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I went with the Stormsurge, Riptide, Scatbikes, Wraithknight, and TWC as far as powerful goes. My reasoning:

Stormsurge: Huge amount of firepower plus potentially very accurate ranged D weapons. Not as undercosted as some units (*coughEldarcough*) but quite nasty for the points.

Riptide: Nearly as durable as a Stormsurge for a fraction of the cost. Kitted out right these guys are nuts! Not even gonna mention Riptide wing (oh wait, I just did )...

Scatbikes: These would not be much of a problem if they were Fast Attack like they should be. As it is, they should cost a lot more than 27 points per model. I pay 25 points per model for a regular Ravenwing biker, and he only has a Twinlinked bolter and is not a jetbike.

Wraithknight: These should cost probably 50-100 points more than they do.

Thunderwolf Cavalry: Pretty solid on their own, but just nuts when you buff them with ally shenanigans (a TWC deathstar with Veil of Time and/or Invisibility is basically invincible).

Who the hell said a Soulgrinder was strong?

 Quickjager wrote:
Who the hell said a Soulgrinder was strong?

Don't you know? The Soulgrinder is the most undercosted OP invincible unit in the game! Nothing can stand against the almighty GRINDER OF SOULS
It takes the most terrifying parts of a Daemon, and shoves them on some robot legs. Tremble before it!

Haha, but still one person voted for it... I'll remove it and the stock librarian from the list as only one person voted for each

 CadianGateTroll wrote:
Who ever votes that the IK is too powerful is a weak player who has no melta.

Got Fire Dragon?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
9 people voted for Wyvern.

They must be nid horde players.

If this is strictly by the point cost, the Wyvern all day. Barrage, ignores cover, shred. This 65 point unit obliterates infantry, and most units that can score.

 Selym wrote:

 CadianGateTroll wrote:
Who ever votes that the IK is too powerful is a weak player who has no melta.

Got Fire Dragon?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
9 people voted for Wyvern.

They must be nid horde players.

Eldar and Tau players wind up hating them and Ork players wouldn't be too keen on them either, I ran three Whirlwinds at a tournament, admittedly I had first turn every game (2x Heralds, Bjorn and Gimnar's War Council for re-rollable deployment and a 2+ Seize the Initiative) Ulrik gave Preferred Enemy and the Whirlwinds unleashed hell. Preferred Enemy is not Shred, especially when toughness goes up, it sure as hell isn't Twin Linked and one large blast is not as good as four small blasts but I halved the Eldar Psykers and completely removed units of Tau Marker Drones before they could do anything. 65ppm is a bargain for that kind of damage.
Space Marines and Necrons on the other hand laughed at those blasts though so a Wyvern can do real damage to four armies but you've only really got a 30% chance of facing one of those armies at a tournament.

Personally I find that wyverns are pretty effective against almost every army with ANY non-invisible infantry. Elite infantry are good targets too - they are points-efficient for firing against grav centurions and ravenwing black knights + other bikers. They also have the significant advantage of being able to avoid tanking characters and sniping unit upgrades such as apothecaries. Unlike some on this list (e.g. wraithknight) they can't engage all units in the game, but most lists have a viable target. They're not even that bad against AV10 vehicles e.g. darkshrouds or land speeders, particularly with their denial of jink saves.

Missing Dark Angel Black Knights. Certainly in the top 5, and better than the Darkshroud which is very niche.

Skittarii dragoons.
Very fast
immune to s4 or under
built in cover save
i6 & s8 & 4a taser on the charge
doctrina imperatives
all for dirt cheap points oh can also come in units of 6 there only real down side is no ap on there weapons.

Hey, yeah I agree I should have put in black knights. They do make it into a lot of competitive lists. I'll add them to the poll though they may have missed the boat now! I think jetbike warlock council could have been a reasonable contender for a lower place too...

I'm not quite as convinced by the dragoons. I'd say they're above average, but still pretty flimsy despite their inbuilt cover save.

Here are the top ten units as voted then:

1 - Wraithknight (no surprises)
2 - Scatterbikes
3 - Riptide (personally didn't expect this guy to still be so high! Maybe it's been helped by the dawn of the stupid riptide wing...)
4 - Centurions with grav
5 - Warp spiders
6 - Stormsurge
7 - Thunderwolves
8 - Necron wraiths
9 - Wulfen
10 - Flyrant

Then following on to make up the top 20: fateweaver, wyvern, chapter master on bike, wraithguard, knight titans, tigurius, broadsides with HYMPs, D-cannon Vauls wrath batteries, farseers and WS/DA bikers

Interesting to know what the top threats are considered to be at the moment (not counting formations!). Anyone surprised by anything here?

Riptides are 10% of the entire poll, at the time that I write this. Honestly, that's surprising. I play Tau, but I don't think Riptides are great. I prefer Broadsides.

Wraithknights are 19% of the vote. Having never played against a Wraithknight, I don't know exactly how powerful they are/can be when used correctly.

Surprisingly, most of the SM options are low percentages. A lot of people complain about SM and how they are OP, but this poll goes against that opinion completely.

I think a large portion of their stength comes from unit upgrades (grav guns), psychic powers (librarians, which I removed from the poll in the end as they had only got one vote), and formations - Gladius/skyhammer in particular. Those both take subpar units and make them highly competitive.

Haha, wraithknights being 19% means that only 1/20 DIDN'T vote for them assuming everyone cast five votes!

I'm with you on the riptide, and also prefer broadsides. Not doubting that riptides should be pretty high, but they haven't got that high attack power outside their formation.

 DoomMouse wrote:
I think a large portion of their stength comes from unit upgrades (grav guns), psychic powers (librarians, which I removed from the poll in the end as they had only got one vote), and formations - Gladius/skyhammer in particular. Those both take subpar units and make them highly competitive.

Haha, wraithknights being 19% means that only 1/20 DIDN'T vote for them assuming everyone cast five votes!

I'm with you on the riptide, and also prefer broadsides. Not doubting that riptides should be pretty high, but they haven't got that high attack power outside their formation.

Thinking about it, I would agree on the idea that SM strength comes from unit upgrades like, as you've mentioned, grav guns. Psychic powers are incredibly powerful, especially when being used against you. Playing Tau, we don't really get to use psychic powers, but I've suffered from them a lot - I've also watched Librarians die through their own Vortex of Doom, so they must be powerful.

On the Riptide section, I'm glad you agree. Whenever I say I prefer Broadsides over Riptides, the players at my LGS tell me that I must be playing Riptides wrong. I'd take Crisis Suits and Broadsides over Riptides any day, but in big matches (1500+ points) I would take one, but only one with an ion accelerator and stim for that added protection.

I'm surprised Zhadsnark is not on this list for the Orks or Buzzgob Kustom Stompa. Both of which for their points are fantastic on the table.

 Quickjager wrote:
Who the hell said a Soulgrinder was strong?

Someone who never moved past 5th edition.

Ooooooh the power of soul grinders in 5th edition.

Units that are SOOO GOOD by themselves and does not required synergetic support from other units, psychic buff, formation/detach special rules and etc in my opinion are:

1. Scatterbikes
2. Wraithknights
3. Warp Spiders(good even without aspect host)
4. Warp Hunters

Everything else on that list requires some kind of support to be good... for example:

Tau riptides needs be in Riptide Wings and/or lots of marker light support(so does Storm Surges).

Ravenwing bikers needs dark shroud. But still can get rip apart by ignore cover shooting.