Hellions

Other than super-heavies, very few transports in 7e (and earlier) were able to transport anything other than standard (ie, not jump/jetpack) infantry.

Massaen wrote:

I will run a full blob of 20 ASAP - see how that goes!

Please do! I'm painting 20 right now and am eager to know.

We really need the return of Sathonyx in the new Codex! With miniature as well

Hey folks! I've been running a squad of 10 hellions with PGL and an agonizer in a few 750 and 1k point games lately and they've been treating me quite well.  

They aren't terribly threatening, so while everyone's concentrating on the raider full of grotesques, they can zip around and pretty handily take out support units. They benefit really greatly from the Attack, Strength, and Toughness drugs, though each does a bunch to slightly change their role.

While they are still pretty fragile, they are very maneuverable and pretty easy to keep in cover till you get within a comfortable striking distance. When they are, their splinter pods are great for softening up whatever target you're throwing them at. PGL helps because whatever models you pick off in initial shooting will mean that much more come morale time.

In combat, each hellion gets 2 s4 d2 attacks, bumping to 3 attacks or s5 with drugs. In a unit of 10 hellions, all this combined is a great deal of practical damage on a target over the course of a single turn.

With the +1 A drug, your game is all about leapfrogging and getting the most out of your charges and that hit & run special rule

With +1 S drug, you can hunt larger, more TEQ heavy game, and even some lighter vehicles, getting the most out of your 2 damage per wound

With extra T, your hellions can stick around longer to finish the job and don't have to go hob-nobbing off quite so immediately and are deep, dark tar pits

But let's talk targets:

Now, you aren't using these for vehicles. Even if you run with the strength drug, you're still wounding on 5+ for anything dread-sized and your splinter pods are useless. So you shouldn't be taking these with vehicles in mind, but they're remarkably effective against monsters, MEQ, and even TEQ in the right circumstances. The volume of the return volley from a big pit of GEQ is likely to be more than your hellion squad can safely sustain, and it'd be a shame to waste that extra damage per wound, so don't go rushing into hordes till you've whittled 'em down some.

The sheer volume of damage they can put out in a turn combined with their mobility makes them great, if occasionally short-lived, harassment and anti-elite units. Multi-wound attacks don't mean anything to you, and you can take big chunks of wounds off at a time, so you can author some very big swings, especially against stuff that's supposed to be for killing bigger and stronger things than hellions. So point them at a nob squad or a group of grey knights or something and watch 'em go down.

And if they don't go all the way down, just leave so you can shoot at them next turn and go charge some other unit

I found they are quite good against vehicles. But they are not against tanks.
Aganst light vehicles (t5) like ours, ork buggies, tau piranjas, sentinels etc they are great.
As well as against multiwound bruisers (tau suits, ork nobs, any bikers, heavy weapon teams, tyranids, ogryns, etc).
But the major problem is that once your enemy learns this and takes that bit of effort to shoot them they die like flies. (they really die super fast).
I usually take 1 or 2 units of them, but I am sorry they lost their hive deployement.

I would never send hellions against TEQ. 2+ armor is something they can't handle at all.
10 Hellions with attack drugs against TEQ only kills in average 2 TEQs (if there was no overwatch), and the TEQs murder them.
Against jetbikes, motorbikes, Lychguards, like vehicles, they are great. But they can't handle a 2+.

Khalyxidae hybristoma wrote:

Hey folks! I've been running a squad of 10 hellions with PGL and an agonizer in a few 750 and 1k point games lately and they've been treating me quite well.  

They aren't terribly threatening, so while everyone's concentrating on the raider full of grotesques, they can zip around and pretty handily take out support units. They benefit really greatly from the Attack, Strength, and Toughness drugs, though each does a bunch to slightly change their role.

While they are still pretty fragile, they are very maneuverable and pretty easy to keep in cover till you get within a comfortable striking distance. When they are, their splinter pods are great for softening up whatever target you're throwing them at. PGL helps because whatever models you pick off in initial shooting will mean that much more come morale time.

In combat, each hellion gets 2 s4 d2 attacks, bumping to 3 attacks or s5 with drugs. In a unit of 10 hellions, all this combined is a great deal of practical damage on a target over the course of a single turn.

With the +1 A drug, your game is all about leapfrogging and getting the most out of your charges and that hit & run special rule

With +1 S drug, you can hunt larger, more TEQ heavy game, and even some lighter vehicles, getting the most out of your 2 damage per wound

With extra T, your hellions can stick around longer to finish the job and don't have to go hob-nobbing off quite so immediately and are deep, dark tar pits

But let's talk targets:

Now, you aren't using these for vehicles. Even if you run with the strength drug, you're still wounding on 5+ for anything dread-sized and your splinter pods are useless. So you shouldn't be taking these with vehicles in mind, but they're remarkably effective against monsters, MEQ, and even TEQ in the right circumstances. The volume of the return volley from a big pit of GEQ is likely to be more than your hellion squad can safely sustain, and it'd be a shame to waste that extra damage per wound, so don't go rushing into hordes till you've whittled 'em down some.

The sheer volume of damage they can put out in a turn combined with their mobility makes them great, if occasionally short-lived, harassment and anti-elite units. Multi-wound attacks don't mean anything to you, and you can take big chunks of wounds off at a time, so you can author some very big swings, especially against stuff that's supposed to be for killing bigger and stronger things than hellions.  So point them at a nob squad or a group of grey knights or something and watch 'em go down.

And if they don't go all the way down, just leave so you can shoot at them next turn and go charge some other unit

The problem here is that your opponent dosen't get  that Hellions are him first enemy, not Grotesques into the Raider.

All the time I run Hellions, my opponent know them and then he shoot them down. And they are fragile, they don't soak up so much damage to get any advantage on that.


I mean if I have to play Hellions, I will play Mandrakes that give me the same disruptive capacity and add to it more bonuses (death wounds, deepstrike, helps to get the first turn, way more resilient, first turn charge menance, better shooting, better CC etc).

For 2 more points, I found Mandrakes way better than Hellions right now. Hope for some boost in the future Codex

Yeah until we get WWP or summoning i put mine away sense i can No longer place them in a Raider

I actually prefer the movement drug on them. They are much easier to hide behind terrain and set up ambushes with that way.