The Rise and Rise of the 'Combo'

[Nurglitch]

I think it's worth noting that the Warhammer 40k community lacks a standard, systematic way for talking about the features of the game. Everyone has their own jargon, and that isolation. I like to think of building an army able to maximize all three of the following:

Synergy (special rules synergy, basic rules synergy)
Flexibility (anti-infantry, anti-armour, anti-air; longer range, more units addressed, more actions to do)
Redundancy (# of weapons, # models, #units; lower cost tends to mean greater redundancy)

[40kGamer]

I dunno mate, 7th made a big step into really putting the brakes on some of the cross faction force multiplication, particularly where tau and eldar were concrened,

Id expect to see the mono-codex force multipliers remain, but I wouldn't really expect a lot of cross detachment buffs.

Not sure we won't see a good deal of new cross detachment buffs with the long list of Imperial books getting updated and the Dark Eldar looming again. Getting rid of the Tau Swiss army knife commander fixed a symptom but Battle Brothers is the disease.

[Denzark]

I think there is a difference between synergy - how 2 things work well together - and a combo. It might be semantics, but I think of combos as having a root in the video game sense of the word - if I do this, this and this together at this moment, the effect will be epic.

[Wolfshade]

Perhaps we need a community deffinition

Synergy - This consists of unit + character with various wargear. This combination is optional from the codex choice, where the character acts a force multiplier buffing the entire unit. Typically, the larger the unit the more formidable the buff, but importantly the cost remains the same.

e.g. Assault squad + Priest, the priest grants to the unit a FnP

not an example: chaos bikers + mark of nurgle (though T6 bikers are sweet)
not an example: gretching + runtherder (as it is a mandatory choice)

Combo - Two or more units working in combination to achieve a goal.

e.g. Storm Raven with Death Company & Death Company Dreadnought

not an example: melta-sternguard vetrans in a drop pod