War Walkers?

[9x19 Parabellum]

So I kind of like War Walkers, they fit the theme of my "Guardian" based army. 

 

65 points for 'meh' shooting, though, and insignificant melee potential...not particularly fast (advanced positions is nice), not particularly tanky...I'm trying to figure out what to do with it. Get on objectives early and....what? Get blasted off as the obvious melta choice?  5++ doesn't help much when it only needs 1 melta gun to get through at close range. 

 

I can't really justify adding any of the long range guns when it's purpose is to get up close, plus it just gets more expensive which seems to defeat the purpose.

 

So...thoughts? Run them in units of 2?

[Tyriks]

I have been running two or three in a squad every game and loving them. I'm sure my games have been skewed a bit but the 5++ has saved me from melta (or melta-esque) shots every game so far (sometimes with Strands). I have settled into bringing two with Bright Lances and one with Scatter lasers all in one unit, forward deploy to an objective if needed. I put all wounds on the Scatter Laser model first, usually.

 

I do think my saves have been above average with the 5++ which might be skewing my perspective. But when I forward deploy them they seem to draw a lot more anti tank fire than any other vehicles I have hanging out in the backfield so I would bet even if I lose more going forward I'll still find a use for them.

[Captain Coolpants]

They seem somewhat easy to hide and can take 2 bright lances. That armour of contempt rule makes bright lances seem that much more better and worth while in my opinion. Having them in the backfield.

 

 

I don't see the benefit of the advanced positions rule because of how fragile they are, unless the opponent has made a glaring mistake and neglected one side of the table or something, or you want a distraction unit?

[TrawlingCleaner]

They're a fantastic unit for their points, although the loss of being a target for Guide or Autarch rerolls is a real shame. My go to with the 8th ed book was a unit of 3 with Star Cannons with Guide.

These days I take 3 with Bright Lances with a Biel Tan reroll to hit and Strands they tend to down most targets that I point them at.

Advanced positions is nice sometimes but not really something that the unit relies on, unless you want to get very aggressive with them.

[Karhedron]

My concern in the past has been that the Heavy support section has a lot of competition. This has eased now that Wraithlords have moved to Elite and Dark Reapers have been nerfed directly in the new codex and indirectly via AoC.

 

But with Fire Prisms, Falcons and Support platforms all looking strong, I am not sure War Walkers would make the cut for me. If they had CORE, that might be enough to swing it but as it stands, I am still looking elsewhere for my firepower.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

At the very least they need the GUARDIAN keyword so you can use Martial Citizenry or Discipline of the Black Guardians on them. It gives them an accuracy buff without opening them to full rerolls via psychic powers.

[Toldavf]

What's meh exactly about the shooting? they are capable of doing the same damage as a unit of iron striders and are more resilient for around the same points. They also have access to the fire and fade strat so you can duck your unit out of LOS. Since the new data slate introduced AOC they are also the most point effective way to include star cannons.  

 

It's a long range support unit, getting up close is a bad idea. 

Edited April 28, 2022 by Toldavf

[Karhedron]

You make a good point comparing them to Ironstriders, perhaps I am not giving them a fair chance. A twin brightlance WW costs the same as a twin lascannon Ironstrider. They have almost identical stats but the WW has a better invuln and Forward Deploy. The WW also has a smaller base making them easier to maneovre and make use of terrain for screening.

 

I guess my disdain for WWs is partly that their armament is plain. You can get those heavy weapons on every Wraithlord, Falcon, Wave Serpent, Vyper and Guardian squad in the army. I don't actually need to buy a unit for them as my existing units bring that capability by default. Having said that, they do bring a lot of firepower in one place. And the 5++ is handy for Strands of Fate if you want to make sure that melta shot bounces off your power field.

[Captain Coolpants]

It is a weird one. I doubt the competitive players would say its good, but they are definitely one of the cheapest ways to do a bright lance/star cannon spam list. If you really wanted to, you could easily fit like 20+ bright lances onto a 2000pts list for the fun of it lol.

[Toldavf]

It is a weird one. I doubt the competitive players would say its good, but they are definitely one of the cheapest ways to do a bright lance/star cannon spam list. If you really wanted to, you could easily fit like 20+ bright lances onto a 2000pts list for the fun of it lol.

That would certainly make the death guard cry.