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As said in the title, what is the most powerful melee unit in the game?
Ive been wondering about this and decided to ask here since you people have more experience with a much wider array of units.

Is this a trick question? Because I would say the answer is none of them. They all get shot

I guess that makes the answer to this whichever melee unit gets there and survives overwatch.

Depends on the Situation, no unit is good at everything. I personally think the best CC unit in the game is the Seer Star due to its massive survivability (Even without fortune or protect it gets a 2+ cover with conceal) and its ability to pile wounds onto anything in the game. At 2k that's 3 Farseers, One with Anaris, One with Soulshrive, One with special lance to cover up the lack of AP and fearless, add Baron for stealth, Hit'n'run and grenades and about 7/8 warlocks on jetbikes. That's a very good chance of getting protect or fortune, or both, making the unit all but unkillable. Then add in prescience, Jink, Enpower, Doom and Enhance and you have an unkillable unit that can handle anything in the game.

I dont think there is a clear answer here. There are several points of a powerful CC unit that makes them powerful:

Number of attacks: Single CSM units with Khorne marks and Daemon weapons can have 15+ attacks on a charge. The sheer number of units that these monsters can kill at once is incredible, charging from one squad to the next, taking each out with a single round of combat at the cost of 300 or so points.

Strength and AP: Monstrous creatures are excellent at killing termies and what not with high armor.

Toughness: Things like Hive tyrants and other Tyranid/Nurgle Daemons can have T7-10 and 6,7,8,9 wounds. Durability is important for CC monsters because they will be shot a lot. They are bullet magnets. It doesnt matter how powerful you are if you get killed after one round of shooting.

With all of this in mind, here are some of the games most powerful CC units:
Greater Unclean One with greater gifts
Bloodthirster with greater gifts
DaemonPrince of Tzeentch with Black mace power armor and wings
Typhus
Abbadon
The Sanguinor, Exemplar of the Host
The Avatar of Khaine
Lord Kaldor Draigo
Castellan Crowe
All of the C'tans
Ghazghkull Thraka
Space Marine Captain Darnath Lysander
Bjorn the Fell-Handed
Logan Grimnar
Not familiar with nids, but lots of them

I'd also venture in Necron Wraiths, Daemon's flesh hounds of khorne, and good old ork boyz. Point for point, they are all very good in assault.

Points cost not included? Only taking up 1 slot? 30 death company with jump packs, 30 thunder hammers, lemartes. That should do it :-p!

The Swarmlord.

Daemon Prince of Tzeentch with 2 biomancy powers, black mace, forewarning and Grimoire (requires fateweaver and tzeentch herald or two to buff him up).

That's a 2++ rerollable save and 7-11 WS9 fleshbane AP2 attacks. Requires a lot of support to set him up though.

For general utility/points cost I'd say Nurgle spawn or Khorne Flesh Hounds are up there with thier ability to get to close combat intact and deliver thier payload / tie stuff up. Really depends if you are talking charging up the field to try and tie up units or if you are talking about a countercharge unit that will support your gunline.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 BlaxicanX wrote:
The Swarmlord.

Yeah he is pretty insane, as is Abaddon, nurgle daemon princes (with thier Balesword) and the Avatar with it's cheesy disarm. But for the most powerful you probably want to consider the survivability and points value.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
The Swarmlord.

If you ever catch them (unlikely unless the eldar plans for it) the combat is likely to go like this. Hey Swarmlord, here, eat a Warlock. Queue hit'n'run, get away. Prescience, maybe doom if we are lucky, now eat 20 twin linked rending shuri cat shots. That's 3 ish wounds, 5 with doom. Shuri Cats are surprisingly VERY good Vs. Monsterous creatures.

I understand this is about combat units, but versatility is very important on every unit.

In terms of how hard something is to kill, nothing really tops a unit of TH/SS terminators.

For damage, banshees against anything with a 3+ or worse that isn't a MC.

In general for damage, there's a lot of good units out there, but I think warriors with lashwhip and bonesword simply because they go before things that tend to have a 2+.

And of course, toughest melee unit in the game, that's gotta go to mark of nurgle chaos spawn.

Seeing as the OP asked for the toughest unit, I ignored all IC's, MC's that aren't units and named characters.

where would deathwing knights fit in the list of good melee units?

 BlaxicanX wrote:
The Swarmlord.

Due to the fact that he has a good chance to get Iron Arm on the Biomancy table, the Swarmlord is by in large, the best single close combat unit in the game.

Screamer Star.

You can't defeat what you can't kill. And, at least while the grimoir is in effect, you can not kill this damn thing

Poly Ranger wrote:
Points cost not included? Only taking up 1 slot? 30 death company with jump packs, 30 thunder hammers, lemartes. That should do it :-p!

Better: 30 Death Co, 60 thunder hammers. Yes, this is paying 1050 points for only 30 more attacks, what of it?

In general though, the obvious best ones are the kind that can pull 2+/2++/re-roll shenanigans, like seer councils and screamerstars. Quite simply, these units can beat anything simply through attrition, with only 1 in 36 wounds getting through (god forbid you get FNP on them as well!).

But for individual units, not using combos or support from others:
Ork boyz.
Death Company
genestealers (if you can get them there)
TH/SS termies
DW knights (with god-mode maces active)

Probably more that I've forgotten.

Someone beat me to it...30 death company with Lemartes is the best legal CC unit in the game w/2*THs...vs any other legal unit...

Roughly 136 S8 AP2 wounds ...vs. T7


In apoc, the hooker bomb (aka daemonette promenade) can beat the death company

60+ daemonettes hitting first vs. DC, that's 45 rending wounds vs the 30 man squad, the FNP may save one or two on a good day to retaliate

 TheCrazyCryptek wrote:

 BlaxicanX wrote:
The Swarmlord.

Due to the fact that he has a good chance to get Iron Arm on the Biomancy table, the Swarmlord is by in large, the best single close combat unit in the game.

Ahahahahahahhhaah

condemer boltguns later, he's dead in 1 turn.

The 30 death company unit is deadly, but so is the fact you don't have anything else in your list.

I'd go with Typhus in a termie squad tag-teaming with Tzeentch Daemon Prince with the Black Mace; Wings; PA, supported by Plague Zombies and Plague marines.

Things that get within 24" of this kind of force tend to get smushed unless they take drastic action.

First post had it: there's not one best melee unit. They're good at different things.

Haha 60 thunder hammers, now THAT would be hilarious!!!

10 man DW Knight squad with Ezekiel.

10 T5, WS6 termies with re-rolls to hit kill everything.

Jetseer council with the Baron as an ally.
* They have tons of fleshbane attacks
* They have tons of armorbane attacks
* They often have a 2+ rerollable cover save
* They often have a 2+ rerollable armor save
* They often have a 4+ rerollable invuln save
* The baron often has a 2+ rerollable invuln save
* They have offensive and defensive grenades
* They have hit and run
* They are fast.
* They bring lots of TL cats to shoot on the way in.

This unit was the core of the list that won Battle for Salvation. Its hands down the best assault unit in the game today.

6e Daemons SKARBRAND!

The one that can make it to CC. Meaning DW knights, Paladins with Draigo and an apothecary, TH/SS, Flying MCs, MoN spawn, Abbadon out of a LR, etc. Not familiar with Death Company, but depending on whether their in power armor or Termie Armor(looks like power armor in pics), I might send in a full squad of Chaos Warp Talons W/MoK. 3 attacks base, high(ish) squad size, rerolling to wound, AP 3...yah that sounds like fun. Shame they probably would not survive till combat.

Abbadon. +__+ Or Skulltaker. I like Skulltaker too.

One big reason why I like these two models over you're typical FMC? They can hide behind ruins and actually sneak in, instead of drawing fire like crazy. More times than not, I find the key to winning a game at the moment my opponent has stopped paying attention to something and I can make them pay for it. >D

Honourable mention for marbo.

In terms of best, probably the seer council.

Most Powerful?

Well, 30 Death Company Jump Packers with Dual THs with a Reclusiarch, a Captain, a fully kitted out Iron Hands Chapter Master and Lemartes.

3615 Points.

IF the Swarmlord can get Iron Arm, then he'd be the best single CC model in the game.....BUT if Swarmie doesn't have Iron Army, Skarbrand would whoop his butt most likely.

30 Death Company with all thunderhammers would be the most powerful multi-model unit in terms of damage output, but head to head with higher initiative AP3 weapons, such as 20 Bloodletters with a Champion armed with an Greater Aetherblade, they would lose many many models before striking, especially if the Bloodletters charged. Also that Death Company unit, wouldn't it be over 700 points or something?

TH/SS Terminators or the Jetseer Council would be my multi-model unit vote, especially with that jerk the Baron. Both units have immense survivability and great damage output, but the hammers have the edge for killing things in my experience.

Necron wraiths are also pretty good like that but not AP2.

If we're talking ideally armed model, a Great Unclean one with Iron Arm, Warp Speed, Endurance, 4+ Feel No Pain Reward and Balesword, Forewarned and Grimoired....he could take on just about anything if all the powers went off spotlessly. T10, I 7, Instant Death and poison 4+ w rerolls most of the time on wounding, 2++ save.

Of course then comes along a Necron Lord with a Tesseract Labyrinth and PRESTO, all gone

Bodywise, most units in the bugs codex. People don't really think about how CC heavy the entire dex can be. Someone runs with 30-ish stealers, a Broodlord, and scything talons, and the rending re-rolls is a nightmare. Not to mention that that is a troops choice.

I can't remember, but I think that the SL is an IC. If so, then staple him to a stealer squad for silly. If not give him a good size tyrant guard pool for bodies, and He'll do the rest.

I will give Necron Wraiths honorable mention however, seeing as they have a 3++ and more.

My vote is for Ghazghkull because two rounds of combat with a 2++ and 5 or 7 attacks on the charge at strength 10 is no joke. Just tonight I got Ghazghkull in hand to hand with an iron armed Swarmlord and I rolled way below average and I ended up losing leaving the Swarmlord with one wound left. Toe to toe he can take on any special character in the game.