Underpowered Units (with detailed suggestions)

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AniGa
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Underpowered Units (with detailed suggestions)

Post by AniGa »

Hi there.

First of all: Thank you so much for this game. It's pretty much exactly what I've been craving for so many years, and I am beyond excited to see it grow more and more.

In this vein, I felt I wanted to do my best to contribute; in this case, I looked over and tested the various units across all three factions (in a multiplayer / skirmish / Planetary Supremacy context, without Age of Crimson Dawn campaign unit upgrades in mind), and did my best to work out the ones that could possibly need some work.

And as I am not a friend of nerfs in game design, and seeing as the number of somewhat underpowered units is the far smaller amount to contend with, I want to focus on exactly those - units I would deem underpowered to any degree; I'll do my best to explain why I think that way, and add a suggestion.

Without further ado...

BLOOD ANGELS Sanguinary Guard
The unit itself is great, as is their default weapon. Wonderful close combat allrounders. But I never see much reason to spend the points for their weapon upgrades, as they don't provide enough of a hike in specialized damage for me to feel it's worth it.
Encarmine Axe: I think an extremely minimal increase to damage would do. And I do mean very, very minimal. That'd be enough to make me want to take these things for specialized heavy unit hunting Sanguinary Guard.
Plasma Pistol: I'd suggest either one more shot per model, or alternatively a small-scale upgrade to both damage and accuracy, that'd be enough.
Inferno Pistol: Again, just a very small upgrade to both damage and accuracy would be enough to justify the cost, I feel.

BLOOD ANGELS Furioso Dreadnought
This is one of the more problematic ones I never find myself using.
Furioso Fist: It barely dents heavy targets due to low total damage, and the single attack (despite the splash) means it underperforms against multiple models as well. This means it's not (adequately) specialized towards anything. I would suggest moving the Fist's damage closer to the Librarian Dreadnought's Force Halberd, and giving it a second hit; this would make it specialized in single heavy targets (not taking the Heavy Flamer's purpose away), and make it just powerful enough at it.
Meltagun: The shot tends to not leave enough of a dent to make it an enticing point sink; much cheaper units do the same job much more effectively. I would probably suggest some tinkering with the armor piercing and damage values, but am not entirely sure of the best route to take.

BLOOD ANGELS Hellblasters
Hellblasters are great - two squads of them together can be very effective, and their upgrade is powerful. But...
Heavy Plasma Incinerator: ... I think it's a little overpriced. Really, that's all - these things are great, but I don't often see myself willing to pay a whopping 50 points for them.

BLOOD ANGELS Land Speeder Tornado
These are in this somewhat awkward spot for me. They're objectively better than Land Speeders due to the extra weapon on cooldown... but whereas Land Speeders sit at that nice price point where taking two is reasonable, Land Speeder Tornados are just a bit too costly for me to feel okay doing that - awkwardly rendering their "little brothers" my favored choice. I'd suggest just a small price decrease on the base unit.

TYRANIDS Hive Guard
These are sooo close to me wanting to use them, so close, but they're not quite there. Luckily, they're pure shooty-pew-pew gribblies with very obvious purposes for both weapons, so that's not hard to fix up.
Impaler Cannon: Either one more shot per model, or just a small-scale increase to damage, that's all. I think the latter would be more appropriate, as the former could possibly be too much.
Shockcannon: Just a bit more base accuracy, maybe even just an extra 5. No, really, I think that's all it would take to smoothen out the average performance on these.

TYRANIDS Thornback
These are in this strange spot where taking two can be powerful yet is rather expensive, and a single one is affordable yet tends to underperform. So I suggest either making the unit somewhat cheaper, or giving a boost in damage to the Monstrous Scything Talons and Deathspitter with Slimer Maggots. As for the other weapon...
Devourer with Brainleech Worms: ... this thing really underperforms quite a bit in my experience. I feel it needs a straight-up fair nudge upwards in both accuracy and damage (the exact amount depending on what I said in the previous bit about cost vs power).
These weapon names sound like very disgusting meal descriptions to me, and I love that. Would love a bubbling beverage with throat acid with those.

TYRANIDS Exocrine
I know, I know, people who freshly encounter them in the Age of Crimson Dawn campaign want to vehemently disagree - but I am serious, these don't do a whole lot. And it's really all down to their main weapon.
Bioplasmic Cannon: Yes, this thing can sort of delete an infantry squad once every few turns. But thing is, there are units across all factions which can do that same thing every other turn (meaning, more often), and it's not like they're more expensive. And at an armor penetration of 6 and only an average 106 damage before armor, this thing isn't making a dent in single heavy targets either. My suggestion? Really lean in on the Exocrine's tabletop flavor: Make this thing fire more shots more powerfully the less the Exocrine moved. (The weapon's accuracy is fine, and an increase wouldn't likely do much.)

NECRONS Lokhust Heavy Destroyers
This is specific to the Gauss Destructor, which...
Gauss Destructor: Specifically here it feels like the Thornback all over again - taking one makes it underperform, taking two gets far too expensive to justify the point sink. This thing needs a plain damage boost in my opinion.

NECRONS Annihilation Barge
Making this one simple.
Tesla Cannon: This thing deals kind of pitiful damage. Even if I sink points like a madman and stack three Annihilation Barges with Tesla Cannons together, there's fewer and cheaper units that straight-up outperform them. And it really does come down to just the raw damage values - they are very low.
Gauss Cannon: This thing is a lot closer to being useful than the Tesla Cannon, but still just not quite there. I'd suggest tinkering a bit with the number of attacks, but mainly the damage values (just not to the same extent as on the Tesla Cannon).

... aaand that's all!
Of course, anyone can feel free to disagree with me on any of the above - I'm not perfect! But, to the best of my personal ability, that's my suggestions as far as unit and weapon stats go.

Hope some of it might be useful.


Have a good one, and keep up the good work on this great game!


EDIT: Fixed a typo or two.
Miranda23
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Re: Underpowered Units (with detailed suggestions)

Post by Miranda23 »

I really like it too, this is the game that makes me feel the most fun
SwampYankee68
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Re: Underpowered Units (with detailed suggestions)

Post by SwampYankee68 »

Any observations as to Orks? I am by no means proficient with them as an army yet, so I am sure YMMV, but it seems the individual units do very poor ranged damage.
"The only way I got to keep them Tigers busy is to let them shoot holes in me!"
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