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Starting a Catachan army and need to know what you guys think the best units are?

I'm in love with Marbo at the moment but i couldn't say what units are the 'best'. It depends on the situation.

Battle Tanks are a good standard, the Executioner is fun and Vendettas are also pretty good but all units need to have a place in your army to be efective. That's my thoughts anyhow.

Good luck with your new army and happy gaming

Peace Out!
Jonny!

For Catachans? I would think that Sentinels, Hellhounds, and Penal Legions.

Generally though? Manticores, Veterans, and above all: the humble Chimera is easily the best point-for-point model in the codex.

Its hard to define best without a context of the army you want to build. Infantry Platoons are great because they are very economical and can make a sturdy backbone for a horde style army.
For a Mechanized army Vets can put out a lot of firepower. Some people like to have the skimmers while others prefer to use lots of Chimeras.
Most of the units in the codex are pretty decent and can lend synergy to a list. Most of the units can be pretty fun to play as well. With the exception of Tech Marines I think that so long as you are building a list with units to compliment each other you wont have too many issues.

It also depends if you want to have a fluffy army or have a particular style in mind.

Cheers,
~Volkan

My friend is running Sentinels. Hellhounds, Demolishers, and Power Blobs with Straken.

Also Marbro!

Rough riders can be good depending on the list its general but vendettas are great as a standard.

Ogryn can be an interesting, out of the blue choice in an army partially of sloggers. Lots of wounds and toughness, decent staying power with a Commissar, and totally unexpected from time to time.

Im thinking vets or stormtroopers in chimeras, large armour division and then your standard platoons for a fire base

It's IG. Apart from expensive characters what's not to like. As long as the list has some synergy then almost every choice is viable (conscripts and enginseer being the only non HQ, upgrades I haven't even considered to date).

LRMBT. 150 points well spent. That sucker can dish out punishment and take it good and proper.

janjanman20 wrote:Starting a Catachan army and need to know what you guys think the best units are?

Thematically or generally in the Codex?

Thematically: Straken, Marbo, Veteran Squads, Scout Sentinels and Ogryns.

Generally: It is actually easier to list the units that are generally considered sub-optimal or situational than trying to argue
what are the "best". So the "not-quite-so-good" ( in no particular order ): Master of Ordnance, Tech-Priest Enginseer, Ogryns, Ratlings, Mogul Kamir,
Leman Russ Vanguisher, Leman Russ Punisher, Deathstrike Missile Launcher, Nork Deddog, Conspricts.

Just played 3 full squads of Ratlings against footslogging marines and i absolutely murdered him. I find sniper rifles to be very underated, and i slay Wraithlords and Carnificēs with them. Other than them, the Vendetta is great for its points, and the Punisher is logically very good against hordes, but i highly recommend playing it with Knight Commander Pask inside!

Just doing the army because i like the models rather than thematically, whats not to love, hilariously manly guys with big guns!
I love the punisher model and having Pask in it makes it awesome. My one issue with the IG is stuff is expensive (£) wise. I would love to field at least 4 tanks but as a student, i dont really have that much money for them! You guys know any way of making vendettas on the cheap, lots of you recommending them!

CCSs, mechvets, and blobs are the best units in the codex. Until you have sufficient of these, I wouldn't bother thinking about anything else in the codex. The support supports the core, not the other way around.

In terms of point-for-point awesomeness:

1. Vendetta - Thanks to its transport capacity, it's basically good at everything, and is incredibly cheap for its capability.
2. Chimera - Who doesn't want an AV12 transport with 5 fire points and two heavy weapons to boot?
3. Veterans - Customizable to do anything you want. From Meltaguns to Flamers to Demolition Charges, they have the firepower to take on anything. Put them in transports and watch them shine.
4. Manticore - Multiple S10 Large Blasts are useful against pretty much everything. Indirect Fire is icing on your S10 cake.
5. Company Command Squad - See Veterans, only with more Firepower and Orders.

Pretty much everything in the codex is good situationally, but the units above are staples in take-all-comers/tournament lists.

penial legion squad: i have used them recently and have not been disapointed. an 80 point unit with no upgrade, other than some cool random abilities. put them in a chimera with a lord commissar, and it is fun.

Ogryns are always my favorite. just a big brute squad.

Mechanized Plasma Vet Squads (in Chimeras)....when you positively need to kill every Terminator in the room.....accept no substitute. The Gets Hot rule does make it interesting though.

storm troopers are fun too. deep strike w/ re roll, a squad of 5 with 2 flamers is fun.

I get the feeling that ogryns would be awesome, but theyre sooooooo expensive in terms of money, and i get the feeling that to be really effective you need more than just 3 in the army!
Also with the manticore launcher do you guys find the limited ammunition a real issue?

My manticore has yet to ever run out of ammo, it always gets shot up first. People seem to go for it first, ignoring everything else until it is dead.

Trickstick wrote:My manticore has yet to ever run out of ammo, it always gets shot up first. People seem to go for it first, ignoring everything else until it is dead.

Well, at least it's providing a shield for everything else. Nothing wrong with a bit of terror tactics.

Hydra Flak Tank.

Run a squadron of 2 a couple of times, and you will be sold on the little tank that could.

For the same price as a standard leman, you get 8 twin linked long range autocannon shots a turn, 6 heavy bolter shots a turn, and the ability to get cover easier thanks to the squadron rules.

Trickstick wrote:My manticore has yet to ever run out of ammo, it always gets shot up first. People seem to go for it first, ignoring everything else until it is dead.

Do you deploy it out of LOS and rely on barraging firing?

I was actually thinking about doing this and flanking the Manticore with some Mortar HWS. Neither unit has to have LOS so they can hide safely from direct fire. The biggest concern would be outflankers and deepstrikers but thats why the HWS are there, to form a little bubblewrap around the Manticore pushing things out of Melta or assault range.

Its still only theorycrafting but does it make sense?

minigun762 wrote:

Trickstick wrote:My manticore has yet to ever run out of ammo, it always gets shot up first. People seem to go for it first, ignoring everything else until it is dead.

Do you deploy it out of LOS and rely on barraging firing?

I was actually thinking about doing this and flanking the Manticore with some Mortar HWS. Neither unit has to have LOS so they can hide safely from direct fire. The biggest concern would be outflankers and deepstrikers but thats why the HWS are there, to form a little bubblewrap around the Manticore pushing things out of Melta or assault range.

Its still only theorycrafting but does it make sense?

Yup, I sure do. Some of the "deaths" it has had are:

An outflanking Baal taking the weapon off the turn after it rolls into a dawn of war game.
Old grey knights wrecking it with a psycannon and the narrowest of side shots.
A devestator squad unloading on it in cover.
Coming off worse in a manticore duel after 2 shots.
Scouts and Shrike mincing all my forces in a turn. That one hurt.

Most of these it was either out of sight of the main enemy or obscured by the terrain that was there. I'll admit I have made a few mistakes but people will fire their entire army at it sometimes, if they can. Even to the extent of ignoring the many russes and chimeras that are pounding them in the face. Sometimes I wish it was a deathstrike, just to see them panic even more and for the extra side armour.

Volkan wrote:Its hard to define best without a context of the army you want to build. Infantry Platoons are great because they are very economical and can make a sturdy backbone for a horde style army.
For a Mechanized army Vets can put out a lot of firepower. Some people like to have the skimmers while others prefer to use lots of Chimeras.
Most of the units in the codex are pretty decent and can lend synergy to a list. Most of the units can be pretty fun to play as well. With the exception of Tech Marines I think that so long as you are building a list with units to compliment each other you wont have too many issues.

It also depends if you want to have a fluffy army or have a particular style in mind.

Cheers,
~Volkan

I agree with your assessment of the IG platoon....

For me it is simply the best and most flexible choice in ANY codex. The options you can field are a LOT! You want lots of bodies and heavy weapons to build your firebase upon? Then get infantry squads, and if you get a commissar you can blob them out as needed and they become very resilient. You want mech? Mount up the PCS and get SWS units to borrow chimeras from the squads. You want to get in the face of your opponent's zone? Upgrade the platoon to have Capt. Al'R. Long range fire? HWS spam..etc etc etc.

Not only is the platoon fluffy, it is a very powerful choice, especially if you support them with the the whole gamut of units the IG dex can bring. Go hybrid, much more powerful than those cookie cutter mechvet netlists!!

two things:

1. Ogryns are very effective, but, you need to get them too the fight and keep them there. How to solve that problem, put them in a chimera either with a lord commissar or yarrick. that stubborn 10 comes in handy.

2. Hydra flak cannons. i am starting to field two of these in place of a LRBT. same points but alot more shots. now with the prominence of both strom ravens and the DE troop transports getting flat out cover saves, you have to take that away from them. so, hydras are the answer.

Trickstick wrote:

minigun762 wrote:

Trickstick wrote:My manticore has yet to ever run out of ammo, it always gets shot up first. People seem to go for it first, ignoring everything else until it is dead.

Do you deploy it out of LOS and rely on barraging firing?

I was actually thinking about doing this and flanking the Manticore with some Mortar HWS. Neither unit has to have LOS so they can hide safely from direct fire. The biggest concern would be outflankers and deepstrikers but thats why the HWS are there, to form a little bubblewrap around the Manticore pushing things out of Melta or assault range.

Its still only theorycrafting but does it make sense?

Yup, I sure do. Some of the "deaths" it has had are:

An outflanking Baal taking the weapon off the turn after it rolls into a dawn of war game.
Old grey knights wrecking it with a psycannon and the narrowest of side shots.
A devestator squad unloading on it in cover.
Coming off worse in a manticore duel after 2 shots.
Scouts and Shrike mincing all my forces in a turn. That one hurt.

Most of these it was either out of sight of the main enemy or obscured by the terrain that was there. I'll admit I have made a few mistakes but people will fire their entire army at it sometimes, if they can. Even to the extent of ignoring the many russes and chimeras that are pounding them in the face. Sometimes I wish it was a deathstrike, just to see them panic even more and for the extra side armour.

You can play the reserve game too you know...with an astropath in play you can have it come from reserve, as it can fire it's missiles directly on the move.