Hexrifle, anyone?

Just wondering whether anyone has had any success with Hexrifles?

If so, any tactics you'd care to share?

Or, is it just as awful as it looks?

Well, it's a sniper rifle. I haven't tested it yet, since my Haemy isn't finished, but I'm planing to.

My experience with Space Marine has taught me that a single sniper rifle is usually not a serious threat. A Scout unit with five sniper rifles, that can very well be a threat. Five shots are just more likely to hit than one.
The units that really should be weary of them are monstrous creatures and lone models in general.

Hex Rifles seem odd to me though. You can have three in a single unit, at most, and two of those would have to be on ICMs. Hits on 6s are insta-killing, but they have only AP 4.
That begs the question: What has armor weaker than a Space Marine's, hopefully no meat shield, and is actually worth a Haemonculus and/or a unit of Wracks dedicating their shooting phase (and subsequent assault phase) to the rather slim chance of killing it in one hit?

Played one in a game I'll write up a report for soon. Doubles with 1000pt lists. The hexrifle killed exactly 1 fire warrior all game long, and I fired it 5/7 turns.
Played two in one unit (haemy/acothyst) in a game with the old codex a year back vs deathwing. Accomplished nothing all game long; the wounds that did land on his libby were LoS'd onto guys who then passed their 2+ saves.
I mean, it looks so good on paper... but it just doesn't perform. Needing a 4 to wound and only doing anything significant on 6s means not enough bang for your buck.

Rokuro wrote:

Hex Rifles seem odd to me though. You can have three in a single unit, at most, and two of those would have to be on ICMs. Hits on 6s are insta-killing, but they have only AP 4.
That begs the question: What has armor weaker than a Space Marine's, hopefully no meat shield, and is actually worth a Haemonculus and/or a unit of Wracks dedicating their shooting phase (and subsequent assault phase) to the rather slim chance of killing it in one hit?

Yeah, I really don't understand what GW was thinking. It costs 5 times as much as an IG sniper rifle, but is barely better. Also, it's far too weak/unreliable to work in small-numbers... yet we have no capacity to take it in large numbers.

Also, I think it should cause ID on 6s to wounds, not 6s to hit. With hits, it means that half your ID hits are failing to wound even against a guardsman, whereas Rending and ID would make it a legitimate threat to MCs (including ones with 2+ saves - which our poison might otherwise struggle with).

I wish Haemonculi could take Ossefactors...

They used to cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but those days are past.

Did they ever cause wailing? I recall them being pretty terrible in the last dex also.

I bagged a tyrannifex in the old book in my first shot ever with one!

I don't think it ever caused wailing but I used to run it with splinterborn in the the last codex simply as the cheapest way to field something out of our terrible HQ options. But with the changes to trueborn capacity I haven't run it since.

I'm thinking pretty hard, course this is after my fourth or fifth beer, but I can't think of one unit that synergizes well with a hammie and a hex rifle. like I said, back in the day three trueborn with 2 splinter cannons on venom with a hammie and a hexrifle had it's merits, but I cannot think of anything now.

Massaen wrote:

I bagged a tyrannifex in the old book in my first shot ever with one!

100 rounds later.....anything?

I scored my first ever good shot in the last game that I played. Precision shot, instant death to a herald of Tzeentch on a disc in a unit of Screamers.


Literally the only time it has done anything ever for me since 5th edition. I just feel that the points could be much better spent somewhere else for ranged shooting.

I used it in prev redaction.
But now i haven`t playet haemies yet

Thor665 wrote:

Did they ever cause wailing? I recall them being pretty terrible in the last dex also.

Before I played DE I saw so-o-o many threads and posts about how Eternal Warrior needed to save you from them, about how they made Riptides or DKs a waste of points, and how they were so unbelievably broken, that it was a huge disappointment to me when I started playing and realized how essentially worthless they'd are. I always chalked it up to changes between 5th and 6th, and assumed 6th had fixed whatever had been "wrong" with them.

It's one of those whiny opinions you see yelled across the Internet (or saw, at any rate). I didn't, at the time, have enough knowledge to know if it was true or not.

Thor665 wrote:

Did they ever cause wailing? I recall them being pretty terrible in the last dex also.

I don't think so - they were pretty bad in the old book too.

I think someone worked out that, on average, you'd need one fewer shot than normal to take out your target. So, it would usually take 3 unsaved wounds to kill a 4-wound model.

And, of course, inflicting any wounds at all wasn't exactly easy.


I think if opponents were going to wail about anything, it would have been about the Shattershard. I miss that weapon.

The Shredder wrote:

I think if opponents were going to wail about anything, it would have been about the Shattershard. I miss that weapon.

As do we all.

I don't think I ever used it.

The only way I found to play it is with 2 Scalpel Squadrons.

I don't like Liquefator in this formation, 'cause the risk of an DS close to my enemy. So:
5 Wracks, Bone, Aco+Hex rifle
Four squad like this in DS at first turn+4 Venoms can easy take first blood (Wraithknights, any Tau squad, bikes etc..)

In this way, I like 4 Hex Rifles. Normally, I don't run it.

Jut not effective for points cost. make it 5 points and allow each wrack to take one (geeze give it to the mandrakes if we want an actual sniper!). Its a case where some guy has written it but not actually played the game. Nice in fluff, terrible in reality (see most codex entries)

I play very casual games and am always trying fun things, plus i like the look of hexrifles. My scapel squadron took two and I figured the 6 to ID hit means I might as well shoot em at my friends Flying Hive Tyrant... One shot hits, and gets a 6 to wound... he even had FNP psycic power on the hive tyrant too! It was good times, and because of that my friend proceded to jink his hive crone the rest of the game because he didnt wanna suffer the same loss Lol!

This was a turn 1 hive tyrant kill btw.

Hexrifle - its like, oh this thing will never work, go ahead, shoot it. What the...?!
And your holding the poker face "Told ya" while trying not to dance.

Fun story, I normally only equip haemonculi with them and in a game for the top spot on the challenge board he shot into the air and brought down a harpy with a single shot! After that they have done absolutely nothing for me but that's because I normally pop the casket turn 1 or 2 and they die shortly after that.

I'm actually considering running a squad of 5 Wracks with Ossefactor and Acothyst with Hexrifle, joined be a Warlord Haemonculus - also with Hexrifle, all in a Raider.

In all honesty, I'm not expecting much - but I have some Wrack models I want to use and this seemed like a fun build to try out. I also wanted to try a more shooty Haemonculus - to mix it up a bit from my normal grotesque-escorting one.

I'm also planning to use another 5-man wrack squad with 2 liquifiers (one on the Acothyst) joined by a Haemonculus with Liquifier Gun and WWP, in a Raider. As with the above, I'm not expecting much, but I like template weapons and it seemed like another fun build to try.

Since I'm using both in the same army, I was actually debating which Haemonculus to use as my warlord. As it stands, I've decided to use the Hexrifle one simply because he can fire from a 'safe' distance (the latter squad may well be a suicide unit).

I really like the look of the hexrifle, and since it really ks a gamble to have on the field i think two of them in the scalpel squadron would really make enemies fear and hunt them, leaving other parts of your fleet unshot on a good day. On a great day they instagib someone i am bringing some if i find the points but wound-for-wound almost anything is better than this.

I am considering a hexrifle on my for the time being foot slogging grotesques haemon to make some diference for the first turn or two before i get my meathooks in. Or maybe in a deep striking raider with grots?