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What units did you initially look at and think "yeah right. NEXT" but after playtesting or experience realise, "hey, these guys kinda rock".
For me it was Ork deffkoptas. For a good while I couldnt see past
1 str8 at bs2
low # of attacks
pood LD
expensive with buzz saws
get unwieldy in larger units
use up a limited FA slot

But after fielding them in solo or 2 man groups of late, I really like them, especially for line breaker, maelstrom obj games, taking out light armor/tanks and in general being annoying.

You?

For me it was warbuggies. Pretty much a 5pt cheaper version 9f the defkopta, but where they shine is that they are best taken in max squads since they don't worry about leadership. I love these guys and they make a list look like madmax.

Excluding units I passed on, that edition change, not experience made better.

Combi weapon sarges. 10ppm for a single shot? Pass. But since I’ve been using them, I do quite enjoy them.

The SM flyers have also grown on me.

The lowly Armoured Sentinel with heavy flamer for 40 points. Stick it by a unit in your deployment zone that you expect the enemy to go after (like a Manticore or Wyvern battery), and watch your opponent's white-hot tears of rage when they realize that a single AV12 walker can tie up another unit in assault for days.

Chaos Spawn. Recently tried them as a retinue for a Juggerlord. Not totally amazing, but a decent alternative to Flesh Hounds as a unit to put a Khorne Daemonkin Juggerlord or Juggerherald in.

Vindicators. I initially wrote them off because of the paltry side and rear armor, and the short range of the Demolisher, but then I realized that 24" is still a fair distance and the sheer strength of the Demolisher Cannon means that as long as it fires, at worst I trade with the opponent.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Chaos Spawn. Recently tried them as a retinue for a Juggerlord. Not totally amazing, but a decent alternative to Flesh Hounds as a unit to put a Khorne Daemonkin Juggerlord or Juggerherald in.

Yes. The Spawn was garbage in past editions. But now they give good t5/6 Wounds.

Recently Oh have tried the RH Spawns at 55pts for squads of 3. Although they lack upgrades such as marks, they are so cheap. The only limitation is that they belong to RH not CSM.

Most people use them as The purge detachment where you can take 6x3 Spawns as elites

However I prefer to take a regular CAD. Renegade Command Squad, Arch demigogue, covenant of tzeentch's, Mutant Overlord in order to unlock a total of 4 Spawns as troops with obj sec. There is just a tax of 2x10 Mutant Rabbles.

These spawns allow me to quickly capture nearby obj with their 12" move. If they dont get shot dead by Scat Bikes, I can wreck them in combat. The scat bikes melee s3 vs my spawns t5 lets me tarpit them. That wont ever happen when they toss 24 S6 shots at my spawns.

I wish I can take 2 CADs of them so I can have 8 obj sec Spawns.

Harlequin Troupes. I used to think my goal in list building harlequins was to mitigate the crappiness of the troupes, but then I learned just how much rising crescendo with fleet makes their charge range ridiculous, and I could actually keep their transports safe.

Most of mine have been the opposite.

However Winged Hive Tyrants without the lash whip.
They generally suck against inv save units and walkers so they go after the weaker units, so i've found no point in kitting them out and saving the points.

For me, it was the 3.5 Chaos Marines codex. Rubric Marines (and Rubric Terminators) all the way.

Back then Tzeench "sucked". I changed some minds after I used a mono-tzeench build and wiped the floor with a local Deathwing player, the local Tau guy, and the Space Wolf guy.

Back then a squad's sorcerer could take a thrall (weak human wanna-be psychic). If you sacrificed the thrall you could recast a psychic power you all ready casted that turn. A single unit of Rubrics, with the sorcerer and thrall, shot and charged a unit of deathwing terminators in cover. One turn was all it took to wipe them out with minimal return casualties. God I miss Winds of Chaos.

I was more thinking about codex changes. Flayed Ones went from mediocre to terrible to pretty damn awesome.

The Stormsurge. I thought they were going to suck so bad. Boy was I wrong and I love it. The addition of the D missile when we realized it could fire them really boosted up the Tau's position a lot.

Scouts are a big one for me. No Stealth without paying, poor armor, Bolters or sometimes not even Bolters. Screw that noise. It wasn't until I actually started playing tactically (read that as correctly) that I saw what they could do. I still have a hard time including them on principle though.

Scouts with a LSS is one of my favorite cheap units in the marine codex. Give them a combi weapon, zoom were you gotta be and open up/

Originally I looked at the Skyray and went "meh, just another Hammerhead like thing." and then I saw competitive lists including it, which made me do some math and realise it's actually uh-mazing for its points and power.

Crimson Hunters, I could bring 6 more hornets and their 24 of strength 8 AP2 shots, but 6 strength 8 AP2 shots and 6 Lance shots on a platform with Hard to hit, vector dancer and a permanent 4+ (potentially rerollable) cover save is amazing.
After taking out 2 Imperial knights with 3 Hunters I just fell in love with the pilots even with their AV10

 Torus wrote:
Crimson Hunters, I could bring 6 more hornets and their 24 of strength 8 AP2 shots, but 6 strength 8 AP2 shots and 6 Lance shots on a platform with Hard to hit, vector dancer and a permanent 4+ (potentially rerollable) cover save is amazing.
After taking out 2 Imperial knights with 3 Hunters I just fell in love with the pilots even with their AV10

I was worried the first time I flew my CH. AV10, so fragile. But it’s got enough tricks to keep flying, and a good amount of firepower.

Same thoughts when I put my vypers on the table. AV10 open topped. Harsh language can make these guys explode. But a pair of duel cannon ones is not that many points, and puts out a massive amount of dakka. Even though the guys on the other side of the table were saying “we need to kill those now” they made it through the game.

Preatorians with blade and pistol these are my meh to wtf i used some and they can kill anything in the game from armour with entropic to 2+s with rend including gmc's and a s6 pistol is nothing to sneeze at either. Combine that with fearless and jump and t5 thats a lot of pain on a relitivly cheap (pts) elite. Yes i know that wraiths are the prefered cc units but for me my wraiths fail to kill much ever!

 Gamgee wrote:
The Stormsurge. I thought they were going to suck so bad. Boy was I wrong and I love it. The addition of the D missile when we realized it could fire them really boosted up the Tau's position a lot.

Cuz Tau needed a boost.

/sarcasm

I found it with, strangely enough, the Thousand Sons cult marines (when coupled with a rhino acting as a LOS block). They're very situational admittedly but it's what encouraged me to end up collecting them.

I also found gretchin rather good too, I don't have a particular reason for this, just a feeling... and a swarm of the little critters

Leman Russ Exterminator. What I thought at first was a really expensive way of getting 3-4 autocannon shots down the board actually can be fairly decent against medium infantry, light transports and the like. Plus they last a lot longer than autocannon HWS.

5th edition Hydra. While the AM codex Hydra is unarguably a lot worse, I thought the Hydra got it's "AA" exclusively through TL... until I read the FAQ. Then I saw it was Skyfire and Ignores Jink. Much, much better. WARNING, ANECDOTE: Then, turn 1 of some game, I snapshotted + glanced an enemy Triarch Stalker to death for first blood. So many sixes. Wat.

I can second the Exterminator. It did not seem like much but holy hell, I now have two of them and they murder Infantry and APC's. Even tanks if they can get a flanking shot.

Taurox Primes and Mutilators really won me over.

2x Taurox Primes with Krak Missiles have better firepower and more transport than a Leman Russ Exterminator and Chimera for about the same price, but you also get BS4, a Fast platform, potentially twice the Obsec and most importantly redundancy. In terms of durability they are exactly the same against Grav, D, Haywire, assault, and essentially close range Melta, except you can't focus down the more expensive vehicle first and they aren't constrained by protecting their troops (who can all DS). The tracks are horrendously ugly but I've seen some surprisingly good conversions.

Mutilators are just cool, they are a unit that simply makes no sense on paper. But I have really enjoyed seeing them frustrate expectations in the Mutilator thread and slowly emerge as a much more viable unit.

 Wulfmar wrote:
I found it with, strangely enough, the Thousand Sons cult marines (when coupled with a rhino acting as a LOS block). They're very situational admittedly but it's what encouraged me to end up collecting them.

I also found gretchin rather good too, I don't have a particular reason for this, just a feeling... and a swarm of the little critters

Gretchins are scary as all hell XD. They cost next to nothing and are TINY. I don't play orks but a regular opponent does and they're so annoying. What would be open ground for most units, can make gretchin next to invisible. They make perfect objective campers, simply due to not being able to draw line of sight to them. But never mind that, they have killed more than one unit of terminator. Don't ask me me how but for some reason it's like his gretchin have a secret pact with the dice gods. And they kill more by shooting that your average boy squad due to the better BS.

people dismiss the concept of the whirlwind a lot but i use him very often and have enjoyed the results, hes saved countless lives by his ignores cover missiles. hes won me games.

im also rather a fan of scouts with bolters which is quite surprisng when you consider that i dont get the storm speeder

LR Exterminators w/ lascannons <3

Swooping Hawks. I haven't used them much since 3rd when they could take sustained assault, and I didn't really read them too carefully in the current dex.

I mostly use footdar biel tan army so when someone (bharring?) on these forums pointed out that they make a great anti tank unit, I dropped my dragons and serpent for two units and have never looked back. By turn 3 it's rare to see tanks on the table unless my opponent is spamming them for some reason.

Other than that...can't think of the last time it happened. The game is pretty straight forward and I play in a semi competitive meta, so bad units don't work well here. Usually I'm disappointed in a units performance rather than impressed, but I do play Chaos so that's kinda the deal.

Roknar wrote:

 Wulfmar wrote:
I found it with, strangely enough, the Thousand Sons cult marines (when coupled with a rhino acting as a LOS block). They're very situational admittedly but it's what encouraged me to end up collecting them.

I also found gretchin rather good too, I don't have a particular reason for this, just a feeling... and a swarm of the little critters

Gretchins are scary as all hell XD. They cost next to nothing and are TINY. I don't play orks but a regular opponent does and they're so annoying. What would be open ground for most units, can make gretchin next to invisible. They make perfect objective campers, simply due to not being able to draw line of sight to them. But never mind that, they have killed more than one unit of terminator. Don't ask me me how but for some reason it's like his gretchin have a secret pact with the dice gods. And they kill more by shooting that your average boy squad due to the better BS.

I once had a Plague Marine die to Gretchin Overwatch.

GRETCHIN

OVERWATCH.

Papa nurgle punished me for a month by making it impossible for me to get a sick day.

I feel like this will be a post-from-the-future, but I will throw a possible vote at the upcoming Wulfen from the new SW campaign book.

I think "force multiplier" units complicate the usual math-hammer that people use to determine a unit's worth (usually validly), and I feel like people thinking about Wulfen instead of TWC haven't really considered Wulfen AND TWC enough yet.

Thunderfire cannon. I liked the look of the model and thought its rules seemed alright. Each game I have used it in it has performed well above my expectations and got more than its points cost back in enemy casualties. One of the best 100 points in the game. I always take it with my Iron Hands.