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Title says it all, which is easier for a newbie to use, and which is better in tournies?

Mech all the way. The SM codex has cheap and efficient transport options, which means they will get where you want them safely. Keep in mind that if are going to footslog your special weapons across the table they will be easier targets. Plus SM are 'supposed' to hit fast and hard. On foot its only hard. And that just doesn't do.

I say mech is easier and better, but there is nothing wrong with trodding along the battle field, taking your sweet time to kick some @$$. If you know how its done of course.

UltraKruel wrote:Mech all the way. The SM codex has cheap and efficient transport options, which means they will get where you want them safely. Keep in mind that if are going to footslog your special weapons across the table they will be easier targets. Plus SM are 'supposed' to hit fast and hard. On foot its only hard. And that just doesn't do.

I say mech is easier and better, but there is nothing wrong with trodding along the battle field, taking your sweet time to kick some @$$. If you know how its done of course.

.... And for non-space martinis?

Anti-infantry firepower has become so cheap and effective with the more recent codices that you pretty much have to go mech or die, regardless of what codex you use.

Take the initiative, keep the initiative.

Mech always. If you are gonna do it, do it all the way!

In the case of tyranids.......footslog, thats all i do. IMHO i have found it easier to pop tanks than ever before, maybe its just. I love cc

Mech dominates tournaments, no matter what codex you use (except Tyranids, of course). This is especially true now that many tournament organizers have ditched the idea of kill points.

And daemons.
lol, 10 bloodletters in a land raider.

Uh, my horde Orks and gunline IG aren't mechanised and they do fine. I don't get all this obsession with mech TBH. So what if your army is fast and has transports, those transports have generall bad armour and once they're popped your screwed because you have these small squads designed for close quarters in the middle of the field.

Because you play ork and guard, that's why. Horde armies maximize their effectiveness with models on the board, not their mobility or flexibility.

You can put full tactical squads in transports, or termies in a LR. How are those "small squads designed for close quarters"?

I say ground pounding. I reap a horrible tally with my IG vs other Ig simbly becaues I can blast transports with everything from plamagun up. as I only use a russ, hydra and mantacore myself I'm happy just stunning or shaking a landraiders. I can just shoot Chimeri and Rhino and win kill points. Foot slogging/gunline all the way.

I play Spase Mareinz (hurr) too, but they're all in drop pods, so it doesn't count as mech.

Unless your playing Monstrous core(Avatar with two-three wraithlords) you should always mechanize your eldar, it allows you to hit any part of the board, I literally can Bladestorm a unit on oneside of the board, next turn jump in the Wave Serpent, blast 24 inches across the board, next turn blast another 12 inches jump out and blade storm again.

The mech or not to mech question is very army dependant, with codex marines I'd say mech is the way forward, same with eldar, other than that most armies fare better with an element of mech in my experience (with the exception of gunlines) as an element of mech allows you to hit the enemy in 2 waves, allowing you to be reactive and giving you a second chance should the first wave fluff it, also, with templars its not worth mech as once youre in a transport there are no casualties to be taken so you wont go runing after them in thier turn.

It should also be said that the costs should also play into any decision:

- I built a footslogging Guard list for the last codex, and it was a PAIN painting all the models. At the beginning, I painted each soldier quite well, but by the end I said screw it because nobody really cares how well Joe Snuffy guardsman is painted when he's just ablative wounds for an autocannon. With 200 models on the board, you can take a LONG time to paint them all well, or a moderately long time to paint them all to tabletop. I switched to Sisters because there are significantly less models in any given army, even footslogging.

- How many dollars does the army cost? Not only in terms of models, but paints, brushes, other tools, as well. Footsloggers require more paint simply because there are more models.

One last thing:

- There's mathhammer, and then there's luckhammer. Mathhammer says that my Chimeras that I got rid of should hit 3/6 shots with a multi-laser and hull HB. Luckhammer says they usually got between 1-2 hits, and only wounded GEQs 1/4 of those hits. Sufficed to say, I dumped them off as soon as I got a good chance. No matter what the math said, they were chronic underperformers.

Some footslogging lists can work, kind of, they suffer from rock paper scissors though. IE: you run into pie plates or torrent of fire and you get tabled.

Mech up is the way forward, mobility and protection wins out and even in killpoint missions the extra killpoints from transports are not a big deal, you are looking to table the other guy idealy in which case kill points don't matter and the more you play mech the more you learn to keep stuff alive with the mobility.

I have to say, the mech lists I've fought (and I've fought a lot of them) aren't very durable. Oh, what's that, your Vets have moved forward in a chimera? Well, they can say hello to Mister Railguns.

i run a mix mech for odj. and footslogging for the gun line.

Most all of my armies are heavy into keeping ranged combat (Dark Angels included).

I don't like rushing forward or heading in to assault. I'd much rather take up a decent firing position with cover and be able to actually fire every round than go joyriding in a Rhino/Chimera/etc.

If the focus is more assault and getting up close and personal, then definitely rhinos. Otherwise, not really.

slice of toast wrote:One last thing:

- There's mathhammer, and then there's luckhammer. Mathhammer says that my Chimeras that I got rid of should hit 3/6 shots with a multi-laser and hull HB. Luckhammer says they usually got between 1-2 hits, and only wounded GEQs 1/4 of those hits. Sufficed to say, I dumped them off as soon as I got a good chance. No matter what the math said, they were chronic underperformers.

In the fight between maths and luck, maths will always win. You will of course have some bad rolls but it makes much more sense to choose the option with the highest probablility of performing well. For 55pts a chimera is an absolute steal. 6 good strength shots, reasonable armour and five fire points make it not only a good transport but a passible light tank as well.

Cheese Elemental wrote:I have to say, the mech lists I've fought (and I've fought a lot of them) aren't very durable. Oh, what's that, your Vets have moved forward in a chimera? Well, they can say hello to Mister Railguns.

One of the greatest strengths of mech lists is that it gives the troops inside a better layer of protection (shocking I know!). Its much better that you kill the transport than kill the guys inside. Of course then once you have destroyed the transport you are free to shoot the guys inside but if there are several squads of guys in transports you end up committing a lot of firepower to getting rid of them. If you purely focus on the transports then the support vehicles will devastate you, but if you dont then you will have lots of medium-close range infantry in your face.

Adding to this that killing a vehicle is never a given certainty. I dont know how many times I've seen tau players cringe when they roll a 1 to hit or for damage with their railgun. It is far far easier to kill infantry in droves than in is to kill half a dozen vehicles.

Currently there is so much anti-infantry firepower compared to anti-tank fire power that the meta is heavily leaning towards mech armies. Because it takes a lot of effort to kill a single vehicle, let alone 10, your army will be able to survive that much longer. The recent release of IG has only exacerbated this situation with their very cheap chimeras and vendettas. There are of course anti-mech elements in the IG codex but these just dont exist in many previous ones (orks and eldar should do alright, but SM, CSM and demons will have problems). But once everyone gets used to lots of little tanks running about then the meta will shift again.

In summary, yes, mech armies are better than footslogging ones (currently).

So is a Dread/Walker Heavy army considered Mech or foot sloggin?

I'm thinking 6 dread SM/9 Kan 2 Def Orks/WarWalker WraithLord combo Eldar armies.

It depends on the army. Overall though, Mech. 100%

Food Store Hero wrote:Most all of my armies are heavy into keeping ranged combat (Dark Angels included).

I don't like rushing forward or heading in to assault. I'd much rather take up a decent firing position with cover and be able to actually fire every round than go joyriding in a Rhino/Chimera/etc.

If the focus is more assault and getting up close and personal, then definitely rhinos. Otherwise, not really.

See that's the thing: mech is more about protection than mobility. There's nothing saying that a unit in a rhino has to move. If the rhino is stationary, they can still fire the heavy weapon out the top, because more or less that's the important weapon for the unit. Then, if a unit is getting close and you need to bolter it down, you don't need to rely on the not-very-effective single bolter shots you get for standing still: you get much more effective range on your 12" rapid fire than you do footslogging. And you get all this, more protection, and more effective bolter fire, for 35 points.

In 5E? Mech, of course - it's cheap in the updated Codices.

Not to buy.

Depends on the army. Space Marines, Tau, and Eldar do well with meching it up. Imperial Guard can either go all-out on tanks or set up waves of meat with guns. Orks, too, can go wither way, since they excell at close combat and can overwhelm with numbers. Tyranids probably need to stay foot-sloggers (*CAN* they do otherwise?)

I'd love to see a tyranid Psuedo-titan that could transport infantry.

They have a tyrnanid super heavy that transports gargoyles. Its from Forge World Though.

If you wanna play Footslogging, go Hoard.
If you want to Win, Play Mech.

If you want to do both, Play Black Templars

I used to play my friend's orks (Now starting my own horde) and they were "footslogging" (I'm just guessing that means Infantry?). I usually dominated tha' board by outnumbering most... Well, I play for fun though so... yeah... (Though I do keep a record. 11 wins - 2 losses - 1 tie...)