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How do!

Having greatly enjoyed painting the new Thallaxi and Castellax kits this past week, I’m now pretty much committed to doing a second Heresy army, particularly one which is pretty flexible when deciding Naughty or Really Naughty for a given game or campaign.

From what I’ve seen and read thus far, their playstyle seems to be a hybrid of Tyranids and Classical Undead. In that I need to careful husband my characters and wargear selection, so my force remains as flexible as possible throughout the game.

And the humble Tech-Thrall certainly fits the chaff unit bill common to Tyranids and Classical Undead. Not particularly fighty, but dangerous enough in large numbers that my opponent can’t freely risk just ignoring them, but mostly useful for infesting and clogging up objectives with a poo load of bodies. Meanwhile my heavy hitters hit heavy and start gutting my opponent’s line.

But man. I really, really don’t know if I can be arsed to paint a load of them. I’m pretty sure I can adapt my quick and dirty Mechanicum scheme like, but I’d want around 60 if I was gonna field any. Which even at my current rate of painting is a long, and I fear boring, task.

Is it wise to spare myself such madness? I mean, at 105 points maxed out (45 for the first 10, 3 points each for up to 20 extra), it’s not as if I’m going to end up with significantly more Nice Shiny Big Things With Nice Shiny Big Guns. I mean, a single bare bones Castellax is just 10 points cheaper. And I suspect Thallaxi and Castellax sitting on objectives is….kind of a waste, as they’re quite aggressive units, and benefit against vehicles in particular for side and rear shots.

I don’t think there’s anything rules wise to stop me forgoing them. But is it even remotely advisable?

With literally nundreds of posts on this thread, figured I’d try to spark some discussion with a summary of comments from a matching post on Facebook.

In short? Seems they’re just not rated.

But I do wonder if those players are missing the purpose, and just how ridiculously cheap the Tech-Thralls are.

For instance, I can field 3 units of 30 Tech Thralls for a pretty piffling 315 points. And whilst BS2 is nothing to write home about, 18” S4, AP- Assault 2 seems surprisingly handy. Certainly the sort of stats which only need a fairly modest better than average set of rolls to start knocking noticeable holes in enemy units.

In keeping with the Classic Undead, I can also soup them up a bit, turn to turn, using characters and that.

And when I consider what else I just can’t buy in their place, I’m starting to think they bring enough to the table to justify the painting pain?

The big thing with undead isn't just cheap chaff, but chaff support as well. Undead armies are a pain because even when you kill their chaff, they often have tough units that are able to bring those chaff units back or boost them.

I think the thralls are worth it in that context if you can support them - if there are ways to get more from them than just bodies on the table.


One thing to consider is that the transport is actually pretty big and long on the table; that might (depending on your local tables) be a limiting factor in how much use you get out of them before they get stuck



That said putting down 90bodies for 315 points is nothing to turn your nose up at

I think I’d want them footslogging meself. The Triaros isn’t points or pounds cheap, and frankly I think I’d feel a bit daft putting such a cheap unit in a fancy car.

Like carrying an already dead squirrel to the vets in a specially hired stretch limo.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Like carrying an already dead squirrel to the vets in a specially hired stretch limo.

Are you telling us that you don't like squirrels?!

Also isn't transporting the undead to the front lines in fancy car(ts) the name of the game for the undead tactics you're emulating


I think I'd want to consider putting at least one squad in a transport. The ability to speed boost forward should not be under-estimated. The risk with foot-slogging is that your chaff unit ends up not reaching places in time to really provide the chaff element that you want.

I guess a single clown car could be fun. I’m getting one next month anyway, as the Thallaxi can have one, and therefore so can my Dark Angels. Well, once I’ve converted up a fitting Forge Lord.

And like Undead, having a chaff unit my opponent has to get through to get to the dusty, unbearing heart of my army make his or her life that little bit harder. Spesh if I can get a bit of Fearless on them, so you have to smash every single last one into little rusty pancakes.

Don't forget there's still ample stock of the battleforce set around. You can get a transport, more mechs and thralls with some discount with that.

But I did forget, Overread!

Will have a sniff around, see if I can source one locally.

I reccomend you bring atleast 30-50 odd thralls.
To get more troopslots i further recommend an archimandrite allying in a mechanicum support detachment.
Dirt cheap, annoying to remove, can be buffed quite significantly. Just allround a good choice to push the board presence scale in your direction a bit. Even if you just stick to 10 men techzombie squads

Also hundreds he says "laughing in militia squads".
Painting hordes with a quick and dirty sheme, one colour at a time is a surefire way to improve your painting speed and looks overall awesome.
As for rules they are the only natural access to frontline, for the bots to get that you require a hq with the right high technoarkana.

Just like militia you profit from the marine list dominance and "hordes" become really annoying for the average HH army to Deal with.

Price wise I’m not too upset.

Sure, paying the thick end of £50 for *checks notes* 75 points of models sounds insane. And if I was to build an army purely out of that set I’d be completely insane.

But…I’m choosing to look at it through a different, possibly more accurate lens.

Tech-Thralls offer a pretty poor bang for buck investment, sure. But my Automata and Thallaxi? Muuuuuch better, with each box coming in around the 220 points mark. Thanatars also offer pretty solid pound to point ratio.

Just my thoughts on it of course, and not to be read as a definitive statement on value.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I guess a single clown car could be fun. I’m getting one next month anyway, as the Thallaxi can have one, and therefore so can my Dark Angels. Well, once I’ve converted up a fitting Forge Lord.

And like Undead, having a chaff unit my opponent has to get through to get to the dusty, unbearing heart of my army make his or her life that little bit harder. Spesh if I can get a bit of Fearless on them, so you have to smash every single last one into little rusty pancakes.

Unless I am missing something, your Dark Angels can't get a Triaros. The Forge Lord rule that allows Thallaxii specifically states they can't have a dedicated transport, sorry.

Ah well. Still gonna be doing a Mechanicum army, so will get one anyways.