Building my scourges... loadouts?

So, I am about to build my scourges. I am personally someone who favors wysiwyg. I don't care if my opponent does it, but for me, I hate saying "this guy right here, with the splinter rifle, oh he actually has a dark lance." It makes it easier for me to visualize as well when I look at the board. If I see 2 dark lances, I know I have 2 dark lances.

That all being said, I am building my single pack of scourges that I am not 100% sure how I will use them... been thinking about deep striking them in once I get other stuff across the board.

Does anyone every actually make the Solarite? Is it worth the points? If so... what do you usually outfit it with.. would the agonizer be worth the extra? I was thinking about making them primarily a ranged deep strike unit to drop in and assist a unit locked in combat with tanks or something to that affect.

I love the close combat weapon look but obviously may not be the strongest compared to the agonizer or power lance..

Since I can only have 4 of the 5 with power weapons, I am at an crossway.

I was thinking that the Haywire blaster, Blaster, Dark lance, and Heat Lance were all the decided weapons, but was wondering if anyone else thinks something else would be better. Obviously they would probably end up being a tank killing unit. 2 Haywires would be better... but I only have what is in the pack.

So a lot of people here will tell you don't take a solarite. They will say to build 4 special weapons with either Haywire blasters or heat lances and a single one with a splinter carbine as anything else is a waste of points.

I have a different thought process that leads me to spend the points on the Solarite.

Haywire blasters are the best weapon for glancing a vehicle to death. Within 2 feet any vehicle will be reliably heavily glanced and it will most likely be disabled in some way by the pen table, but far more importantly IT WILL NOT EXPLODE

Alternatively

Heatlances will do all of that for the same price AND MAKE THEM EXPLODE, but will only be able to do it effectively within 9".


If I take heatlances all of a sudden I need to be within 9" if the enemy to make sure I really kill them, and that makes the biggest drawback of the blast pistol, it's limited range, no longer such a problem. This approach lets me have 5 Anti-AV/Anti-[TEQ/MEQ] type weapons in the unit. If I am taking a solarite with a blast pistol I am giving them a Venom blade since it's the cheapest and best option for who they should be fighting. The only other weapon that isn't available on a better platform for close combat is the power lance and +1 to strength and ap 3 on the charge just isn't good enough on a 4+ armour jump platform like scourges, maybe if they had drugs.

I find that the best way to get within 6 inches of the enemy is via deep strike. and as such they need to be able to take on everything.

The best way to manage that is to avoid strictly anti vehicle weapons like the haywire blaster, and to remember that in most cases 2 haywire blasters or 2 heatlances will be good enough that 2 blasters can finish the job.

My loadout depending on what I am deep striking into:

Secondary targets predominantly TEQ's
Solarite w/Blast pistol and Venom blade
2 heatlances
2 blasters
[160 pts]

Secondary targets predominantly light vehicles
Solarite w/Blast pistol and Venom blade
2 haywire blasters
2 blasters
[160 pts]

Secondary targets predominantly heavy vehicles
Solarite w/Blast pistol and Venom blade
2 heatlances
2 haywire blaster
[150 pts]

Here's how you should build them so that you can do this once you can get a second box, and you will want atleast a second box as Murderflocks are awesome. This is completely buildable in your box.

Solarite w/Blast pistol and Venom blade
1 heatlance
1 haywire blaster
2 blasters
[160 pts]

You either cut the barrel off of a dark lance, or you grab the blast pistol your kabalite sybarite isn't using and transplant it's barrel in place of the barrel of the shredder the Scourge kit comes with. Don't take dark lances just because. They may have good range but heavy is such an incredible drag it isn't even reasonable.

Are you opposed to magnetizing them? You'd only have to do the arms which really isn't much trouble, even if you've never done magnetization before.

For your question though, I'd run 4x Haywire. They have sufficient range to deploy on the board, and you can still deepstrike the same way you would with heat lances when that's appropriate. Avoid the Shredder because I don't even think it's more useful than the Shardcarbine. 4 Dark Lance Scourge are approximately the same price per lance as a Lance Ravager and less mobile, so I'd avoid those too.

The Solarite can get his Agoniser at a discount, but keep in mind that it's still just a unit of 5 T4 4+ models - not terribly survivable. I'd avoid Solarite because that's just 25 points more that doesn't actually make the unit more survivable, and you lose the bullet-catcher Shardcarbine guy who'd otherwise stand in front of the Haywire Scourge.

For converting haywire blasters, simply stick the haywire barrel from a Talos kit on a Shredder or Heat Lance.

Thank you for the replies so far.

I have thought about magnetizing, as I have been magnetizing every vehicle I have and bigger units such as grotesques, the smallest magnets I have right now are 3x1mm. They would fit but be very very tight and need to be exact in the drilling.

Personally I'd hold out for 2's and superglue until then. Snaps off cleanly enough if you need to swap arms around or switch to magnets. I superglue all my removable pieces and plastic cement things that ought not come apart.

I run 2 units of 4 Haywire Blasters in each - been the best decision I've made for early game turn AT.

Effective 36" range, can also deepstrike in and doesn't really matter if you scatter back 10" coz you'll likely still be in range (LOS permitting of course LOL) but yeah, one of the best AT units we have!

hewster wrote:

So, I am about to build my scourges. I am personally someone who favors wysiwyg. I don't care if my opponent does it, but for me, I hate saying "this guy right here, with the splinter rifle, oh he actually has a dark lance." It makes it easier for me to visualize as well when I look at the board. If I see 2 dark lances, I know I have 2 dark lances.

When they're on the board, I usually don't look close enough to actually see their weapons. I prefer to know which one has which by their wings or such.

Each to his own.

hewster wrote:

That all being said, I am building my single pack of scourges that I am not 100% sure how I will use them... been thinking about deep striking them in once I get other stuff across the board.

If you're thinking of deep-striking them, I'd definitely advise Heat Lances.

hewster wrote:

Does anyone every actually make the Solarite? Is it worth the points? If so... what do you usually outfit it with.. would the agonizer be worth the extra? I was thinking about making them primarily a ranged deep strike unit to drop in and assist a unit locked in combat with tanks or something to that affect.

To answer your questions in order:
Yes, I made the Solarite. But, I never actually use one - his purpose is to look nice and to be 'the model without a useful weapon'.
No, it's not worth the points.
I wouldn't outfit it with anything. Agoniser is most certainly not worth it. It's a poor weapon even on our HQs, and Solarites lack the necessary WS and attacks to do anything meaningful with it. Also, it's very likely that the unit won't get an opportunity for melee. Most enemies will have little trouble deleting the unit from the table.

hewster wrote:

I love the close combat weapon look but obviously may not be the strongest compared to the agonizer or power lance..

The thing is, Scourges aren't a melee unit and should really be avoiding it at all costs. But, if you really want a Solarite with a melee weapon, then I'd suggest the humble Venom Blade - which at least has the advantage of being cheap.

hewster wrote:

I was thinking that the Haywire blaster, Blaster, Dark lance, and Heat Lance were all the decided weapons, but was wondering if anyone else thinks something else would be better. Obviously they would probably end up being a tank killing unit. 2 Haywires would be better... but I only have what is in the pack.

I wouldn't want them with Dark Lances. Ever.

As above, I'd advise Heat Lances if you're planning to deep strike them. If you want to start them on the table, then Haywire Blasters would be my first choice.

Blasters can already be taken elsewhere, and Dark Lances should be left for vehicles and relentless platforms.

Seriously. Heavy is HORRIBLE on a jump pack platform.

Awesome, thanks again for all of the info.

I am having a blast learning everything about the game/army. Been really taking my time building everything.. I am a perfectionist and when I see people who have GW models painted like crap or lazily put together it makes me cringe... especially DE.. they are simply beautiful models.

Agreed. But keep in mind that some people just have no talent for painting.

I can understand that... but I'm no artist and I just started painting minis a few months ago lol.

Have fun playing games dude but be mindful that other people just don't like to paint, or perhaps don't have the time to Iearn and develop skills. Not everyone in this hobby is a great painter

But I agree with him that some kind of effort should be put in. There is a difference between not being able and not caring.

hewster wrote:

when I see people who have GW models painted like crap or lazily put together it makes me cringe... especially DE.. they are simply beautiful models.

*quietly leaves the room*

2 units of 4x Haywire blasters for me. Making transports not explode can be pretty hilarious if you can double team with some Jetbikes.

Surround the vehicle with jetbikes, glance it to death with Haywire. Troops inside can't make emergency disembark because jetbikes are occupying the area around the vehicle and they can't move through them or be placed within 1" of them. All the occupants are removed as casualties

That's actually a really nice tactic. How many bikes do you need for a land Raider, an Ork truck etc?

CptMetal wrote:

That's actually a really nice tactic. How many bikes do you need for a land Raider, an Ork truck etc?

You need to have no space between them for the enemy to move, but you can place them end-to-end with less than an inch between them so the base of your enemy can't move between.

You have to surround it completely, not just the access points because an emergency disembark can be from anywhere on the hull, not just the access points.

You can do it with 6 on a rhino, especially if you use the unit of Scourges to help as well. Landraider or larger you're looking at about 9+.

Really want to try this in a large game with a friend who takes the 25 man capacity Forgeworld Landy-Thing with about 20 plague marines in

Hmm interesting tactic..

But the enemy has to keep 1 inch distance to my troops, so shouldn't a little bit less 3 inches (assuming his base has a 1 inch diameter) be enough?

Just do the magnetising and paint all weapons! Be a real papa!

And perfectionist - well its a kind of a man who say better perfect and never then ok and now. Painting is a path, and like all the paths it has its aprentinceship stage. You need practice and striving to be really good, and your first squads will at max be neat and clean looking.

If you want to learn to paint good i wont advise to do it while batch painting different squades, that can be discouraging. Go on ebay purchase some single models, and train on them.

Before even that train on paper, learn to make thin lines with roughly same amount of paint thickness, good circles, paralel lines, thinly painted squares. You need to start with control over brush before anything else. If you can make freehands from our transfer sheet - you are mostly ready.

Consider getting good brush. Consider getting airbrush. Consider getting drying retarder. Consider getting something comfortable for hand to pin the miniature to, you dont want to hold mini for base when painting, it steals effort.

Perfectionism can lead a long way, think twice about it. Maybe its better to just have a finished army on game quality, like the rest of the guys .