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Hi Guys still a relative 40k noob here

Im building up my chaos force and at the moment I have the option to get 2 soulgrinders for pretty cheap, I like them and they are decently painted but I am wondering if they are worth it on the table. Ive seen they aren't bad for their skyfire capabilities daemon wise but anything else I should look for instead perhaps?

Regards a player who looks to all for knowledge haha

Get them.

Soul Grinders are damn cool. Phlegm Bombardment cannons are pretty cool, and so are deep striking Khorne ones.

Skyfire is probably towards the bottom of the list of why they are such a good unit. In other words you wouldn't take a grinder on the basis of providing Skyfire capability, there's almost always a better option to shoot at than something in the air, espcecially if you give them the phlegm blast or the torrent flamer option.

In short though they are excellent units and you should get them.

Ok awesome they are also just giant crab vomiting robot/daemons whats not to like.

Cheap and very difficult to put down with lots of flexibility. Soul Grinders are a great unit.

Also, if they have an alignment you can use icons to deep strike them without scatter. A torrent flamer Soul Grinder appearing suddenly up in your face can be a very scary thing, and they are not bad in CC either. That AV 13 with 5++ isn't too shabby either. All that for less than a Forgefiend.

Yes. Soul Grinders are worth it

Yes.

They're tough. They shrug off 1/3rd of all attacks with their invul save, have lots of hull points, and are immune to S6 attacks.

They're close combat monsters. They have lots of S10 attacks, and are one of the strongest overall melee units for their price.

They have decent ranged shooting. The harvester cannon is mediocre, but their other weapon options are quite powerful.

The Heavy Support is usually pretty open in a Daemons list, so you're not competing for slots.

Cons:
They're kind of slow. Deep Strike is very risky unless you have a unit with an icon of chaos.

I've always wanted to try running a bunch of Grinders alongside a ScreamerStar. You're pretty much always looking for and casting Cursed Earth anyway so a bunch of Grinders (probably Slaanesh) tagging along with 4++ sounds pretty good.

I love Soulgrinders, with a caveat: either take 3, or none.

If you only have one, its prone to taking a ton of enemy fire first turn, getting immobilised or exploded or weapon destroyed, and being useless for the rest of the game. Taking 3 gives some redundancy.

Personal favourite configurations are
- Slaanesh, Baleful Torrent - very fast, and good at taking out pesky stuff n cover.
- Nurgle / Tzeentch, Phlegm - sit at the backfield with cover or Cursed Earth, shrug off most damage, splat rhinos or marine squads.

You could always run plague hulks instead of nurgle grinders, they do almost the same thing, but it saves you 30 points.

 Big Blind Bill wrote:
You could always run plague hulks instead of nurgle grinders, they do almost the same thing, but it saves you 30 points.

The dont have the Harvester Cannon and therefore lack the Skyfire option which kind of sucks honestly. Plus the Phlegm cannon is better than the Hulk's blast. The Hulk is cool though for CSM who dont want Daemon allies.

I run 2-3 with Slaanesh and the torrent flamer, they are super tough and really good for getting right in someone's face. The torrent flamers also help with pesky DE or Eldar vehicles and anything else that loves cover saves.

Deadza wrote:

 Big Blind Bill wrote:
You could always run plague hulks instead of nurgle grinders, they do almost the same thing, but it saves you 30 points.

The dont have the Harvester Cannon and therefore lack the Skyfire option which kind of sucks honestly. Plus the Phlegm cannon is better than the Hulk's blast. The Hulk is cool though for CSM who dont want Daemon allies.

Nobody takes a soulgrinder for anti air. Seriously, a turn spent shooting a flyer is a turn wasted 99% of the time.

The cannon is pretty much the same vs most targets. Phlegm is a bit better vs vehicles and T5+ targets, the cannon is better vs 2+ save units. AP 3 flamer has uses too.

I've played them both, and tbh they play exactly the same, but one is 30 points cheaper.

Thanks so much guys this really helps my cause definitely gonna be rocking these guys on the table soon, was thinking about the nurgle option I really like nurgle and the phlegm vomit idea is cool but I think ill keep open to the flamer sounds cool as well.

Agreed. Phlegm and Nurgle means you can easily get a 3+/2+ cover save, which is hell to hurt.

Torrent is nice, but frankly with Slaanesh the warpsword is just as good. With Daemon of Slaanesh, you have a fleet D6+3" run move - even without deep striking you can cover the board !!!!!ing fast, and with AV13 you're very hard to take down in melee because you can't lose hull points to Guard power fists, krak grenades, etc, etc, and you can ignore scatter lasers and shuriken fire from the front.

It's hard for me to play without 2 soul grinders in my daemon army. They are just super good.

interesting read.

Run deamonkin list myself and took only one Soul Grinder with torrent.

So ideally take as many as i can and deep strike them ?

I would say always include one, they are so so so good

Jonesyjones wrote:
interesting read.

Run deamonkin list myself and took only one Soul Grinder with torrent.

So ideally take as many as i can and deep strike them ?

deep striking grinders are awesome, assuming they're yours.

Will also chime in, use them. They are 100% worth it and Ive only used one a handful of times, He always was a good unit.

Ill make you a small list of nice things, with bad things to follow just for your consideration

PROS

-Soul Grinders 150 points base are more durable than Defilers
-Can be marked to be aligned with Chaos Gods for benefits
-Flexible upgrades
-Army synergies

You can for instance, take a small units of Plague Drones with a banner, run them up the board and then deep strike your Grinder within range of the banner and it will not scatter (If your Grinder is dedicated to Nurgle as well) you will also gain Shrouded which can make for a VERY HARDY Torrenting Flamer platform that can get up to 2+ cover if you put him in a Ruin.

They are great for their prices no matter what you Dedicate them to.

CONS

-Low WS / BS makes them rely on either 1/3 chance scatter Phlegm or utter reliance on Torrent which is situational to Infantry damage.
-Skyfire on a weapon that isn't reliable on a Walker that has low BS
-I3 in CC means although it isn't striking at I1, a simple 100 point Dreadnaught or Thunderhammer / Storm Shield unit of Terminators can kill it without much trouble, again, also due to poor WS

The one thing generally accepted amongst 40k Chaos players is that Daemon Engines suck in CC against other Walkers, or anything that isn't Guard level of poor WS. WS/BS 3 and I3 puts it in limbo where you will often find that it's primary roll of smashing somethings face in (Being that it's sole purpose in life is to do so) it will fall behind and inevitably become a massive point sink unfortunately. I have 3 Defilers with Soul Grinder Tops (Magnetized) I will always choose the Soul Grinder over the Defiler, but not because I think he's any better at performing his job. It's simply because they're cheaper. Performance wise, you'll get your points back, on a good day that is.

Pfffffffff, get 3 you will not regret it


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I got 4


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2 grinders and a knight really confuses a opponent as to what to focus on

I'd say Deep Strike is not an automatic choice for Soul Grinders. Remember, they're AV13/13/12 with a 5++ - they're pretty hardy. You might be better off starting them on the field in order to saturate AV, and help protect Rhinos and/or Monstrous Creatures that would otherwise eat that High Strength/Low AP fire.

Absolutely. Slaanesh with the Baleful Torrent is my preferred loadout for a fast killing machine. Maybe the Warp Sword if you know you need a lot of AP3 (i.e. Marines, Necron Warriors) and the +1 Attack from two Specialist weapons.

The Phlegm Bombardment/Nurgle combo is cool, but I have rarely had it do much damage. It's more just a big target.

If you go with the plegm you want them to be there start of the game, you can drop a whole squad with two grinders first turn or even cripple 2. Personally I put them a good ways apart from each other (usually with a larger threat like a knight coming up the middle) to force them to either pic one or spread themselves thin

I run one in my Khorne Daemonkin army. He usually does pretty good for me with his phlegm bombardment. Just don't get into CC with other walkers/MCs, as they can wreck your Grinder before it can swing.

On a side note, I love the model itself, and I had a lot of fun painting mine.

my tactis suck lol

i took one for the anti flyer aspect

took baleful torrent with the idea of deep striking and terrorising oppents line and being anti flyer.

i got first turn so started him on the board - got taken out by a lot of plasma. (Dark Angel Bikes)

Can somebody recomend tacits / tips on using them correctly?


can somebody advise

I'd say just don't start him on the board. He's not the most mobile guy anyway, so if you're up against plasma and the like he might not make it to where you want him to go.

Another thing to remember about soul grinders is that they add great target saturtation for reasonably cheap. I can deal with autocannons targeting my bloodcrushers and broodthrone/skull cannon, but not lascannons. That's where the grinder comes in. It draws instant death fire very well and because of the inbuilt abilities, you can also be flexible with deep striking options and the like. Remember, you can always deep strike more reliably with musicians rather that just more acurately with banners.