Thoughts on Hexrifle Haemys?

I'm looking for experienced Archons and Succubi to give their opinion on the Hexrifle. I'm giving some advice for a large army list (2500), and the player wants to take three Haemonculi with rifles. They would give pain tokens to Wyches/Incubi, disembark first turn, find cover, then shoot for the rest of the game. I only use the close-up flamer and poisoned blade kind of Haemy, so I have no idea if this is viable. The best use I can see for them is their Pinning test on stray infantry: he is now concerned with his ability to fight hordes, having piled on Dark Lances as advised. Any insights I can share with him?

If it matters, the rest of his army consists of some tricked out Incubi, 2 Blasterborn sqauds, 4 Wyche squads, 3 mini Reaver squads, two Ravagers and a Razorwing, with his infantry in Raiders.

Hoping for a possible pinning check is a HUGE hast of the 195 points that the three would set you back. Keep the haemis in Raiders/Venoms after the pain token-stealing units disembark to charge in, ride around and template attack units. Far better use of the points. It looks tempting, but the Hex rifle is a huge Newb trap.

My basic advice foe hexrifles is - don't.

They're more expensive than sniper rifles, not as good, and limited in number and eat up valuable HQ slots to even get on the field. We have significantly better shooting options if you want to shoot infantry - and that's known as 'all of our standard guns are poison and cheap'.

Ok, to be fair, if the dude doesn't want to give away some kill points, and has the 45 extra points kicking around to spend on them (or just really really hates template weapons, I know plenty of people who will choose a crap weapon over a template weapon just because they hate them that much), then yes, the hex-rifle will keep the homun away from major threats (if he uses them right), and it's pretty much the only shooty option that a homun can viably take (12" pistol doesnt count, IMO).

If he's going for a KP negation, and doesn't want his homun to be completely useless, and cant upgrade anything else with anything useful for those points, then I would say go for it.

Let's hope 6th Ed rumors around sniper weapons are true!

eh? what are those?

If they will be able to chose model they are hitting. That way it becomes somewhat usefull (still probably will be better and cheaper to remove whole unit instead of 1 model).

Just tell him to stick with the liquifer. Its far better than that stupid sniper that does nothing.

As for his fear against hordes... he has a razorwing right??? problem solved.

Sniper haemie is only worth it against large MCs. Even then, it's not really an upgrade you'll usually put in, the liquifier is a cheaper, more effective weapon.

That said, I did one-shot that Avatar of Khaine in one of my previous games as soon as it showed its head around the LoS blocking terrain... It's worth taking for such odd, one in a million shots.

Competitive, no, fun as heck, yes!!!! Apocolypse battle in-store, 1 player had 5 greater daemons and daemon princes as a body guard for Kairos form a a tyranid bio-titan, they killed it before it got close, he got cocky saying our team had no chance as long as Kairos stood. Can u guess what happend yet? For that soul reason, if i ever have spare points it will always go for a hex rifle just because if the 1 in a million shot works, by god its worth it.

I'm currently running the H.R. in my 1250 list. Alot smaller, but with the tactic of sharing pain tokens and running minimal coven squads seems legit imo

MC are not even a slight problem for us. all our basic troop options (even the extended ones) have poisoned weapons. So the statement that "oh, what if i run into a monstrous creature or something" is invalid because simply hosing it down with cheapo splinter rounds is a much more viable option.

I admit that they are "cool", but between splinter weapons and even the huskblade (speaking for those who take them), MC are simply not a concern due to the fact that almost all the units we field can do considerable damage to them regardless of whether thats by CC or hosing them down

Actually, if you wanted to, you could keep them on their vehicle, the hexrifle is assault one. It would give you a nice mobile 42"range weapon.

That being said, I feel that the hexrifle is just too situational to use. If you attack a squad with it, the most it will do is kill three normal joes. Before you can take out the special character, you have to wipe out the squad first. Usually, by that time the character is probably dead too.

On the other hand, those one in a million shots are a lot of fun, if only for the expression on your opponents face.

Hexrifle...well theres something. Bs4 is good, wounds anything, and i mean anything on a 4+. Ap 4 negates GEQ saves, if not for cover, and a roll of 6 to wound is ap1. 33% chance to kill one Geq. Realy sweet.
And theres the down side: takes up arcane wargear slot. That is a major drawback. And 15 pt for a 33% chance to kill 1 GEQ a turn...not realy.

All in all: nay! Liquifire, Casket, Dark Gate, WWP, Archangel. Way better. Though i prefer Casket and liquifire in most cases, in a few cases i take scissorhands.