So before anyone says anything, I know it’s early and we have to wait for the codex but based off of what has been previewed so far, I wanted to see what people thought of the new Command Protocols as a game mechanic.

I’ve seen some hate but I personally think they’re great, maybe even slightly better than doctrines as a pure mechanic. Being able to choose when they go off means you can plan a whole strategy around them. Building an army and a game strategy around which protocols proc when is how I think they will be used most successfully (as opposed to the detraction of “you have to guess when they’ll be useful”). If you build around them, you take the guess work out of it. And based off the one that has been previewed, they seem relatively flexible, which is good.

The reason I think they might be better than doctrines even is because of that flexibility. You get to choose the order before each game, meaning you can tailor your strategy to not only your list but also to the opponent you’re playing, where as doctrines are static for the most part. I’ve personally have played space marines where I wished a doctrine was active on a turn where it couldn’t have been. The only detraction I can think of for CP is that it is an aura placed on characters so it won’t affect your whole army if not placed correctly. However, technically doctrines don’t affect an entire space marines army at the same time either so idk. I’d like to hear more thoughts on it though!