Balancing Fortifications, Str D weapons and Super-Heavy Vehicles.

[YorkNecromancer]

Fortifications, Str D weapons and Super-Heavy Vehicles are all going to be in 'regular' 40K. This IS happening, because it HAS already happened. Escalation and Stronghold Assault are real things now, and are official.

So, my question is: how do you think these things should be balanced for regular 40K?

Now, if you've read this and your immediate answer is one of the following:

• They can't be balanced.
• They shouldn't be in the game at all.
• They should be removed.
• Any kind of blanket ban of any of the three factors mentioned above.

Please DO NOT COMMENT. This is because that opinion has nothing to add to this discussion. This discussion is about creative ways to balance the three above mentioned factors, and removing them is off the table. Why? Because that's not creative; the superheavy models are awesome, and I want to see/use them in regular games, without them being a.) autowin buttons or b.) overcosted, easy kills.

So: how do we achieve the following success criteria?

1. All Fortifications viable, balanced, usable, fair, fluffy (i.e.: you can take a Fortification network and build a themed 'Trench' army, say).
2. Str D usable in regular games without it running roughshod over everything.
3. Superheavies viable, terrifying, but defeatable.

I would suggest that all the Fortifications are pretty much fine; even AV15 doesn't seem like a huge problem, so long as it's limited to a single building (which should yield significantly more VP's if it IS destroyed).

Str D, I would change to Poisoned 2+, AP1, Instant Death and give it an modified haywire rule, which scores a Glancing Hit on a 2+, a Penetrating Hit on a 4+. I would also limit D weapons to a maximum Blast template in diameter, unless we're talking a weapon mounted on a Warlord Titan equivelant or larger.

Superheavies seem okay, although I would perhaps use a 'percentage' system, where a Lord of War cannot be used in 1500pts or less, and may only take up 25% of your army's total points, which immediately knocks almost any army from using them in standard battles. Either that, or use the FoC chart from the Horus Heresy: Massacre book, where the army is limited to 3 Lord of War slots and 1 allied detatchment only; that would allow for things like Knight households or Baneblade companies, which would (I think) be kind of fun and fluffy, but not exactly unbeatable.