Warhammer 40K Tabletop Thread XXXIV: Situation Normal, All FAQ'd Up

[Requizen]

Am I the only one terrified of Aggressors with SIA? Like, if they get their double shots and use Hellfire or Kraken rounds... scary

[bluntpencil]

Am I the only one terrified of Aggressors with SIA? Like, if they get their double shots and use Hellfire or Kraken rounds... scary

Even more scary - they might let other models in their Kill-Team use that rule, if current Kill-Team rules are anything to go by.

Hellblasters and SIA Intercessors firing twice? Very likely, and scary, all for one Aggressor and sitting still. Going with an assumption here, but I fully expect

A) Kill-Teams with an Aggressor will get Firestorm.
B) Kill-Teams with an Aggressor will get Relentless Advance.
or
C) Both A and B.

[Brookshw]

Am I the only one terrified of Aggressors with SIA? Like, if they get their double shots and use Hellfire or Kraken rounds... scary

Hmmmm.....so how does double tap work w/ Tempest shells. I guess you lose the second round of shooting? At least with a single weapon.

[Hootman]

The same misguided thirst for adventure that's making me try to make Grey Knights work has also led to me busting out my Steel Legionnaires and playing with the Guard codex. Now, obviously I've heard that Guard are top tier if you play them correctly (i.e., Cadia and Catachan), but given that I have the clunky old metal models, it feels wrong to use any doctrine other than Armageddon.

Let us assume, for the sake of this exercise, that the only <Regiment> will be Armageddon, and we're trying to be as Armageddon-y as we can.

Spoiler

Show

Regiment: Armageddon Steel Legion
Doctrine: Infantry can Rapid Fire out to 18". Tanks treat incoming AP-1 as AP-0.
Stratagem (1CP): A unit that disembarked this turn gets rr1's to shooting.
Warlord Trait: The warlord gets +1 Attacks and +1 to Wound in the Fight phase.
Order: A unit standing within 3" of a Transport can mount up after shooting, but only if they DIDN'T disembark this turn.

I guess I'll take each piece more or less in order.

The Doctrine
The Vehicle half can be safely ignored, as it's purely defensive, and there's no way to actually optimize its use. Either our enemy has AP-1 weapons that they were going to shoot at our tanks and we rejoice, or they do not, and we do not.
The Infantry half is something to be proactive about, however. Making sure as many soldiers as possible are equipped with Rapid Fire weapons is as easy as reading the list of weapons at the back of the book.

Lasguns - Hey, would you look at that! Everyone already HAS a Rapid Fire weapon! Geez, that was easy. It's a shame it does diddly for average damage, but this synergizes REALLY well with the First Rank Fire! Second Rank Fire! order. That's a whole lotta diddly.
Autoguns - I think Veterans are the only <Regiment> unit that have the option to take these, and...why would you bother? They're mechanically identical to Lasguns, but can't be used with FRF!SRF!, so you're not even allowed to take them as a joke.
Hot Shot Lasgun - Oh, how I wish these could be taken on Vets or Special Squads to get the Doctrine bonus, but they're only for Tempestus, who have are their own <Regiment>.
Boltgun - You can take this on all of your Sergeants, and for 1pt/model you might as well (especially since they all left their Lasguns at home).
Stormbolter - These are only for tanks, not soldiers, and tanks don't get the Rapid Fire boost. What do you think we are, Grey Knights?
Plasmagun - FINALLY, something that you can actually use to get some real work done. They can be stacked up on Command Squads and Veterans for BS3+ melty death, or on Special Weapon Squads for BS4+, half-price, melty death. With the improved range, you should be able to take more shots than any other army who might want to take Plasma, and with the rr1's Strategem, your models might even survive an Overcharge or two even without a Commander nearby (and possibly with rr1's to wound from Bring It Down! if he IS there).


The Strategem
As mentioned, rr1's on Overcharging Plasma with an improved Rapid Fire range seems pretty good, particularly if you shelled out the big money for BS3+ models. They're probably too expensive to spam, but since you can only use the Strategem 1/turn anyways, that's not a huge deal. Maybe bring 2 or 3 squads that fit the bill, for redundancy.

But what other ways could we abuse this power? Since it requires us to de-mech, it means we're bringing Transports, and we count as moving. Having more vehicles means more chances for Ignores AP-1 to be relevant, I guess, but it's not that big of a deal. Always moving means we're not focusing on Heavy Weapons with our BS4+ (goes to 5+) Infantry Squads. I guess we could also put Plasma Pistols on the squad sergeants, but we'd have to get closer, and we're trying to avoid that by utilizing 18" Rapid Fire. Grenade Launchers, Missile Launchers, and Heavy Bolters all have the highest Rate of Fire (assuming frag shots for the explosives), which means more dice, and more chance for rr1's to matter. Still, that's just adding maybe 2 more hits with relatively weak anti-infantry weapons, and this is the IG. Just shoot it MORE TIMES with your 27 Infantry Squads or whatever.

It seems the only obvious use is to max out (or max-except-for-a-medkit) a squad of Veterans or a Command Squad, ride around in a Chimera, and do drive-by's. Seems solid enough.


The Warlord
There's basically no chance you're going to be able to use this in a genuinely strong fashion. You're just fragile little humans, not space elves or super-serum super soldiers. That said, the only guys who can actually be a <Regiment> Warlord are the Tank Commander, who has no need nor desire to be in CQC ever and only hits on 6's, and the Company Commander, who can at least occasionally HIT something, even if he'll struggle to WOUND it.

But, since we're married to the idea for the sake of the mental exercise, let's try to make it usable. Company Commanders can take either Power Swords or Power Fists to get stuck in with, so you get to make the exciting choice between never wounding the enemy or just never hitting it in the first place. Cool. Although, there IS one thing we forgot to mention...


The Relic
The Armegeddon Relic is complete trash. Enemies get -1 Ld if they're within 3" of the guy carrying it (also known as "Probably locked in combat"), and I don't think there are any units that would be scared of taking on a few guardsmen in melee. You want to give your enemies -1 Ld, you KILL MORE OF THEM. But that's ok, because it leaves us open to completely ignore this item in favor of a generic relic, The Blade of Conquest. It replaces the power sword we were thinking of giving the Commander with S5 AP4 D2, which is actually pretty awesome. Let's sketch it out:

The Company Commander charges into a unit of some Tactical Marines, for they are one of the game's baseline models. He comes at them with 3 Base +1 Trait = 4 attacks, hitting on 3s. Those hits then wound on (S5>T4) 3's, +1 to wound from his Trait, 2's. AP-4 means no save. That's...2.22 dead marines without using any rerolls. Not bad for a model who only costs 34pts. If you really want to double down on melee, you could mount him up in one of the dozen Chimeras you need to bring for authenticity with a Priest (+1 Attacks to everyone within 6", adding another 0.55 dead Marines to the Warlord's killcount) and a trio of Bullgryns with Mauls for a healthy helping of SMASH. Everyone was just talking about how they're pretty solid combatants, so they might be an ok investment. Not like anything else in the Guard book can fight in close combat anyways.

EDIT: Wait, I forgot about Crusaders! Sure, they're only S3, but they all have Powerswords, still have the solid saving throws, and fit the aesthetic better. Plus, you can get way more attacks. Assuming you also get the Priest, 126pts for Maul-gryns gives you 13 S7 AP-1 D2 attacks, while 10 Crusaders give you 30 S3 AP-3 D1 attacks for 150pts. That seems pretty good against anything T5 or lower. If you drop a Crusader to make room for an Astropath or Primaris Psyker with Psychic Barrier, they'll all have 2++ Invul's. That's interesting.


The Order
The Mount Up! order is kind of neat, so long as you give yourself enough guys who can give the command. It's natural synergy is as a follow up to using the dismount-and-rr1's Stratagem on the previous turn, and looks like it should work fairly well. The upside of it is that you do NOT count as having moved if you were stationary in the Movement phase (which is good for those Heavy Weapons that were sad on the dismounting turn), and you can both shoot and prepare to redeploy back a ways from the onrushing horde of Bad Guys ^(TM). It also doesn't require that the Chimera you're jumping into have been stationary, so you can play musical APC's with them if some squads lose their ride while some rides lose their squads. It looks like it will give the army the same feeling that I imagine the Fish of Fury build did for Tau back in the day, but with more shooting.

But Chimeras aren't the only Transports. I don't know enough about super-heavies to make any reasonable statements about them (though I suspect having a 20-odd man combined squad just jump into a Stormlord drive away as soon as the Orks/Nids/whatever finally make it up to them would be hilarious), but the Order CAN be used in tandem with them. Also Tauroxes (which are just slightly faster, cheaper, and more fragile Chimeras), if you're into that sort of thing. Crushingly, Valkyries do NOT have the <Regiment> keyword, and are thus ineligible targets.

So, after all that, I think we're pretty much looking at Infantry Squads and Plasma-Commands in Chimeras doing their best impression of Fish of Fury (Or 7e Formation Devastators), with a weirdly built Commander and his pet melee guys. And tanks, obviously, but saying "This IG list will use Leman Russes and maybe Basilisks" seems pretty unnecessary. Let's try a list:

Spoiler: The Armegeddon-y-est Steel Legion

Show

BATTALION, +5CPs (-1CP FOR EXTRA RELIC), 1031pts

HQ
Company Commander, 146pts (35)
-Power Sword (The Blade of Conquest), Boltgun
-(W)- Ex-Gang Leader
+Chimera (91)
-Heavy Bolter, Heavy Bolter
*Bring the Priest and the Melee Guys*

Company Commander, 130pts (39)
-Power Fist, Boltgun, Kurov's Aquila
+Chimera (91)
-Heavy Bolter, Heavy Bolter
*Bring the two Command Squads*


TROOPS
Infantry Squad, 152pts (61)
-Plasmagun, Heavy Bolter Team, Vox Caster
-Sergeant with Boltgun
+Chimera (91)
-Heavy Bolter, Heavy Bolter

Infantry Squad, 152pts (61)
-Plasmagun, Heavy Bolter Team, Vox Caster
-Sergeant with Boltgun
+Chimera (91)
-Heavy Bolter, Heavy Bolter

Infantry Squad, 152pts (61)
-Plasmagun, Heavy Bolter Team, Vox Caster
-Sergeant with Boltgun
+Chimera (91)
-Heavy Bolter, Heavy Bolter

ELITES
Crusaders 10, 150pts
-Powerswords, Storm Shields

Command Squad, 76pts
-4 Plasmaguns

Command Squad, 73pts
-3 Plasmaguns, 1 Medikit


SPEARHEAD, +1CPs, 733pts
HQ
Leman Russ Tank Commander, 213pts
-LRBT with HB, Heavy Bolter Sponsons

ELITES
Ministorum Priest, 35pts
-Laspistol, Autogun, Chainsword

HEAVY SUPPORT
Leman Russ Squadron, 304pts
-LRBT with HB, LRBT with HB

Basilisk Squadron, 108pts
-Basilisk with HB

Basilisk Squadron, 108pts
-Basilisk with HB


TOTAL: 1799 points.

That leaves us either 51pts for little things (like a unit of Ratkin, maybe), or 201pts for some Hellhounds, an extra Chimera and another Basilisk, the Psyker trick for 2++ Crusaders, or something like that.

[Cheesegear]

Hmmmm.....so how does double tap work w/ Tempest shells.

How does double tap work when you can effectively kit out Deathwatch Veterans like Devastators?
Or do people just forget about x4 Heavy Bolters per Troops slot?
Especially with the new ban on Devastators.

EDIT: German Leaks for Deathwatch are out.
Primaris Kill Teams require a minimum of x5 Intercessors.
+ Aggressor; Fire Heavy weapons without penalty, after moving. What Heavy weapons? The worst kind of Hellblaster?
+ Hellblaster; 'More Firepower'. Does nothing?
+ Inceptor; Fall Back and shoot. ~75% include.
+ Reiver; Unit gains Terror Troops rule.

Leaks don't yet indicate that you can mix Primaris with non-Primaris models.
That's a lot less good than I was expecting. But still, Intercessors with SIA at a reasonable points cost, is all I really want.

[druid91]

Is it just me, or does it almost seem like GW is 'designing as they go' rather than starting with a coherent design idea for the whole? Rules wise.

[Cheesegear]

Is it just me, or does it almost seem like GW is 'designing as they go' rather than starting with a coherent design idea for the whole? Rules wise.

Affirmative.
But 'designing as they go' doesn't matter, because they've already given themselves an out, 'we'll patch it later'.
GW's bad game design doesn't matter (to them), because they've already made it so that they don't even need to get it right the first time.

Designing as they go, also lets them react to the meta as it happens.
GW doesn't play-test right, and, also wants power creep. That said, there are certain combinations of units that happen that the designers don't plan for, because with the advent of the internet, players (as a group) are now far more innovative than they've ever been before.

The problem (IMO), is that 'patching' the game, is only going to happen every four months. Which is far too slow, given that GW releases two Codecies every six weeks or whatever.

[LansXero]

Quick question: How does a Tervigon work under the new FAQ for spawning units?

[Cheesegear]

Quick question: How does a Tervigon work under the new FAQ for spawning units?

Unless I've missed something...
- Creating a new unit costs points.
- Adding/replacing to an existing unit, does not cost points, unless you take the unit above its starting size - but, a Tervigon can't do the latter, so it's moot.

[bluntpencil]

+ Aggressor; Fire Heavy weapons without penalty, after moving. What Heavy weapons? The worst kind of Hellblaster?

Translation issue there. The German images showed 'Schweren Waffens' (Heavy Weapons) 'und Sturmwaffens' (Storm weapons - I assume this is Assault weapons) moving and firing without penalty.

This will be good for auto bolt rifles, assault plasma, Inceptors generally, and, possibly, Stalker Bolt Rifles.

[Cheesegear]

This will be good for auto bolt rifles, assault plasma, Inceptors generally, and, possibly, Stalker Bolt Rifles.

Ideally, Primaris Stalkers will be re-balanced to their non-Primaris Deathwatch counterparts. In which case, go team.

[Requizen]

How does double tap work when you can effectively kit out Deathwatch Veterans like Devastators?
Or do people just forget about x4 Heavy Bolters per Troops slot?
Especially with the new ban on Devastators.

EDIT: German Leaks for Deathwatch are out.
Primaris Kill Teams require a minimum of x5 Intercessors.
+ Aggressor; Fire Heavy weapons without penalty, after moving. What Heavy weapons? The worst kind of Hellblaster?
+ Hellblaster; 'More Firepower'. Does nothing?
+ Inceptor; Fall Back and shoot. ~75% include.
+ Reiver; Unit gains Terror Troops rule.

Leaks don't yet indicate that you can mix Primaris with non-Primaris models.
That's a lot less good than I was expecting. But still, Intercessors with SIA at a reasonable points cost, is all I really want.

More or less confirmed with the new post.

Can't speak too much about the rules since I'm not super knowledgeable about Primaris, but dang they look good in Deathwatch Black and Metal.

[Ichneumon]

I know this is the wrong thread, but wasn’t there a place on this forum a few years ago to show off your latest painted models? I’ve veen painting again and want to show my creations to the world.

[Requizen]

I know this is the wrong thread, but wasn’t there a place on this forum a few years ago to show off your latest painted models? I’ve veen painting again and want to show my creations to the world.

Feel free to post them here! I think there used to be a Painting and Modeling thread, but we've kind of consolidated into this thread and the Lore thread.

[Turalisj]

More or less confirmed with the new post.

Can't speak too much about the rules since I'm not super knowledgeable about Primaris, but dang they look good in Deathwatch Black and Metal.

Kinda disappointed, I'm hoping Intercessors don't cost 30pts a pop or something.

[Brookshw]

Speaking of painting, I've recently been torn on highlighting heavily weathered models, especially where there's lots of edge chipping. The contrast can be nice, but seems a bit out of place (I'm yet to see rust as a reflective surface). Anyone have opinions on edge highlighting heavily weathered / chipped models?

Also, salt weathering. Seems the airbrush pushes the salt away more than I want. Anyone have this experience?

[Cheesegear]

Kinda disappointed, I'm hoping Intercessors don't cost 30pts a pop or something.

As with most Index armies, I don't see a problem with the way that Deathwatch are, right now (except that Drop Pods have been nerfed into the ground).
Add a few Stratagems - hopefully one that allows Deathwatch Bikers to Advance and Charge in the same turn. Have a good Warlord Trait or three. Have one or three good Relics so that 'Extra Relic' Stratagems are actually worth using, and you're good.
The Codex lacks variety. But, they're adding in Primaris Marines - and all of them are basically terrible, save Intercessors.
If GW can give Deathwatch the Grey Knights treatment, where they just throw in the word 'converted' and a reskin on certain models, all the better.

There are models for any kind of Deathwatch Space Marine. What there aren't, is Datasheets. Why can't I have a Deathwatch Ancient?
Literally any Space Marine kit. Add Deathwatch shoulder pads. Done. Print the Datasheet.
(Deathwatch Techmarines pose problems, since they lack plastic kits and removable shoulder pads)

I'm not expecting a lot out of Deatwatch. I'm more expecting what we got out of Custodes. The Codex will have a handful of good tricks, that are actually totally useless on their own, but work great when allied into a different army.

For example; Deathwatch will be able to run Hellblasters in the Troops slot, I don't see anything (yet), that says you can't have 5:5 Intercessors to Hellblasters. This models are exactly what you want anyway (providing Intercessors don't go too high...I see no reason for an increase on Hellblasters, as they don't add a new ability to the unit). With every model on the board being able to split their fire, it really doesn't matter what your individual models have, anymore, provided you have the right amount of firepower for the right job (e.g; One Meltagun in a unit of Boltguns isn't going to do anything, split fire or not). Point is, you can have Hellblasters in the Troops slot, and they wont be called Hellblasters (on the unit's Datasheet), which means that you can have even more in the Heavy slot, under Dark Angels.

It's not a case of, 'Are Space Marine Hellblasters different to Dark Angel Hellblasters? And thus, can I have six?' and then everyone gets angry about RAW vs. RAI.
It's 'Deathwatch Primaris Kill Teams are definitely not the same as Hellblasters, and yes I can have 6x5.' ...But three of them have to be in coherency with Intercessor units - oh noes!

Unless;
GW treats old 7th Ed. Formations as 'units', and puts each Team in a different Role to fill page space... Actually, that wouldn't be a bad idea. And since it's a good idea, I doubt GW came up with it.

ION;
Anyone know how to paint an Asian skin tone (i.e. For White Scars)?
All the tutorials I've come across, are for Caucasian, tanned or dark - or vampire - skin.
...Also, why can't Scouts just wear helmets?

[Science Officer]

ION;
Anyone know how to paint an Asian skin tone (i.e. For White Scars)?
All the tutorials I've come across, are for Caucasian, tanned or dark - or vampire - skin.
...Also, why can't Scouts just wear helmets?

Take this with a grain of salt, but the advice I've heard for painting is that Asian skin tones don't differ that significantly from Caucasian skin tones. The only difference is that they might be a bit less "pink", so you might try adding a tiny amount of green to your usual flesh-tone to balance that out. I've tried this once, with indifferent results, and I'm pretty bad at painting faces in general.

[9mm]

Deathwatch strategems.

T'au still paying for the sins of past editions it seems.

[Brookshw]

Deathwatch strategems.

T'au still paying for the sins of past editions it seems.

Hell, they're pretty good all around. Orks charging flamer/h.flamer are in for it. Makes it harder for nids to keep a warlord safe. Sheesh!

[Turalisj]

Deathwatch strategems.

T'au still paying for the sins of past editions it seems.

I don't know why, Tau are literally the least played army at this point with a codex out.

[Cheesegear]

I'm not impressed that 7 of the potential Stratagems (an entire page give or take) are copy-pastes of the exact same thing.
It reeks of someone not trying at all.

[LeSwordfish]

I don't know why, Tau are literally the least played army at this point with a codex out.

For what its worth, I'd be considerably more worried about the Ork one.

[Turalisj]

I'm not impressed that 7 of the potential Stratagems (an entire page give or take) are copy-pastes of the exact same thing.
It reeks of someone not trying at all.

Welcome to 8th edition?

[LudDavenport]

Increasingly wondering why "one reroll per battle+ get 1/3 of spend CP back" isn't a generic warlord trait. Heck, why it isn't just a feature of being a warlord, as it is usually good enough to displace all other traits. Give an organic reason to slay the warlord rather then just +1VP.

[Cheesegear]

Welcome to 8th edition?

For Stratagems? I don't think so.
This is the first time I've looked at Stratagems and gone 'This looks like ****.'

A third of them are specific to one Xenos race, and thus unusable.
(Gee, I sure would love to use that Ork Stratagem against Chaos Marines...)

A third of them are copy-pastes of the exact same thing, which are already copy-pastes of Mission Tactics.

If GW goes with two pages, that's it.
However, if they add a third page, I'm willing to bet that they're the same <Adeptus Astartes> Stratagems (e.g; Honour the Chapter) that we've already seen.

What it means, however, is the Deathwatch Detachments - for access to Stratagems - wont be required.
And Deathwatch's role will be relegated to cherry-picking out the strongest models (Kill Teams) to maximise <Adeptus Astartes> Patrols.

[Brookshw]

A third of them are specific to one Xenos race, and thus unusable.
(Gee, I sure would love to use that Ork Stratagem against Chaos Marines...)

I'm not sure they deserve to be knocked, a strategem that significantly hampers an armies "thing" is still pretty useful. Most armies have niche strategems that generally won't be used, often that are far more worthless than these are shaping up to be.

[Cheesegear]

Most armies have niche strategems that generally won't be used, often that are far more worthless than these are shaping up to be.

It's not the usefulness. It's the laziness...And thus, boringness.

As I said when the Errata came out; It's not the 'balancing' that I find to be the problem. Of course SUA needed to be nerfed (against some armies). Of course Soup needed to be nerfed (for some Factions). The problem is that in doing so, it made fewer available armies/units/models to a player (especially in a tournament setting). Thus, more boring.

Balance, to an extent, equals boring, because the way GW does 'balance', is by making everyone exactly the same.
When everyone is bad, no-one is.

But it's just 'I can't use the <Ork> Stratagem against <Heretic Astartes>.' It's that. And the existing Copy-Pastes are lazy. And the other Stratagems are likely to also be copy-pastes.

But, let's see, I've been playing Space Marines since 8th Ed. started.

Trash Tier (I've never used the entire time)
Linebreaker Bombardment; Vindicators are bad, and thus, it's never come up, because I don't use Vindicators. However, seeing someone who does Vindicators use it, it was underwhelming. With the 3-cap, it's even worse than a 'never use'.
Scions of Gulliman; It's just never been required. I mean, it's good. But you just don't need it, as Ultramarines have access to two Chapter Master Auras.
Orbital Bombardment; It's self-explanatory.
Masterful Marksmanship; Sternguard are bad.
Abhor the Witch; I'd rather just take a Psyker.
Datalink Telemetry; It's just not worth it. However I have seen Dark Angel players use it.
Flamecraft; I don't play Salamanders. And, even if I did, I wouldn't use Flame weapons.
Tremor Shells

I Can't Believe It's Not Trash Tier (Extremely situational, generally based on your/opponent's army, and even then, probably still wont use)
Relics of the Chapter
Killshot; I don't use Predators often. But, with the 3-cap, I never will again.
Chapter Master
Cluster Mines; However, with the new meta, I expect to use Scout Bikes regularly from now on.
Born in the Saddle; However, with the new meta, I expect to use Scout Bikes regularly from now on.
Empyric Channelling; Goes great with other <Adeptus Astartes Psykers> Grey Knights.
Machine Empathy; When I run a Detachment of just Vehicles Dreadnoughts (rarely), there's no reason not to make them all Iron Hands.
Wisdom of the Ancients; I don't bother with Dreadnoughts often. But when I do, I use Wisdom of the Ancients. When I play Grey Knights, I use Wisdom regularly, because Dreadnoughts are a near-required part of that Codex now that SUA-Charge is dead. If Deathwatch have access to Wisdom, it'll be Trash Tier for them.
Death to the Traitors; I don't play against Heretic Astartes often, and even if when I do, I don't play 'Melee' Codex Marines, so there's no point.

Good Tier (Use pretty much every game, at least once)
Counter-Defensive; Rulebook. Clutch.
Insane Bravery; Rulebook. Clutch.
Bolter Drill
Strike From the Shadows; However I expect to be using it way more from now on.
Armour of Contempt; Clutch.
Only in Death Does Duty End; Clutch.
Honour the Chapter; Clutch.

Best Tier (Used literally as often as possible)
Command Re-roll; Rulebook. Best Stratagem in the game.
Hellfire Shells
Auspex Scan; Clutch. However I don't think I'll be using it as much anymore.
Flakk Missile

As Errata isn't necessarily finalised (but it may as well be);
Red; Post-Errata goes down a Tier, if not two.
Blue; Post-Errata goes up a Tier, if not two.

The Stratagems I never use, and the Stratagems I barely use, all revolve around specific units. Surprise! Whilst the Stratagems I use regularly, can all be spent on practically unit - also, surprise. Use the clutch Stratagems when they'll win you the turn/round/game, and use the Best Tier always.
Thus, the more specific your Stratagem is, the less it gets used. If you aren't going to use it, why it is there? And, could the space have been better utilised a different way? If you use one of trash tier Stratagems, you drop CPs in favour of not doing some of the clutch Stratagems that you may need, later on in the game.

If you have to ask yourself "When would I ever use that?" or even "Can I ever even use that?" then GW has goof'd, and wasted space. That's why Codecies without Sub-Factions typically ('typically'...Not Deathwatch ) have way better/more interesting Stratagems, as the Codex doesn't have to 'waste space' by giving you access to Sub-Faction Stratagems that you're never going to use*, and instead focuses entirely on one Faction.

* Which is an argument for why your 'Single-Codex' army should include multiple Sub-Factions within it, because you get access to more tools for the same points.

[LudDavenport]

I've wondered why the unit specific stratagems aren't just in the data sheets. Then you can't use them to pad the general army strats page.

edit: It would also make it clear why you would ever use the unit.

[Cheesegear]

I've wondered why the unit specific stratagems aren't just in the data sheets.

Because that's not how cards work.