Free SCs: There is background justification.
The armies that have free SCs - Orks and Chaos - are based on the background idea of extreme meritocracy. They are driven by charismatic and competent individuals. If the leaders of those armies are not extremely capable, then there is a lieutenant who is more cunning waiting to stab them in the back and assume command. If you're not a big, bad, Ork/CSM/Heretic AND a tactical genius, you're simply not going to lead any force of any size.
Obviously, there are questions of scale, as not every Epic-sized battle would necessarily have someone of that capability leading it. However, the concept and flavor is supposed to be for a singular, competent leader to command those armies.
If there are balance issues, that's obviously another matter.
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If the Avatar is too cheap/easy to summon then the price of the Farseer should go up a nudge, it's not that murky a corrolation... For example, I think that the 0-1 'free' Vanquisher upgrade in tank companies is blatantly daft. Really? Your main complaint seems to be inappropriate scaling - BL assault company, SCs, Commisars, etc..
The "free" Avatar is supposedly "built in" to the Guardian Host cost, despite the fact that you get a single Avatar whether you have 1 Guardian Host or 12 and regardless of whether your army is 2000 points or 200,000 points.
The "free" Vanquisher is in some way not similarly included in the cost of a Leman Russ company, despite the fact that you receive exactly the same force composition for the same price, regardless of how many formations you take and regardless of the total size of the army list.
In other words, the Avatar quite clearly doesn't scale in the slightest, but you're defending it. Vanquishers scale exactly, but their inclusion is "daft."
I really don't follow this at all.
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And just what, exactly, is your pet peeve with the Vanquisher in the Russ formation? It's neither "free" nor an upgrade. It is a defined cost for a defined benefit, scalable and balanced. What is even the slightest bit "free" or "upgrade" about that?
By that standard, doesn't every bundled pricing scheme include "free" upgrades? - "free" nobz upgrades in the ork warband, "free" trukks upgrades in the speed freeks warband, "free" company commander upgrade in the IG infantry, etc.. Why do you not spew bilious remarks about all of those "daft" formation compositions as well?
It seems that you've arbitrarily decided the Vanquisher is an "upgrade" while ignoring everything else.
_________________ Neal
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