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GW has some great fun offering units with statlines that troll us. It's mostly an issue in the DE codex, but it can be seen in some other places as well.

-Lelith Hesperax: A BS of nine on a model with no ranged weapons. None! She could shoot better than Telion, a Vindicare and Marneus Calgar combined, if she had only remembered to bring a slingshot into battle.

-Lady Malys: Female DE HQs apparently don't believe in accessorizing. I mean, she doesn't even have a proper knife and uses a fan instead. Figures she also forgot to pack a gun to go with that BS of 7.

-Daemon Prince: A BS of 5 for a beast that has no natural ranged attacks. Granted, once you get the psyker upgrade a couple of powers will use that stat, but Khorne princes and the old warptime DPS wasted the stat entirely. Got a bit more elevant after the latest round of CSM nerfs, since Lash now needs a BS roll.

-Possessed Chaos Marines: They live up to the MeQ marksmanship standard with their lobster claws, tentacles and general lack of shooty implements!

-Huron Blackheart: In a way, Huron's Lord-worthy BS of 5 is not wasted. He always hits his target if it is in range...like anyone with a template weapon.

-Typhus: Again, BS 5. No bolter. No power that requires a BS roll.

-Lucius the Eternal: Anyone else sense a theme here?

-Chaos Spawn: Nahh, just kidding. They didn't go -that- far.

Serious question now: I wonder if they actually factor those useless atats into figuring out the point cost of the unit or if they just leave it there for the sake of consistency and to get a nice trollface at the end of the day.

Ethereals don't have an option for a shooting weapon yet has a BS

Its for consistency - if they had to man a fixed turret or something.

Genestealers have a 0 BS, but have hands (so could realistically fire a mounted weapon).
Venomthropes have a BS of 4, no hands (just tentacles) and a WS of 3.

So they can shoot better than they can fight, but can never (realistically) shoot a gun.

Better to give the model a stat they won't often use, in the event that a situation arises where they need it, than to not give them a stat and listen to people cry about them being too stupid to include one.

Phototoxin wrote:Its for consistency - if they had to man a fixed turret or something.

Particularly for this reason. My local group play fluff game at times and let anyone man available turrets provided they could be in base contact and didn't move, shoot, psyker that turn.
What would you replace it with? 0? -?
Either way you get complaints but at least in this case, if you ever needed a model's BS, its right there.

Veteran Sergeant wrote:Better to give the model a stat they won't often use, in the event that a situation arises where they need it, than to not give them a stat and listen to people cry about them being too stupid to include one.

Sephyr wrote:-Lelith Hesperax: A BS of nine on a model with no ranged weapons. None! She could shoot better than Telion, a Vindicare and Marneus Calgar combined

You didn't do so well in Math class, did you?

If they have a high BS and no/weak shooting attack, I doubt they paid for it. Demon Princes wouldn't cost any less if they had BS2. Points don't work like that.

Sure Hormagaunts have a BS of 3 too.

And 4th ed Tyrant Gua4th ed broodlord

4th ed Hormagaunts (though they did have higher WS)

And thr Swarmlord even thouvh all his ranged attacks autohit

And the Parasite

Pyrovores with only a template weapon

And Old One Eye.

Man, I wish I enjoyed 5th so much that this was the only thing I could find to complain about...

Sephyr wrote:
GW has some great fun offering units with statlines that troll us. It's mostly an issue in the DE codex, but it can be seen in some other places as well.



-Huron Blackheart: In a way, Huron's Lord-worthy BS of 5 is not wasted. He always hits his target if it is in range...like anyone with a template weapon.

-Typhus: Again, BS 5. No bolter. No power that requires a BS roll.


Serious question now: I wonder if they actually factor those useless atats into figuring out the point cost of the unit or if they just leave it there for the sake of consistency and to get a nice trollface at the end of the day.

Shhhh!!! It will give GW a reason to nerf Huron again. He'll probably be given a comi-flamer hand instead.

Darnath Lysander- Has BS 5 and an awesome rule to engance shooting with Bolt Weapons. No ranged weapon.

Callidus Assassin- BS 8 and a Flamer template