Night Shields & Hybrid Armies

Are night shields worth considering in hybrid armies (armies that have both a mechanised element and a foot element)?

The Bad:
-If all my transports have night shields then whatever units I have on foot will just get shot instead (eg: talos & reavers).

The Good:
-If all my transports have night shields then my opponent is more likely to shoot my other units keeping the transports safe.

Thoughts?

Nightshields are to be used against weapons as bolters etc not long range weapons. So then its a mather if they actually will use these weapons on the veichles if you have foot soldiers? doubt it, so then maby FF is the way to go. I dont know tbh as I never field just foot sluggers, but I will imagine that they will shoot bolters etc at the flesh and blood rather than 5-6 to glance veichles.

i agree with darklight night shields are generally saving you from rapidfire weapons like bolters and plasmas meltas are a moot point because 2d6 is complete overkill but they do keep you safe from those as well.

but those weapons are often better off used against your non transport units so will only be fired at the transports if given no other choice.

you could for example though use the night shielded raiders as mobile cover from mid to short range weaponry for infantry ... until they explode from a missile or lascannon or ... anything that is actually designed to destroy them

Night shields are for a shooty army, if you get in your opponents face, having one or two units in the back field they can't shoot doesn't really matter.

I think Darklight's point was that the melta gun would only have a 6" range (not so much the 3" melta bonus range) which is alot easier to stay away from. However I play againsts Blood angels alot and they use pretty much nothing but melta guns and kicking them down to 6" doesn't matter if you are sending raiders towards them or if they deep strike near your ravagers. It does matter on your void raven because they have to be right under them to be in range at all with just 6".

Any how my point is night shields are best to keep your army completely out of range, if you only use it on a couple of things (i.e. your transports have it but half your army is on foot) then all your doing is forcing your opponent to finish off the things he can hit first and then move up and take out your night shielded vehicles, which defeats the idea of target saturation.

I'm sure a cleaver Archon can come up with some scenarios where they want to force their opponent to fire on a few certain targets (say beasts or grotesques) so they put them on foot as a sacraficial unit and night shield everything else and as long as they can manipulate this to their advantage and their opponent doesn't see through what they are trying to do, then they can make that work.

I should point out that their is one Blood Angles player in particular, that I haven't beaten at all in 6th edition. The worst part is I thought him how to play

you already know my feelings Mush, but Ill write them down here.

Nightshields are really amazing this edition for the simple fact of not needing Flickerfields anymore for a 5+ coversave. Most opponents rely on the shots from their basic infantry to suppliment their tank or heavy weapon forces. Having nighshields forces your opponent to get his infantry closer, which then allows you more room to move around tactically, or gets you easier charges.

The problem I saw several times though was having reavers or other fast infantry in a list with all nightshields were that they were drawing more fire than normal due to the fact that my opponents bolters/plasma couldnt reach my vehicles, but could hit my reavers no problem. This caused them to take casualities earlier than I would of expected, and normally hurt their preformance as the game progressed.

While I should of been happy, as this kept my troops alive longer, I like the the linebreaker/contesters that reavers bring to us now later in the game, and taking those early casualties not only hurt their damage output, but makes it hard to keep them alive long enough to do that part of their job.

As of right now I dont think Nightshields and a non-tank element have a place together. I think there are ways to make it work, but as of right now Ive just been running all tanks and less reavers (although I do admit they are awesome this edition)

I think I'm leaning toward the opinion that night shields are not worth the investment in hybrid lists. Which is nice as it give me more points to use here and there, an interesting dynamic for sure.

I think that depends on how much ranged AI power you have in your lists and the nature of enemy list.

If you are not running venoms and ravagers you gain little, when enemy has to pour out of their transports to kill some reavers.

Simlpy not taking fire on assault transport is hardly a win, but a chance to really maim opposing force with shooting is.

You often have a choice to just place transports close, if you so wish to let Reavers live.

So, the question is, what is it you are considering to be night shielded?