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I recently played in a tournament with a CSM/Demon army and included a unit of 3 flamers and 2 units of 4 screamers and want feedback as to what people think is the optimal number of flamers or screamers in a unit?

From my games, 3 flamers per unit was sufficient to get the job done but I think a larger unit (maybe 4-5) or multiples of the unit would definitely see a greater impact in the game. I used them to hang back then jump on a target to support my CSM elements before they charged.

Screamers seemed to be big targets and I routinely found myself having the squad whittled down to 1 screamer over the course of the game which that 1 screamer went on to prove useful in taking out other vehicles or charging into a weak scoring unit. I think 3 is too small for screamers but 4-5 might be ideal, what do you guys think?

Flamers - no need to never have less than 9 in a squad, with 3 squads of 9. Double up at 2000+. Those guys *rock*.

 Testify wrote:
Flamers - no need to never have less than 9 in a squad, with 3 squads of 9. Double up at 2000+. Those guys *rock*.

Seriously? Lol, I think that the focus of the army becomes the flamers and becomes prohibitive... What else do you run in your army when you take that many flamers? I try to have Fateweaver/Thousand son theme going and that many flamers is kind of a lot, points wise!

27 flamers is 621. At 1500 that's still enough for Fateweaver, a few flying deamon princes and some horrors. Your opponent can shoot at the flamers with thier re-rollable 5++, or your DPs with re-rollable 4++. Both of them can trash anything in his army (bar flyers), and both are damn difficult to kill.

9?

Is there any other unit size? 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9. 3x9horrors 3x9flamers 3x9 screamers

Sure but that doesn't exactly leave many points for the CSM element I want to include =/. I'm open to anyone else's experiences with new flamers/screamers and what they think the optimal unit size is.

This is the army i am going to try out ... i am not convinced this is going to work out the way i want though ... depends largely on the new codex. If they just add stuff without lowering costs i will have to make alot of changes.


6 Thousand Sons - Inferno Bolts
1 Aspiring Sorcerer - Force Weapon; Doombolt; Inferno Bolts
1 Rhino - Dozer Blade; Twin-Linked Bolter

6 Thousand Sons - Inferno Bolts
1 Aspiring Sorcerer - Force Weapon; Doombolt; Inferno Bolts
1 Rhino - Dozer Blade; Twin-Linked Bolter

2 Chaos Defiler - Battle Cannon; Twin-Linked Heavy Flamer
(One defiler may give up flamer and Auto Cannon for CCW)

1 Daemon Prince - Bolt of Change, Doombolt; Sorcerer; Wings; Close Combat Weapon

1 Fateweaver, Oracle of Tzeentch - sW: Power Weapon; S: Invulnerable!

9 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch - S: Invulnerable!
1 The Changeling

I still need to test screamers more but for flamers I'd say 3 or a lot 9-12. Depending on how you use them. if you are doing a suicide unit you don't want more then 3 or you cant breath with them all. If you are dropping them back then setting it up. you want enough to take some hits then kill most of the target and still be threatening enough they think before charging in.

In my games, the thousand sons and their AP3 bolters were actually pretty nifty. I managed to take out a bunch of purifiers from their shooting and having fateweaver around made sure they survived with their re-rolling saves. I think taking small squads, though, is not the best as in all of my games, the smaller squads died horribly while the larger ones had just enough models to ensure I had a few alive by the end of the game.

The list I took was:

Fateweaver

3 flamers

2X5 horrors with bolt of change (that was a waste of points!)

2X4 screamers

CSM allies:

Slaanesh Lash sorcerer in terminator armor

8 terminators MOT and reaper autocannon
dedicated LR transport (to put thousand sons in)

9 thousand sons, doombolt/meltabomb force axe sorcerer

3 obliterators.

The list functioned pretty well with fateweaver taking a lot of the enemy shooting while the rest of my army walked up and did their stuff....Honestly, I tried being able to have the re-rollable 2+ saves near fateweaver but that was hardly necessary so I might just drop the LR and terminators for more thousand sons.