The most mental 40k units - past and present inclusive,

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**stroller**

Going back a bit... original (I think!) Necron Scarabs.

If I remember rightly, effectively large template suicide bombers. Low points cost, and lots of damage. Probably OP at the time, when the options were Lord, Warrior, Immortal, Scarab, Destroyer.

**vipoid**

the_scotsman wrote:

My favorite is the insanely extensive and utterly boring haemonculus melee weapon gear list. Here's the rules in all their glory:

Haemonculus Tools: Strength user, AP0, Damage 1, Poison
Scissorhand: Strength user, Ap-1, damage 1, Poison, Chainsword bonus attack rule.
Venom Blade: Strength user, Ap0, Damage 1, Poison, but on a 2+!
Mindphase Gauntlet: Strength User, Ap0, Damage 2
Agonizer: Strength user, Ap-2, damage 1, Poison
Electrocorrosive Whip: Strength user, Ap-2, Damage 2, Poison
Flesh Gauntlet: Strength User, Ap0, Damage1, Mortal wound on a 6 to wound (Wow, so innovative and different!)

Has to be the most utterly yawn-inducing weapon list in the entire game. Seems like absolutely everything fills the exact same role of anti-infantry, there is a very clear and obvious best choice (EC Whip). Almost all of them are poison, and the ones that arent are both S3 AP- noodleslappers.

Plastic bits for every single one of these weapons exist, and exactly 2 models have access to them so it's not like this is a situation where they have to be particularly careful. Could they not have made one of them an anti-tank option?

Ugh, tell me about it. I'm glad I'm not the only one who's bothered by this.

The lack of creativity (not to mention diversity) just beggars belief.

They might as well have just made a single statline for Haemonculus Tools and filed everything under that. About the same level of effort but at least it would be honest about it.

**Grimskul**

vipoid wrote:
the_scotsman wrote:

My favorite is the insanely extensive and utterly boring haemonculus melee weapon gear list. Here's the rules in all their glory:

Haemonculus Tools: Strength user, AP0, Damage 1, Poison
Scissorhand: Strength user, Ap-1, damage 1, Poison, Chainsword bonus attack rule.
Venom Blade: Strength user, Ap0, Damage 1, Poison, but on a 2+!
Mindphase Gauntlet: Strength User, Ap0, Damage 2
Agonizer: Strength user, Ap-2, damage 1, Poison
Electrocorrosive Whip: Strength user, Ap-2, Damage 2, Poison
Flesh Gauntlet: Strength User, Ap0, Damage1, Mortal wound on a 6 to wound (Wow, so innovative and different!)

Has to be the most utterly yawn-inducing weapon list in the entire game. Seems like absolutely everything fills the exact same role of anti-infantry, there is a very clear and obvious best choice (EC Whip). Almost all of them are poison, and the ones that arent are both S3 AP- noodleslappers.

Plastic bits for every single one of these weapons exist, and exactly 2 models have access to them so it's not like this is a situation where they have to be particularly careful. Could they not have made one of them an anti-tank option?

Ugh, tell me about it. I'm glad I'm not the only one who's bothered by this.

The lack of creativity (not to mention diversity) just beggars belief.

They might as well have just made a single statline for Haemonculus Tools and filed everything under that. About the same level of effort but at least it would be honest about it.

Unfortunately, unless its under the SM brand of Nuweaponry under Cawl and friends, GW doesn't seem to care about giving enough thought or actual flavour to most rules given to Xenos armies.

**BrianDavion**

ZergSmasher wrote:
The Penitent Engine.

Because nothing says "Grimdark" like strapping a prisoner to a torture rack and then strapping THAT to a walking murder machine!

the sisters of battle of a lot of absolutely mental things now that I think of it.

**Skullhammer**

Hellions what's not to like about a bunch of drugged up juves on bladed antigrav sky(surf) boards wielding double ended axes, wearing not a lot of clothes, the idea is soooo good (just dont look at current the rules).

**Nerak**

I always found the drop pod pretty frakking mental. Get launched from a space ship. Enter combat by breaking the atmosphere and smashing into enemy lines at extreme speeds, often into close to impossible odds.

Other then that... I'd say greater daemons, specifically the bloodthirstier. Few things tell you how frakked you are more then 10 metres of monster litteraly made of hate.

**Insectum7**

Caestus Assault Ram. A plane intended to crash into things. . . repeatedly.

**TangoTwoBravo**

There is lots of mental stuff out there, but for me its the basic Space Marine Dreadnought. A critically wounded warrior entombed alive in a metal case for eternity. Kind of terrifying to think about!

**Nevelon**

Nerak wrote:I always found the drop pod pretty frakking mental. Get launched from a space ship. Enter combat by breaking the atmosphere and smashing into enemy lines at extreme speeds, often into close to impossible odds.

Insectum7 wrote:Caestus Assault Ram. A plane intended to crash into things. . . repeatedly.

To combine these two: Boarding Torpedoes.

You and your squad load up into a tube with a rocket on the back, fly through a contested space battle to hopefully connect with your target (avoiding point defense, interceptions, debris, etc). Then you fight your way to the bridge/engines/heart of your target in bitter close combat against a ship of foes.

All the crazy of the Caestus, with the disposable, fire and forget nature of a drop pod.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

TangoTwoBravo wrote:
There is lots of mental stuff out there, but for me its the basic Space Marine Dreadnought. A critically wounded warrior entombed alive in a metal case for eternity. Kind of terrifying to think about!

Counter Point.

Astartes are made for War. They love a good scrap.

Being in a Dreadnought sarcophagus includes lengthy naps (years, decades even) in between engagements.

That’s.......that’s like me being allowed to nap all day, except when it’s time to go see my mates in the pub. That’s....pretty cool

**Inquisitor Lord Katherine**

Nerak wrote:
I always found the drop pod pretty frakking mental. Get launched from a space ship. Enter combat by breaking the atmosphere and smashing into enemy lines at extreme speeds, often into close to impossible odds.

Other then that... I'd say greater daemons, specifically the bloodthirstier. Few things tell you how frakked you are more then 10 metres of monster litteraly made of hate.

The drop pod has retro rockets that brake the entry vehicle to a survivable landing speed before impact, so it's not impacting at terminal velocity. It's still fast enough to mess up an unarmored individual, but that's also more because the Imperium doesn't see the need to slow it down any more than necessary and non space marines aren't using it, so it only needs to be survivable enough for a Space Marine. They could slow it down more if they were inclined to, though, some of the FW "obsolete/prototype/old variant" ones have landing legs, and even can completely brake, hover, and fly around again. [Of course, it's not like being on top of a rocket is a smooth ride. Astronauts experience a lot of rattling and acceleration.]

Of some note, it doesn't seem to be sealed or heat-shielded, which may be a greater concern for the passengers than the impact. Re-entry thermodynamics are pretty intense. It could have a jettisoned ablator to protect that rocket motor array on the bottom of it.

**TangoTwoBravo**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
TangoTwoBravo wrote:
There is lots of mental stuff out there, but for me its the basic Space Marine Dreadnought. A critically wounded warrior entombed alive in a metal case for eternity. Kind of terrifying to think about!

Counter Point.

Astartes are made for War. They love a good scrap.

Being in a Dreadnought sarcophagus includes lengthy naps (years, decades even) in between engagements.

That’s.......that’s like me being allowed to nap all day, except when it’s time to go see my mates in the pub. That’s....pretty cool

True - but I'd rather ride a Boarding Torpedo than be entombed inside a Dreadnought! How do you scratch?

**Matt Swain**

Ork shokka dragstas. You have an armored and armed race car with a starship drive attached. Plus the whole "Let's face it, whetha da jumpa works or not, yer goin' throo dat wall." mentality.

The tyranid deathspitter. The description mentions the 'firing colon". This thing has a firing colon for a barrel. So when you get taken out by it you are literally being killed by an

hole.

Some slaanesh stuff.. No, I won't go there.

**Amishprn86**

Nightlord1987 wrote:
The Doom of Malantai was pretty damn annoying.

I remember a game where I allowed my opponent to bring him, even though this was 7th edition.

I regretted it.

I really miss that unit so badly

**some bloke**

Just remembered another one - daemonically possessed transports for chaos.

They ignored shaken and stunned results (hooray!) but they had a 1/6 chance of eating someone who was in the transport (less hooray!).
It was also randomly selected, so Abaddon could have been in the landraider with hit terminators, then crunch-crunch nom-nom no more abaddon, with the same chances as rolling a double 1 on 2D6!

**Vaktathi**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
How do?

So as you’re probably aware, 40k is pretty mental.

It’s not quite sci fi, but more sci fi than sci fantasy. It’s a glorious messy mash up of so many tropes and influences it kinda stands on its own as an audacious original.

And with that comes some properly ‘wtf’ units. Given such things are highly subjective, I’m not going to set any rules or limitations here. Your take is different from my take, and long may that be the case. I say this now, and clearly, because of course I’m going to offer my own suggestion first. I am your host, and it would be rude for me not to. Just please don’t feel this thread is about one upping the previous poster.

For me? It’s Imperial Guard Rough Riders.

Oh glorious anachronism! Barely trained men upon basic Horsies, but with surprisingly high tech exploding lances! Streaking as fast as they can across the field to make their prey explode upon the tip of their lance!

You can keep your bike mounted conversions (no, really, keep them, they look ace!), I’ll stick to the original ‘Dave & Dobbin’ take. Not only are they clearly nonsense for that point of the future, but they also hark back to the true inspiration of the Imperial Guard -WW1. The ‘not quite sure what’s so’ Great ‘about it’ War. The last time we saw Cavalry charges attempted as an actual ‘well surely this’ll work as well as it did for the past few hundred years’ tactic.

Yeah. Of course that didn’t pan out. Warfare had moved on. But man, that is so 40k. And I do miss them. If only as a non-Guard player for the simple joy of taking out a surprisingly hitty unit with relatively little effort.

Now, remember the Rough Riders are simply my pick/opinion, not a benchmark. You do you and weigh in with your own pick

Just remember to sell it in an amusing way!

40k is absolutely more Fantasy than anything else, all plastered over with a retro-gothic-SciFi/Industrial texture pack. Rough Riders are actually one of the things that bothered me so much in fundamental concept I could never field them. In time however, I got mostly over it (even if I felt it again at the sight of the new AdMech cavalry), helped by the actually pretty fantastic WW1 inspired Death Korp riders that Forgeworld did that grounded them in enough reality to kinda work (and background acknowledging they died in insane numbers).

Beyond that, lots of great suggestions in this thread already, it's hard to pick just one, the Shokk Attack gun sticks out, Pentitent Engines, Harlequins in general, the simple concept of daemons with swords fighting tanks, armies of men reduced to dust in their armor by the spells of their comrades and made to fight as animated golems, Goff Rockers, Wazzdakka Gutsmek defeating a titan by flying a motorcycle through its face and onto the command deck or the Warboss who goes back in time through the Warp and kills himself so he can have two of his favorite weapon, etc

**Conservative Heretic**

How about Obliterators and Mutilators?

**Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl**

I liked obliterators better when they were more Tetsuo less super-terminator.
I mean, obliterators are obviously the result of someone at GW seeing Tetsuo and saying "Hey we need this in 40k" right?

the_scotsman wrote:
my personal favorite has to be the descriptions of what dark eldar and harlequin weapons do to their targets, and how utterly, fantastically, AMAZINGLY boring they are on the table top.

Harlequin's Kiss lore: A hollow needle the user punctures through the armor of its victim, then uncoils a monomolecular spring inside them turning them to goop inside their armor.

rules: +1s, -1AP, d3 damage.

Harlequin's Caress Lore: Projects a phase-shifting aura around just the hand of the user, allowing them on a perfect strike to reach inside the chest of their victims and pluck out their heart or other suitable organs

rules: +2S, -2AP, 1 damage.

Neuro Disruptor: Fires a beam of destructive thought through specially crafted crystals that leaves the body unharmed but destroys the brainwaves of the target, causing foes to slump to the ground apparently unharmed but totally deceased.

rules: S4, Ap-3, D3 damage.

Star Bolas: Plasma detonation charges designed to be thrown in a whirling arc to wrap around the legs of the victim and bisect them.

rules: d3 shots, S6, Ap-3, d1. Also,in a stunning display of "GW doesn't know how their own rules work" this is a weapon designed to be equippable by the entire squad of jetbikes, and it has the Grenade type, meaning if you take it only one model in the squad can use it. Hurp madurp.

Drukhari Huskblade: a spirit-leeching sword that drains the vitality from enemies it strikes, turning slain victims into crumbling ash and restoring youth to the Archon that wields the weapon

rules: +1s, -2AP, d3 damage.

Monoscythe Missile: a devastating bomb that could be capable of deleting whole chunks of reality, but the cruel dark eldar have reconfigured it with a containment field to ensure that its horrific explosion occurs only in two dimensions. Pilots time the explosions with precise accuracy to attempt to perfectly decapitate as many opposing combatants as they can.

rules: S6, Ap0, D2.

Hexrifle: a repurposing of a devastating "glass plague" that ripped through Comorragh, hexrifles crystallize the flesh of their targets, turning the dead into macabre statues of transparent glass, twisted into expressions of tortured pain.

rules: S4, Ap-1, d1. A completely normal, regular-ass sniper rifle.

Yeah that's just... sad.

**Conservative Heretic**

TangoTwoBravo wrote:
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
TangoTwoBravo wrote:
There is lots of mental stuff out there, but for me its the basic Space Marine Dreadnought. A critically wounded warrior entombed alive in a metal case for eternity. Kind of terrifying to think about!

Counter Point.

Astartes are made for War. They love a good scrap.

Being in a Dreadnought sarcophagus includes lengthy naps (years, decades even) in between engagements.

That’s.......that’s like me being allowed to nap all day, except when it’s time to go see my mates in the pub. That’s....pretty cool

True - but I'd rather ride a Boarding Torpedo than be entombed inside a Dreadnought! How do you scratch?

I also agree with you on that point, especially if your chapter goes renegade. Cuz then there's a chance that you could become a Helbrute.

**The Newman**

stroller wrote:
Going back a bit... original (I think!) Necron Scarabs.

If I remember rightly, effectively large template suicide bombers. Low points cost, and lots of damage. Probably OP at the time, when the options were Lord, Warrior, Immortal, Scarab, Destroyer.

What I remember about those [censored] things was they moved as fast as bikes and if they got too close all your gear stopped working.

**locarno24**

In my case, Old Zogwort.
Psychic attacks were one thing but "okay, your super-invincible character is now a squig" was just comedy gold.

A friend of mine had a selection of converted squigs for the special characters of his regular opponents (squig with huge topknot for abbadon, metallic gold squig for Dante, and so on).

**A.T.**

I remember the 3e solitaire having no less than 12 attacks on the charge, at weapon skill 8, initiative 8, etc
After winning an assault the solitaire would advance 3d6" on their opponents, who could only fall back 1d6" after failing their leadership test on 3d6 with a -1 Ld penalty (before wounds were factored in)

Before they were errated they were also wounding on 2+ (with instant death on 6s) and ignoring armour saves, to go along with their 12" charge, fleet, and move through cover. Definitely a unit you wanted to go out of your way to shoot before it got stuck in.

The Newman wrote:
What I remember about those [censored] things was they moved as fast as bikes and if they got too close all your gear stopped working.

The 3e (pre codex) scarabs were the bombers.
The 2e ones were move 16 and toughness 8 (as well as a 2+ save) and stopped all of your stuff from working, including your close combat weapons. If they assaulted you and you didn't have a natural strength of at least 5 then you couldn't win, ever.

**Nazrak**

IGtR= wrote:
Those old orks were really crazy and had so much character. Absolutely ludicrous to have a horde army have a number of totally distinct metal models, but props to the mini designers for cranking them out at such a pace!

Apologies for putting my pedant hat on but Orks weren't really a horde army back then. In fact, the whole idea of a 'horde army' didn't really exist, as model counts for most games were much lower – the original Waaagh! Ghazghkull from Ere We Go/WD134 was 2000pts and comprised about 70 infantry models.

On a related note, I miss the Hop Splat Field Gun.

**the_scotsman**

locarno24 wrote:
In my case, Old Zogwort.
Psychic attacks were one thing but "okay, your super-invincible character is now a squig" was just comedy gold.

A friend of mine had a selection of converted squigs for the special characters of his regular opponents (squig with huge topknot for abbadon, metallic gold squig for Dante, and so on).

My personal favorite 40k story is still playing against a powergaming, cheating-with-both-hands grade A jackass back in 5th ed who could not, would not fething believe that Old Zogwart worked like that and Kaldor Draigo was now a squig.

**Insectum7**

the_scotsman wrote:
locarno24 wrote:
In my case, Old Zogwort.
Psychic attacks were one thing but "okay, your super-invincible character is now a squig" was just comedy gold.

A friend of mine had a selection of converted squigs for the special characters of his regular opponents (squig with huge topknot for abbadon, metallic gold squig for Dante, and so on).

My personal favorite 40k story is still playing against a powergaming, cheating-with-both-hands grade A jackass back in 5th ed who could not, would not fething believe that Old Zogwart worked like that and Kaldor Draigo was now a squig.

Ahhh, those are the BEST stories!!

I have one from 4th where I clobbered our local cheater so hard he started throwing dice. I had drawn him into the middle of the board then drove away in Tranports leaving his main assault element and commander isolated. Turned into a turkey shoot and there was nothing he could do. We never saw him again after that game.

**SamusDrake**

Definitely the classic Tyranid Screamer Killer from the 90s.

Remember Father McFeeley's reaction to the girl's head twisting around in Scary Movie 2? Yup, thats every space marine's reaction on the battle field too!

For those marines who survived they were traumatised for life. Remember when Chief Brody finds Tina Wilcox drifting alone in that boat after being attacked by Scarface Jaws in Jaws 2? Thats your space-marine-screamer-killer-surviver right there, discovered by the Chapter Chaplin while locking up the Chapter monastery for the night...

**The Newman**

- 38,000 years from now, 20% of the time modern humans have existed today.
- At least one Great Diaspora.
- At least two catastrophic, galaxy spanning wars.
- 20,000+ years with access to cybernetic augmentation and genetic engineering (probably).
- 38,000 years of potential subtle manipulation by The Ruinous Powers.

And yet, somehow, human soldiers still look like contemporary modern humans. That's about as mental as anything else in this setting.

**PenitentJake**

Noise marines
The genestealer cult limousine

And for a different kind of mental, any single model with a pricetag of $500 CAD

(looking at you Forge World Titans)

**Either/Or**

Nazrak wrote:
IGtR= wrote:
Those old orks were really crazy and had so much character. Absolutely ludicrous to have a horde army have a number of totally distinct metal models, but props to the mini designers for cranking them out at such a pace!

Apologies for putting my pedant hat on but Orks weren't really a horde army back then. In fact, the whole idea of a 'horde army' didn't really exist, as model counts for most games were much lower – the original Waaagh! Ghazghkull from Ere We Go/WD134 was 2000pts and comprised about 70 infantry models.

On a related note, I miss the Hop Splat Field Gun.

Not a horde army by today’s standard, but double or more the number of models in a typical marine army at the time.