Custodes et al - What actually is wrong with unbound?

Shock horror. GW produce awesome new miniatures of a faction that has been awaited for a very long time (custodes) and a new awesome sauce to do some Culexus stuff (Sisters of Silence).

And GW pushes out the 40k rules to them PDQ.

And then...

'But wait' Cries the internet, 'They are elites! Therefore you can only take them as unbound!'

And not only that but in the new spirit of GW engagement, wonder of wonders, someone queries this - and lo! GW answers.

'Yeah, you can only use them unbound mate.'

If you stop gnashing the teeth, what does this tell you? Well firstly GW likes unbound. We know that - rule of cool is king at GW and on top of that, their in-house tournaments allow it. It shouldn't be a surprise.

But secondly, consider the meta for a minute. That word - it sort of forces itself out of my gob like the last time I had too much sloe gin and was trying not to speak to my mate Huey via the porcelain telephone.

The meta.

The last tournament I went to, my battle-forged army plopped down 350 points worth of drop pods... for free. Zip. Nada. (oh yeah all 10 arrived first turn) Other armies sped around with 3 Wave serpents full of dead robot dudes with guns that can make you disappear like Captain Terell eating his own phaser in Wrath of Khan. Other armies unleash the hideous skygrav spam. Others the invisible jinking reroll tricks. The list of vileness out there goes on and on.

I was going to write you can't complain about the lack of balance inherent in unbound - if you tolerate or even perpetuate the current meta with some of the foul stuff going on. Actually you clearly can complain - but it is such a nonsense with the lists you can make today to worry your opponent may pop down some expensive gold dudes, or some T3 lasses who don't currently have a dedicated transport option.

So seriously, is the ITC or some other TO/ruleset really going to prevent 300pts of Custodes in a 1750 list - when that 300pts will get gravved/D'd/Plasma'd into nothing inside 2 turns? More fool them really for not promoting the rule of cool with tourney specific rules to allow Custodes whilst permitting, nay, encouraging, the Eldar horror.

If this rant was too long, basically, I am saying it is a trifle odd to complain about unbound whilst battle-forged can bring the strongest pongy cheddar imaginable.

I firmly agree with them not getting put on the allies matrix, but let's be honest: there are way too many Imperial allies on there. Sure, there are single codexes that can do painful things (ie craftworld eldar. Who can apparently to kabalite tactics better than the actual kabalites, grumblegrumble) but a large source of over the topness is the interactions that happen when you can make an army from half a dozen different codexes without penalty. So kudos to GW for not adding yet another option to the Imperials while stiffing everyone else.

I heard a rumour today that GW have actually put the Sisters in as an allied unit for the Imperium. Where I think they can become a real choice is if they do bring back Sisters of Battle. They could be an expensive elite choice for SoB or a force around which SoB are built.