other to test out this exciting new game mode. Rules for each of the Combat Patrols were revised based on the feedback from these games to ensure each force hit that sweet spot of thematic, accessible, and balanced.”
Combat Patrol Balance
Okay — but how did they balance everything? Aside from lots of playtesting and feedback they did something that’s pretty smart. Each Combat Patrol will have their own set of fixed datasheets. On top of that, each set will also contain their own secondary objectives, factions rules, Enhancements, and stratagems and all of them have been created to match the balance of the other Combat Patrols.
Now, the core rules of the game are still the same. But the datasheets have been modified to make them simple, one-page variants of their original unit. These new datasheets have also been clearly marked so you won’t get them mixed up when playing a standard game.
Above is just one example of the changes to the dataseets. Honestly, I kind of wish the Invulvernable save was near the statline for ALL the datasheets but that’s just a formatting thing. Aside from that, you can see the Combat Patrol Datasheet has a lot of the same basic info but it’s just not as overwhelming. There’s less choices to make in terms of wargear and abilities but you still get the feel of the unit.
“Every faction’s army rules will remain largely the same – Tyranids retain Shadow in the Warp and Synapse, for example – but each Combat Patrol features Enhancements unique to this game mode to let you tweak your WARLORD and try out new strategies. “
New Enhancements
For the Tyranids, as an example, you can opt for the Psychostatic Veil for your Tyranid Prime’s survivability or you can opt for the Secretion Goad that will allow your Prime to give off an additional point of AP on a target unit. Both are thematic and can lead to very different playstyles.
Every Combat Patrol will feature these types of options. They are more limited than a standard game but that helps to ensure each box is balanced against the other boxes. Additionally, there are six missions designed with Combat Patrols in mind. These can be found in the core book and there’s really only one change from the core rules here: “unless they’re Battle-shocked, your BATTLELINE units can secure objective markers, allowing you to keep control of them even when your squads move on. ”
Secondary Objectives
“In addition to your mission’s shared primary objective, every Combat Patrol can also choose between a pair of secondary objectives that let you define how you play.”
This is another way GW is balancing the Combat Patrols with the Secondary Objective options. These options should give enough tactical variation that you’ll be able to change things up when you’re getting the hang of the Combat Patrols. Additionally, these options might be better suited verse particular Combat Patrols compared to others. That’s going to take some experimenting to figure out though.
New Stratagems
“Even Stratagems are brought into consideration – each Combat Patrol has just three bespoke Stratagems, with one that’s designed to be reactive.”
The new stratagems are specific to this game mode and will also help balance the Combat Patrols out. It’s really going to be up to the players to figure out the best time to activate them for the biggest benefit.
There’s even ways for units to take on Monsters or Vehicles that are in other Combat Patrols with the clever use of Stratagems:
Because this is an entirely new way to play but still uses the same core rules it’s a great mode for new players and veterans alike to play around with. Everyone will be learning as well and if you’ve collected the army in the past the chances are good you’ve got the models on hand to play day one as well! Everything you need to play Combat Patrols will be available to use on launch day right along with the new edition — all for free (except the models, obviously).
If you’re curious about the Combat Patrol experience it’s worth reading the full GW article as well. I’m less worried about one particular Combat Patrol completely dominating due to a points imbalance now than I was when it was first announced. This is a game mode that is worth experimenting with and I wonder if it’s something that you could use to host tournaments with…
Fixed list options per faction in a tournament setting? Now that could be interesting…
