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So we all know that we're playing a shooty edition with 7th, but still there are armies than can pull off fairly devastating assaults.

Which army do you think does it best right now, and is that enough in the face of todays Eldar, Tau and Necron firepower?

Personally I think Khorne Demonkin are best equipped to handle todays meta, but that doesn't mean their chance to pull off consistent wins is very good - just that all other options when it comes to assault heavy armies are even worse off right now.

Other armies I'm thinking of might be Tyranids, Orks, Blood Angels, Demons... I'm not familiar with most of them tho.

Thunderwolf Cavalry.

Before anyone else can do it... Blood Angels are worse at assault than Regular Marines are, right now. I've played a stronger Assault focused Ultramarine list, than I could play an assault focused Blood Angels list. :(

I'd say Necrons are probably the strongest assault army right now. Wraiths in particular are just monsters. Having widespread Relentless is pretty good, too, allowing basic infantry to go full bore with shooting, then assault afterwards, with a Character leading the way. The most significant part is that the RP just neutralizes so much that would otherwise be effective.

I've played against Nids lately, and they can be built towards a strong list, despite their negative reputation. It's pretty monobuild, with little guys screening big guys, while Shrouded gives everyone an awesome cover save... and you still need the shooty support elements.

Daemons seem to do well at tourneys, but I haven't played against them, ever.

 Lukash_ wrote:
Thunderwolf Cavalry.

This.

The thunder wolf/ravenwing combo was unstoppable at nova. The combo allowing for excellent saves and the worst CC model in the unit gets 4 str 5 rending attacks on the charge. That's the weakest.

Daemons fell to my equivalent Nid list in a heartbeat. It does have a lot to do with the rolls, and the Daemons had a leg up because of a 5++, but the fact that they weren't putting out MORE strikes on my very shooty Nidzilla puts them about level.

Blood Angels... some units are great in their little combos, but they can't do everything all the time. They really suffer against an aggressive army with Invul saves.

And that aggressive army with Invul saves is Space Wolves. TWC can slaughter everything at any time by taking a DEFENSIVE upgrade. And they just keep coming at a range where I can't even kite them around the table. Logan Grimnar personally killed two Carnifex in two rounds of combat (got slaughtered by Genestealers next turn but whatever) and TWC mow through everything but big tarpit units.

Didn't somebody math-hammer out Decurion Flayed Ones as being able to beat their points equivalent of anything, as long as they could actually wound it?

Daemons, easily.

Mathematically, there simply isn't anything in the game that can defeat a full-sized seeker squad with invisiblity and grimoire support- not without costing at least two or three times as much points.

Psychic powers are the decider that make or break melee units, and Daemons have the most warp charges in the game. They above all other factions can almost assuredly get their preferred powers while reliably shutting down the enemy's.

Imperial Guard obviously.

Fix bayonets men!

The entire "7ed is a shooty edition" is a commonly spouted statement that doesn't actually match the tournament results. Most of the top tournament actually depend heavily on assault to win them games.

TWC + Ravenwing is an extremely good assault army and is definitely close to the top if not the top contender.

Both of those armies individually in fact are extremely good assault armies with TWC being very good and black knight DA armies be amazing assault armies with speed, durability, and good damage output.

Other extremely good assault armies are;
*SM Ravenguard Talon Strike Force; specifically the shadow strike kill team's ability to charge with powerfists and lighting claws out of reserves with a couple of storm shield models in the unit to tank damage is extremely good. Used well this can actually really mess up any enemy.
*Khorne Daemonkin + Chaos Daemon's w/ invisibility and grimoire; this army usually has a bunch of dog and bike units with 1-2 large dog units buffed with the grimoire and/or invisibility. This army works extremely well in objective missions as they are fast and hard to kill.
*Decurion Necrons; Actually both large flayed ones units and wraiths both work extremely well. Necrons deal more damage overall in melee than in shooting IME.
*CWE; seer council/wraithknights. You can mostly fill a FOC with these units and make a very nasty assault army. Not usually playable at many events and probably the most hated army in 7ed.

There are also a bunch of good balanced armies that depend on a combination of assault and shooting; White Scars, Chaos Daemons, Craftworld Eldar, Admech, SM Gladius, etc. All top tier and all tend to see a lot of assault in games.

The base rules certainly favor shooting at every turn. There are specific units that you have listed that abilities that allow them to overcome the base rules.

To see how awful generic assaulting works, look at BA and Orks.

Either KDK or Space Wolves are the best CC army. Wolves for the Thunder Wolf Cavalry

Martel732 wrote:
The base rules certainly favor shooting at every turn. There are specific units that you have listed that abilities that allow them to overcome the base rules.

To see how awful generic assaulting works, look at BA and Orks.

Actually the base rules don't have a clear bias either way. Melee actually has the ability in the base rules to do twice as much damage as ranged in a game due to each player getting to make melee attacks every assault phase. It is the ranges of ranged weapons that gives ranged combat a leg up in practice. Thus why BA are bad at melee and Orks only have 1 good melee build involving bikers.

To be good in melee you need a combination of (in order of importance);
1) movement speed
2) durability
3) cost
4) damage output in melee

Melee is inherently a high-risk high-reward strategy. It has the ability to engage and destroy multiple units in a single phase and has double the potential damage of ranged shooting. However most melee lists depend on getting 2-3 quality charges off and controlling the board to win the game. Thus why I concentrated on the board control units. In all honesty I have made more charges with my SM scouts, bike units, and Spawn units than any three players have made with their Ork greentide or BA Death Company. However I a can assure you that a single charge from my seer council has done more damage and been more important to winning the game than a dozen assault phases with my scouts.

Also I would like to point out that 2-3 units in an army that are good at melee is actually more than BA and Orks have. Note that excluding HQs CWE has 7 melee units in the codex the same as BA which also has 7. I listed the best melee units in the game which is what makes a good melee army. BTW I listed more than 25% of the melee units in each of the best melee armies.

I would think Slaanesh Daemons would have a decent chance. Fast moving, with everything rending.

Orks COULD be decent.

And i absolutely hate playing against Tyranids who have good shooting and CC equally.