14 replies to this topic

[Irate Khornate]

Hullo, I finally have some space to pursue a passion project of mine. The only issue that I am running into is I don't know what troop choice to start off with.

I'm stuck at a three-way tie between warriors and both types of gaunts. Genestealers I'm not too fond of, but if the usefulness outweighs my distaste I'll swallow that pill.

Which would you all recommend? I don't mind mass painting, as I'll be going for the ghost scheme to pay homage to All Guardsman Party.

[InKaras]

I like Terrmagaunts for a good tar pit - tie units up. but warriors have their place as well. 

[TheNewman]

The rough thing is that 'Stealers can advance and charge without support and that's pretty useful.

In general I've found 'gaunts of both types to be more useful than Warriors, which makes me sad because I really like the Warrior models better. Honestly none of them have performed particularly well, but take that with several grains of salt because so far 'nids in general haven't performed particularly well for me.

[WarriorFish]

Welcome to the Hive Mind I am quite partial to Warriors as an iconic unit - good for some Synapse too. While having a pure Warriors list is interesting and something I will explore eventually I don't think it's a good core build. You want some little beasties too to help absorb fire and put some foot prints and threats down.

 

Both have their place I think, though neither are particularly amazing. The current game is rather deadly so they tend to die a lot, but that's why you take them in number. I've used Genestealers as a supplementary role as a fast and killy unit, but others have more experience than me. Generally nids are a bit behind the curve so the new codex whenever that may arrive will hopefully help.

 

That gives you time to start working on your army ready Unless you want to take a bit of a specialised list I'd start with some gaunts as it's very likely you'll be using some. A squad of Warriors to help provide some support and extra power should be a good start

[Jud Cottrell]

Welcome to the Hive Mind!

As others have said you can’t go wrong with guants, though I’ve found my Warriors have done some work (I field a unit of 6 with 2 Venom Cannons and Boneswords)

I’ve always found my Genestealers a little underwhelming for their pts cost. I still bring them though!

[TheNewman]

Generally nids are a bit behind the curve so the new codex whenever that may arrive will hopefully help.

Fingers crossed that's not too far into the release cycle.

[Irate Khornate]

So here's a question, how effective are stone crusher carnifexes? Most of what I've seen has been negative and I was wondering if that was the general case.

[TheNewman]

So here's a question, how effective are stone crusher carnifexes? Most of what I've seen has been negative and I was wondering if that was the general case.

I'm going to go out on a limb here.

The regular Carnifex isn't particularly fast or tough, and they look a lot more dangerous than they actually are. "Distraction Carnifex" is a common term for a reason. Their saving grace is that they travel in pack so three of them make efficient use of a single heavy slot, and they can be armed entirely to work at range.*

The Stone Crusher is a more credible threat to some targets in melee but it's not any faster or more durable, it can't have any ranged presence, and it's a single target. Basically most of what's wrong with a regular 'fex without the up-side.



* On reflection, three 'fexes with dual Barbed Stranglers is 10 Autocannon EQs and 24 wounds spread over three models for 330 points. That might be decent While We Stand, We Fight fodder.

Edited by TheNewman, 16 February 2021 - 12:27 AM.

[WarriorFish]

I agree that range/combat hybrid is best for fexes. It's how I've long used my Dreads albeit for slightly different reasons. For a fex the shooting addition is important as the army needs ranged support where it can get it, all the more so for stronger ranged weapons. 9th is a shooting game still so this needs to be considered when arming your units, but even so I'm not in favour of pure dakka builds much. They hit pretty hard in combat and this is usually needed against tougher targets so fexes can serve a middle ground support role to more dedicated units I reckon

[Jud Cottrell]

I currently have Old One Eye and another Fex built, I have another one but I’m waiting for the new Codex before committing to a load out .

The one I have built has MST and 2 Devourers with Brain Leech Worms, I’m really going to try them out.

[Evil Eye]

First off, welcome to the warm clutches of the Hive Mind, brood brother!

 

Personally I'd be tempted to wait for our porper 9th edition Codex before settling on an army list, as things will be bound to change (hopefully for the better!). That being said, I myself am thinking of using Warriors as my main troops...though that's largely because I really hate painting my army's carapace scheme on masses of Gaunts.

[TheNewman]

First off, welcome to the warm clutches of the Hive Mind, brood brother!

Personally I'd be tempted to wait for our porper 9th edition Codex before settling on an army list, as things will be bound to change (hopefully for the better!). That being said, I myself am thinking of using Warriors as my main troops...though that's largely because I really hate painting my army's carapace scheme on masses of Gaunts.

Alternatively, look at 40k's history on swings and round-abouts for unit transitions from edition to edition and realize that the best units are "all of them, your best list is going to change markedly when 10th rolls around and you won't have to drop the money on new models if your collection is extensive enough".

And unlike some other armies I could mention [cough] marines [cough] you won't have to worry about having 30+ new units dumped on you over the span of just a few years.

(Not complaining really, I'd just have made different purchasing decisions mid-8th with the benefits of hindsight.)

[Jud Cottrell]

First off, welcome to the warm clutches of the Hive Mind, brood brother!
 
Personally I'd be tempted to wait for our porper 9th edition Codex before settling on an army list, as things will be bound to change (hopefully for the better!). That being said, I myself am thinking of using Warriors as my main troops...though that's largely because I really hate painting my army's carapace scheme on masses of Gaunts.

Couldn’t agree more! Who knows what the new hotness will be when the Codex drops. For now I’d say buy the models you like the look/idea of and go from there. Power levels change all the time but the models are what keeps us coming back for more!

[GenerationTerrorist]

Until money reasons forced me to sell my Hive Fleet, I loved using my 2 units of 20 Genestealers backed up by a Broodlord. Even more deadly with a Swarmlord Slingshot.

Move. Advance. Charge. Blend anything.

They are my favourite 40k unit of all time, purely for the fluff that scared the crap out of me as a kid starting with 40k in 2nd Edition.

 

Not quite sure how they would work now in 9th Edition, mostly because of the changes to Blast weapons. Though the limitations on Overwatch maybe balances that out?

[XeonDragon]

I think it depends on the opponent, terrain and who goes first. I can still see them being very useful at least of a semi-regular basis.