Kitting out scourges

Hey all!

Im a new player with exactly one game under my belt (at a paltry 16 power level womp womp). All ive got is one start collecting box (the older one with the archon and raider), but i just bought a box of scourges.

Im pretty sure i want to magnetize them to take advantage of their extensive loadout options. I want to ask you guys for opinions on how best to use them.

My first thought is blasters, cause those are awesome and good against all sorts of tough targets. Haywires seem brutal, but my concern is if there arent a lot of vehicles around, they quickly become kind of useless. Shredders could be great for thinning out swarms of nids or boys, but theyre competing with splinter cannons for that role. Dark lances hit hard, but them being heavy it seems not to mesh well with drukhari mobility, so im not sold on those. I really dont know what to think about heat lances; are they worth it/what are they best used against?

Then theres the solarite. He doesnt get to take those special weapons; for him its either the basic shardcarbine or a melee-centric kit. Blast pistol and power lance sounds cool, but like with kabalites it doesnt seem super great to have a shooty squad with one guy in it doing melee. Thoughts on this?

Keep in mind that with haywire, it's still a STR 4 AP-1 weapon. So far from useless.

The short answer is it depends on the role in your army.

For anti tank: haywire
For anti infantry: shredders
For anti TQ or tough troops: blasters

Haywire is actually a good all around option actually.

You can't go wrong with Haywire truly, don't load up the solarite at all his shard carbine is still useful.

Scourges are a pretty high priority target and not that hard to take out, so I would recommend keeping them relatively cheap. Blasters are expensive so I avoid those, I really like haywire blasters and shredders given they are half the cost of a blaster. Haywire for vehicles, shredders for infantry. I'd stay away from the dark lance or the splinter cannon choices, dark lance is just pointless given the hit penalty, and splinter cannons are pricey when you could just double the wounds of the unit and get the same number of splinter shots for roughly the same cost.

As for the solarite, keep him base cost. Scourges in melee are dead scourges, and you won't get much use out of a blast pistol considering he can't use it on the turn they deep strike.

Dark Lance scourges starting on the board in cover are an alright choice (especially combo with Hunt from the Shadows and LFR to make them really hard to shift)

Gizamaluke wrote:

Dark Lance scourges starting on the board in cover are an alright choice (especially combo with Hunt from the Shadows and LFR to make them really hard to shift)

I should give this setting a try once...I'm watching for it since for so long.

Gizamaluke wrote:

Dark Lance scourges starting on the board in cover are an alright choice (especially combo with Hunt from the Shadows and LFR to make them really hard to shift)

Mhh, on the one hand that's 3 CPs, but on the other hand you could use a squad of 10 for 9 DLs for just about 300 points. Beeing in cover + hunt from the shadows that would give them a 2+, 6++, 6+++ and -1 to hit from LFR. Combined with 36" range that could really be a viable option. Especially if you opponent does not have long range anti-infantry weapons.

EDIT: But you would get 9 haywire blasters for 192 points. 2/3 the points you pay for DLs.

Ragnos wrote:

Gizamaluke wrote:

Dark Lance scourges starting on the board in cover are an alright choice (especially combo with Hunt from the Shadows and LFR to make them really hard to shift)

Mhh, on the one hand that's 3 CPs, but on the other hand you could use a squad of 10 for 9 DLs for just about 300 points.

You're limited to 4 special/heavy weapons per unit, regardless of the unit size.

Oh, thanks. Then I'm not sure if it's worth spending 3 CPs on a squad with 4 heavy weapons. Especially if you would get haywire blasters on the same unit for nearly 50 points less.

Ragnos wrote:

Oh, thanks. Then I'm not sure if it's worth spending 3 CPs on a squad with 4 heavy weapons. Especially if you would get haywire blasters on the same unit for nearly 50 points less.

Oh for sure it's not the most efficient option, haywire is the way to go for scourges and shredders on trueborn imo (assuming where ever you play allows index options). I just happen to have a scourge squad armed with Dark Lances as I thought it looked the coolest back in the day.

I think the days of trueborn even being a legal option are numbered, now that pretty much every army has a codex (except I guess inquisition/assassins, not like that was ever a full army), the purpose of the indexes is pretty much gone. You can't even buy them on warhammer digital anymore, so no doubt GW will phase them out soon.

For that reason I've been running shredders on scourges. Haywire blasters are probably still my preferred choice, but if my list is lacking some anti-infantry I'll throw in some shredder scourges as well. It's a shame fire&fade after deep striking isn't legal anymore, with such short range on shredders that strat really helped keep them alive, let them duck into cover after shooting.

Until GW put it in writing that the index options are over I'll keep using my Trueborn, I don't attend tournaments currently but I know a lot of them are banning index options from lists in ETC format so I'll have to say goodbye to trueborn and blasters on my Archon, but against my friends I'll get as much mileage out of them as possible

I am in the Shredder camp unless of course you run into a heavy vehicle list.

What others have said....I would go with either Shredders or Haywire.  Haywire is very solid against troops too.  Orks dislike it almost as much as seeing Shredders.

I had an issue against an Eldar player with two Wraithlords and a Wraithknight.....both are Monsters and not vehicles.  So Haywire loses some ability against armies with vehicles that are actually Monsters....(Damn Tau Riptides!!).