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Hey guys, I'm returning to the game after quite a hiatus and was wondering if it's still necessary to run every unit in a transport as was the case back at the end of 5th?

This very much depends on your army, but overall transports are far less survivable than they used to be.

The general consensus is that Rhinos (and variants) are now simply death-traps, being almost guaranteed to give up First Blood to the enemy and preventing any kind of a charge until turn 3 at the earliest. There are exceptions and some people still feel they have their uses though. Land Raiders are still super-tough but also still super-expensive - their usage is relatively unchanged from 5th edition.

For Tau Devilfish can still work - but the amount of firepower Tau can put out is now so huge they don't need the same kind of mobility they once did. You'll seem them on the field far less frequently.

The Chimera is a special case, being tougher than a rhino, having decent firepower of its own, and having enough fire points to act as a bunker. They're not a must-take requirement, but at the same time a Guard mechanised infantry list is still almost as effective as it once was.

Orks and Necrons can still use their vehicles effectively if playing a vehicle list, but that's not the only build available to them.

DE are pretty much unchanged - transports are usually a core part of their strategy.

The one army where transports have gone from a 'meh' to 'must have' is Eldar. Wave Serpents are now the toughest battle tanks in the game - Eldar players are acquiring them at a furious rate, and it's not uncommon to see netlists that spam six or seven of them.


Overall though, you're now far less likely to see transports on the field (mostly due to the prevalence of marine armies), and they're generally waeker, less reliable and less useful than they once were (the WS being the exception that proves the rule).

Mech lists are still stronger than foot lists, and have gotten much stronger than foot lists in the process.

The only real exception to this is armies that can throw down lots of good monstrous creatures.

Yes there is tau and demons and tyranid (who throw down MCs), but then there is GK (mech hench lists) Guard (mechvets), Orks (battlewagons+bikes), Eldar (serpent spam), Dark Eldar (raider spam), necron (flying bakery) etc. where the strongest lists are all mech based.

Transports were overall helped by the changes to 6th ed, while foot lists, especially hordes, got shellacked. Unless you've got some special form of being extra-durable (like nob bikers, MCs, etc.) you'll be doing better with vehicles.

The simple answer is no.

The longer answer is that it is incredibly army and list dependent and a blanket statement is false more often than true.

For a reference the top tables at two GTs in the last month featured a ravenguard in rhinos (won darkstar), white scars bike (2nd LVO), foot IG w/ lots of artillery (top 8 LVO), and CWE mix mech and jet seer council (won LVO). It should be noted though that all these lists had non mech and mech components.

It isn't strictly necessary. I've seen foot lists win, even competitively. That being said, I tend to default back to putting everything in transports, which is still a perfectly viable strategy (and since it's one I'm more experienced/comfortable with, it's one that is more powerful for me).

 Hedgehog wrote:
This very much depends on your army, but overall transports are far less survivable than they used to be.

The general consensus is that Rhinos (and variants) are now simply death-traps, being almost guaranteed to give up First Blood to the enemy and preventing any kind of a charge until turn 3 at the earliest. There are exceptions and some people still feel they have their uses though. Land Raiders are still super-tough but also still super-expensive - their usage is relatively unchanged from 5th edition.

For Tau Devilfish can still work - but the amount of firepower Tau can put out is now so huge they don't need the same kind of mobility they once did. You'll seem them on the field far less frequently.

The Chimera is a special case, being tougher than a rhino, having decent firepower of its own, and having enough fire points to act as a bunker. They're not a must-take requirement, but at the same time a Guard mechanised infantry list is still almost as effective as it once was.

Orks and Necrons can still use their vehicles effectively if playing a vehicle list, but that's not the only build available to them.

DE are pretty much unchanged - transports are usually a core part of their strategy.

The one army where transports have gone from a 'meh' to 'must have' is Eldar. Wave Serpents are now the toughest battle tanks in the game - Eldar players are acquiring them at a furious rate, and it's not uncommon to see netlists that spam six or seven of them.


Overall though, you're now far less likely to see transports on the field (mostly due to the prevalence of marine armies), and they're generally waeker, less reliable and less useful than they once were (the WS being the exception that proves the rule).

This is generally all correct except.... if you're playing against somebody remotely competent, then they'll probably take First Blood if they go first, Rhinos or not. Devilfish suck.