I really like this game but I've been thinking about something.
I'm thinking about faction imbalances once we have all factions. From what it seems now space marines and chaos space marines are very similar (except some minor differences like healers). And when the other factions arrive, what will be the reason for people to choose chaos space marines (unless they are real fans of them from start)? I imagine those two don't differ much in their codex, however it might matter in game especially if you want to bring in players that aren't there for the warhammer 40k universe specifically. Or are there any planned implementations to make more clear distinctions between those two factions? I'm curious what the rest of you think about this.

Im afraid I dont have a source for this information but as I recall the dev team said they arent concerned with balance as much as giving each faction its own advantages and focus. With all the Basic, Elite & Hero classes that will eventually come itll be near impossible to balance it all. One faction may have better healing classes, where another faction will have better melee classes and so on.

Event he factions themselves have different advantages planned.

You could expect space marines have lots of interesting war-gear choices that are balanced or sometimes specialized.

Chaos probably will have lots of dark gift/blessings and sorcery powers. Sometimes being tougher than even the space marines.

Eldar will have tons of specialized class loadouts and skills that will rock at their particular role but suck at anything else.

Orks will be tough and probably have all kinds of weird and unique skills and weapons. Specializing in dakka and melee and being Ork strong.

I wouldn't worry too much about faction strengths as they stand now. For balance and testing purposes, Chaos and LSM are basically re-skins of each other, when the game is further developed and more factions are introduced, the differences between them all will be more pronounced.

Players will have plenty of reason to choose Chaos, not just for their aesthetic looks, but because of their lore (a lot of players like playing "bad guys") and their customization, where Space Marines rely on technology, Chaos Space Marines use the powers of their dark gods to make up for what they lack in technology. Where Space Marine's will get Iron Halo's, Chaos will use Marks of Nurgle, Khorne, etc. Loyalists will get exclusive weapons like the Thunder Hammer, Chaos Havoc's will get a personal autocannon.

As of now, the differences between the factions are already becoming noticeable! Not just because of their healers, but because of their basic capping classes. It'd seem that Space Marines are leaning towards becoming slightly more ranged orientated, while Chaos is becoming more close combat focused. As of this moment though I can't really speak for the balance of the other factions, as they are not out yet.. But Dev's have stated that while Eldar may be slightly weaker then Space Marines, they will be deadly at close, and long range, where Space Marines dominate mid range. Orkz have also been stated to dominate close range but be weak at longer ranges. Hope this assuages your concerns!

This is something I worry about as well. As Eldar are already consider "cheese" in TT I'm afraid that if bE bases most of their stuff off of TT or even the typical lore that the non-Eldar communities would scream at bE about how OP we are. Seeing as how Eldar are not in yet I can't really say for certain, but I feel if they do things correctly that certain Eldar classes could be VERY OP to newer players to just the general community. Take Striking Scorpions for example, a unit that can cloak, has Astartes tier heavy armor and can deal out heavy damage. I feel as most of the community would be very upset about a class like that existing their down fall being that they move at the same pace as typical units do. Overall I think Eldar will probably be called the OP faction to play just considering how specialized our classes are.

I have always been concerned for this and I do not how closely linked this game is to table top.... Its a freakin' shooter game, not a turn based strategy game. T___T

But yes, for me that was one of the allures of collecting Eldar and playing them in the Dawn of War series; because they had specialized units. In any game I've always loved armies that make use of highly specialized units rather than a rag-tag mob of average Joe units. Way more rewarding and strategic.

However, I have no idea how they're going to fit that in other than maybe giving the Eldar access to weapons or accessories (or even perk kits) which specialize each unit. Otherwise its just going to be flimsy shuriken throwers. :|

They have bigger/better guns but I don't know how they will implement them while trying to keep them balanced. Currently Chaos and Space Marines are pretty mirror matched.

Orkz will be fine because they basically use Space marine stuff that's just slightly modified. So not really an issue there. Eldar require more... sophistication.

Lets agree to disagree.

I am under the mindset that the Orks will be the hardest to balance due to the fact they are weaker then both SM, and CSM when it comes to health and damage, and are FAR surpassed by the Elder in damage. This leaves Orks with very bullet spammy weapons that are terribly inaccurate, and melee that the CSM or SM can easily outplay.

And since the Orks are a horde army, the 16 player cap isn't doing them any good.

Wait, where are we getting this "weaker" than others? I thought they had some pretty tough units on Table Top?

Eldar would be in the same boat for some stuff which is why they're not starting with Guardians as their basic unit but have Storm Guardians instead (basically suped up versions of Guardians). Because they can actually take a hit and stand against tougher units like Space Marines. Honestly a good call on Behaviour's part.

So ya, if Orkz just had their gitz n grotz, sure, they'd be toast. But I think they're getting bigger units, Commandoz, Nobz, Mad Docz, etc. Shoota boyz or whatever their better gunner infantry are, but I doubt they'll get anything weaker than that.

Like any army, they have their share of strong units. But the ork faction won't all be Nobs, or Mega-nobs will they?

The run of the mill Ork boy has the WORST cover save (lovingly called the T-shirt save) having to roll a 6+ and the hilariously bad Ballistic skill of 3. SM, and CSM have the better melee weapons. Even though Choppas are pretty cool, the Power swords and chain swords of the basic SM/CSM troops completely outplays it. Eldar are the bane of Orks due to their powerful as-f weaponry.

And to my knowledge, there isn't a better gun infantry for Orks, so Shoota/Choppa Boyz are the basic troops

Ya so to my understanding the Ork Boyz were going to be out because they were too weak and it wouldn't balance. So the next step would be slugga/shoota's.

UNLESS they have some crazy mechanic planned whereby you start off as a grot/git/ork boy and then vet quickly into a Nob, Commando, Doc, etc. THAT might be cool, but then again the first several matches would be utter hell.

But also they could keep the weaker units and then have some other kind of mechanic like WAAAGH so that there's some way to beef them up so they are on par with everything else.

Don't worry about Chaos
They will probably still be the 2nd most populated faction.

They already have differences (Apothecary/Sorcerer), and they will have more. Yes, SM and CSM will be the Factions most closly resembling each other, but the population of players that want to be "Humans" is really big even if we don't look at 40k fans. (And in the Tabletop SM and CSM are the most played anyway).