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I like the model for the forgefiend and maulerfiend and have been pouring over information about them, but see few battlereports with them. I was wondering what the good people here at Dakka have to say about them. Personally I see mauler as the superior choice. They are not as competitive as obliterators but I feel the price and speed of the model is justified. They can take a lot of early firepower off of your army and that alone SHOULD warrant the price tag. I am just wondering where the community falls on this issue. I want the model but I do not want another 65$ dust collector such as my defiler.

I've tried the maulerfiend in only two games so far and in each was unable to get it into cc. If you intend to get them into the veil at least two are nessicary or other threats like a winged DP. For 125pts they are a great distraction unit for a deep striking army. It absorbes a ton of fire for cheap. I may proxy a forgefiend this Sunday but as you said oblits are superior.

I just got tabled by a list featuring 2 of these alongside a spawn unit, 2 DP's and a unit of Fiends of Slaanesh. The pressure in turn 2 was too much for me to deal with.
I would say that the maulerfiend is very competitive and when used in synergy with soporific musk and attaching lasher tendrils they become a very serious threat.

Thanks for the information of actual play testing. I am glad to see they have been useful and my guess is once the new Eldar come out we may see an increase in their usage. I am guessing they will have some very nice tanks and maulers may be good at engaging them quickly or forcing them to take them out instead of oblits. I plan on using a lot of firepower in my list and then a unit of bikes and a maulerfiend or two to make them choose which to take care of first. As much as I like the forgefiends looks I just don't see it being worth it. Lastly, why lash tendrils I really didn't see them as all that useful? My thoughts were to keep cheap as most likely it will get the firepower.

I prefer cutters as they are cheaper and reinforce the basic goal of the mauler which is to kill high value armor. It also has some value fighting high inv save units like wraiths who might save the power fists attacks.

I have played the maulerfiends a number of times and they just fall short every time.

The problem is the standard problem all H2H vehicles have. A roll of imobilized or dead means it is out of the game, and those rolls pop up at the most inconvient times.

In 8+ games running 2-3 maulers (along with other similar threats such as spawn, princes, or lords, they made combat a total of twice. They were useful in the game once. They are just to easy to kill off and the units you want them to kill will die quicker and easier to other units in the chaos codes, it is the codes of killy H2H guys after all. If you want something of that nature take greater daemons or daemon allies with other flying monsters.

I run one religiously and love it. I don't depend on it to do much except to charge ahead & distract my opponent's shooting. It allows my Vindicator & other high AV targets to live that much longer. I usually just try to tie up a unit long enough for my Lord to saunter over and Mace 'em.

But on the other hand, I've faced others who depend on the Maulerfiend to take down armor. But a good player will use armor as bait & then punk the Mauler with melta.

Once I played one guy who ran 3. I got lucky & killed 2 right off. He had nothing left after that. So all in all, I think the Maulerfiend is a good unit, but no centerpiece. It is fun because it can move so fast & get stuck in by turn 1 or 2.

Maulerfiends are great I run 3 pretty much in all my 1500 point plus lists. They are cheap and really durable when taken in numbers with other fast threats in the list. They serve two purposes, they can smash armour or they can tie up large troop units preventing them from scoring. They also are really good at absorbing overwatch. You will have games where they don't do anything other than die but I haven't had a game where that has happened and my demon prince didn't murder my opponent.

Pony_law wrote:
Maulerfiends are great I run 3 pretty much in all my 1500 point plus lists. They are cheap and really durable when taken in numbers with other fast threats in the list. They serve two purposes, they can smash armour or they can tie up large troop units preventing them from scoring. They also are really good at absorbing overwatch. You will have games where they don't do anything other than die but I haven't had a game where that has happened and my demon prince didn't murder my opponent.

In smaller pt games such as at the 1500 pt level, three Maulerfiends are hard to deal with. Things change when you play at the 2000 pt level. One player here has 3 Maulerfiends and 3 Helldrakes. Pretty scary, but he still didn't win our last RTT with them (Necrons won).

So are they worth the investment? I was only planning on one if I did run one, more as bait like I said than expecting pure carnage. Cypher when you used them and they died a lot did it work to your advantage by taking the heat off the rest of your army or no?

There is not much to obey if you field Maulerfiends. If the enemy goes first, deploy them to minimize incoming fire. Then at your turn unleash them at max speed.

I played with 2 of them (proxied defilers) for several games, and my opponents were always surprised by how fast they were. If there's 4+ cover in midfield they have the speed to get there and then your opponent has to weigh to odds of 50/50 cover save vs. leaving it alone and letting it get the charge turn 2.

It's also a BIG model, good for blocking LOS and giving cover to Rhinos and the like.

They definitely have a role in a fast, agressive army with lots of calvary/beasts/jump troops/transports.

I run 2 maulerfiends in my khorne list, they are great at adding lots of turn 2 pressure and are actually quite survivable thanks to thier 5++ and ability to regenerate hull points. I use lasher tendrils and then dual charge a prince and mauler. Throw the mauler in first so the enemy wraps around it then charge the Dp into the side of them. This is one of the best ways to wipe out things like mega nobs, terminators, grey knights etc because the lasher tendrils severely reduce the enemy's ability to fight back and the combined attack of a Dp and mauler should be plenty to destroy most things. but in general if you run a mauler straight at your opponent it will soak up a lot of fire and still probably earn its points back in kills. Love em!

I like them for their cheap points and incredible speed. I take two along with two other fast moving assault units in an army with 6 rolls on the Telepathy chart.

Hell hath no fury like an invisible Maulerfiend.