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Which unit is better?

Reavers: have more specail and heavy weapons; can move up to 36" a turn

Hellions: can kidnap IC's

there is no absolutely better one. they have different purposes and different point costs.

Hellions are a CC unit that can shoot alright. They have paperthin armor and will die very quickly to really anything.

Reavers are a shooting unit that is alright in CC. They are no terminator but they are about as survivable as MeQ and can turbo boost.

With combat drugs hellions become better at what they do best while reavers just get better at their second function.

I dont really like either from a competitive standpoint, but reavers look cooler, so i include them in fun armies.

It depends on the rest of your army. Start with theme, then where you get your AT and then the rest. Get HQ last as the DE HQ's act as suport.

I'll third the "it depends" question. You basically asked, what's better - A Space Marine with a Missile Launcher, or one with a flamer? That's not a functional comparison.

I personally use Reavers more often than Hellions in the lists I build. But that's because I want something to deal with armor and be fast - and that's not what Hellions do.

I'll also add the IC kidnap ability is really not that good. I'd advise against it as a tactic.

I personally don't believe that Reavers ever belong in a competitive list.

However, check Thor665's signature. If there is anyone who could convince me (difficult as it might be) that they don't belong in a competitive setting, he'd be the guy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not singling them out as amazing - but if the choice was "Build a competitive list and use either RJBs or Hellions" I'd use RJBs every time.

Heat lances or blasters?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Cluster caltrops, or nothing (I don't like grav talons, since you pay ten points for a pinning test. Nah)

6 RJB with 2 Heat Lances all the WAY! I have 2 squads of em in my list
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While ill agre they arent all that competative, they do have thier uses.
6 reavers with 2 lances and 2 caltrops can be amusing.

Simply make full use of your movement and bladevanes.
While it wont hack entire units apart, it will do pretty decent damage.

Heatlances also help alot.
due to your movement you will get to see tons of rear armour.
By making use of this you should be able to hunt armour to an ok standard. (they aint no ravs, but if they have to do, they have to do)



Just annoys me there is no special character for RJB's.
Infact, arch's cant even take a RJB or skyboard, which i think is a bit off.

You can't really compare them tbh, they have totally different roles. Despite both taking up Fast Attack slots I really don't see any reason to take Hellions unless you are also taking the Baron (at which point they are pretty damn awesome), which changes them into an fast anti infantry scoring unit (which is totally different to the very fast anti vehicle unit that Reavers are).

The main reason to take Reavers is for the Heat Lances, as they are one of the few places you can get them and probably the best suited to use them. I'm currently using two but if I find I have enough heavy AT (which is unlikely as you can never have too much AT) then they are going to quickly disappear for two units of Beastmasters (4 Razorwings and 5 Khymera cost the exact same).

Hellions should really only be taken with the Baron, at which point they're better than kabbalites at shooting, because they can move 12" and fire 18" with an assault two splinter weapon, and they hit harder than wyches in assault, though they lack their staying power, haywire grenades, and assault grenades (meaning you need either a helliarch with PGL or the Baron in their unit).


I don't see much utility to heat lances though. At 9", it has the same chance to pen AV12 that a meltagun has against AV14. The fact that it makes anything above AV12 into AV12 seems to mitigate that, except AV12 is much more common than AV13 or AV14, so it's like every chimera's turned into a land raider...

The 9" 1/2 range is really nice. Basically they have an effectively range of 21" at 1/2 range since they the jetbikes. Go with either cluster caltrops or heat lances. I prefer the guns since I play against mech a lot.

I would disagree with taking cluster caltrops and the heat lance. The reavers are either anti mech or anti infantry, it is hard to do both in a game. With the heat lance they become a higher priority target than Ravagers once in melta range (greater chance of penetrating hit) so mine usually don't last past turn 2. It is very rare that I get to run over infantry on my way to attack a tank, that's all I'm saying.

I personally don't like Hellions. Yes they are fast and have decent firepower and are decent in assault. But wyches in a raider are just as fast and better in assault, and warriors in a raider are just as fast and better at shooting.

Sir Pseudonymous wrote:Hellions should really only be taken with the Baron, at which point they're better than kabbalites at shooting, because they can move 12" and fire 18" with an assault two splinter weapon, and they hit harder than wyches in assault, though they lack their staying power, haywire grenades, and assault grenades (meaning you need either a helliarch with PGL or the Baron in their unit).

yeah i dont much see the point in hellions without the baron. i see them as a baron upgrade rather than the baron being an upgrade for them. IMHO the baron is a much better unit than hellions.

I am by no means a genius but helions are just amasing.

The threat range is wonderfull (jump troop, and fleet) and if you do not need to runn you can shoot a lott of shots. However, what makes them so cool is that if you start with a big enough cluster of them you can attack things, and then hit and runn around the place. They are good in CC, that is where they want to be. They have a lott of attacks and S4 and a high I. If they do get charged by something to powerfull use hit and runn to runn away. Be shure to have an agoniser in there.

Once you deal with the biggest AOE blast plates you can even charge and glance mech to death. Also if you have baron you can splitt him up and charge two diferent things. Be shure to charge only things that do not want to be in close combat. There biggest streangh is the mobilaty.