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What peon unit do you consider the best? Grots? IG infantry? Tau drones? Ripper swarms?


I'd say it could be necron scarabs. (Yeah, big surprise). They wound on a 5+ against anything, they can fly, they are fairly swift and have some other advantages like a spyder being able to replace them and a neat stray that let's them make s suicide bomb attack tat does mortal wounds.

What do you define as "peon" though? Cheap? Weak? Disposable? As having the "Best" of some of those categories is a contradiction.

As for my pick I'd say grots. Despite being one of the weakest units in the game there is a couple of buffs that make them potentially scary.

As I've only really played Orkz, I'll just give my opinion on Grots. Are they the best? I dunno, probably not. But here's the good and the bad about them.

So, Grots are weak. Against pretty much anything, they'll be Wounding on 5+, at best. Whether in CC or at Ranged. And with 12" range, they gotta be dangerously close to the enemy to even target them. They ain't that quick, and cannot use Kultur or Stratagems. They have an extremely poor Leadership, and no access to Mob Rule which Orkz rely on to prevent morale losses

On the other hand, they can act as ablative Wounds for better units with Grot Shields, and because they stop the attack after the Wound phase, they can eat attacks which would deal additional damage from MW or multi-damage, or attacks which would have additional AP on a good Wound roll. Because they're so "worthless", many opponents will feel like they're wasting shots to eliminate a unit of Gretchin, so they can usually move about the board and expect to be unmolested (who really wants to spend 3 or more shots per Gretchin to take out such a wimpy model?). They still have access to DDD, and with their own special ability they get an additional +1 to hit, meaning they can hit at range on a 3 or in CC on a 4, making them one of the most accurate Ork units as well. But, probably most importantly, they're cheap. 3ppm, alongside HQs that generally hover around 120ppm, means it's pretty easy to get atleast 3 Battalions, or even a Brigade and 2 Battalions.

In conclusion, the Gretchin unit is pretty lackluster on it's own, even if you account for its low point cost. However, it has a high utility and because it's so weak, you could get away with things with a Gretchin that most foes wouldn't let you do with another unit.

Scarabs are pretty terrible considering they are not troops. In a cp world the best chaff gives you cp. Having some neat abilities isnt worthwhile if that unit isn't going to be doing the heavy lifting and will often be consigned to backline objective duty. Likewise being cheap in points is worthless if you don't get cp out of them as they functionaly cost more then something that gives you a battalion because of that anyway. The strength of chaff in 8th is measured by both the amount and qaulity of stratagems to whatever they supply it to. Some non troops are powerful at cp generation due to the brigade. My votes are every deamon troop choice, guardsmen, fire warriors, seraphim, rangers

Nurglings
Extremely durable for their costs as nobody wants to waste their high damage weapons on them, generate CP, can claim objectives from turn one and with some common buffs (poxbringer, bilepiper) you have in your army anyway, they can even become dangerous in CC.

Hehe I remember back at the start of 8th when screening was important people thought kroot hounds would catch on. T'au drones are a bit expensive to be "peon", though they do hold a very strong support role.

Nurglings and scarabs sound pretty good. I haven't been able to get daemonettes to work for me. 6ppm for a 5++ isn't strictly better than IG 4+cover for 4ppm and pot shots at 24". Cultists are still ok if buffed to all immaterium but that's a lot of work/pts.

Oh, weren't the brimstone horrors super popular at some point?

It's Infantry Squad clearly and by a country mile.

Easily Guardsmen, they are the most versatile troops in the game, and Move Move Move is hands down one of the best abilities.

cody.d. wrote:
Oh, weren't the brimstone horrors super popular at some point?

They used to have a 4++.

Wichever one I have access to in the army I'm playing.

guardsmen currently with bloat of support for dirt cheap price.

Ignoring that bugbear, Termagants.

Shas'O'Ceris wrote:
Hehe I remember back at the start of 8th when screening was important people thought kroot hounds would catch on.

I must have missed that screening is no longer important.

Back on topic. The IG infantry squad is probably the best overall "peon" unit.

ryuken87 wrote:
Easily Guardsmen, they are the most versatile troops in the game, and Move Move Move is hands down one of the best abilities.

cody.d. wrote:
Oh, weren't the brimstone horrors super popular at some point?

They used to have a 4++.

They’re also 3ppm; 30 of them is 90pts. And that’s almost a battalion (add characters). I don’t know why they aren’t popular STILL!

For me, its Guardians.
Poets and philosophers.

Objectively the best are Infantry Squads. They need to be bumped up to 5ppm at minimum and 6pm to have any semblance of fairness.

A 4ppm unit that can move up to 24" a turn or fire 37 shots is simply too good.

 timetowaste85 wrote:

ryuken87 wrote:

cody.d. wrote:
Oh, weren't the brimstone horrors super popular at some point?

They used to have a 4++.

They’re also 3ppm; 30 of them is 90pts. And that’s almost a battalion (add characters). I don’t know why they aren’t popular STILL!

They still are round my way. For all that they are puny, most of the time I am too busy trying to kill the 3 Daemon princes whilst avoid being drowned in Bloodletters to devote much time to those pesky blighters sitting on my opponent's backfield objectives.

Imperial Guard Infantry squads by a long shot. Versatile, cheap and easy access to buffs.

On the topic of Grotz....well they are cheap....but that is literally the only thing going for them. Realistically, compared to other infantry/troops choices grots either need a significant buff or reduced to 2ppm. They are T2 S2 with a 6+ save and have a pistol as their ONLY choice of weapon. They exist solely to die in droves as grot shields. While it is both entertaining and comical to watch that random SM Player's face as he loses a terminator to grots, it is extremely rare. I take Grots for two purposes and they perform those 2 purposes relatively well. 1: CP generation. It is cheap and easy to get 3 battalion when 6 of those troops choices are costing you 180pts and 2: Grot shields. This was more important when I was using a Loota bomb but since GW in their infinite wisdom decided orkz don't need a solid weapon in the tournament scene i haven't really needed them for that. Grotz suck, but they are cheap and get me the CP i need to make my orkz suck less

I'd say infantry squads. There's really not a job out there that they can't be built to do aside from using psychic abilities I guess. They hold ground, they screen, they shoot, they can even fight in close combat. Heck they're the only troop unit in the game with an indirect fire weapon to my knowledge, and can take anti tank weapons that can kill models more expensive than the whole squad. There's even abilities that let them shoot into combat, fight/shoot twice, buff accuracy, or help with movement.

I can't think of any other troop or chaff unit in the game that comes close to the abilities a guard squad has. Certain ones may get things like pysker powers or flying but still pale in comparison in my opinion.