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Hello all,

Reading over the most recent HH release, I came across the Blackshields. Now, they're a really cool concept, one which sounds great to start an army with, however I cannot from a tactical standpoint see why anyone would take them.

You lose Rites of War and a number of important units, and most of the positive abilities are outweighed by a significant negative impact, such as +1 Initiative when within 6" of a unit, but automatically lose D3 models if you fail a morale check, and Xenos Deathlocks which have a chance of killing your own guys moreso than Plasma weapons.

Your wargear is also pretty sub-par, such as the Deathlocks mentioned above, Laslocks which are only S4 Assault 1, and Pariah weapons which again, have rather big drawbacks for what appears to be a small benefit.

Am I missing something here? When I saw the initial Blackshield image leaked a while back I was really hoping for something good, yet from what I've read this appears to be an army which will struggle to achieve anything competitive at all.

Blackshields, to me, are one of those armies that really seems to be driving home Forgeworlds theme of "build the army you want, don't worry about competitiveness."

They are literally put in the game, for people to make their own unique force.

Also the rule you are refering to is +1 Leadership within 6" of a friendly unit, at the cost of d3 casualties if they were to fail morale. Also I'm pretty sure most of the Pariah wargear is pretty decent, like the Armor and the Flamer (Gets hot for torrent? Yes please). Remember the armor still gets a save vs S6 and up if it would normally get one, but it is at a 5+.

Black shields make a good allied force or a kill team, its a fluffy unit, made for fluffy reasons, not everything can be red butchers or Firedrakes

 VictorVonTzeentch wrote:
Blackshields, to me, are one of those armies that really seems to be driving home Forgeworlds theme of "build the army you want, don't worry about competitiveness."

They are literally put in the game, for people to make their own unique force.

This.

Also blackshields are closer in organization to 40k marines/chaos marines.

As you get the 1 per 5 specials in your black shield squads. This is the biggest change over legions, as you can now have special wpns in your "tactical" squads.

The Nemean is pretty dang cool

Playing space pirates is its own reward.

Your wargear is also pretty sub-par, such as the Deathlocks mentioned above, Laslocks which are only S4 Assault 1, and Pariah weapons which again, have rather big drawbacks for what appears to be a small benefit.

Yes and no. Pariah Flamers are bloody amazing. The extra damage afforded by Torrent is terrifying against close-packed infantry. Pariah bolters are okay but not amazing - their best use is as a free swap for normal bolters on breachers - giving the close quarter focused breachers assault weapons instead of rapid fire.

Laslocks aren't amazing but if you want an assault weapon, legion shotguns are. It's a sawn-off stormbolter for one point in a game where you can't take the actual stormbolter

Equally, marauders come with chainaxes as standard. It doesn't sound like much, but any world eater will tell you what it does to Solar Auxillia in their void armour.

Marauders are expensive, but get cheap as you add models, and with two attacks each and paired weapons, are lethal close-quarter fighters.

No rites of war hurts, but the Blackshield traits substitute - Rad Grenades from outlanders are scary, as is S5 T5 chymerae.

You can even make a decent drop list. No, you can't take drop pods. Nothing stops you spending slots on Kharibdyss and Dreadclaw assault craft, though, and the former can carry full marauder and breacher units.

Plus, as noted, the Nemean Reaver is a freakin' boss. He'll make a right mess of the 'generic' Paragon Blade wielding Praetor.