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See title. They seem to lack the attacks characteristic to be much of a melee unit but their base weapons aren't fantastic either. Then again they are reasonably durable for their points, so as far as I see it squads of seven with two blight launchers and a plasma gun is the most reasonable way to run them.

I go even cheaper. Min 5, with 2 blight launchers. 100 pts.

I think the most efficient shooty way to run them is in units of 5, with either a Plasma Gun and 2 Blight Launchers, or (if you don't have an Arch Contaminator buff) with 3 Plasma Guns. Larger units only seem worthwhile if you are trying to set up a Blight Bombardment.

5 man 2 blight launchers x 5 squads with Arch contaminator Fulgaris helm Lord or Biologus... This is the set up I use.

I’ve also heard the following can work if you can build around it.

20 man, 2 flails, all knives (2 blight launchers isn’t awful either). Advance up behind PBCs and use cloud of flies. Arch contaminator again and whatever psyker casting blades. Biologus to maximise blight grenade stat. Hateful assault with knives and flails makes quite a difference.

8-9 man alternative to above using a Rhino to deliver them and use blight grenade strat.

I like mine in 5 with PG and 2 blight launchers, as Alpha legion supplementing a vanguard.

Do you recon that 2x blight launcher, 2x flail, 4x bubotic axe might work well as a melee squad? Are the flamers ever worth taking?

You're going to need a way to deliver them if you're melee.

The humble rhino, perhaps? Did it get a points drop in CA?

Malefic666 wrote:

I’ve also heard the following can work if you can build around it.

20 man, 2 flails, all knives (2 blight launchers isn’t awful either). Advance up behind PBCs and use cloud of flies. Arch contaminator again and whatever psyker casting blades. Biologus to maximise blight grenade stat. Hateful assault with knives and flails makes quite a difference.

I like the sound of this, what does the rest of this list look like? Do you advance them every turn? I wonder if boltguns can do work here instead of all the knives? Would you use Ahriman and pals for warptime and some smite battery?

 Nithaniel wrote:

Malefic666 wrote:

I’ve also heard the following can work if you can build around it.

20 man, 2 flails, all knives (2 blight launchers isn’t awful either). Advance up behind PBCs and use cloud of flies. Arch contaminator again and whatever psyker casting blades. Biologus to maximise blight grenade stat. Hateful assault with knives and flails makes quite a difference.

I like the sound of this, what does the rest of this list look like? Do you advance them every turn? I wonder if boltguns can do work here instead of all the knives? Would you use Ahriman and pals for warptime and some smite battery?

Dunno about the rest of the list tbh. Personally I’d probably want to advance them behind 3xPBCs and drop cloud of flies every turn. I’d use them to hold the middle of the table, get too close or charge and I’ll use blight bombardment & vets. Arch contaminator Lord or DP makes those plague weapons decent. Honestly though, I almost always run 6x5 man. MSU is just better.

 Nithaniel wrote:

Malefic666 wrote:

I’ve also heard the following can work if you can build around it.

20 man, 2 flails, all knives (2 blight launchers isn’t awful either). Advance up behind PBCs and use cloud of flies. Arch contaminator again and whatever psyker casting blades. Biologus to maximise blight grenade stat. Hateful assault with knives and flails makes quite a difference.

I like the sound of this, what does the rest of this list look like? Do you advance them every turn? I wonder if boltguns can do work here instead of all the knives? Would you use Ahriman and pals for warptime and some smite battery?

There was actually a guy placing at a top table with this. He used all bolt guns and had a psyker buff them with Putrefying Blades before they charged. The key to making this work is having blobs of pox walkers with Typhus support walking in front of them an using cloud of flies on the marines to keep them at full strength as long as possible. Once they get in range you can either use the boltguns with VotLW or a metric ton of grenades to clear out stuff and then charge and deal a bunch of mortal wounds. Just don't go pick fights with units that have a high number of high S/ low AP attacks or models that can turn single attacks into multiple hit rolls like knights, greater daemons or Mortarion.

I actually have a list trying to do this lined up for Sunday, I'll report how it went.