Any experience with Adsecularis Tech Thralls?

[MARK0SIAN]

I’ve had a small Mechanicum army for a few years but I’ve never owned or used Tech thralls (largely because of the price barrier). However, now there’s some plastic ones heading my way in the Mechanicum box I’m debating what to do with them or if they’re even worth bothering with at all. It’s a lot of models to paint up for a 75 point unit after all. 
 

Their stats are obviously nothing very special but I’m fine with that if they have other uses. The problem I see is that even though they’re stubborn they only have leadership 6. It seems like it’ll be trivially easy make them run as there’s no way to make them fearless like in 1st edition (not that I have a problem with that in itself, a fearless blob of 30 models is not fun for anyone to face) and using a hq to babysit them seems a bit over the top.

 

So does anyone have experience of running tech thralls this edition? What have you done with them? How did it work out? Are they worth the effort to build and paint them or should I just put them on eBay?

 

Cheers

[Noserenda]

They did get some severe nerfing this edition but they are still an incredibly cheap scoring troops choice with surprisingly stingy weapons. They are annoying to get rid of, and when you do you absolutely spent more fire/assault power than they were "worth" :D 

Ultimately though, they are less about what they do, and more about what they free up the rest of your list to do, or what attention they pull from your other units. Plus the usual chaff jobs like backline scoring, bubble wrap and speed bumps.
 

[MARK0SIAN]

10 hours ago, Noserenda said:

They did get some severe nerfing this edition but they are still an incredibly cheap scoring troops choice with surprisingly stingy weapons. They are annoying to get rid of, and when you do you absolutely spent more fire/assault power than they were "worth" :D 

Ultimately though, they are less about what they do, and more about what they free up the rest of your list to do, or what attention they pull from your other units. Plus the usual chaff jobs like backline scoring, bubble wrap and speed bumps.
 

Thanks, so they do manage to stay on the table for a while then? I just had visions of putting down 20 dudes then seeing 15 of them run away in the first turn as they faced a leadership test from some shooting.

[Noserenda]

If theyve taken enough fire to take that many casualties, theyve probably already earned their points, that or you are on an unlucky streak anyway :D 

 

[Razorblade]

I generally don't think they're worth it in this edition.

Mechanicum has no shortage of tough line units and at LD 6 they're very trivial to pin, shutting of their scoring. Admechs other troop choices are also decent enough that I wouldn't want them purely to cut down on the "troop-tax". That said, 45 points for an extra line unit is very cheap, there are certainly worse things you could spend your last couple of points on, if you have them.