Henchmen Squads

[Red Lost Soldier]

I can see the merit of them being very cheap, but an army solely composed of Henchmen would be eaten alive by a properly balanced army. Jokearo, which are not cheap, seem powerful, until you realize they can't move and shoot their Lascannon or Multimelta (Jokearo don't have Relentless and their weapons still fire as per their profile, unless they changed the wording on their wargear) and after that, the longest range weapon they have is a Stormbolter or Plasmagun, and no, the Jokearo range buff isn't reliable, so you should expect those as your basic ranges. You could always take them with TL-LC Razorbacks, but then they start getting expensive again.

 

I agree on the full henchmen army being sub par. You missed the plasma cannon and heavy bolter have a range greater than 24" though. Requirement of a babysitter Inquisitor is added. however the Inquisitor has access to longer range weapons, such as the Hellrifle. What henchmen do offer is cheap versatile squads to support the expensive GK versatile squads.

 

Also more thoughts on gunline squads. Do not take a Hellbade if your Inquisitor is needed to babysit servitors, there is a not insignificant chance of getting rage for your Inquisitor and that screws things immensely.