Moving on from the Core choices of the Black Crusade detachment and I have decided to roll through them in the order they appear in the book. Simple way to keep me in line of the stuff I like and makes me write about the stuff I don't. So let's jump to it.
The Helforged Warpack consists of 1 Warpsmith and 3-5 of any of the following in any combination: Helbrute, Maulfiend, Forgefiend and Defilers, quiet straight forward. The only part of the Detachments special rules they really gain a buff from is the Hatred (Imperium) special rule. I doubt, because of the formation bonus 'bolt-ons' you would want to have your Warpsmith ride the Russian roulette of the boons table seen as though he needs to remain "Warpsmithy". Veterans of the Long War does nothing for both the vehicles and the Smithy.
The two 'bolt-ons' for this formation are as follows, Master of Mechanical Warpcraft - or Master of Mech - allows the vehicles within the Formation with the Daemonforge special rule to use it a second time during the game. Daemonforge is an odd special rule for me for these vehicles. Re-rolling to wound or penetration rolls are always a good thing, but declaring to use it in your shooting phase before you shoot with BS3, and declaring it before charge distances are resolved isn't what I would call a dependable bonus. Having 2 goes at it does double your chances of hitting some good rolls, especially when you have a max of 10 Forges to go through.
Awkwardly, the Helbrute sits in the corner by itself with no access to this goodness, unless the Helbrute will be joining the Daemonforge crew sometime soon it does derp out here.
Warpack Alpha makes one of the vehicles of this detachment to become the "Alpha" which is granted a 4+ invulnerable save, not bad free upgrade. In addition to this, if the Alpha is destroyed all models - this includes the Smithy - gain the Rage special rule. Maulfiend spam will like this, possible rage charge with re-rolls to hit and re-rolls to pen/ wound doesn't get much better for the little Mauler.
So there are around 51 combinations that you can run with this formation. I'm not going to go through with every single one so I will do the spam builds and elaborate on them because I don't have 5 of each of these. I would argue that this isn't a strictly competitive build unless you are going for something spercific.
Build 1: Maulfiends. This is the most likely build, as these Fiends are the cheapest and arguably the best of the bunch. 735 points for 5 of them bare bones with the Smithy and 785 points with the 5 sets of Lash Tendrils. Now, this build would largely ignore the Warpsmiths effect of Shatter terrain and he won't be able to keep up with the fiends to fix them when they break. So he largely is a buff to a scoring unit keeping them in check and a little tanking with that cheeky 2+. The fiends, depending on their opposition, will do what they do. Kill. Tarpit or die. It's hard breaking it down with variables such as ranged D weapons and cover but 735 points is a lot of points for something that is most likely out of range for turn 1, possibly 2, and doesn't actually have that much output against none imperial armies. Looking from a tournament perspective, the only imperials you will be seeing are Battle Company, Knights, War Convocation, cheeky Celuxus and Space Wolf stars. Not the best line ups for the Maulers, you also have Tau and Eldar to think about. 735 points of "may never make it in" can be a sink hole.
Maths wise, 2 of these charging a Knight should kill it in a single round of combat. 8 attacks - 6 hits - 5 HPs, easy chance of a 6 off of about 4 penetrating hits. Problem is getting there.
Build 2: Forgefiends. This is a very unlikely build as these are the 2nd most expensive unit and arguably one of the worst, but we are working with chaos so the "Best" isn't a medal winner. 5 Forges with the Smithy base (don't go buying ectoplasma) is 985 points. Expensive, yet interesting. The smithy's Shatter Defence is actually useful for this build, knocking down important terrain pieces by 1 cover will make some 4+ save units cry a little. The smithy can also keep up with them to fix them when they break too. The double Daemonforge is something of a improvement with the fiends, being able to do a take 2 with only hitting twice the turn before adds some extra damage potential. Hatred will do little for them unless they have to get into combat and the Rage from the Warpack Alphas death won't give them that much of a boost. 985 points for 5 of these makes me think its too much points, but lets roll the numbers.
40 shots - 20 hits. Vs a Wraith knight with forge - 15 saves, 5 wounds (Without FnP).
Vs a storm surge with forge 20 saves, 6 wounds (without FnP)
Vs Imperial Knight with forge 11 HP's facing the front ark (without Shield).
985 points of shooting struggles to cap out the 2 big GMC's but averages to just managing a Knight kill. Without forge's obviously it wouldn't be this good.
Build 3: Defilers. This build will probably be the bottom of the barrel, 5 of these guys clock in at 1,085 points with the Warpsmith, they would gain advantage from his shatter defence and he can keep up to fix them. 5 Battle cannons a turn is a good way to clear some units and cripple some tanks, not really a "Kill shot" on anything but can slowly chew away units until they disappear. It's hard to review/ have a first look at this because I have only ever fielded 1 Defiler back in 5th when they were a lot cheaper. Largely it was a scare unit to blow horns and attract missiles but now its a do little and die unit, 5 of these stacked would either A) Delete segments of an army at a time with volleys of battle cannon. B) Do nothing and get deleted by many other things.
Let's take it through the same scenario as the fiends.
5 battle cannon shots at BS3 against these targets should hit averagely even with a scatter of 3-4". So lats say 4 hit target. Vs a Wraith Knight it would lose 2 wounds. Snap firing 5 reaper autocannons does very little, only coming through for the knight to make 1 extra save.
Vs a Storm Surge it would lose 3 wounds. Snap firing reapers would make it take 1 wound, so 4 wounds total
Vs a Imperial Knight. 3 Glance/pen (Without 4++) Snap reapers lucky for 1 HP of damage. So almost nothing.
Build 4: Helbrutes. The cheapest of the builds, but doesn't take any buffs from the Daemon forge. At 610 points for 5 and the smithy, you probably are wanting to take some bigger weapons on the Brutes, so you will be pushing an extra 25+ points. The downsides of this is that they have their stupidity table to abide by and wonder off, shoot twice at the wrong thing and don't have a 5++ save. This strand doesn't seem worth it when you have the Murderfist for cheaper and they have anti-stupidity buffs and one of them gets character special rule.
Perhaps I wasn't listing the best things for these units to target with shooting attacks, but if I am paying around 1,000 points for lots of dakka I expect that dakka to perform. Forge Fiends oddly seem the strongest in terms of firepower being almost able to drop a Storm Surge in a single round of average shooting. Maul fiends obviously take the combat trophy Defilers are the biggest points sink, least shots and slow. Don't bother with Helbrutes.
Personally, I would actually love to take 5 Forge fiends and finally have enough bullets for them to actually kill some stuff, problem is they are very expensive and against armies such as Drop Pod Spam and Invisible Death Stars the term "Completely Fucked" comes to mind. Would be fun, but the most you will see out of this formation is 5 Maulfiends as they are the cheapest, have the largest "Charge" threat range and actually do well in combat.
My next Review/first look will be into the Heldrake Terror Pack. Thanks for reading.
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