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As the title

Well the main reason is that they simply have no well defining features besides infiltrate. Their shooting weapon is marginal and requires a PT, they have no additional CC abilities, cant take transports, and have no anti tank capabilities whatsoever

The elites of DE already have good choices, namely the incubi who excel at marine killing and the trueborn who can bring a venomload of firepower. Mandrakes just cant compete with them

When considering a unit, always start by considering a reason you need the unit. Then consider their drawbacks. I can't think of a reason to use an elite slot on Mandrakes, personally.

Exactly what Dracos and Kenshin said. Anything Mandrakes can (try!) to do, there are other units than can do it so many times better.

as soon as they show up (with no pain token) bolters will make a huge mess of them and there will be nothing left of them by the time you can assault. thats whats wrong with them

TBH I've done my best to give them a place in my army but I've found that whatever they can do, a different elite can do better, so yeah. the model may be cool but stay away from them when playing games

Unfortunately, they do pretty much stink. However, I experienced a bit of success using them to deny a close infiltration by my kroot merc friend They did nothing but die following that... but at least they did something! If the sergeant at least could have a power weapon, the unit would be much more useful, but otherwise they are severely lacking in killiness.

I would say just use them.

Seconded. If I had more Id use em all, they're sick. Damn being competitive!

well first of all mandrakes aren't a bad unit, they are just not the best choice in the DE codex mainly because you have specialist units for elite choice( trueborn, bloodbrides, Incubi).

Using a mandrake squad is basically like using a squad of chaos daemons with infiltrate instead of deep strike meaning if you do use them you have to place them in just the right place and/or distract your opponent with something bigger so they wont get targeted right away

one way you can use them though is deploy them near enough to shoot an enemy unit(18") then stick a homunculus in a venom and make it go to them on the first turn and they instantly get a pain token thats just something to do for fun though. i dont see it working in a competitive list i would try this tactic in a Webway portal list though since your portal has to be close to the enemy anyway.

They look so good it is a shame not using them.

Ok that all makes sense, they are such nice models though

Mandrakes + Chronos pain engine.

Thoughts?

Well thats a bit of points plus the fact that a pain engine needs to get close to the (assuming infiltrated) mandrakes. Mind as well just use the points to get incubi in a transport or a raider full of wyches