Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey everyone,
I understand there low toughness, high point cost and low save makes them unattractive but what would be the best load out for a squad of 3 warriors?

Thanks!

Do you want to keep them cheap or not?

I want them to be awesome, its not for competitive games just for them to be over all good units.

Deathspitter+Rending claws is a pretty TAC load-out for them, and you'd at least want toxin sacs on these so they can reroll to wound against T4 and below targets, thus increasing your chance to rend. Adrenal glands are mostly something you'd want if you have the points to spare.

The Deathspitter is basically a half range heavy bolter with worse AP, but three of them can put down pretty serviceable firepower. Some may prefer to keep the price down and stick with devourers though.

On the charge, these will get quite a few attacks and have the wounds to stick around in assault so long as no one is packing power fist.

To survive shooting, you'll likely need to keep them in cover and if possible, get either shrouding or feel no pain on them. Both if you can, but this is sinking a lot of points into them.

You may also wish to ensure that they aren't prioritized as targets until they can get into charge range. Here Adrenal glands are nice for rerolling charge distance, thus giving you more assurance that you'll be getting to grips with your enemy.

The barbed strangler will always be better for you than the venom cannon as far as basic bio-cannons go.

The short version is, they're not good units lol.

Strength 8 just ruins them completely, not worth taking in my opinion...

Nevertheless if I was going to take a unit of 3, I would probably run them with 2x Devourer/Rending Claws and 1x Barbed Strangler.

They're not likely to get in combat with this setup, so the rending claws are entirely optional, basically worth it if you can spare the points - if you need the points elsewhere, by all means strip them of the claws.

Their best use in my eyes is a squad like this, ideally in cover providing some backfield synapse.

Actually the best way to use them is with the Living Artilery Formation, which essentially has the same squad of 3 warriors in cover, just a few extra goodies.

The short version is.

Take 3 with A barbed Strangler...100pts of awesome.

 tko75 wrote:
Hey everyone,
I understand there low toughness, high point cost and low save makes them unattractive but what would be the best load out for a squad of 3 warriors?

Thanks!

"Vanilla" Warriors: x3, Cannon 100 pts
"Shooty" Warriors: x3 Deathspitters x2, Cannon 110 Hard to say anything bad about this load out.
"Rippy" Warriors: x3 Rending Claws x2, Deathspitters x2, Cannon 120 My personal choice,

Warriors don't get a lot of love I think because they are seemingly overpriced(am I right in thinking this?)

I run mine with a little more gear (mostly because I like the way the models look and they usually have preformed well for me)
3x Warrior Brood. 1 (Barbed Strangler, LW/BS), 2(Devourer, Boneswords) 3(Devourer, Scything Talons) with Adrenal Glands
The unit costs 150 which.. yeah its really pricey I guess but generally when they survive they do a good job. They've helped me take out a lot of High Priority Targets(against more aggressive armies) and paired with a venomthrope in ruins for a 2+ they are actually quite survivable. I usually only move them up when my gants have "secured" an area.

I guess I like them kitted out like this because I like the initiative bump on the one, and having AP3 Weaponry is invaluable against marines - not to mention they ID on 6's!

I find that rending with rerolls to wound from poison is usually better than the heavily nerfed bonesword+lw combo. It lets you tear through 2+ save units (although termies will usually mash warriors) and the rending hurts even the toughest MCs and makes vehicles pause for thought.

 Kain wrote:
I find that rending with rerolls to wound from poison is usually better than the heavily nerfed bonesword+lw combo. It lets you tear through 2+ save units (although termies will usually mash warriors) and the rending hurts even the toughest MCs and makes vehicles pause for thought.

Yeah, I'd add Toxic instead of going Bone Swords...but I've been toying with Bonesword Warriors as a concept as a counter to MC spam, because the 7th sounds like it may encourage this...5 freakin Wraithknights! Daaaaaaam! Just tarpit, then join in with a Bonesword for IK action...

pinecone77 wrote:

 tko75 wrote:
Hey everyone,
I understand there low toughness, high point cost and low save makes them unattractive but what would be the best load out for a squad of 3 warriors?

Thanks!

"Vanilla" Warriors: x3, Cannon 100 pts
"Shooty" Warriors: x3 Deathspitters x2, Cannon 110 Hard to say anything bad about this load out.
"Rippy" Warriors: x3 Rending Claws x2, Deathspitters x2, Cannon 120 My personal choice,

I usually go for the "Shooty". That way, they can shoot if something do get close and they can overwatch. If not, i'd take just the vanilla. I don't like Warriors much though.
I only use them for backfield synapse with one venom canon or because i need them for Formations (tried endless swarm, and will want to try Living Artillery and Bioblast node later)

pinecone77 wrote:

 Kain wrote:
I find that rending with rerolls to wound from poison is usually better than the heavily nerfed bonesword+lw combo. It lets you tear through 2+ save units (although termies will usually mash warriors) and the rending hurts even the toughest MCs and makes vehicles pause for thought.

Yeah, I'd add Toxic instead of going Bone Swords...but I've been toying with Bonesword Warriors as a concept as a counter to MC spam, because the 7th sounds like it may encourage this...5 freakin Wraithknights! Daaaaaaam! Just tarpit, then join in with a Bonesword for IK action...

Wow. I quite like that idea of using Rending Claws with Toxic Sacs... and it fluffs with my army. Thanks for the idea! Saves me about 25pts per unit.

 digital-animal wrote:

pinecone77 wrote:

 Kain wrote:
I find that rending with rerolls to wound from poison is usually better than the heavily nerfed bonesword+lw combo. It lets you tear through 2+ save units (although termies will usually mash warriors) and the rending hurts even the toughest MCs and makes vehicles pause for thought.

Yeah, I'd add Toxic instead of going Bone Swords...but I've been toying with Bonesword Warriors as a concept as a counter to MC spam, because the 7th sounds like it may encourage this...5 freakin Wraithknights! Daaaaaaam! Just tarpit, then join in with a Bonesword for IK action...

Wow. I quite like that idea of using Rending Claws with Toxic Sacs... and it fluffs with my army. Thanks for the idea! Saves me about 25pts per unit.

You can also mix and match, Toxic synergises just fine with Boneswords as well Warrior Brood: x3, Boneswords x1, Rending Claws x2, Toxic...... 130 ish? No Cannon though, that raises the price a mite... ( for a contrast, 140 for Warriors, vs a freakin Dakkafex for 150. I know which one I like better... )


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Addaran wrote:

pinecone77 wrote:

 tko75 wrote:
Hey everyone,
I understand there low toughness, high point cost and low save makes them unattractive but what would be the best load out for a squad of 3 warriors?

Thanks!

"Vanilla" Warriors: x3, Cannon 100 pts
"Shooty" Warriors: x3 Deathspitters x2, Cannon 110 Hard to say anything bad about this load out.
"Rippy" Warriors: x3 Rending Claws x2, Deathspitters x2, Cannon 120 My personal choice,

I usually go for the "Shooty". That way, they can shoot if something do get close and they can overwatch. If not, i'd take just the vanilla. I don't like Warriors much though.
I only use them for backfield synapse with one venom canon or because i need them for Formations (tried endless swarm, and will want to try Living Artillery and Bioblast node later)

Well "Vanilla" can overwatch (they have Devourers) but I like the Deathspitters, +1 ST, and AP 5 while not awesome, is a fine answer to AM armies that otherwise give us bugs a hard time

Devourers have a higher damage-to-points ratio than Deathspitters against most common targets, I wouldn't bother spending the points to upgrade them.

pinecone77 wrote:
You can also mix and match, Toxic synergises just fine with Boneswords as well Warrior Brood: x3, Boneswords x1, Rending Claws x2, Toxic...... 130 ish? No Cannon though, that raises the price a mite... ( for a contrast, 140 for Warriors, vs a freakin Dakkafex for 150. I know which one I like better... )

I'm already taking 6 Dakkafexes though and I need *something* for troops..

rigeld2 wrote:

pinecone77 wrote:
You can also mix and match, Toxic synergises just fine with Boneswords as well Warrior Brood: x3, Boneswords x1, Rending Claws x2, Toxic...... 130 ish? No Cannon though, that raises the price a mite... ( for a contrast, 140 for Warriors, vs a freakin Dakkafex for 150. I know which one I like better... )

I'm already taking 6 Dakkafexes though and I need *something* for troops..

That Is a lotta Dakka

Here's a thought. People love to take the troop tervigon instead of the warriors, and I can understand why. S8 S8 S8. Consider this, however. Most of this S8 will be ap 3 or better, so armor saves are irrelevant. The tervigon does have a better toughness against small arms fire, but again with high strength weaponry they're still wounding easily. If anything lower than S8 is shot, the warriors have much more wounds. But even at S8, 180 points of warriors (or a little more if you want them to have barbed stranglers or something) still has 6 effective wounds, just like the Tervigon. And you don't need to have another 120 points of Gants. And they can be in two places at once. True, they don't have psychic powers, but for 200ish points they are not bad. I think their resiliency is somewhat surprising if you keep them in cover as cheap scoring synapse.

In fairness, I am also thinking about them in the context of skyblight where this is more valued and there are already "super troops", so I don't need to worry about forward objective capturing

Compared to Tervigons, Warriors are
- Less dangerous in close combat
- Less resilient to small arms fire
- Much more reliant on cover to grant them a save, thus have to be played more defensively
- Non-psykers
- Don't spawn Termagants
- Much more susceptible to Large Blasts

So which one to use is not as easy a decision as you'd think. Both are pretty mediocre units, really, Tyranids just don't have solid scoring units outside of Skyblight.

 digital-animal wrote:

pinecone77 wrote:

 Kain wrote:
I find that rending with rerolls to wound from poison is usually better than the heavily nerfed bonesword+lw combo. It lets you tear through 2+ save units (although termies will usually mash warriors) and the rending hurts even the toughest MCs and makes vehicles pause for thought.

Yeah, I'd add Toxic instead of going Bone Swords...but I've been toying with Bonesword Warriors as a concept as a counter to MC spam, because the 7th sounds like it may encourage this...5 freakin Wraithknights! Daaaaaaam! Just tarpit, then join in with a Bonesword for IK action...

Wow. I quite like that idea of using Rending Claws with Toxic Sacs... and it fluffs with my army. Thanks for the idea! Saves me about 25pts per unit.

"Lime ripple" Warrior Brood: x3, Rending Claws x3, Toxic 120 not too bad Though I kinda consider a Strangle Cannon mandatory equipment for Warriors. And that raises the cost to 130.

Warriors are not overpriced, they're just not what they used to be: Immune to ID with in Synapse. It was a pain to play against but it was the one saving grace of Tyranids as a whole.

Now combine that with lack of mobility and you have something great all round except that it can't get around.

A Warrior in a Cage Match is great for the points, but why would anyone fight it when they can just shoot it?

 PipeAlley wrote:
Warriors are not overpriced, they're just not what they used to be: Immune to ID with in Synapse. It was a pain to play against but it was the one saving grace of Tyranids as a whole.

Now combine that with lack of mobility and you have something great all round except that it can't get around.

A Warrior in a Cage Match is great for the points, but why would anyone fight it when they can just shoot it?

If you're paying for combat ability you'll never use because they go splat so easily, they are by definition overpriced.

Actually Warriors get the most out of their abilities by going unchallenged. 100 pts for a unit that holds synapse, puts out decent shooting and usually has a 3+ cover save due to backfield venom(s) and also holds its own in combat.

That's a bargain.

I would never tell someone to buy combat upgrades on these buddies unless they Outflank them.

 ductvader wrote:
Actually Warriors get the most out of their abilities by going unchallenged. 100 pts for a unit that holds synapse, puts out decent shooting and usually has a 3+ cover save due to backfield venom(s) and also holds its own in combat.

That's a bargain.

I would never tell someone to buy combat upgrades on these buddies unless they Outflank them.

Riptide/cover ignoring artilery bait.

 Kain wrote:

 ductvader wrote:
Actually Warriors get the most out of their abilities by going unchallenged. 100 pts for a unit that holds synapse, puts out decent shooting and usually has a 3+ cover save due to backfield venom(s) and also holds its own in combat.

That's a bargain.

I would never tell someone to buy combat upgrades on these buddies unless they Outflank them.

Riptide/cover ignoring artilery bait.

The problem of Tyranids is comparing it to Tau. If you build a Tyranid list like Tau don't exist, most of them are excellent. DE is the same kind of hard counter.

Personally I almost never play either, and so I don't really worry about one specific unit. Or more importantly...S8...because it barely exists outside of Tau, DE, and some Eldar.

 ductvader wrote:

 Kain wrote:

 ductvader wrote:
Actually Warriors get the most out of their abilities by going unchallenged. 100 pts for a unit that holds synapse, puts out decent shooting and usually has a 3+ cover save due to backfield venom(s) and also holds its own in combat.

That's a bargain.

I would never tell someone to buy combat upgrades on these buddies unless they Outflank them.

Riptide/cover ignoring artilery bait.

The problem of Tyranids is comparing it to Tau. If you build a Tyranid list like Tau don't exist, most of them are excellent. DE is the same kind of hard counter.

Personally I almost never play either, and so I don't really worry about one specific unit. Or more importantly...S8...because it barely exists outside of Tau, DE, and some Eldar.

The Astra militarum is one of the most common armies in the game, as are the Tau.

Saying "oh this is great except if Y that shows up a lot appears" is meaningless.

Doubly so if you play on Vassal where every army is frequently represented.

Regardless, you're missing the point.

Who in the world is shooting at a unit of 3 Warriors?

It's 36-42" away and probably won't die to most shooting at that distance.

 ductvader wrote:
Regardless, you're missing the point.

Who in the world is shooting at a unit of 3 Warriors?

It's 36-42" away and probably won't die to most shooting at that distance.

Someone who wants to nuke your synapse with their cover ignoring sabres or manticores/basilisks. Or perhaps their cover ignoring riptide. Or a stormsword, or a shadowsword, or a Reaver that's just finished nuking the rest of your army into free-floating atoms.

 Kain wrote:

 ductvader wrote:
Regardless, you're missing the point.

Who in the world is shooting at a unit of 3 Warriors?

It's 36-42" away and probably won't die to most shooting at that distance.

Someone who wants to nuke your synapse with their cover ignoring sabres or manticores/basilisks. Or perhaps their cover ignoring riptide. Or a stormsword, or a shadowsword, or a Reaver that's just finished nuking the rest of your army into free-floating atoms.

All the power to them. That's why Warriors are there...backup synapse, not vital synapse. From a Tyranid standpoint, anyone pointing any one of those weapons at a cheap blob of warriors...is an idiot.

 ductvader wrote:

 Kain wrote:

 ductvader wrote:
Regardless, you're missing the point.

Who in the world is shooting at a unit of 3 Warriors?

It's 36-42" away and probably won't die to most shooting at that distance.

Someone who wants to nuke your synapse with their cover ignoring sabres or manticores/basilisks. Or perhaps their cover ignoring riptide. Or a stormsword, or a shadowsword, or a Reaver that's just finished nuking the rest of your army into free-floating atoms.

All the power to them. That's why Warriors are there...backup synapse, not vital synapse. From a Tyranid standpoint, anyone pointing any one of those weapons at a cheap blob of warriors...is an idiot.

Your expensive synapse was already killed by beast-hunter shells inflicting instant death on them from across the board.

 Kain wrote:

 ductvader wrote:

 Kain wrote:

 ductvader wrote:
Regardless, you're missing the point.

Who in the world is shooting at a unit of 3 Warriors?

It's 36-42" away and probably won't die to most shooting at that distance.

Someone who wants to nuke your synapse with their cover ignoring sabres or manticores/basilisks. Or perhaps their cover ignoring riptide. Or a stormsword, or a shadowsword, or a Reaver that's just finished nuking the rest of your army into free-floating atoms.

All the power to them. That's why Warriors are there...backup synapse, not vital synapse. From a Tyranid standpoint, anyone pointing any one of those weapons at a cheap blob of warriors...is an idiot.

Your expensive synapse was already killed by beast-hunter shells inflicting instant death on them from across the board.

Oh thanks, I needed to know exactly how my theoretical army died...whew.