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Not "best" as in most badass in a vacuum, but in terms of cost-effectiveness and spammability, especially relative to the faction's other units. Battleline units that are more than objective holders or a tax. Battleline units that can make up half your points and you'd still have a competitive list.

While I've never played Orks, I get a sense from playing against them that their boyz are top-tier, as far as Battleline units go.

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I'm not sure many if any armies have battleline units that you'd want to spend 50+% of your points on. 10th seems to encourage most factions to have some variety in their unit choice in general. That said, armies whose battle line seems cost-effective for purposes of combat and not utility/scoring:

Custodes. Their basic dudes seem to be the backbone of the army.

Grey Knights. I'm sure their elites do it better, but their battleline can teleport and lean into the whole deepstrike assault thing. And they're reasonably tanky and kill while doing so.

Tau. Fire warriors and kroot (are kroot battleline?) can trade hits, and the fire warriors have a role as debuffers.

*Maybe* drukhari? Warriors are *mostly* there to sticky objectives, but they do bring some decent shooting for their points, and wyches can be killy if you pair them with character support and the new detachment. I haven't played wracks this edition, but they have lots of special guns and give you pain tokens when they die, so there's that. I feel like you could end up with a functional army if you leaned into these, although your first pick wouldn't be to spend 50% of your points on them.

If you're playing harlequins, troupes are pretty scrappy. Although they kind of have diminishing returns if you take too many units of them. Don't want to leave yourself exposed by flying too many star weavers close to the enemy or open yourself up to the Fights First strat by charging too many enemies.

Thousand Sons rubric spam works just fine.

Note that I've mostly been playing space elves and Thousand Sons this edition. The rest is rampant speculation on my part.

Prior to the dex, I'd have said BSS, because their datacard ability fed the MD pool.

Now that ability has been transferred to the Simulacrum, so any unit who has one can do the same job, and BSS get sticky objectives.

We're likely at least a couple editions away from this - Assuming they continue with the new paradigm and keep it in mind when designing. For most factions Battleline units were kept "worse" than the elites and such - which is why they were considered a tax. Its going to take several editions of retuning and reinventing to get that design process removed.

I like my Plaguebearers.
They don't do a ton besides hold objectives (and sticky them) or clog up the board, but godDAMN are they good at it!

I've yet to hear a single Chaos Knights player complain about their Wardogs etc.
Unless you count wishing they could take more of them....

ccs wrote:
I've yet to hear a single Chaos Knights player complain about their Wardogs etc.
Unless you count wishing they could take more of them....

i've certainly heard people complain about them being too good

Grey Knight Terminators & Custodian Guard get my vote.

Imperial Knights Armiger Warglaives

In the Tau Kroot Hunting Pack Detachment, Kroot Carnivores get Battleline and they are quite strong at 7.5 points per model.

While at only T3, they get both Stealth and a 5+ Invul (at range) making them reasonably durable. Their attacks at WS/BS 3+/4+ S4 AP0 D1 don't seem like a lot at first, but since Kroot buffs effect the target you're attacking rather than the unit doing the attacking, it's really easy to pump up most of your smaller units. It's not that hard to get these to be +1 to hit with full re-rolls, +1 to wound, AP-1. Suddenly that damage profile is looking far scarier.

They are also very fast for a Battleline unit, with scout 7" and a 7" move, plus sticky objectives, it's very easy to get up the board, tag objectives, then push onto help fight or do secondaries without having to camp them.

CSM have Legionaries, which are a good combination of cost, flexibility and useful rules. The fact their unit ability transfers to characters is especially useful. It really helps the unit punch above its weight.

Ork Boyz definitely top the list for Battleline units, offering excellent cost-effectiveness and versatility. Other strong contenders include Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii, which excel in both shooting and melee, and Space Marine Intercessors, known for their durability. Tyranid Termagants can flood the board effectively, while Necron Warriors provide resilience and regeneration, making them all solid choices. I am a student and I was recently tasked with writing an essay about the army for my class, and I found this https://www.topessaywriting.org/samples/army excellent sample on topessaywriting. It helped me grasp the nuances of military life and the various perspectives involved. The way the writer structured the arguments gave me insights into how to present my own thoughts effectively. If you’re working on a similar topic, I suggest you take a look at this sample. It can serve as a great guide to help you formulate your ideas.

Imperial and Chaos Knights.

GSC used to be amazing, bur nothing in the book is very good now.

Orks have good battleline.