Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: What To Do If Your Battleline Units Suck
Goatboy here again. Some armies just have Battleline units that suck. Here’s what you can do about that.
Battleline feels like a rule that could have had potential (and could still have it). But right now, during this initial season of 40K the choice is simple. If your army’s Battleline options are good you take them, but if they are not there is no point. A unit that is supposed to define the bread and butter core of an army and allowing you to take more than the 3 we are used to has become just a joke of a choice.
Of course, this all could be from the big shift in how armies are built from the last edition to this new one. It could also be just how the rules don’t give you any benefit from taking Battleline beyond just having good Battleline options (aka Knights and their tiny bros of destruction). This is a frustrating thing for some players as Battleline could be a way to balance stuff. But then you have armies that are basically mostly Battleline like GSC who just would love it if other armies are weakened. It is a hard thing to balance.
So why even talk about it today? Well, Battleline used to be the units you had to take and would most likely just guard your backfield “base” objective. With the lack of decent options or the need to have to take them, armies have been shifting into two new unit options. Players are using either units that use Lone Operative or at the very least, can be easily combo’d into your army like some kind of delicious peanut butter treat wrapped in the pretzel embrace of your love.
My Battleline Units Suck – Now What?
This means today will talk about the best “options” for armies who have crap Battleline units – but can take some allies that easily fill in the gaping hole that is left in your army’s data sheets. That spot should be filled with your faction’s JV team. But instead, you’ve got cheaper and better options than those jerks. Let them languish in your army box. Let these allies become the Hero instead of the Zero.
So what are the best units to take to well – babysit your base and ensure you have the option to just hold your objective from time to time? Well, you have to look at the two armies that have access to very “cheap” allies that can be a lot more valuable in two specific ways. They either can do a very cool thing via a neat rules, or they are just so much cheaper than the cheapest option in your army.
Thankfully the good guys and bad guys both have options for this with Daemons for the Chaos side of things and the Imperial Agents …aka random units from Kill Team. Both of these guys are very interesting in that they provide a lot of weird synergy with your armies. Things like – I need guys to do an “action” near my area. I need guys that can deep strike. I need guys that cost less than one of my characters. I just need bodies to help cover my base from all those baddies that are out there.
Imperial Battleline That Don’t Suck
The Imperial side has a ton of options to pick from. You can see how they are all attached to a bunch of different Kill Team kits. The biggest thing to remember is that a ton are cheap, a few are tougher than they should be, and well you got a ton of options. The options are what drives this as we all know how hard it is to fill in that last 50 points of an army. But some Imperial Agents can easily slide in with a decent save and FNP all for less than 40 points of pure objective controlling efficiency.
The Exaction Squad – aka Adeptus Arbites – seems to be one of the better ones with a FNP option on top of just being a nice small 5 man unit. It won’t win you the game in doing damage but with their 4+ save and ability to nicely hide in cover they are a tough unit to dig out. The other cheap unit is the good ole Voidsmen-At-Arms that we all used to love. Besides being a nice easy kit to build they are a bit more expensive. But again – Voidsmen are a nice cheap unit to help hold their backfield. Being able to proc lethal hits is good too when shooting the closest model so they are not completely without damage merit.
Heck even the Inquisitorial Henchman are neat too as they can do some fun little anti deep strike options as well as some random tough bits to get thru. They are decently big, can get stacked buffs, and hide an Inquisitor pretty well. Heck, they can get close enough to see what you are looking at when trying to scroll thru your TikTok4000.
Chaos Battleline That Don’t Suck
On the bad guy side of things you got a few interesting options too. I think the biggest useful unit is the extremely annoyingly cheap The Changling. He sits at 75 points and has Lone Operative. On top of that, he is even more annoying if you get within 12” of him as his powers can go off and turn off your shooting. What is the point of running any daemon Battleline when this guy can just hold your point, be annoying, and not get shot?
Daemons even have a few other Lone Operative options, too – all cheaper than troop choices. The Blue Scribes are a more expensive Changling, and even the Masque can get into the thick of things too. I wonder if there is a big monster smash army with three different Lone Operatives running around causing targeting havoc?
Flamers of Tzeentch are not nearly as scary as they used to be, but for 65 points, you get 9 wounds to play with which is pretty dang impressive. I also like Flesh Hounds as they are a bit more expensive but with a free Heroic they could all of a sudden get a charge off and block/hold an objective if set up right.
All of these extra units just do more than Battleline, cost less than Battleline, and just seem so much better than any Battleline you could take in their respective armies or ally armies.
What units have you thought about using to fill out that last 50-100 points in your lists?
