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I'm seeing a lot of tournies ensuring people bring at least a brigade or battalion which means a minimum of 3 troop choices.

Just curious what people's opinions of the top 5 troop choices available would be.

Time of madness

Tyranid Genestealers
Guard Conscripts
Khorne Berzerkers

I can't think of any other must have Troops in any Faction but I'm sure I'm forgetting something obvious.

Probably Conscripts, Infantry, Scions, Battle Sisters, and Horrors. Though World Eaters, Orks, Tyranids, Harlequins, and Necrons typically don't feel bad about taking lots of their Troops too.

Dionysodorus wrote:
Probably Conscripts, Infantry, Scions, Battle Sisters, and Horrors. Though World Eaters, Orks, Tyranids, Harlequins, and Necrons typically don't feel bad about taking lots of their Troops too.

Battle Sisters are particularly good are they? I thought they seemed fairly standard. Not bad by any means, but I didn't see anything that stood them apart.

For Orks, the must have troops choice is definitly Boyz. (Also for elites/heavy/flyers... just bring boyz in every slot!)

They're actually pretty good, for the points.

Necron Warriors, Guard conscripts and Tau Fire Warriors.

While possibly not among the very top, noise Marines are pretty solid troops choices as well.

Conscripts and Noise Marines are the best for sitting on objectives, Berzerkers and Genestealers are the best for killing stuff IMO.

This is a good question and I imagine it varies by purpose.

E.G. the best troop for killing a tank (point for point) is probably Battle Sisters with 3 meltagun shots per five models.

The best troop for CQB is Zerkers hands down.

The best troop for objective camping is either Conscripts (if it's close to you), Scouts (if it's in midfield) or Tactical Marines (if it's close to your enemy where the scouts can't be).

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
This is a good question and I imagine it varies by purpose.

E.G. the best troop for killing a tank (point for point) is probably Battle Sisters with 3 meltagun shots per five models.

The best troop for CQB is Zerkers hands down.

The best troop for objective camping is either Conscripts (if it's close to you), Scouts (if it's in midfield) or Tactical Marines (if it's close to your enemy where the scouts can't be).

Tactical marines! LOL

I'm having a lot of luck with my Thousand Sons Rubric Marines. The potential to do 4 mortal wounds a turn is nice. The possibility of having a 2+ save verses a lot of attacks really keeps them alive, and the Inv save really helps a lot. I know some people complain about how much they cost, but they have served me well

Ravingbantha wrote:
I'm having a lot of luck with my Thousand Sons Rubric Marines. The potential to do 4 mortal wounds a turn is nice. The possibility of having a 2+ save verses a lot of attacks really keeps them alive, and the Inv save really helps a lot. I know some people complain about how much they cost, but they have served me well

I personally think once the 1k sunz codex comes out and gives the army a couple buffs, that Rubric Marines will be possibly the best line infantry in the game. Right now they are close but not quite there. They still need some sort of buff or deterant for heavy weapons like heavy grav which turn them into slabs. But against most other weapons, they are like a fething brick wall

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
This is a good question and I imagine it varies by purpose.

E.G. the best troop for killing a tank (point for point) is probably Battle Sisters with 3 meltagun shots per five models.

The best troop for CQB is Zerkers hands down.

The best troop for objective camping is either Conscripts (if it's close to you), Scouts (if it's in midfield) or Tactical Marines (if it's close to your enemy where the scouts can't be).

Tactical marines! LOL

Of course Scouts are the best campers. They must do what they can to earn those Merit Badges

For shooting, Tau Fire Warriors are pretty nasty for their points if they have an Ethereal or Cadre Fireblade buffing them, especially if there are also some markerlights around. Space Marine Intercessors aren't bad but they are expensive. EC Noise Marines also put out the shooting pain pretty well, perhaps better than any of the above. And let's not forget Necron Warriors, who have pretty decent guns and can get back up if their unit isn't completely wiped out.

For close combat, Khorne Berzerkers have no equal. Tyranid Genestealers aren't bad either in this department. Daemonettes and Bloodletters are okay but really too squishy. Ork Boyz get hilarious when buffed by characters (Ghazzy for an extra attack, Big Mek with KFF for a 5++, Painboy for 6+++, etc.), plus they are hard to scare off with the Mob Rule and/or a nearby Warboss.

For objective camping, Space Marine Scouts with Camo Cloaks are pretty sweet. Nurglings are surprisingly good for this as well, as they essentially get a rerollable 5++ against 1-damage weapons. Chaos Cultists can sort of camp objectives since they are at least cheap; same with Brimstone Horrors.

For bubble wrapping, Conscripts are probably the best, with Chaos Cultists, Poxwalkers, and even Plaguebearers (at least in large units) being good for this role. Tyranid Termagants aren't bad for bubble wrapping big monsters either.

Seen Necron Warriors mentioned 3 times. Warriors are at best average.
They don't have access to specials or heavies so their shooting is pants (everyone in the game has the old Gauss rule now - the rule that made up for this lack in the past).
They are very slow and have 1 transport that can't carry them all and 2 'transports' that automatically kill the entire lot in reserve if they are destroyed.
They are too expensive to horde.
They are awful in melee for their points.
The one ability that they pay a ton for that is what people obsess about gets completely cancelled out if they are focused down.

Immortals need T5 back and maybe a point or 2 shaved off.

I'd say that Guard have the best troops - Conscripts and Infantry. The Conscripts are an obvious choice, but I'm surprised at how little love Guard Infantry get. They are amazing! 10 men, Plasma Gun, Plasma Pistol, Lascannon and Vox for 77pts. Repeat 9 times for the troop slots of both a Brigade and Detachment and those 90 well equipped bodies come to less than 700pts. And the opponent has to kill 6 4pt models before they start killing any good stuff.

Ork boyz, since everything else in the codex sucks, with the exception of a few HQs. There are no orks lists without boyz, but that's not because they're great, but because we don't have other viable ways to play them.

As always; it depends on what your intended use and your own personal faction biases.
I would choose Noise Marines as the Best Troops, with errata allowing it now, but luckily they are decent by a lot of additional measuring sticks.

As a rule of thumb I would say any Elite/Heavy/Other that can be chosen as a Troop choice will be better then any default Troop choice that could be chosen. After all, any Unit that has some unique ability or war-gear that makes them more usable on the field are likely to be taking up other slots then Troops. For the longest time the 'best' answers would have been 'the cheapest unit available' because the default troops where noticeably worse then their elite counterparts. Armies that could take their good stuff as 'troops' to begin with where oh so sweet in the past....

Ork boyz are kinda great - especially if you get lucky and your opponent spams high str low shot weapons. They just have serious problems with support in the ork index - especially ranged support. Cause currently best support for boyz are other boyz.

Ravingbantha wrote:
I'm having a lot of luck with my Thousand Sons Rubric Marines. The potential to do 4 mortal wounds a turn is nice. The possibility of having a 2+ save verses a lot of attacks really keeps them alive, and the Inv save really helps a lot. I know some people complain about how much they cost, but they have served me well

Same for me. Either min squads with 2 flamers or a full squad with 2 flamers and soulreapers; always in rhinos rushing down the table. They just pack a mean punch and are durable to boot.

The trick to making rubrics shine is building the army around them by surounding them with a lot of vehicles and other durable units. If everything in your army is durable, you're making your opponent's D1 weapons all but useless and he'll have to spread his nastier guns thin.

Niiru wrote:

Battle Sisters are particularly good are they? I thought they seemed fairly standard. Not bad by any means, but I didn't see anything that stood them apart.

For Orks, the must have troops choice is definitly Boyz. (Also for elites/heavy/flyers... just bring boyz in every slot!)

They're actually pretty good, for the points.

Battle Sisters are just incredibly cheap for what they do. 51 points gets you 5 T3 3+ wounds with 8 bolters' worth of shooting, and that shooting degrades slowly as the unit takes losses. A basic Sister is just better than a standard Marine in every way. She shoots 44% better for her cost. She's 44% more durable in the face of S8+, and is still 8% more durable against S4, only losing out against S3 (where she's only 4% less durable). She's only 27% less efficient in CC against T4, and both the Sister and the Marine only get 1 attack anyway, and their bolt pistols are the same. A Sister with a storm bolter shoots 136% (!) better than a Marine per point (and is still cheaper than the Marine), and Sisters' weapon options make them much better for an anti-infantry role. Of course, you can also give a squad 3 melta guns. And they have a 6++, which becomes a 5++ when near a basically-mandatory HQ choice. And, though you can only do this with a few units per turn at most, they can take a free action at the start of your turn.

I mean, people are talking like Noise Marines are solid choices, and Sisters make them look like crap. 19 points gets you a Noise Marine with 3 S4 shots at 24", while 20 points gets you 2 Sisters (twice as many wounds) with 3 shots at 24". The Noise Marines ignore cover, but the Sisters get double the firepower inside 12", which seems like a much bigger deal. Otherwise, I guess the Noise Marines get to make a single S4 shot when they die? And they're better on the charge, though in a sustained engagement the Sisters' bolt pistols and more wounds make them better in CC.

Eldar Windriders are the best Troop. At least they will be when the codex drops, decreases the ridiculously high points cost of their basic weapon and properly restores them to Troops (at least for <Saim Hann> armies).

But they probably still wont hold a candle to Conscripts & Brimstone horrors in terms of pure irremovable bodies on the field.

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 Galef wrote:
Eldar Windriders are the best Troop. At least they will be when the codex drops, decreases the ridiculously high points cost of their basic weapon and properly restores them to Troops (at least for <Saim Hann> armies).

But they probably still wont hold a candle to Conscripts & Brimstone horrors in terms of pure irremovable bodies on the field.

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Between the changes to their toughness and changes to mobility, mixed with some hold-over hatred for Scatbikes of 7th edition, i've found my Windriders are the very first target any time I field my eldar. No matter what else is on the board. They don't survive for too terribly long, so my typical strategy is to buff them up with Farseer psyker powers, do as much damage as possible, providing ive got first turn. They're not even scatbikes and people go murder-crazy when they're on the board!

I'm not too terribly bothered by Eldar's rather unideal troop options, given their index is still decently strong, and that I can only field at most, two troop choices from my Eldar collection (two five-man squads of Dire Avengers... now those need a change.) and just run the Outrider detatchment.

But on the topic, the best troop choices that I've played with and against seem to be;
Noise Marines. The dakka they've got is impressive, and Music of the Apocalypse is one hell of a drug.
Ork Boyz.
Intercessor Marines. They're hard to shift without multi-damage weapons, and seem to be a pretty good psychological deterrent. For their points, they are very tough to small arms fire.

Poly Ranger wrote:
Seen Necron Warriors mentioned 3 times. Warriors are at best average.
They don't have access to specials or heavies so their shooting is pants (everyone in the game has the old Gauss rule now - the rule that made up for this lack in the past).
They are very slow and have 1 transport that can't carry them all and 2 'transports' that automatically kill the entire lot in reserve if they are destroyed.
They are too expensive to horde.
They are awful in melee for their points.
The one ability that they pay a ton for that is what people obsess about gets completely cancelled out if they are focused down.

Immortals need T5 back and maybe a point or 2 shaved off.

I'd say that Guard have the best troops - Conscripts and Infantry. The Conscripts are an obvious choice, but I'm surprised at how little love Guard Infantry get. They are amazing! 10 men, Plasma Gun, Plasma Pistol, Lascannon and Vox for 77pts. Repeat 9 times for the troop slots of both a Brigade and Detachment and those 90 well equipped bodies come to less than 700pts. And the opponent has to kill 6 4pt models before they start killing any good stuff.

Vox is a ripoff now. Save yourself 45 pts and buy another company commander instead for more orders..

I can't believe people actually think TAC Marines are the best troops.

I would personally say conscripts are the best troops. Being able to get a battalion for under 300 points is really amazing. And, you will have area denial like you cannot believe, and anything you want protected will be protected.

I cannot acquire conscripts fast enough. In my entire 40k lifespan i have only purchased 2 tactical squads. I never play them.

If TAC marines cost 10 points per model, then yeah, they'd be the best troops.

We already have a trend with Conscripts, Battle Sisters, and others.
GK Termies are a troop choice and can be teleported. This makes them very flexible. You can deploy them where they are needed with maximal fire output and minimal return fire. The same holds for Strikes but they are less survivable.

I think necron warriors would rate as good, but best seems a stretch. You get a lot for that 12 points, but they don't have the support options other troop choices have. No rerolling misses, no ignoring morale, and no special weapons. With something like the humble tac marine you are paying for what can be done to help him as opposed to just paying for the unit themselves. That's the problem with these comparisons, units don't exist in a vacuum, and the presence of force multipliers like buffs makes it a very complicated to compare one unit to another from a different army even if they are in a similar role. This was mentioned in the Necrons are OP thread back in the pre launch days, but then people didn't listen then and I'm not hopeful they started even after being proven as wrong as can be.

Conscripts aside, I'm really impressed by fire warriors.

I think Bloodletters are a hidden gem people haven't utilized yet. For 7 points a model, you get a 5++, S5 and 2 attacks on the charge OR when charged, and can be summoned instead of footslogging. They don't have range but with summoning and their good move speed, they are a bargain. Oh and they come with power swords.

Also, I guess Custodes are technically the BEST troop choice. Depends on what everyone's idea of best means.

I think outside of conscripts/scions. Harlequin troopes are the best. All 5 can take Fusion pistols and caress. Damage potential is off the charts. They also have 4++ saves. Making them somewhat resilient for their toughness level.

 Xenomancers wrote:
I think outside of conscripts/scions. Harlequin troopes are the best. All 5 can take Fusion pistols and caress. Damage potential is off the charts. They also have 4++ saves. Making them somewhat resilient for their toughness level.

This...made me laugh. 4++ is great, but on a 1 wound T3 model that costs over 20ppm? Brimstones pull it off because they are so cheap. You can get 6 of them for the cost of 1 Harlie with Fusion Pistol.

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 Galef wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:
I think outside of conscripts/scions. Harlequin troopes are the best. All 5 can take Fusion pistols and caress. Damage potential is off the charts. They also have 4++ saves. Making them somewhat resilient for their toughness level.

This...made me laugh. 4++ is great, but on a 1 wound T3 model that costs over 20ppm? Brimstones pull it off because they are so cheap. You can get 6 of them for the cost of 1 Harlie with Fusion Pistol.

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The reality is you are never shooting at a troope that isn't -1 to wound. I guess I am including that in my ranking them so high.