The grand experiment of recent Warhammer 40k has been the removal of the old Force Org charts. It may be time to bring them back.
Goatboy here and the grand experiment of 40k has been the removal of the old Force Org. The old method for of “taxing” armies by forcing them to take specific units in order to create a Valid army. This idea that GW would force armies to look a specific way instead of the current “take” whatever you want as long as you got one Warlord leading the insanity on the table top. So should GW bring back the Force Org?
Forge Org Chart – 3rd Edition (1998)
Forge Orgs Have A Long History in 40K
It is an interesting question especially as we see the upcoming Horus Heresy coming out. Now I don’t know if it is worth it to go back but it might refresh the game enough to make it interesting. The old Force Org would force players to take at least 2 Troop choices with one HQ unit to create the initial Force Organization. From there you could build out whatever you wanted within the realm of usually three of each of the Elite, Fast Attacks, and Heavy Choices. The Flyer option came later and would normally only get you 2 of them. The original force Org chart came from 3rd Edition in 1998, and was almost unchanged through 6th Edition in 2012. The last edition to have them was 9th Edition from 2020 till 2023. That means that 40K has had Force Orgs in it for 25 years!
Forge Org Chart – 9th Edition (2020)
The Force Org charts forced the players to be much more selective of their choices which sometimes created interesting armies. It also would cause other armies with the best Troop choices to feel a bit more powerful as they could easily spam out these units and cover all the things they needed to do. It is a harder thing to really balance, as again you have one army with extremely efficient choices being better while others with bad troops might see it as a tax instead of as a benefit to take those troop choices.
It is a much harder thing to really break down and I do wonder if 40k has come too far in army unbalanced army construction in 10th Edition to really warrant the return of the old Force Orgs. It feels like the game it just might be too far gone in the direction of “freedom” of choice. I always wondered if we would have had a better time if we had more rules to hang our army lists on.
Forge Org Chart – 6th Edition (2012)
Force Orgs Vs No Restrictions
What do you think? Would a much more locked in system on army building be better? Would it still just devolve into picking the best things all the time? Or would it just push army choices into creating “solved” lists? Would the Force Org just remove the Detachment style system we have now or could we have both things at once?
Do any of you miss the old Force Org chart system if you played it before? I remember the old Nidzilla list that tricked out Carnifexes by pushing the choices into both Heavy and Elite options in order to crash the table top with a bunch of monsters. We also saw this in some of the old Ork Nob Bikerz armies that would create troop Nob Biker units if you took a Warboss on a bike. Maybe a better question is which Edition had the best Force Org Charts? There were several.
Forge Org Chart – 7th Edition (2014)
Right now a lot of my armies are not looking at Battleline choices as something needed as they either cost too much or there is a much more efficient choice elsewhere in the codex. The push to massed MSU builds really pushes this as a Forge Org might eliminate some of these armies because they just have too many things. It’s an interesting thing to think about bring back Forge Orgs, as I am sure a new edition is coming and I wonder if will get a whole new method for building our warriors on the tabletop.
So Force Org Charts – Yes or No?
Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on – or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.