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Everywhere I read up on DE tactica it says 'Don't take the hex rifle!' but is it really that bad?

I run a rather shooty (and for now, footlsoggy) dark eldar list and I feel the haemonculi assisting one of my blasterborns or even going with my kabalite gunboat could be pretty sweet. Ofc in the raider the fnp would only be useful in case of blowing up.

But it's a ap.4 sniper with assault 1. Meaning it wounds on a 4+, has a small chance to pick targets in units, rend and pin as well. It's a mobile snipee with better AP and the wielder gives fnp and can carry other nasties as well.
Sure it costs a bit perhaps, but why all the negativity? Am I missing something? Or maybe my list is a bit unorthodox?

Anyone out there that hasfueld tested it who knows more? I'm tempted to just run a barebones haemon with a hex in one of my trueborn units tbh.

I've never used it myself as I do not have a DE army, but the only time I have seen them used is for a backfield small unit of wracks to hold an objective. It wasn't super effective as it is only one shot but it can pick off a couple models here and there.

Seemed to make sense to add it to this unit that was just sitting on an objective.

When I played Dark Eldar, I tried it some. It's one of those things that sounds really nice on paper, but rarely lives up to its cost. Sure, when it works, it works in spectacular fashion, but it lacks the weight of fire or punching power to be a real stalwart for its cost.

Is that to say it is all bad? No, it is worth trying out, but typically I found cheaper options like Liquifer Guns to be better. Plus, as far as where you have him, I would change his location, as you have mixing roles with your guns.

If you want your hexrifle to shoot at something, it means all your blasters have to join it. This means that they might not have range to shoot, but also that the tank and armor busting properties of the blasters are going to waste while your haemonculus plinks away at stuff with his hexrifle.

I usually have 1-2 splinter cannons with them already so he'd really just add to that as they move up to get in blaster range.

Otherwise I can see it lacks a bit of synergy as De doesn't really have any stand back and shoot units. (De sniper scouts please!)

 centuryslayer wrote:
I usually have 1-2 splinter cannons with them already so he'd really just add to that as they move up to get in blaster range.

Otherwise I can see it lacks a bit of synergy as De doesn't really have any stand back and shoot units. (De sniper scouts please!)

As an overall tactic, I'm a little leery on mixing weapons that much. The way I see it, by having a mix of weapons, it means you have a squad that can do two things at 'okay' level instead of being good at one role. Plus, like before, by mixing weapons, it means a chunk of the squad's shooting will always be wasted. Hunting tanks? The cannons are wasted. Hunting infantry? The cannons are outshined.

Yeah I sortof agree but footsloggin blasterborn suffer a bit morewith their range and survivability so they need to hog cover as they move up. S.cannons up front gives them a turn or two of shooting and forcing the enemy closer. And I generally meet very few tanks + I have some dark lances and reavers for armour hunting. The blasters are mostly against meq's/teq's.

But yeah, a single sniper rifle won't do much. But I think it could work in one of my blasterborn. If maybe more for the fnp and giving him something to do before cc, that I'd rather just avoid.

Well, I'd give the hexrifle to a Haemonculus. E.g., he could join an assault based squad like Wyches with haywires in a Raider and stay inside while the Wyches charge.

A friend of mine plays CSM versus a DE player fairly regularly and his opponent plays large foot squads of DE with Hexrifle Haemonculi. He thought they were fairly impressive. I figure that when I do use a Haemonculus I put it in a twenty or so strong foot squad, and having a long ranged assault sniper weapon seems interesting especially on a guy that gives FNP. I'll try it out soon and see.

I often have a heamy with hex rifle in a raider full of warriors. It very rarely does anything, but if he didn't have one he wouldn't shoot anything.
And if it does work, it can take out an important model.

With a kabal+raider you'd have to lose their splinter cannon because the transport cap of 10 models and kabalites need to be 10 to take an s.cannon or dark lance. Otherwise that'd be good.

I feel the hex rifle suffers from the gross price of Haemi ancients. If you could get BS5 relatively cheaply, you might see hexrifles. That 33% chance to miss followed by 50% chance to not wound, followed by armor/cover/LOS just isnt worth it.

a regular haemi is 50 points. That gets you the Haemi with WS4 BS4 W2 A2 AND a pain token
a haemi ancient is 80 points. That gets you the ancient with WS5 BS5 W3 A3 and the pain token
so 30 points for +1WS, BS, W and A.
I dont it being worth that. It is like they scaled up the point value without taking note of the cost of the pain token.

In 3rd, haemi's use to be 35 points. That means the pain token is 15 points(which I think it a little light) but still I dont see adding a better statline doubling their cost. If haemi ancients were 65 points, you might see them.

The BS 5 is really needed for a hexrifle

Paying 30 pts for +1 bs is never worth it. But it would make it better yeah. Or wounding on 3+ because that 50/50 really feels like the biggest flaw tbh.