Cheap HQs

Baron
'nuff said

On a serious note though in a small points game you could still take a strong beast unit for small number of points like 4 flocks and 5 khymera and Baron adds a lot, or if you're willing to take a small deathstar use a unit of 9-10 hellions with baron, comes out to 249but has a lot of utility, decent shooting, strong assault against anything without a 2+armour save, and fast movement. sorry for ranting about hellions a little there, but the baron can have use in low points games.

The succubus also is a solid cheap hq with a venom blade, she is great at mop up of beat down units shot up a little already, or an agonizer gives he some stuff to help with MEQ if you feel like you'll deal with a lot of it.

The blaster Archon is certainly a good choice in small points as you get the blaster that will almost never miss and as you said yourself fill the required HQ slot making up for itself in points

As for the haemie he is cheap and you can give him a liquifier making him and his unit pretty scary to assault, or you could just use him to give a PT, he unlocks wracks as troops and if you want you can make him assaulty or a little shooty with a hexrifle

Shadows Revenge wrote:

Also lets talk about the challenge system. With the challenge system no IC is safe. You might consider Baron isnt made to fight another character, but if baron is the only thing allowing hellions to hit and run, or Baron is giving the beasts grenades, hit and run, and their last leadership that his holding them together, then he will definately be challenged by every sargie weilding some form of weapon.

I use Baron in a Beast unit so I have 3-4 other characters to eat challenges before the Baron gets his hands dirty. Helps keep him out of trouble.

a good question though Adhemar, you dont use the beastmasters as early "who cares" wounds??? Most of the time I see beasts run (even by myself) most people throw the extra masters up front to get shot, only leaving baron and maybe the special weapon wielding one alive for later.

My original idea was cheap hqs for low points games and at low points the Baron isn't that bad a fighter really nor is he likely to run into that many sarges. And even if you do, you can just decline the challenge once the enemy squad is decimated and let the character get buried by all the razorwing/khymera attacks.

As for using your beastmasters as "who cares wounds", if you're so worried about challenges why not save one to take that first challenge you run into or keep one back for backup leadership should the baron fall? Nothing says you have to throw all of your beastmasters to the wolves right away.

Clearly the most effective cheap HQ is the enigmatic Abdrusal Vect with full pimped out ride, defo worth the points there...

Personally I like the clone field as it gives me D3 extra HQs during every fight sub phase!

On a more serious note to beast masters still count as characters or did they receive the same treatment as nobs and paladins?

Actually they weren't character's prior to 6th ed where they got buffed up to characters, where the Janky paladins got nerfed down from character status

Mudpuppet wrote:

Im not sure why theres a debate raging over baron fighting marine or better equivalent characters, thats obviously not what hes for. Him, and hellions in general infact, are for drowning seas of lower toughness low armour save troops in non power weapon attacks. Thats my thoughts anyways. Use the right tool for the job.

Mud

Great point. If you're using Baron to kill TDA (tactical dreadnought armor aka Terminator) Characters in an army full of Dark Lances, something went wrong.

The change to power weapons and the sudden improvement in Thousand Sons (really it's that now Chaos Marines get allies and cover is 5+) mean that there's suddenly a lot more AP3 going around. Before it was pretty much just Krak Missiles. Eventually there will be a new MEQ book and the bandwagon hoppers will leave Chaos in droves (it's probably my second favorite army after Dark Eldar in terms of playstyle, Ksons or Sternguard spam) but unless they keep coming out with more AP3 stuff, most of the things that are competitive and deny Marines armor also deny Terminators armor. Let's make a list, OK?

Plasma? Yes.
Disintegrators? Yes.
Tau Plasma? Yes.
Dark Lances? Yes.
Krak Missiles? No.
Melta? Yes.
Liquifiers? It's an inverse 5+ vs an inverse 4+ but Yes.
Flamestorm Cannons? No.
Medusa? Yes.
Vindicator? Yes.
Lascannon? Yes.
Falcon? Yes on the Pulse Laser, no on the Krak Missile.
Power Weapons? Not Swords anymore, but Axes.

So uh... mostly yes answers? All yes answers as far as Dark Eldar are concerned? Ok then! Let's find other ways to kill stupid point sink warlords (sniping with Dark Lances) and use Baron to rampage across bad players' anemic troops while we pew-pew their Deathstar.

HINT: Venoms/Splinter Weapons = X-Wings