WH 40k Your best general build

[Tom Artingstall]

Two words.

Commissar. Yarrick.

On a more in-depth answer, I run two HQs in my IG regiment. Lord Castellan Creed mans my company command squad from the centre, throwing out Get Back in the Fights and First Rank Fire!'s. Commissar Yarrick rides around in a chimera full of Ogryns and serves as a very scary assault beat-down. Nothing's stood up to a five-Ogryn + Yarrick charge so far.

 

[Ultrajoe]

On a more in-depth answer, I run two HQs in my IG regiment. Lord Castellan Creed mans my company command squad from the centre, throwing out Get Back in the Fights and First Rank Fire!'s. Commissar Yarrick rides around in a chimera full of Ogryns and serves as a very scary assault beat-down. Nothing's stood up to a five-Ogryn + Yarrick charge so far.

Ever charged Howling Banshees?

 

[verdant monkai]

Anti Tank Frank. He earned that name. He quite literally punches super heavy tanks into fireballs of doom, he withstood every shot from several thousand points of Imperial Guard and several Space Marine units, including three super heavies and three Basilisks, including that super heavy with the volcano cannon that fires 30 anti personnel shots at a time. He is a Chaos Space Marine sergeant with a power fist. I have literally never a lost a game involving him.

That's just awesome no other way to describe it.
Anti Tank Frank

 

[Versuvius]

Orks. Lotsa shootas, a few basic squads with choppa and slugga to tie up sentinels and other such vehicles, squad of bikers to fuck with tanks. WAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

 

[verdant monkai]

2 hands throwing all the figures off the table in a fit of rage, I win.

Wow aren't you hilarious, please contribute sensibly or not at all.

 

[repeating integers]

It comes down to winning vs fun, Ultramarine's players tend to have that huge look of smugness on their faces as they shut down your army before you can do anything thanks to their bombardments. In my opinoin, when you go to a games workshop game, you enter an unspoken agreement not to use things like bombardments to ruin games and make them into curbstomps.


Captcha: Bitter End
That is how beginner games end for me

Space Marine Orbital Bombardments? Aside from the one a Captain gets (which is 1 per turn at most - might be 1 per game), I don't think they get any.

 

[L. Declis]

Dark Eldar player here.

My usual load-out is an Archon with a Huskblade, Soul Trap, Combat Drugs, and a Shadow Field.

A boat-load of attacks that ignore armour and Instant Death, a randomb buff, a 2+ Invul (for a while) and everytime I kill a monstrous creature or Independent Character (which I instant-kill if I wound), I double my strength 11/12 times.

Have him leading 3 or 4 Grotesques, and have Urien in the army as well, means that I give them an extra point of Strength and a second pain token from Urien's ability, meaning that the Grotesques are Strength 7 on the charge with a boat-load of attacks and a lot of wounds and high toughess.

The entire combo is about 600-ish points (including a Raider), and Urien can also soak wounds, deal out instant-killing attacks and give another unit a Pain Token as well as allow Wracks as Troops (and slapping pain tokens on them as well, potentially, for free).

So yeah. My preferred combo of HQs. Don't take one without the other.

 

[MartianWarMachine]

I generally just use an unupgraded Reclusiarch. Those guys are so underrated, and they turn Death Company into unstoppable killing machines.

Pretty much this. Reclusiarch + Death Company + Jump Packs + Power Weapons = close combat rape squad. I played yesterday, and that 12-man unit alone wiped out a squad of Khorne Berzerkers with Kharn the Betrayer, a 5-man squad of Chaos Terminators, and punched a Chaos Predator tank into the ground. And I only lost 3 men. That + a Death Company Dreadnought usually makes up my entire army. Later, when/if I can acquire/make a Sanguinary Priest and Chaplain in Terminator armour, I might include an Assault Terminator squad for bigger battles.

Edit: Oh, un-upgraded... I gave the chaplain a jump pack, so I can charge straight into combat with the berzerkers on my turn. Which I didn't, because of Space Wolf Rhinos in the way...

 

[spartandude]

i tend to use one of the two

2 librarians with jump packs, blood lance and sword of sanguinious

or Super space vampire jesus aka Mephiston

 

[MartianWarMachine]

i tend to use one of the two

2 librarians with jump packs, blood lance and sword of sanguinious

or Super space vampire jesus aka Mephiston

Super Space Vampire Jesus x3

Have you considered taking a Furioso Dreadnought, upgrading it to a Librarian, and giving it Wings of Sanguinius? Flying. Librarian. Dreadnought.

 

[spartandude]

i tend to use one of the two

2 librarians with jump packs, blood lance and sword of sanguinious

or Super space vampire jesus aka Mephiston

Super Space Vampire Jesus x3

Have you considered taking a Furioso Dreadnought, upgrading it to a Librarian, and giving it Wings of Sanguinius? Flying. Librarian. Dreadnought.

i tend not to give em wings, usually just blood lance and shield of sanguinious, who needs wings when youve got him in a drop pod

 

[MartianWarMachine]

i tend to use one of the two

2 librarians with jump packs, blood lance and sword of sanguinious

or Super space vampire jesus aka Mephiston

Super Space Vampire Jesus x3

Have you considered taking a Furioso Dreadnought, upgrading it to a Librarian, and giving it Wings of Sanguinius? Flying. Librarian. Dreadnought.

i tend not to give em wings, usually just blood lance and shield of sanguinious, who needs wings when youve got him in a drop pod

Well, you can't assault from deep striking, basically giving the other team a turn to shoot at you, which is why I always start on the board. Because everyone has a jump pack x3

 

[Thaluikhain]

Space Marine Orbital Bombardments? Aside from the one a Captain gets (which is 1 per turn at most - might be 1 per game), I don't think they get any.

Chapter master (inc cahracters), 1 per game. Yeah, not that impressive, and they can't move when they fire it (and they will be in an expensive squad they are also slowing down), and they can't subtract their BS from scatters.

...

SM captain with thunderhammer on bike (bike squads with 5+ models are troops choices...oddly this doesn't happen if you have a chapter master on bike), and Vulkan He'stan, all thunder hammer, flame and melta weapons are master crafted.

He'stan is quite good in of himself. Spent 4-5 turns locked in combat with a dreadnought he couldn't hurt (he needs meltabombs), but it couldn't hit him either.

 

[repeating integers]

I generally just use an unupgraded Reclusiarch. Those guys are so underrated, and they turn Death Company into unstoppable killing machines.

Pretty much this. Reclusiarch + Death Company + Jump Packs + Power Weapons = close combat rape squad. I played yesterday, and that 12-man unit alone wiped out a squad of Khorne Berzerkers with Kharn the Betrayer, a 5-man squad of Chaos Terminators, and punched a Chaos Predator tank into the ground. And I only lost 3 men. That + a Death Company Dreadnought usually makes up my entire army. Later, when/if I can acquire/make a Sanguinary Priest and Chaplain in Terminator armour, I might include an Assault Terminator squad for bigger battles.

Edit: Oh, un-upgraded... I gave the chaplain a jump pack, so I can charge straight into combat with the berzerkers on my turn. Which I didn't, because of Space Wolf Rhinos in the way...

I've got 5 DCs, and I make sure to always keep them in a Land Raider until the optimum moment. I once charged them into a squad of 3 carnifexes, and they took down 2 in one turn (before sadly dying). Not bad for 6 men (including the Reclusiarch).

 

[winginson]

Big Mek with a Kustom Force Field. I don't think there are many HQs that make your army so much better for 85pts.

Daemon prince, wings, lash of submission. Hilarious, especially when backed up by vindicators.

Grey Knight Grand Master, force sword, rad grenades, psychostroke grenades. Backed up by terminators with 2 daemonhammers. 2+/3++, force weapon, crazy stuff happens to enemy, allows for non-psychic ID of MCs with your S10 hammers.

 

[MartianWarMachine]

I generally just use an unupgraded Reclusiarch. Those guys are so underrated, and they turn Death Company into unstoppable killing machines.

Pretty much this. Reclusiarch + Death Company + Jump Packs + Power Weapons = close combat rape squad. I played yesterday, and that 12-man unit alone wiped out a squad of Khorne Berzerkers with Kharn the Betrayer, a 5-man squad of Chaos Terminators, and punched a Chaos Predator tank into the ground. And I only lost 3 men. That + a Death Company Dreadnought usually makes up my entire army. Later, when/if I can acquire/make a Sanguinary Priest and Chaplain in Terminator armour, I might include an Assault Terminator squad for bigger battles.

Edit: Oh, un-upgraded... I gave the chaplain a jump pack, so I can charge straight into combat with the berzerkers on my turn. Which I didn't, because of Space Wolf Rhinos in the way...

I've got 5 DCs, and I make sure to always keep them in a Land Raider until the optimum moment. I once charged them into a squad of 3 carnifexes, and they took down 2 in one turn (before sadly dying). Not bad for 6 men (including the Reclusiarch).

...You keep them cooped up in a metal box with no fighting to do? That's evil! T^T

And yeah, Death Company > 'Nids. I lost three men and a Dreadnought's arm in a 1000-point bttle against a bunch of really big 'Nids, a Hive Tyrant, Carnifex, Venomthrope, Lictor, and that one that spawns hordes of gaunts. And there were a horde of Genestealers and Hormagaunts too. There were no survivors o.o

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

Ahh, wow... You guys are making me wish I'd stuck with playing tabletop Warhammer 40K. I basically lost interest when my local games store shut down which was mid-way through 4th edition. So basically any interesting tips or stories I might have are pretty out of date, unless you want to hear how my Librarian once blew up a full strength Baneblade with a single Melta-bomb.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Being a complete lazy-arse, I just go for Maugan Ra. I've seen him go toe-to-toe with Abaddon in the past.

His lack of an Inv Sv is probably his only flaw, because the Maugetar is probably one of the best unique weapons going... it's an AssaultCannon with extra shot/ignores cover save option, and results in S6 I7 PW in CC. Plus his model is badass...

With Eldar, any build has to include fully upgraded Pathfinders and Swooping Hawks.

My only problem with Pathfinders is that they're a points sink for what they do. 120pts min for five shots? Not really with it with most units having Ld9+.

As for Total war being like war hammer, I was never into modelling or painting the figures so for me it is, but if art (or RPing) is your thing then war hammer is good for that

I really reckon they should do Warhammer: Total War (for both Fantasy and 40K, 'cos let's face it, CA can only do so many rehashes of previous eras, some eras can't be done, others can't be balanced). Seriously, you can so see it happening, what with the Fantasy World map being as it is. The game's basically designed already...(!)

Pretty much this. Reclusiarch + Death Company + Jump Packs + Power Weapons = close combat rape squad.

Good god, that must've been expensive... and screw the Reclusiarch, just go for Lemartes. Thing is, power weapons makes them way to expensive and Black Company don't make good hammer units (much as you'd want them to) since they're a little on the unpredictable side (rage and all, though it's probably rather a minor point). On that load out, you're looking at 50pts/model, which is too much in my book (maybe not yours, but hear me out). They have massive staying power as it is with FNP, and once a unit of 5 (accompanied by a Chaplain, never mind Lemartes) charges, it packs 20 S5 I5 attacks with re-rolls to hit. And what you want are two round combats so that they can charge, kill, move next available turn. Otherwise, in single round combats, they're vulnerable to enemy fire and counter-charging. Sure, the power weapons make them absolute bitches, but it comes at a cost of points (obviously) and tactical foresight. True, my Black Company (jump packs only) take a mauling each battle, but I'm yet to fight a battle where they've been shot at in turn 2 onwards. I let my Terminators take the fire.

or Super space vampire jesus aka Mephiston

You've just made a Christian piss his pants! XD

 

[Thaluikhain]

You keep them cooped up in a metal box with no fighting to do? That's evil! T^T

since they're a little on the unpredictable side (rage and all, though it's probably rather a minor point).

Infantry don't suffer from rage when they are in transport vehicles.

IMHO, that's something you really need. Rage sucks

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

With Eldar, any build has to include fully upgraded Pathfinders and Swooping Hawks.

My only problem with Pathfinders is that they're a points sink for what they do. 120pts min for five shots? Not really with it with most units having Ld9+.

As long as you keep them in a defensible position where they can back up and be backed up by other units they claim their points back easily.

I once had a Terminator squad deepstrike right behind my lines with only Dire Avengers and Pathfinders with any line of sight, they didn't make it to the next turn.

The only army my Pathfinders have ever had trouble with was Imperial Guard, but then Harlequins deployed in a Wave Serpent make short work of every squad on the board.