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From the 5ed rulebook

"It’s not uncommon for units to be immune to Morale checks for losing an assault, or to automatically pass them for some reason (they may have the ‘fearless’
special rule, be subject to a vow or some other special rule). When such units lose a close combat, they are in danger of being dragged down by the victorious enemy despite their determination to hang on. These units do not take Morale checks and will never fall back. Instead, these units suffer a number of wounds equal to the number their side has lost the combat by (allocated as normal)."

I've seen a number of people claim that synapse creatures are immune to No retreat in 5ed but I'm not seeing it. Creatures in synapse automatically pass any and all ledership test. Thus they automatically pass Morale checks for losing an assualt and would be subject to No Retreat.

This kinda puts a major hit on gaunts in my opinion. They won't be tieing down units nearly as well as they used to when outnumbering/being out numbered was key. It also makes them very poor objective grabbers (which is pretty well accepted by nid players, but still).

It does seem to make hormagaunts a bit more attractive compared to hordes of gaunts though, since hormies can be tooled up to do decent damage.

I would agree Dan. I thought at first the No Retreat Rule was going to be a real boon for gaunt'y Nids.

After reading the whole section in B&W its pretty clear that basic gaunts based armies will take a beating when losing combat. They really may end up being the mandatory bullet/club catchers for all the Stealers and Leaping Warriors that will be fielded in 5th. I think it will be mandatory to build a couple of 24 brood gaunt squad with Spinefists just for Objectives and Screening Purposes.

Gregg

I think we may start to see more upgraded hormagaunts. I'm thinking of adding both adrenal glands to mine... we'll see after I play a few 5th games, however.

I think it will be mandatory to build a couple of 24 brood gaunt squad with Spinefists just for Objectives and Screening Purposes.

Agreed. I think two squads will be good to have but going with more seems like folly. Two large broods gets you a good amount of screening for the way in and after that screening would be difficult at best anyways. But I guess this a a topic better kept in tactics, my army list discussion or over a beer.

I think we may start to see more upgraded hormagaunts. I'm thinking of adding both adrenal glands to mine... we'll see after I play a few 5th games, however.

The 6+ save and high cost has always kept me from liking the uber-gaunts. I've seen them do really really well but I just dunno.

13 point hormies screened by 8 point spinegaunts.

without number works wonders when you need troops late and play with fodder. Come now, which FOC slot = fodder?

Hormies can be in a ball formation and spinies a line in front. Hormies get screened and can charge right past them. Can do it twice for cheap and still have slots for GS.

The last round save is very important for gaunts without number - they do not roll IB as they are not there at the beginning of movement. 6" +d6" should get you within 6" of an objective since you can place half.

There's something to consider: What other army in 5th edition can treat their valuable troops as gun-fodder? A unit of thirty will give one measly kill point, and sprint back onto the board. You don't even need to wait for them to be wiped out.

Make sure you have a Tyrant floating around in the middle of the board with a Bonesword and a bone-bazooka, and you don't need to worry about any initiative upgrades.

And they score to the last gaunt making the opponent need to kill them. In 4 it could take some effort, now it's a catch-22.