Is Melee even worth trying for?

The thing I've notice running beasts is that they do tend to "scare" an opponent as most people aren't familiar with them so they do tend to eat fire. Which is fine. I think of them as fodder and don't expect them to make it to late game. That might change if I run them more people might get familiar with them. Still, I like the idea of them being the front line.

I'll echo what seems to be the consensus; we excel at shooting but a handful of melee units to balance out the list is really handy. Clawed Fiends are great against most things except hordes (they're downright murder against Primaris), and Khymera are our best (if only) answer to hordes, and Incubi are a very solid performer against things like MEQs or Necrons.

Mandrakes are great too, i cant wait for our codex honestly, if they get cheaper and a buff OMG my 30 of them will come in handy.

I tend to think of Mandrakes as a shooting unit first, but they definitely have a strong melee component too. Much like a lot of the other units that have been mentioned, you just need to charge them in to something already weakened (possibly by their own shooting) to mop up.

I meant as a horde killer, range + melee with lots of attacks that are S4 over S3, I mean we are talking about a 5man with melee and shooting total of 26 S4 attacks, thats from 1 5man, and 1/3 of those are -1 ap, and you could get some MW's.

Over all i'm thinking of using them as light infantry killers in a next game or 2 and see how well they do (10-20man units on objectives like Cultist, Horrors, a 5man SM unit, etc..)

[quote="amishprn86"]I meant as a horde killer, range + melee with lots of attacks that are S4 over S3, I mean we are talking about a 5man with melee and shooting total of 26 S4 attacks, thats from 1 5man, and 1/3 of those are -1 ap, and you could get some MW's.

Over all i'm thinking of using them as light infantry killers in a next game or 2 and see how well they do (10-20man units on objectives like Cultist, Horrors, a 5man SM unit, etc..)
I tried mandrakes last game for exactly this purpose. They all died to overwatch from a single flamer.

Well i wont change things with flamers lol, how did all die from 1 flamer? 6 hits would still need 3+ to wound thats 4 on average with a 5+ invul and a 6+ you should say at least 1, so only 3 should die with above average rolls for him and not for you.

I mean, thats just not lucky at all and dont count on that happening again.