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Hiya,

I've seen from the throne of skulls results that Hellion builds have done pretty well. I was hoping that one of the players that saw them playing or knows the theory could explain what they actually do with the hellions. I've heard that the twenty man unit with the baron see's play but the stealth from the baron is only of use if you have a cover save, as they are on flying bases this is difficult to ensure.

I gather that you can charge turn 2 with them as they are spectacularly fast, but it's hard to hide 20 hellions.. I would run them in a list with raiders and use the raiders to fly escort to provide movable cover at the height needed. Though this is very fragile as raiders are only armour 10 and once it's blown up it's grounded no longer providing cover.

Do people deepstrike with them? If so what would you deepstrike against and what would you keep them on the ground (metaphorically) for.

Finally, what's the rest of the army, I mean 20 hellions + the baron is 425points before upgrades so that's nearly a third of your army and while they undoubtedly rock in close combat.. they seem like they are asking to be flamered.. unless they have a homunculus start with them and give them the pain token but that loses you the option to deepstrike.

Thanks for any help clearing up what this is and if there's a secret with the hellions!

C-Hydra

From what I hear you don't deep strike them and hellions are your troops. You simply just take other stuff like the figher/bomber/ravagers and toss in some extra deadly melee stuff.

I have been trying to use them in smaller squads in smaller games and they really do need to have numbers on their side. 20 is a bit much imo. I think 12+baron is a good number and still leaves points for other things. Sitting on an objective in cover they can take some shots with barons stealth rule. Assaulting into cover they get barons grenades. They capture objectives with baron making them troops. Baron gives them dangerous terrain help. Really they are useless without baron. They are good at harassing, they are no cc or shooting powerhouse. I don't like to fly them up as quickly as possible because they can be an easy target out of cover. If they can get to a forward position in cover they can take alot of shots away from the raiders or other cc transports. If they happen to get assaulted they can hit and run, then the wyches can take over

I would never deepstrike them, if they are in the open for 1 turn they are going to be pounded.

I have heard people using 2 hamenoculus to give the hellions a pain token and the baron one. That is making the unit even more expensive and not worth the investment imo

I play against a guy who likes to use a big unit of Hellions+baron to surround transports. It's pretty scary – you're definitely more cautious because of the threat.

I play against a guy who likes to use a big unit of Hellions+baron to surround transports. It's pretty scary – you're definitely more cautious because of the threat.

This is what I do, and it really annoys people .

I start the Baron with a squad of Wracks so he can steal their token. Hellion squads need at least FnP, it doubles their durability vs non S6/ap2 firepower in cover and gives them a 3+ equivalent in CC. I also start mine with a Haemie so I can get both FnP and FC on them, it makes them (coupled with drugs) very effective at torrenting wounds in CC as well as stunning/wrecking vehicles in multi-assaults (this can really help out vs Mech IG for instance where 20-25 DL simply isn't enough)

A unit of 20 is my favourite, but realistically that's too expensive; I run 17 with the Baron at 1750 and 13 with him at 2k. I have less at 2k so as to fit in 2 Beastmaster units though, so the loss is small. Also, Hit and Run with rerolls is incredible .

I too have heard good things about a large squad of Helions with the baron.

Here's an excellent group of battle reports featuring such a unit; these reports are well worth checking out for their quality and insight into the Helion/Baron-blob:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/380067.page#3039918

You can use them with a Warp Gate thingy. Keep all the Hellions in reserve and give the Gate thingy to a character. First turn, he zooms as far forward as he can in a Venom, gets out and drops the gate.

Hey presto - 20 man Hellion squads emerging from reserve and charging without any time for the enemy to shoot at them...

You can use them with a Warp Gate thingy. Keep all the Hellions in reserve and give the Gate thingy to a character. First turn, he zooms as far forward as he can in a Venom, gets out and drops the gate.

Hey presto - 20 man Hellion squads emerging from reserve and charging without any time for the enemy to shoot at them...

They work quite well outside of WWP builds, they're particularly good at drawing S6-7 firepower that would otherwise be going into your vehicles. Hell with a 3+ cover they don't even care that much unless you force a lot of wounds. They should be in cover at least, provided the DE general is competent.

ArbitorIan wrote:You can use them with a Warp Gate thingy. Keep all the Hellions in reserve and give the Gate thingy to a character. First turn, he zooms as far forward as he can in a Venom, gets out and drops the gate.

Hey presto - 20 man Hellion squads emerging from reserve and charging without any time for the enemy to shoot at them...

yeah,

turn1
Venom placed 12" forward + 12" move + dissembark 2" and place WWP 3" radius.

turn2
Hellions jump 12" Shoot and charge 6" for a total possible distance onto the board of 43"
or hellions jump 12" Run and charge 6" for a total possible distance onto the board of 44-49"

They softened up the target with 2 poisoned assault shots each followed up with 3 str4 attacks on the charge.
with Int6 it can mean death to almost any squad before they get to swing back!

Panic.