Helbrutes: Making them work

[Prot]

I magnetized the left arm on mine, just dont glue both ends of the pipes/cables. It does force some positions on your guns and I dont think every combination can be done.

I've magnetized two Helbrutes and can get every weapon combination. The magnets I bought though ended up being smaller than I thought they were going to be, so I had to double up on them. The only parts I couldn't figure out how to magnetize (probably because I didn't have the foresight to glue the magnets before gluing the other pieces together >_< ) were the Thunder Hammer and Power Scourge arms. I tend to use the Power Scourge more often, so I just glued them to the arm.

It is pretty confusing on which parts go where on the plastic Helbrute model. It took me forever to figure that out, but I'm satisfied with the results! I can post pics here if you think that might help you.

I'm out of my 'Like' quota for the day or you'd get like 10 from me. Please post this in a new thread! I'm sure a lot of people would benefit tremendously from the hard work you've put into your Helbrutes!

[incinerator950]

I have DV brutes, the auto cannon would be easy to convert but what about plasmas?

[Scribe]

I dont think it would be too hard to throw an ecto gun on and call it a day.

 

I would go (and will when I can be bothered) for DCCW + Plasma Cannon in my Helcult.

[tylerw]

 

 

Care to share with the rest of the community? Or is it just a case of converting plastic/eBay?

 

Blood Angels have the best drop pod dread options and they're not much good tbh. I don't see how more expensive options would be massively more effective but I've said my piece, enjoy your very unique army!

I could be wrong, but I feel that SW have the best options - their vanilla dread is 10 points less than the vanilla BA, and Murderfanghornclaw, while 10 more than a furioso, will also probably handle a furiouso (although maybe their melta shot makes the difference or something, and they take him?).

 

Unless you feel that Red Thirst is worth the 10 extra points on the vanilla.

 

 

BA pods are 35 points, surely SW don't get them for less than that? Also, Death Company Dreads are troops choices. So, they can run 3 Furiosos with melta, frag cannon and fist; then 3 DCDs with metla, blood talons/fists and a Hflamer.

 

Not competitive but that's 5 Dreads on turn 1 for less than 1000 points.

 

 

Not trying to get TOO OT, but troop dreads are nice, makes sense, however, SW pods cost the same, while their dreads are 10 cheaper - basically you can get the classic "melta a big things, then tarpit stuff" dread in a pod for 130, and you can throw on a deathwind ML, still costing less than 150.  There is also a formation with Bjorn that lets you take him and venerable dreads, giving them all 5++, which can be nice, but that's starting to get more expenses.

 

And the reason I feel like the vanilla SW might be the "best" dread, vanillawise, is because I have a hard time leaving home with less than 3 melta-heavy pods, typically going with 2 basic dreads in pods + 1 pod of melta Grey Hunters.  Slapping deathwinds on those pods gives me the warm-and-fuzzies, and solid answers to armor and hordes (because of the deathwinds) in relatively cheap packages.  I sure would love if my melta-dreads were troops though.

[incinerator950]

I dont think it would be too hard to throw an ecto gun on and call it a day.

 

I would go (and will when I can be bothered) for DCCW + Plasma Cannon in my Helcult.

I was thinking of chopping the arm off for the hades auto and jyst calling it the regular one.

[Lucio]

I have DV brutes, the auto cannon would be easy to convert but what about plasmas?

I built a Plasma Cannon one using the Plasma Cannon from the DV Dark Angel heavy weapon guy. Took it off near the start of the coil and used greenstuff to hide the join and to integrate the conduits.

 

[incinerator950]

Yeah I only have DV brutes.

[Lucio]

Yeah I only have DV brutes.

So is the one in the photo

[incinerator950]

I don't have anything else from dv.

[Lord Asvaldir]

Then grab a plasma cannon off ebay. I plan on using the plasma cannon from the helbrute kit for my DV helbrute, with a little green stuff it should fit. 

[Carrack]

I had some test games with my friend's CSM last night. I wanted to try out his helbrute because I like the model. His was kitted out with a plasma cannon and power scourge. The plasma cannon did its job admirably against his biker heavy marines, but I was less than impressed with the scourge. Looking at the to hit chart and i found that against ws4 I only had a 1 in 3 chance of actually improving my defense with it. And it was a point costed upgrade that lessened the Brute's ability to damage vehicles and insta death bikers. Against WS3 models you get a 2/3 chance to get better defense but a lot of WS3 models are going to have trouble damaging the Brute anyway. (Scouts, guard with krak grenades for example)

 

The only sure benefit I see is it lets you hit on 3s. I don't know if that is worth the points and 2/3 reduction in strength. Does anybodies experience with the scourge differ?

 

It looks pretty brutal on the model though

[McGibs]

I played two games today with my newly constructed mayhem pack, and loved them! In both games they proved to be fantastic at giving me board control and keeping the initiative all game. Deepstriking them into problem areas put my opponents onto back-footing, as they were forced to scramble in response to 2 or 3 brutes. They're not too expensive, with all 3 being what I'd normally spend on a regular assault squad +HQ (like berserkers, bikes, spawn/jugg, etc), and with varied weapon load-outs they are extremely versatile (I ran one with plasma, one with autocannon, and one with melta/scourge) able to tackle whatever you need them to respond to. They in themselves don't put out enough firepower to kill things by themselves, but that's not their role. They are the PERFECT anvil unit. They're cheap, fairly durable, and extremely flexible with deepstriking and potent shooting and CC weapons. They will show up, draw fire and lock a problem target in place, giving your hammer units (faster, harder hitting assault units) time and safety to respond.

In my first game against necrons, my opponent deep struck a monolith and 20 warriors with HQ into my backfield cultists (who thankfully survived the opening volley). In response, I landed 2 helbrutes next to them. Instead of executing his planned strategy, destroying all my backfield troops and rapier batteries, he was forced to spend two turns dealing with angry dreadnoughts, giving me enough time to bring back other assault from across the map (they'd been destroying HIS backfield). The helbrutes effectively let me stand my ground on a two-front battle, and come out on top. They all died, but they definitely proved to be a great asset to my overall strategy.

 

As for the scourge, I've been trying to think of it not as a defensive boost (1 in 3 chance vs WS4), but as a supportive offensive boost. It gives the brute himself a boost to hit, but its also possible to boost other units in the same combat. If you charge first with the brute, you can generally get most of the enemy unit into base-to-base with him (lowering the majority WS), then charge with another unit, who now get a tasty bonus! It also travels into challenges, so if you can cozey up the the enemy character, you can give your own champion a better chance to strike the killing blow.

I usually keep the multimelta if if running a scourge, so his anti-vehicle capabilities arent as much an issue.

[brother_contagion]

I find that Power Scourges are best used on Defilers since they can have 3 PFs and the Scourge, which makes them monsters in CC. I find my Helbrutes in a Mayhem Pack best suited with PF Heavy Flamers and Plasma Cannons, cause I love to get the double tap with that tasty S7 AP2 Blast against infantry. If not that I leave them with Multi-Meltas. If I ever take them by themselves I'll equip with Reaper Autocannons or Plasma Cannons so it can give them better range as they foot slog or hide in cover defending an objective or some Cultists. If I take the Helcult, I'll give them TL Lascannon and a Missile Launcher. They can be pretty effective.

[Chaeron]

Interesting to hear some good results: definitely in larger games I'd want to try it, perhaps to fill points or whatever in an Apocalypse-sized, or larger game. 

 

It'd be nice to see them used more often: the older Dread particularly is one of my favourites, although perhaps much reviled, and the Forge World Sculpts are tasty too!

[Lucio]

There's a part of me wanting to try a Mayhem pack in 600pt game, with a bare bones HQ and Cultist pack to round out the forces.

[40kChrista]

"I've magnetized two Helbrutes and can get every weapon combination."

 

I've done the same, it's actually pretty easy and I think once you get the stock gun arm magnetized the gun barrels... las, plas, MM, AC... can actually sort of just snap on. It just takes some planning.

[40kChrista]

Since my buddy is starting to use bigger guns... a Knight and a Sicaran... the Mayhem pack is looking like a good way to mess with him. I haven't used any of the formations yet, but I have 2 DV brutes, 2 magnetized brute kits (thinking of getting another), and 2 converted dreads from when metal Chaos dreads were a thing.

 

So I could run several formations with a R&H list for a lot more scoring bodies. But this thread has given me a lot of ideas to try out. Thanks to everyone for your input so far!

[Prot]

I find my Helbrutes in a Mayhem Pack best suited with PF Heavy Flamers and Plasma Cannons, cause I love to get the double tap with that tasty S7 AP2 Blast against infantry. If not that I leave them with Multi-Meltas.

 

What do you mean by 'double tap' that tasty S7 AP2 blast?

 

I actually like one to be longer ranged, but I'm undecided.... 1 Plasma Canon, 1 MM, 1x???

 

 

"I've magnetized two Helbrutes and can get every weapon combination."

 

I've done the same, it's actually pretty easy and I think once you get the stock gun arm magnetized the gun barrels... las, plas, MM, AC... can actually sort of just snap on. It just takes some planning.

 

Does anyone who's done this have a picture?

[40kChrista]

 

Does anyone who's done this have a picture?

 

 

 

Yup...

 

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p71/ublaz3/IMG_6096.jpg

 

All those options are magnetized.  I ended up using one "down" shoulder and one "up" shoulder for a little variance in the pose.  I guess if I had thought about it more I could have magnetized the thunder hammer as well to be able to swap out from the scourge.  

[Prot]

Very cool. Thank you for posting that.

 

So the left arm you magnetize the whole arm, and the right arms are only the weapon itself onto a permanent arm?

[McGibs]

The weapon options on the right arm fig pretty snugly, they probably dont even need magnets. But yeah, theres a left 'gun arm' that all the weapon options fit into. The only one that needs a bit of finangaling is the scourge/hammer, as they both share the same shoulder piece. 

[brother_contagion]

 

I find my Helbrutes in a Mayhem Pack best suited with PF Heavy Flamers and Plasma Cannons, cause I love to get the double tap with that tasty S7 AP2 Blast against infantry. If not that I leave them with Multi-Meltas.

 

What do you mean by 'double tap' that tasty S7 AP2 blast?

 

Fire Frenzy.

[40kChrista]

Very cool. Thank you for posting that.

 

So the left arm you magnetize the whole arm, and the right arms are only the weapon itself onto a permanent arm?

 

No problem at all Prot.

 

McGibs beat me to it.  All the arms are magnetized at the shoulder.  So both power fists, the power scourge, the missile launcher, and the gun arm all attach there.  There additional smaller magnets for the different options for the gun arm, but as McGibs said they do fit pretty snug so magnets might not be needed for the different gun muzzles.

 

This photo should clear things up.

 

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p71/ublaz3/IMG_6356.jpg

[Prot]

That is sweet. I will have to break down and crack my two boxes open and just get it done.

 

I think this is probably our best formation. Perhaps better than Helguard simply because it doesn't dominate 75% of your list.