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For those like me that love to theory craft and spend loads to time trying out crazy strategies and units to come up with a great list that's all our own, I wanted to know what list you've built that is performing well, but when you tell people about it them underestimate it.

Mine, (assuming you haven't heard my veritable essays on how good this sub-faction already) is Kroot. And I don't mean soup in Tau guns, I mean 100% murder chickens. (Well maybe like 98% as I'll use some Vespid from time to time.) I've been playing the faction since 8th and always doing better than anyone expected, but only with their recent 10th edition rules did they become legitimately powerful to the point where I am placing highly in competitive events, despite my low experience in tournament formats.

The biggest misconception about Kroot, is that at face value, their profiles are pretty underwhelming. However, in a great blend of both fluff and mechanics, the Kroot are pack hunters, 1v1, they often get clobbered, but their overlapping buffs both offensively and defensively have them punch well above their weight class. Take the humble carnivore for instance. Hitting on 4's at range, 3's in melee with 2 S:4 no AP D1 shots for 6.5 points a model doesn't sound that exciting. However, with a 7" move, a 7" scout move, and with sticky objectives, it's very mobile for an infantry unit. With Stealth and a 5+ Invul it's pretty durable to shooting attacks. It almost always has +1 to hit from the detachment rule, re-rolling from the Lone Spear's effect, more often than you'd expect has +1 to wound, while often being able to pick up a pip of AP from the Trap Well Laid stratagem which effects every Kroot unit that targets the same enemy. That's pretty scary for your basic line infantry unit.

Each Kroot unit is like this, a meh profile at first glance, but being a threat to much larger targets that you'd expect. Even with the strongest looking profile being the Repeater Cannon at 2 Shots 36" Rapid Fire2 S:7: Ap-1 D:2, I've had no trouble taking on heavily armoured lists, once downing 5 War Dogs and some supporting smaller daemons in a single turn, something many armies with big anti-tank guns struggle to do. And this is the trap I see lots of people I talk to fall into, that they need big guns to make the list work, and you don't, it actually takes away from what the Kroot are already good at doing.

For the actual list itself that I'm currently running at 2k:
1 Lone Spear with Kroot Long Gun. Enhancement: Kroothawk Flock: 90pts
2 Kroot Lone Spear with Blast Javelin: 160pts
1 Kroot Flesh Shaper. Enhancement: Borthrod Gland: 60pts
1 Kroot War Shaper with Bladestave/Prey-Hook: 50pts
6x3 Kroot Rampagers: 510pts
3x3 Krootox Riders with Repeater Cannons: 270pts
12x3 Kroot Farstalkers: 255pts
20x1 / 10x4: Kroot Carnivores: 390pts
5x2 Kroot Hounds: 80pts
5x2: Vespid: 130pts

I'm still debating cutting one for the 10 man carnivores for the Dart-Bow War Shaper, more Vespid, or Darkstrider but for the moment, I'm happy with it performing how it is and overall, it's only a minor tweak. I haven't had the chance to take this new version out to a competitive event yet, but it's been playing better than my last Kroot list that went 4-1, so I'm hopeful that I'll do well when the next one rolls around to my area.

Beyond that, there are still others I'm working on theory crafting that I want to see if I can make good. Guard Cavalry with the Atillans and the Kreigers with the Recon detachment to give them more durability while quickly shoving dozens of horses in your enemy's face. , Null Maiden's Vigil with loads of swords and flamers packed into Rhinos that can drop off their threats then screen and do actions. The GSC Final Day detachment with a mountain of abberants hitting on 2's. All the Necron destroyers I can fit into a list and just hosing people with full re-roll 5+ Lethals at AP:3 D:2, that they have to ignore to handle all the Skorpekh's running at their face. Will all of them be good, probably not, but it will be fun to find out.

Anyhow, I've ranted about my favourite faction and other ideas long enough. What crazy list has been working for you?

I'm trying to build an all Terminator list. A flashback to the days where Captain Lysander and his yellow brick of Imperial Fists would come to visit you.

The issue is, will Dark Angels, Grey Knights, or Adeptus Custodes work best for a callback to the good old days of Terminator joy.

 Quixote wrote:
I'm trying to build an all Terminator list. A flashback to the days where Captain Lysander and his yellow brick of Imperial Fists would come to visit you.

The issue is, will Dark Angels, Grey Knights, or Adeptus Custodes work best for a callback to the good old days of Terminator joy.

I've been trying to get a Terminator heavy list to work for a while now as I really love that old termi brick style too. I've tried both First Company and Inner Circle, and and they're great at taking out a big thing each turn, but beyond that, they just don't feel durable enough and don't output enough damage to keep from being overwhelmed.

I don't have enough experience with Grey Knights to say on that front.

One thing that I was thinking that looks conceptually interesting is Custodes Terminators in the Lions of the Emperor detachment. If you keep your Termi bricks more than 6" away from each other, which you'll pretty much have to do anyway, they all get +1 to hit and +1 to wound, so they'll be smashing really good. There's some good enhancements in that detachment too. The strats are kinda meh, but I think this could work well if built and played right.

That kroot army might be something, I'm glad that gw decided to expand the roster with characters and rampagers. If recall correct, kroot did have some competitive play back in 5th or 6th edition.

I'm looking towards Chaos space marines with all Daemon engine army, could be fun, but not much for opponent.

 Spreelock wrote:
That kroot army might be something, I'm glad that gw decided to expand the roster with characters and rampagers. If recall correct, kroot did have some competitive play back in 5th or 6th edition.

I'm looking towards Chaos space marines with all Daemon engine army, could be fun, but not much for opponent.

It's funny that you say that as a friend of mine and I are both going to a tournament in a couple of months and he's running Chaos, heavy Daemon engines, which I haven't gone up against yet. We're planning to get a practice game in sometime before the event, so we'll get to see how my Kroot list stacks up against it.

I recently made a Maggotkin of Nurgle army for Sugmar.
Then I wondered how it'd do as a 40k force.
So here's the 40k version:

●Scabeiathrax the bloated
●Winged Demon Prince (Nurgle)
●Pox Bringer
●Pox Bringer
●Pox Bringer
● Plague Bearers x10
●Plague Bearers x10
●Plague Bearers x10
●Plague Drones x3
●Plague Drones x3
●Plague Drones x3
●Beast of Nurgle
●Beast of Nurgle
●Furies x5
●Furies x5
●Furies x5
●Spined Chaos Beast (Nurgle)
●Spined Chaos Beast (Nurgle)
●Spined Chaos Beast (Nurgle)

Sometimes I run it as the base detachment, other times as the Plague Legion.
It's done very well 40k wise. It's mostly just a wall of big, tough, Nurgle things. All with ++ saves & most doing Lethal hits.

ccs wrote:
I recently made a Maggotkin of Nurgle army for Sugmar.
Then I wondered how it'd do as a 40k force.
So here's the 40k version:

●Scabeiathrax the bloated
●Winged Demon Prince (Nurgle)
●Pox Bringer
●Pox Bringer
●Pox Bringer
● Plague Bearers x10
●Plague Bearers x10
●Plague Bearers x10
●Plague Drones x3
●Plague Drones x3
●Plague Drones x3
●Beast of Nurgle
●Beast of Nurgle
●Furies x5
●Furies x5
●Furies x5
●Spined Chaos Beast (Nurgle)
●Spined Chaos Beast (Nurgle)
●Spined Chaos Beast (Nurgle)

Sometimes I run it as the base detachment, other times as the Plague Legion.
It's done very well 40k wise. It's mostly just a wall of big, tough, Nurgle things. All with ++ saves & most doing Lethal hits.

That looks pretty good, throwing out that many high toughness bodies with solid invuls is hard for a lot of people to deal with. I've never actually seen anyone run the spined chaos beasts before, but they look really solid. Furies make good little action monkeys and those Plague Drone buffs are no joke. Seems like a really tough and synergistic list, wish I could take a crack at it.

Thanks

Like I said, fist I built it as a Sigmar force.
●The Spined Beasts are actually the Morbidex Twice born model (in AoS that kit makes 3 unique characters depending how you build it - all of wich i put in the army).
●Scabie, the FW GUO, is being represented by the AoS Glotkin (the reason I built the Sigmar list - I love that model & needed stuff around him. )

So I went looking through 40k units to see what I could match those kits up with.
Drones, plague guys, Bessts of Nurgle & the prince were obvious.
In the case of the Morbidex kits? Well.... they ARE spiny monsters. And already Nurgle!
The Glotkin? Is the same base size as a GUO & the Scabi entry (on Whagh) says - "use model", so...
Add in some Furies & call it done.

Probably the reason you've never seen Spined Beasts used is people aversion to anything Legends.

ccs wrote:


Probably the reason you've never seen Spined Beasts used is people aversion to anything Legends.

Which I will forever find ridiculous, but that's a discussion for another thread.

I don't have specific list written up, but earlier in 10th I attempted different versions of imperial guard infantry spam. Lots of Krieg guardsmen, heavy weapon teams, Catachan, with a minimal support of scout sentinels and scions for deep striking and secondaries.

My main issue was that the infantry squads died to fast, and I spent too much points and support characters. I believe focusing less on orders, so that not every infantry squad can receives an order, and cutting down on characters like ogryn bodyguards, priests and commissars would have let me take more basic squads. The other issue was the ability to efficiently take out vehicles and monsters. Heavy weapon teams (and back then, infantry squads with a heavy weapon) are just not survivable enough to remain a threat into late stages of the game.

Brickfix wrote:
I don't have specific list written up, but earlier in 10th I attempted different versions of imperial guard infantry spam. Lots of Krieg guardsmen, heavy weapon teams, Catachan, with a minimal support of scout sentinels and scions for deep striking and secondaries.

My main issue was that the infantry squads died to fast, and I spent too much points and support characters. I believe focusing less on orders, so that not every infantry squad can receives an order, and cutting down on characters like ogryn bodyguards, priests and commissars would have let me take more basic squads. The other issue was the ability to efficiently take out vehicles and monsters. Heavy weapon teams (and back then, infantry squads with a heavy weapon) are just not survivable enough to remain a threat into late stages of the game.

The new Recon Detachment might help out with that. All those units getting +1 to their sv and stacking with other cover saves will add a lot of survivability to that many models.

So hear me out...
5-man hellblaster squads as skirmishers. They advance and shoot natively which makes them faster than they appear, their guns are good, and since they can shoot on death an opponent has to overcommit to any objective or action if he's going to shoot them. When they die you still get value out of them, and if an opponent targets something else you can push pretty deep pretty fast with pretty good firepower.

Also...
A land raider redeemer with devastator centurions inside and an assault unit outside. Turn 1, the centurions can get to the angle they need, and you pick up the assault troops for a later turn push.

Here's what I run. It isn't optimal but it's what I own:
Gladius Task Force

Skirmish & Score:
Combi-weapon Lieutenant 70
Hellblasters 115
Hellblasters 115
Jump pack intercessors 90
Inceptors, plasma 120
Scout Squad 70
Intercessor Squad 80
Invader ATV, multimelta 60
Invader ATV, multimelta 60

Assault hammer:
Gravis Captain, artificer armor (warlord) 90
Aggressor Squad, bolters 240

Big guns:
Eradicators 100
Eradicators 100
Devastator Centurions, lascannons and missiles 165
Vindicator 185
Land Raider Redeemer 285
Techmarine 55

Chaos Knights with Iconoclast Fiefdom.

I don't care if its meh, its so much fun

Especially now that they've reduced points across the board for Knights....

Its almost like playing orks.

I really had fun playing 1k games with:

Dark Angels

2x Ravenwing Command
2x 6 Ravenwing Black Knights

1x Chaplain on Bike
1x 6 Outriders

2x 3 Outriders

I tend to use the "Wrath of the rock" Detachment for "Relics of the Old Age"-Strategem (and because all my units are harder to wound).

The army ist fast as feth, has lots of Plasma (and we all know, every1 loves plamsa), and good melee threat (Anti-Monster/Vehicle). Also RW Command has apothecarys, which WILL be worth their weight in gold.

Also, it's just fun to zoom around the battlefield on your bikes

 Mickmann wrote:
I really had fun playing 1k games with:

Dark Angels

2x Ravenwing Command
2x 6 Ravenwing Black Knights

1x Chaplain on Bike
1x 6 Outriders

2x 3 Outriders

I tend to use the "Wrath of the rock" Detachment for "Relics of the Old Age"-Strategem (and because all my units are harder to wound).

The army ist fast as feth, has lots of Plasma (and we all know, every1 loves plamsa), and good melee threat (Anti-Monster/Vehicle). Also RW Command has apothecarys, which WILL be worth their weight in gold.

Also, it's just fun to zoom around the battlefield on your bikes

Very nice!

It's a tough list for some armies to run against. My best friend plays White Scars, but he'll sometimes use Dark Angels rules so that he can actually have a large bike army rather than just some outriders and nothing else.

 Mickmann wrote:
I really had fun playing 1k games with:

Dark Angels

2x Ravenwing Command
2x 6 Ravenwing Black Knights

1x Chaplain on Bike
1x 6 Outriders

2x 3 Outriders

I tend to use the "Wrath of the rock" Detachment for "Relics of the Old Age"-Strategem (and because all my units are harder to wound).

The army ist fast as feth, has lots of Plasma (and we all know, every1 loves plamsa), and good melee threat (Anti-Monster/Vehicle). Also RW Command has apothecarys, which WILL be worth their weight in gold.

Also, it's just fun to zoom around the battlefield on your bikes

Hmmn... I'm wondering how my 1k army would deal with that list.

Your bikes don't count as Vehicles do they?

Have you expanded your Ravenwing to 1500 or 2000?

I'm not really involved with 10th, but my crazy list in 8th/9th ed was an all Tyranid Warriors list. The first version of it was 50-60 Warriors, with a combination of Primes and Neurothropes to cover the HQ spots. The theory was basically maxxing out on Wounds (they were 3 apiece) and firepower (every Warrior carried a Deathspitter, which was essentially an Assault Heavy Bolter). That version did ok, but the lack of better AT weapons was a problem. The later version of the list maxxed out on Venom Cannons within the squads. I think I managed to get 15 - 18 Cannons in there or something. It worked reasonably well and was a fun list to run!

 Insectum7 wrote:
I'm not really involved with 10th, but my crazy list in 8th/9th ed was an all Tyranid Warriors list. The first version of it was 50-60 Warriors, with a combination of Primes and Neurothropes to cover the HQ spots. The theory was basically maxxing out on Wounds (they were 3 apiece) and firepower (every Warrior carried a Deathspitter, which was essentially an Assault Heavy Bolter). That version did ok, but the lack of better AT weapons was a problem. The later version of the list maxxed out on Venom Cannons within the squads. I think I managed to get 15 - 18 Cannons in there or something. It worked reasonably well and was a fun list to run!

I'm actually working on this currently as there is a Warrior Bioform Onslaught detachment for 10th.

Both the ranged and melee warrior varriants gain Battle Line, so you can have up to 6 squads of 6 each in your list, as well as 3 Primes to lead them for a total of 75 bases. (You can also get an enhancement for a Neurotyrant that allows them to lead a warrior squad too.)

All Warriors in the detachment get a 5+ Invul and OC increased to 3.

The strats are all pretty good, a revival one, some general combat buffs (some of which that benefit smaller nearby Tyranids if you go for a hybrid list in stead of just Warrior spam), sticky objectives, and one the lets a unit dissolve the cover a unit is behind which is pretty neat.

The melee Warriors can go up to S6 with a strat and re-rolling all wounds for Twin-Linked allows them to punch up well into light tanks. Things start to get dicey once they hit T12 though and you really need to lean on your 12 Venom Cannons.

I've got some repair work to do on some of the Warriors I picked up second hand, but them I'm going to give it a spin.