How many raptor squads with Haarken

[BrainFireBob]

Trying to decide if a 10 man, 2 plasma gun, powerfist squad, or 2 5 man powerfist 2 plasmagun squads would be the smarter move alongside Haarken. Ark of Omens seems to inherently favor min size squads, which makes me think 10th won't.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I'm not sure I would make that assumption - late editions can be a bit weird, with them trying out things that can either prove to be experiments or that wind up being adopted as part of the new edition.  Hard to say which this is, so I'm not sure what benefit there is in trying to crystal ball things over building what works best now.  If it is a central concern, my advice is to either magnetize the models or paint up 7 models with the last 3 to be equipped appropriately when the new edition roles out.

 

Now, if you were to crystal ball it, my guess is that 10th edition will still favour small units unless it is a reboot in the way 8th was as:

1)  the leadership and morale rules have favoured small squads since at least 8th;

2)  the squad equipment rules, in that equipment is generally by squad rather than by x number of guys, and increasingly so in newer codexes, have increasingly (for us at least) moved towards "by squad" rather than increasing for larger squads; and

3)  regardless of the rules set, 2 squads are more survivable than 1 squad with the same numbers, as it is easier to hide smaller squads and the division makes it harder for your opponent to kill a squad without overkilling it and wasting fire power.

 

Really, within the 8th-9th edition ruleset, the only reasons to take a larger squad over 2 smaller ones is if you are running out of force org. slots or if you have 1 or more potent squad buffs that works on only one squad (such as many psychic powers, prayers and stratagems do), in which case you need to evaluate whether the ability to trigger it on more models is worth the inherent disadvantages of going with a larger squad.  So, for example, prior to our new codex I would field my noise marines in squads of 12 as that way I could get the best use of the +1 hit prayer or psychic power and the "shoot again" strategem - now, with no shoot again stratagem and loosing the ability to take a second blastmaster in larger squads, I no longer think the balance lies with the larger unit.

 

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Prot]

Honestly I think you should playtest it.

 

I've tried Haarkan a few times and Raptors with and without Haarkan. The results have been mixed.

 

I think if you use Haarkan, I prefer giving the Raptors some clout. I would continue to take 2 small squads with decent weapon load out. They need a smaller foot print for deep strike when used. Then you can stagger them if you want.

 

Don't glue the weapons on. I found you can glue the arms on a certain way so the weapon more or less can sit there cupped in their hands. I intend on gluing them down in 10th or even using Mactac. 

 

Without Haarkan I've been running them very vanilla, and using them strictly for scoring. With or without Haarkan they disappear. They also don't hit hard at all... they're kind of at a disadvantage without AoC and their points stayed up when the loyalist stuff went down, (really not sure why they did this to Chaos.)

 

From my own experiences, with Haarkan, I run one squad of 5-6 Raptors, and one squad of 5 Warp Talons. (they can actually get some work done with him around).