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How do!

Fancied a chit chat thread for frothing. And as per the title? I want to know what you consider to be the Greatest Unit Ever. Or units, as why restrict folk to a single choice. And I’ll leave the parameters of what makes something Great to you.

I’ll kick off with a bit of a Deep Dive, as not only is it without a specific model, but it’s lesser known, being found in Imperial Armour 13, War Machines of the Lost and the Damned.

It’s…the Ferrum Infernus Chaos Dreadnought

First up, it’s a Dreadnought. And Dreadnought are hella cool, even if their rules aren’t always cool. But of particular interest for this particular entry is that once destroyed, there was a chance of the entombed Marine falling to Spawndom or….ascending to Daemonhood. For a pretty meagre 25 points, you upgraded to Lord of the Long War.

Now not only is that pretty handy during a battle, as you could easily end up with a brand new Daemon Prince ready to kick names. But what a cool concept. We know Chaos Marines hate being interred in Dreadnoughts, to the point it’s even been used as a punishment. But for a veteran of the Heresy, shattered in body to finally ascend? I do declare that is truly Winning At Heresy. It’s super unique and intriguing rule.

Plus it always somewhat reminds me of Pokémon.

Thallaxi for 30k, Kastellan Robots for 40k. I like my big, stompy robo boys. Both of them are just goofy enough, and serious enough, that I can enjoy them in any context.

Grots.

Without them, the WAAGGGGH would not be possible.

Some of my favourite models to paint.

Foolish and absurd, just what I want in every way. Pew, Pew!

Grey Slayers.



These are very thematic, and not in the "wolf wolf wolf" way 40k Space Wolves have become. They come stock with Viking-esque axes and shields. As for options, they have a lot of them - pretty much anything melee is available to them. Just as customizable as the Grey Hunters/Wolf Guard of 40k, the Grey Slayers are a sandbox for customization.

Eldar Jetbikes, in nearly every edition they are the most Eldar things wot ever Eldared, ignore vast chunks of rules and engrumple the enemy with trixing tricks (and the badly thought out metal ones even annoyed their owner)

So not because they are powerful, but because they are Iconic, I'm going to throw down with SoB Seraphim and SoB Repentia.

These two extremes of Sanctified and Excommunicated define the the spectrum for the entire army.

Inquisition Warbands - Back in the days of 3rd and 4th where henchmen came in several flavors and all of them with useless rules but so much character and modeling opportunities! I still make warbands all the time just for the modelling fun.

Thats easy, Movie Marines, its a was 2k point unit of 10 tactical marines.

Flamer hit every model in the unit
Las cannon hit every unit across the table in a line
They all had Tough and str of 6 with 10+ wounds after upgrades (it was stunk doubles lawl)
BS/WS 2+ with some abilities for re-rolls
Re-rolling 3+ armor, or a invul if armor was broke
Bolter was 36" str 6, 4 shots with rending (shuirken rule now)
Pistol was the same but 24"
Storm Bolter is 8 attacks str 6 rending 36"
The ignore all cover for movements, can run and charge (like quins)
When they die they drop grenades (its a str 8 grenade with blast lol)
All has a infiltrate more (start the game mid board)
Combat Squad let them act as all single model units (so you had 10 units).

Oh you can also buy a Rhino that was as tough as a Land raider back then.

So yeah Movie marines are the best unit in the game hahaha

Krieg Grenadiers from back in... early 6th Edition? Either way, they're the models that got to start TT 40k, and they remain amongst my favorite.

When I could make a squad of the little fethers worth about 250 pts, with a Demolition Charge and Meltaguns. Complete with Hellguns that were AP 3, they were great to park near my artillery cannon with a warm welcome to anyone deepstriking close to the guns.

They rarely did much, let alone earned their points back, but that squad did take out a Stompa with two Meltagun shots under the older Apoc rules

The Tactical Squad. The resolute backbone of the Marine army, and the OG core unit of 40k. Flexible, reliable troops capable of operating in any theatre and against any foe.

One of my favorite units is Grot Tanks.

These things catch sooo many players off guard with their combo of BS4, T5, 4W, ramshackle, and a mean AT punch. Plus a LD7.
And you can take them in units of 4-8! For a quite decent price.
Many an Ork player complains about not having enough firepower/AP/being unable to land shots with BS5/morale.
Well then, invest in some Grot Tanks! Or a Grot Mega-Tank.

People unfamiliar with Grots see my Kanz & lay into them. Fine by me.
And then they discover - the hard way - what those comically small tank things can do.....
I mean, I TELL them what they can do. I hand over their stat sheet in the beginning. And both are oft glossed over.
Then when I start shooting them they're all like: "WT*???! From an ork list?"
No. From a GROT list.

Related to my grot tanks are my Grot Mega Tanks.
These things can mount 7(!) AT weapons - all the same or various mixes.
And their BS4 doesn't degrade like your tanks.
7 KMB/etc firing WILL your day up. Even through AoC.

And both types of tanks slot into the list as Fast units leaving both the heavy slots & enough pts open for Kanz or any of a # of various BS4 grot crewed Gunz!

To quote a local Knight player as he realized just how out-gunned he was?
"I've over estimated my odds of success...."
Indeed he had.

I LOVE my grot panzers!

* Oh yeah, did i mention that I can put these things onto a tellyporta pad? Sure, it eats cp.
But dropping a Mega Tank armed with 7 scorchas (and a Shoka Hull) directly into range is great fun!
And then charging something with Ramming Speed....

Hmm. Maybe Dire Avengers?

From the 4th edition codex on, their access to certain exarch wargear and exarch powers meant that you could build the unit to fill a variety of rolls ranging from fire support to tarpit to overly-optimistic character hunters. Their rules haven't always actually made them good at those roles, but you can see what the designers were going for. From 4th (3rd with the craftworlds splat) edition until the latest 9th edition codex did them dirty, they were the only 5 man craftworlder troop unit that actually wanted to be inside a transport. (Rangers have historically wanted to either hold still or infiltrate/outflank/deepstrike.)

They've seldom been overpowered, and I've often found myself thinking the game would be in a good place if all units aimed for the same level of power and rules complexity as the humble dire avengers.

Plus, I've always kind of loved the way their Bladestorm rule worked from the 4th edition codex. Basically, you got an extra shot (3 instead of 2) with all your shuriken catapults on the turn you used Bladestorm, but then you couldn't shoot at all on the following turn. So you actually lost a shot over the course of two turns (3 instead of 4), but you could load up on more offense on the turn that you needed to deliver a critical blow. After seeing all the "shoot more betterer" strats, auras, etc. from 8th and 9th edition, I've found myself wishing the rule swriters would aim for something closer to the old bladestorm: an interesting choice with a significant drawback.

4th Edition Carnifex. Playing around with all the different builds and options and min/maxing was great fun. You basically make any kind of unit you wanted from it.

It’s very silly but I absolutely loved the 4th edition space marine whirlwind. It had a bunch of things going for it. It was indirect so you didn’t need to see your target. You could drop minefields with it instead of firing normally. Which ment a 5” diameter area where every model who passes through took a str 4 hit on a 4+. Its regular ammo caused pinning, which was a -1 leadership test to do absolutely nothing for a turn. How leadership worked was you took a pinning test right after losing a model to a pinning weapon, then at the end of the phase you’d take another leadership test for morale. So it was a great way to force leadership tests on your opponent. Every time a max leadership unit rolled a 9+ that was a key unit that simply did not get to act that turn. It was also quite cheap, 85p If I recall correctly.

There was a lot of fun that could be had with the mines. If you charged into close combat in 4th that ment every other model in a unit needed to move towards you. So let’s say a character charges a unit of twenty Orc boys. Every one of these boys that’ll be able to hit the character would also have to take a mine hit. And those hits would count for leadership penalties and combat scores. It worked very well with MEQs as well. Since even if you lost a fight vs something, if you charged in the middle of your own minefield the enemy would take mine hits both when you charge and when they consolidate after and when they make their regular move. You could also of course do regular mine tactics. Like dropping them where the enemy wants to go or placing them on objectives. They would scatter but still. Minefields remained all game where they landed. IIRC the only thing that could remove a minefield was grietchins.

I always brought one for just how much utility it gave you. And the big blast of str 5 AP 4 was not a bad weapon either, on top of everything else.

2nd Ed shock attack gun. Crazy mechanics and could kill anything in one shot

Kroots.

Check Mate!!

Genestealers (with sweeping advance in 4th? 5th?)

Just iconic perfect mix of model fluff & rules.

Seconding above posters on old Inq warbands and 2nd ed shokk attack gun.

Presently? ... sisters of battle squads simply because i enjoyed bashing a couple of the new kits.

On the Shokk Attak Gun? Got to admit I bloody love the Shokkjump Dragster.

Rules be damned, that is the speediest of Speed Freeks! Plus I like to imagine there has been more than a few Daemons watching the battle for the warp, only to be run over as the buggy does it’s thing.

I will speak my answer in the form of a photograph.

1st edition madboyz or 1st edition shokk attack gun. The most fun units and thus the greatest. Amazing models in their day too.

I think the unit that most caught my imagination is the Crisis Suit unit. Flexible loadout, straightforward but tricksy special rules to help keep their guns singing. Even from the earliest naming the Idea of these heavily armed mecha bouncing in to hot spots to do bad things has stuck with me.

Apart from that, Deathwing Terminators. Terribad rules, but they Definately make my Best Unit list.

Flying hive tyrant:
For huge swathes of 40k, regardless of edition, the flying hive tyrant has been a staple of Tyranids. They have had meta defining lists of 7+ of them to even now they are practically mandatory for a competitive list with their relic bonesword.

Their wargear may change, but they are synonymous to Tyranid lists.

From stories, the best unit in the game should be something eldar. Either that one character harlequin had that was soloing entire armies or a falcon that could take shoting from entire shoting centered armies and suffer no damage. From the two editions I have actualy seen and expirianced, I would say it is a tie between dakka tyrant and a IH chaplain dreadnought as far as power and game impact goes.

I've alsways liked the 2nd edition rules for the Eversor Assassin and the 2nd edtion rules for Jain Zar.

I vaguely remember playing against eldar where Jain Zar used the Silent Death and killed a whole mob of 40 gretchin and made a significant dent in a large mob of my Goffs too in one shooting phase!!

IIRC the Eversor could fight in melee multiple times in a single phase too and work their way large units.

I was on the receiving end of both!!


Edit:
If anyone has the old 2nd ed rules for these units and their wargear I'd appreciate if you could post them!! I'm curious to see the old rules and see how rightly or wrongly I remember them!

Aash wrote:
I've alsways liked the 2nd edition rules for the Eversor Assassin and the 2nd edtion rules for Jain Zar.


Edit:
If anyone has the old 2nd ed rules for these units and their wargear I'd appreciate if you could post them!! I'm curious to see the old rules and see how rightly or wrongly I remember them!

From memory the silent death if it hit could then make another ranged attack against another model within 2" of the one just hit so as long as it stayed in the maximum range could merrily bounce round units like gretchin until everyone was dead if you rolled well enough

I’ve got both rules in full, but am proper winding down for the night. Hopefully I’ll remember and share them tomorrow.

Ok so my first one wasn't serious as Movie Marines are an army not a unit.

For real though 7th Corsairs Prince, literally just build you own what ever you want it to be lol. 2 pages of rules literally.

A long time ago, it was Chaos Terminators. 3-10 dudes, all the equipment could be switched around a ton.

EviscerationPlague wrote:
A long time ago, it was Chaos Terminators. 3-10 dudes, all the equipment could be switched around a ton.

9th take on units upgrades really sucks for the most part... Wyches can't even take a wych weapon in units of 5-9 for some stupid reason even though the kit comes with all the weapons.