Say you're putting together an all-Marro, Hivelord-based 500 point army. You start with Su-Bak-Na and Tor-Kul-Na. The Marro Warriors are an easy choice for a cheap squad, ranged support, and glyph grabber. That puts you at 430. Of course, you want to fill in with Marrden Nagrubs as your base bonding squad. So, that brings you to:
160 Su-Bak-Na
220 Tor-Kul-Na
50 Marro Warriors
60 Marrden Nagrubs x2
490
And then... you fill in with Isamu, of course. Granted, Isamu only leaves your start zone if you're desperate, and he doesn't fit your theme or have any synergy. But hey, you've got those 10 points, and there's nothing better to do with it...
Or is there? Since you've read the thread title, I'm probably not really keeping anyone in suspense here. The solution is obvious. Marrden Nagrubs cost 30 for a squad of three. Obviously, that's 10 points per figure. Just like Isamu, and just like those 10 points you have left.
Why don't we allow this?
160 Su-Bak-Na
220 Tor-Kul-Na
50 Marro Warriors
70 Marrden Nagrubs x(2 + 1/3)
500
Given the nature of common squads, I don't see how this opens up any possible abuses. There's no real tactical difference; the difference is just that we're allowing armies to bulk up their existing squads slightly in stead of adding in filler units.
Now, I want to be clear what I am suggesting:
- I'm not suggesting that you should be able to draft something less than a single squad. I can see several potential issues that could cause. I am suggesting that, if you have already drafted a common squad, you should be able to draft a partial squad on top of that.
- Implicit in the previous point is that you can only do this with common squads, not with unique squads.
- Round up the point values. So 1 extra 4th Mass costs 18 points, 2 cost 35, and 3 cost 53.
Thoughts? I like this idea because it means armies designs are much less at the mercy of the granularity of squad costs.