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If you were in a meta that is low on MEQ armies, then Power Mauls are a God-send. As that isn't typically the case, they're far less reliable than a Power Sword/Axe. Definitely fairly done, but you've got to be a gambler to use it when most metagames are centered around MEQ.

Yes, its true that MEQ outsell everything else. That doesnt mean, however, that all you will face is MEQ. Orks sell really well too, so does DE and so on. Those guys, well they arnt known for awesome armor saves. And against some things in the Ork army for example, the Maul is right at home against. Because we can get some pretty tough cookies in our lists, but they have terrible armor saves, so the Maul will wound easy enough and ignore the saves.

Obviously it isnt a multi tool for the Space Marines, but Ive seen a hammer fix many problems, other then just hammering a nail down

All I know, is that IG blobs with mauls and a guy in there with a fist are aboslutely brutal. Ran a 30 man blob with a basic commissar and a lord the other day. The sarges and regular commissar all had mauls (4 mauls total) and the lord had a fist.

They annihilated pretty much anything they came in contact with. Watching guardsmen go from wounding on 5's to 3's was awesome, and I forced so many saves even death company were hurting after a while.

Super competitive? Probably not, but they're definitely amazing on guardsmen. They essentially give you hidden Ogryn in your platoons, instead of weaklings who might get through a save. Watching those wounds pile up is awesome, and against DE or something along those lines they just murder them.

My wolf priest with Power Maul generally has preferred enemy infantry. So he only ever misses on the first roll of a 2, and rerolls most wounds against troops. This probably wouldn't be as useful if he didn't have the maul I guess. I just think that all the new options open up new pssiblities, and the maul is no slouch

 KingCracker wrote:
Thats funny, because I remember on more then 1 occasion that bolters really kick ass when used correctly.

I never said I agreed with him. He had some interesting points etc, but I didn't agree with him

Power mauls are not that competitive in the 5th ed meta, but the 6th ed meta is far more diversified making the power mauls more competitive.

6th ed is still new so it will take a while for the meta to catch up to army collections.

Anyhow in general the maul is a better choice when facing the following armies

IG
Deamons
Eldar
Dark eldar
Tau
Tyranids
Orks
Necrons, yes necrons. The sword's edge over immortals & praetorians is less than the maul's edge over warriors, lych guard, wraiths, and scarabs which they id

Power swords a better against the following meq armies as long as they field meq instead od teq
Ba
Sw
C:SM
BT
GK

Excluded is DA because they tend to be death wing, and csm as their codex is weeks away.

People who don't see the maul's potential are looking back at the 5th ed meta instead of forward to the 6th ed meta.



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& I'm not sure bt should be on the 2nd list as the most feared build they have is heavy on tank hunting tac termies and ls typhoons.

It seems to me that mauls would be pretty helpful for the utlra-killy squads out there. Power mauls would make you a little less killy against MEQ, so you might be able to "hide," in a tac squad or something, through your opponent's shooting phase.

The maul makes it feasible to harm a t4 marine as a guard player.

 schadenfreude wrote:
Power mauls are not that competitive in the 5th ed meta, but the 6th ed meta is far more diversified making the power mauls more competitive.

Power mauls were just power weapons in 5th, did the same as swords and axe.

smUrfsrUs wrote:

 schadenfreude wrote:
Power mauls are not that competitive in the 5th ed meta, but the 6th ed meta is far more diversified making the power mauls more competitive.

Power mauls were just power weapons in 5th, did the same as swords and axe.

He did not say 5th ed rules, but 5th ed Meta. As in how people built list.

I thought 5th ed meta meant lots of transport vehicles. Surely the maul would be more useful in that situation (Yes, I called you Shirley)

I make no statement as to if they are better or worst with 5th ed rules. I was only clarifying someone else's confusion.

Great thread!

Regarding lances, they would be interesting on vanguard perhaps? They straight away remind me of the iron snakes book, which was awesome.

Hmm more list building thinking needed

I should make a thread devoted to the math of each power weapon in each model type's had vs each army's basic troops and basic commander.

Maul > Orks.
Seriously, it's a godsend. Could have used more of those back on Armageddon.

-Matt

My first game in 6th was against orcs.

My libby in cc with staff, GOLD! Yeah AP4 is weak v mech but at least they rolling armour saves.

I think they would be good on Str3 models, particularly with high I or furious charge.

Compared to a powerfist, I think a power maul is a pretty good compromise for a Str3 model, particularly vs non MEQ armies.