Wracks: (still) Trying to Make 'Em Work

I was taking a look at Wracks again and trying to think about what they're good at. Essentially it came down to:

- They're resilient.
Not like Necrons. Not like Terminators. But more like Space Marines. Sure they lack the armour save but they can be made out to be Fearless very easily, which ensures they stick to any fight they're thrown into. There's also the potential to boost their FNP to 4+.

- They have a lot of attacks.
Not like Khorne Berzerkers. Not like Orks. But like Assault Marines. By this I mean: they have one attack base, plus two for bringing their tools to work and a third on the charge. Not bad; 30 attacks on the charge!

- They're cheap.
Not like Gretchins, but same points value as Plaguebearers, which is 5 points less than a Space Marine!

They're not great. But they're not horrible. And hell, they even had the heart to volunteer for the position! Let's at least start by giving them a medal of recognition for their efforts. And let's also remember that they're 5 points cheaper than an Assault Marine while being as resilient (as a Fearless unit, because they won't run away), and they put out as much hurt as Assault Marines.

Granted: Assault Marines aren't all that great either, but there are a few ways that I'd use them for:

1. Holding Opponents in Place.
You could use them to hold a unit down until something bigger and scarier can take over (stole this from the Tyranids playbook). This is similar to the role of a tarpit, but tarpits generally shut units down for the entirety of the game. What I'm talking about here is a unit that temporarily holds an opposing unit in place until something like a unit of Grotesques can move in for the kill, and as you'll soon see they're a fair match for Tactical Marines as well. Consider the following:

Round-1:
-- 10x Wracks Assault 10x Tactical Marines
-- 10x Wracks charge 10x Tactical Marines; 1 dies to Overwatch
-- 9x Wracks kill 3x Marines; 10x Marines kill 2 Wracks

Round-2:
-- 7x Wracks kill 1 Marine; 7x Marines kill 1 Wrack

Round-3:
-- 6x Wracks kill 1 Marine; 6x Marines kill 1 Wrack

Round-4:
-- 5x Wracks kill 1 Marine; 5x Marines kill 1 Wrack

Round-5:
-- And so on..

So what's been happening all this time? Other units of Wracks bogging down other units of Marines? Grotesques joining the fight? Wyches moving in to potentially make themselves useful? Jetbikes grabbing objectives? If you're asault 10x Marines with 10x Wracks, your opponent is paying 40 more points for his/her unit than you are. Not bad!

2. Slowing hordes.
I've long been a fan of the idea of taking a unit of Assault Marines, giving them a drop-pod, as many flamers as possible and dropping them as close as possible to an advancing horde. The idea here isn't that they'll survive, but rather that you can weaken (using flamer templates) and speed-bump a more expensive (and larger) unit. The weakness here is that you're paying 10 more points than it'd cost a Marine player to pull off the same trick (if you're delivering them in a Raider), however given that our f[r]iends can be Fearless, there's still that extra bonus of (once again) being resilient enough to hold the opponent down for a turn if you're not the one to assault them (although they could just shoot you to death). They're not the best in this role but hey -- it's something they can do.

My conclusion is that what Wracks are really good for, is acting like Termagants: holding the opponent in place until something bigger and scarier can bring the pain. For that reason I think that two units of 10 could be useful if you have other units to back them up such as Grotesques, a Dark Artisan Formation, Harlequins, Craftworld Eldar, etc.

Thoughts?

I think they're purchased in the same slot as grotesques(elite) and you could instead have 3 more grots in a raider for the same price as your 10 wracks in a raider.

The grots would then be both more reslient(9 T5 wounds vs 10 T4 wounds) and more killy than the wracks with their average of 21 attacks on the charge that wound on 2-3(plus reroll fails) instead of 4+.

The only thing wracks -might- be better against is T5+ models that aren't gargantuan creatures, or against units with instant death. But that's a pretty niche role, and even there they're not THAT much better than grots, so it'd never really be worth losing the potential of the grots vs. everything else.

40kScribe wrote:

My conclusion is that what Wracks are really good for, is acting like Termagants: holding the opponent in place until something bigger and scarier can bring the pain.

Sadly, wracks are twice as expensive as termagants despite achieving the same results.

I applaud your commitment to thinking of a role for them though. Psychology perhaps? Use the scalpel squadron to apply separate -1 Ld debuffs to units you intend to attack with other (more offensive) units? Drop a unit of 10 in front of some enemy as a roadblock, albeit one that looks scarier than it is?

I understand you want them to work and it could be fun making them try!

But in the meta where I am at (extremely competitive) Its an extreme handicap :/

I've had good results with the Scalpel Squadron and the Scarlet Epicureans, both for extra VPs. The wracks that come along with the formations are fairly cheap, and can be relied upon to throw themselves on something as a speedbump. I imagine that shock prow raiders filled with a Covenite Fleshcorps could achieve a similar result.

The scalpel squadron is actually the only thing I can think of that would make them useful.

Bringing back our last codex to replace our current one would make them useful too.

Tell me about it. I'm playing chaos Marines and dark Eldar...

Any opinions on the ossefactor? I just picked up two boxes to make a scapal squadron.

Lil bit like trying to polish a turd, but I usually take them anyway.

Ive ran the scalpel squadron a few times and Ive always used 2 ossefactor (1 per group) and it helped me get 1st blood each time and sometimes even able to shoot more targets.