Email in: Yet another 40k reflexion [point sizes]

"Hey Kirby !
I've spent hours reading your blog, and I must say that it's like a breath of fresh air (especially compared to BoLS). I could say that you always choose funny pictures, that you provide insightful thoughts on quite a lot of things, but that would be too much butt-licking for a blog dedicated to butt-kicking.
ANYWAY !
I'm a Ultramarine and Tyranid player. My main opponent is, for the moment, an Imperial guard, and he has yet to face my incestoid horde. Fact is, I got my ass handled to me by his guardmen. I'm no veteran player, but when comparing my "small" army builds, I came to the conclusion that a 750 pts 'nid fprce could pack a lot more punch than my standard 750 pts smurf batallion.
So, here's my question : do you think that some matchups are modified depending on the size of the game ? IE Guards being much more powerful than others at 750 pts, Eldars best suited for 1500 pts games and so on ?
A French reader fed up by 27 shots of torchlights on his ceramite armor."



Yes I do which is why I believe games of 1750+ are a must for competitive gaming (yes I said competitive, you can play whatever you like :P). I believe 40k is balanced around this point level and as discussed before here, some lists work at different points values but simply don't work at other point values. Taking a 1750 list and scaling it to 2500 doesn't always work and the same is true in the reverse. Some lists like old Dark Eldar had trouble scaling full stop but from the recent release of army books you'll find 1750 is where armies can be fielded as balanced forces. 


So in regards to your question, yes some armies have an advantage over others at smaller points. Space Marines are one of the worst at smaller points because to get a decent troop you're spending a minimum of 165 points and it's generally weaker in comparison to what can be taken by BA/SW as SM strengths lie in full squads (minimum 205 points). Two of these + a 100 point HQ and you've sucked up most of your points already whilst other armies like IG and Tau can drop decent yet cheap Troops and then start buying firepower units.


So discuss away in comments (since we haven't had a lot of discussion posts about actual gameplay lately...); now that DE have a new codex what lists do you think work best at lower points and why?