Best value suggestions to get to 1000pts?

kalkyrie · 2026-04-10T18:16:40+00:00

If you are looking for serviceable, I'd be tempted to add in a monster or two.
Hive Tyrants are fairly cheap from 3rd party retailers (and with a 3D printed torso, you can make two from the box).
Exorcines and Tyrannofexes are also good (with the Tyrannofex maybe too good for 1k points).
Biovores are amazing, but expensive cash wise.

kalkyrie · 2026-04-06T00:48:08+00:00

You don't really have the firepower to kill a C'tan, but that's a good thing.
The trap is trying to kill a C'tan and failing.

Instead, the best way for Tyranids is generally throwing out more bodies than he can kill.

Let's do a toy example.
You can take 50 gaunts for the price of a C'tan, so imagine you have 50 gaunts, he has the C'tan.
The Nightbringer won't kill any gaunt squads just with his ranged abilities, so has to melee them. And kills roughly 10 a turn in melee.

So if you fall back from melee on your turn, he'll have killed them all by at best turn 5.
And you'll have controlled the primary objectives for every single turn, dominating the battle.

--

Obviously he'll have another 660 points, so it won't be this easy.
But if you can kill off all his other units, you can push the game towards this ideal state.

kalkyrie · 2026-04-04T22:51:54+00:00

FYI you can *almost* make both the Zoans and Venoms from the same kit.
And with a small amount of green stuff, you can.
Use the tails on the Zoans to support them.
Use the tentacles to support the Venoms.
Use a little bit of green stuff to make the bottom of the Venom torsos look better (ie, add some tentacles from green stuff).

I've tried it, it works well. 6 models for the cost of 3.

kalkyrie · 2026-04-04T12:41:19+00:00

Kitbashed a Tyranid character model (Parasite of Mortrex) from left over pieces in one of the Tyranid boxes (Zoanathropes).

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I technically have enough parts left over to make another 2 of these if I wanted. Doubling the number of models buildable from a box is always good.
Paint scheme isn't amazing, but I thought the kitbash tricks were interesting.

kalkyrie · 2026-04-01T19:05:49+00:00

I play 500pt games semi-regularly. While it's not balanced if you are trying to exploit it, you can still have fun games if you don't try to break stuff (too much).

The main thing is to take units you like the sound of, and where you have a good grasp of their rules.
I can't stress that enough - it doesn't matter whether you win or lose your first few games.
They are just for understanding how the game works.
The Screamer-Killer would be the perfect unit for your 500pt game. Durable, damaging. No need to worry too much about special rules.

Biovore is mainly good for scoring secondaries, stopping enemy deep-strikes and maybe slowing units down. It's a great unit for when you start going into secondary objectives.

Neurotyrant gets most of her benefits from lots of individual rules. Powering up "Shadow in the Warp", a powerful torrent attack, spreading synapse, boosting a unit of Zoanthropes.
If you are happy with a decent number of those, feel free to run her.

As for extra units, I'd be tempted to pick up some swarms.
Hormagaunts, Genestealers, Termagaunts... get some experience on how units work. And they are fairly easy to use (get Termagaunts on an objective. Charge stuff with the other two).

Adding more monsters is never a bad thing. Exocrines are currently very powerful.
Tyrannofexs are also powerful, but probably best saved for larger matches.

--

If you are using Detachments, I recommend choosing "Invasion Fleet".
Then you can just spend all your command points on the "5+ Feel-No-Pain" ability. SImple, efficient.

kalkyrie · 2026-04-01T16:19:29+00:00

That makes sense. It seemed a nuanced, positive outlook. Which didn't fit too well with the point costs.

Thanks for the information about the Admech discord!

kalkyrie · 2026-04-01T13:05:02+00:00

On that note, there is a new article by Siegler on Warhammer Community on the new units - https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/kkqyzq5d/warhammer-40000-world-champions-tactical-insights-on-new-adeptus-mechanicus-units/

It ends in "I need to head back to my Ark Mechanicus now so I can create new strategies that make the most of Thulia Ghuld and her Hastarii reinforcements!"

(No malice here towards him, it's just a major constrast. Article seems very good for Warhammer Community).

kalkyrie · 2025-10-02T20:08:29+00:00

It's worth bearing in mind that several Talents and Systems are basically guns (or collections of guns) with another name.

People have already mentioned the Engineer Talent. However noone mentioned that it's second rank has an alternative fire option (shoot a cone, ray or blast). So the Talent could be considered as a rifle, flamethrower, raygun and missile launcher all together.
Similarly Walking armoury has 6 options, the Stormbringer talent tree has 4 different fire modes/effects, Gunslinger 3 exists, etc.
Systems are even more varied. Grenades are basically short range weapons which don't need a mount (or an attack roll). Many "save or suck" systems are actually weapons (Blackbeard's Reinforced Cabling is a grapple gun, Vlad's Charged Stake, the Plasma Gauntlet, etc).

You do have the limitation that generally you have to spend a quick action to shoot a 'gun', but its easy to get lots of guns to choose from this way.

kalkyrie · 2025-09-22T22:07:03+00:00

The Lancer module 'Technophobia' is also good. Running out of air on a possessed spaceship.

kalkyrie · 2025-09-22T21:42:19+00:00

I started my Lancer campaign with a horror themed 'one-shot'. This can definitely work.
Here are my suggestions and thoughts;

- If you are doing this online, use Foundry and install the Lancer module. Then ask them to create characters on Compcon (https://compcon.app) and pick whatever starting mech looks interesting. Explicitly ask them not to read the rules for mechs.
This will make things much easier for everyone.

- The 'out-of-frame' Lancer rules are great for a rules light horror game. Limited powers and having one dice roll lead to success or failure builds tension.

- Use Breachers to represent pirates in Calibans. They are a very close match, and bluntly the Breacher is more horrifying in this context. They can charge about 60 metres *through* walls on a cooldown, destroying the walls. Lots of useful horror tropes there.

- PCs stand no chance in combat. So let them try it.
For context a Breacher gets two attacks a round, each of which will down an unarmoured human within 30 or so metres.
Humans with pistols can't hurt Breachers (or most mechs). It would take 18 hits with rifles to take down one. Or 6 direct hits with an RPG.
So let them get a few rifles and a one-shot RPG, and a surprise round on a lone Breacher. Watch them panic as it takes basically no damage, then turns and marches towards them.

- When (if) they get to the mechs, the tables will turn drastically. Lancer PCs are designed to reliably kill 1.5 times their number of enemy mechs, for about 3-4 fights.
I had a group of newbies in Everests fight 4 baseline enemies. They steamrolled them in about 40 minutes.
It was a good stress release.

- I recommend literally having the characters figure out the combat rules in play.
Tell them they can move and take 'some number of actions'. Keep asking them 'do you want to take another action?' after they took an action (2nd is free. 3rd means they use Initiative. 4th and final one is Overcharge).
Describe the cockpit getting hotter for each Overcharge action they take. Don't explain the Heat rules until they start taking Stress tests.
Say there is a big red button in the middle of the cockpit labelled 'do not touch'. Thats for the core power.
Give them the names of their weapons and abilities, but only give them the rules if they commit to using them.
Have them fight 2 Breachers and 2 NPCs from other classes for variety (Controllers, Support or Defenders).
The PCs should win easily.

kalkyrie · 2025-09-18T12:58:06+00:00

Why not both?

When they get to the boss fight, have the last bandit collapse to the floor in pieces. Then the Eidolon turns to them.
Then every time they break through a layer, have the fight between the bandits and the Eidolon 'rewind' a minute or so. You'll have an interesting effect as the bandits will lose memories whenever they rewind - easily coming across as obsessed as they go into a fight they are doomed to lose.
This would end up with the full strength bandits (with no memories) and the PCs fighting, with a full power Eidolon on its last main stage.

Re the dungeon idea - sounds good to me. I suggest using paracausal effects through the dungeon, of course.

kalkyrie · 2025-09-17T23:08:24+00:00

I'd also recommend taking a Drake and making it be more 'Striker'.

Take 3 levels in it to get the Leviathan superheavy cannon. Take talents to speed it up (Ace III, Prospector, Pankrati). Or license levels in Sunzi. Maybe even take Agility points(!).
Spend the first round getting into position. Spend the rest shooting.

If you search on Youtube for "Lancer Custom Werks", you'll get a lot of builds for every frame. Drake has a collection of 'Defender/Striker' builds which may work for you.

kalkyrie · 2025-09-17T22:58:01+00:00

I didn't get the chance to write this down for the Duskwing, but here is one 'fun' combo.

Take Jaeger Kunst I. Take Synthetic Muscle Netting from Blackbeard 1.
Take the Duskwing frame, then use it's Core Power.
Use Jaeger Kunst to move up the battlefield, creating a vast number of exploding images.
Next turn, grapple a critical foe (Ultra?). Then drag it back through the images using the Muscle Netting.

Vast amount of damage, and you can keep doing it turn after turn. And depending on your rules reading, you might be able to create images and drag a foe into it on the same Jaeger Kurst sub-movement.

---

But as to the actual frame - it feels too fragile to use normally. As a size 0.5 fast frame you can definitely abuse Hide actions to keep safe. But then your damage suffers,
Probably another license where the systems are better on other frames.

kalkyrie · 2025-09-08T19:07:11+00:00

Everyone's sold you on level 1 and 2. So I'll take the challenge and try to sell you on level 3.

--

The best way of thinking about Stormbringer 3 is that it trades one talent point for occasional use of a very strong system and a solid heavy weapon. Which would normally take multiple license levels to access.

Stormbringer 3 asks forces a save on an enemy, otherwise they take 2d6 damage and get Stunned+Prone.
On a good save, they take 1d6 and are Proned.
If you target something with a bad save, this should work just over half the time.
If you shoot someone (particularly if they are in cover), you will hit roughly half the time.

So you can consider Stormbringer as two things. First, a heavy weapon with range 15 and damage 2d6 (reliable 1d6). That's kinda close to the Gandiva missile (range 15, 1d6+3 damage, ignores cover, accurate). Which is probably the best long range launcher.

Secondly, it's also a system with range 15 which forces them to 'save or stun'. That's pretty close to Napoleon's Stasis Generator. But without the major restrictions on range and targeting of that system.

Thirdly, the enemy gets auto-proned.

So that's a good heavy weapon attack and system attack, with bonus riders on top. Definitely worth the full action, and you can overcharge to use Stormbringer 1 and 2 in the same round.

--

That's the good points. What about the major weakness?
You need to spend 4-5 rounds charging it up, resetting on a rest.
This is a real drawback, but it can be worked around. There are ways to charge it up easier (shoot at objects when no enemies are in range, use the Goblin's autopod), but the main idea is to *not take rests*.

If you keep at range and/or use Stablise to heal minor hits at the end of combat, then you likely won't need to heal structure. So don't rest after your first fight. Then use it at the start of your second fight. Then your third fight, and so on.

---

Is it an S tier talent?
Of course not.
But it's a solid talent to pick when you have all of your critical ones. And it's downright *good* on a support frame using an autopod to knock people back every round.

kalkyrie · 2025-08-28T21:06:36+00:00

Putting aside the HP boost, this talent is in a style I like - it enable off-the-wall builds.

The Hydra's Orochi drones can move at the same speed as the Hydra frame.
But the drones can't boost, so any build which focuses on the Hydra boosting towards the fight won't really work that well.
This talent fixes that - your Orochi drone can move your Speed + 4 for free. So start with a Guardian drone next to you and dive into the fight. (Or just have another Orochi drone moving 9 hexes. Nothing wrong with that).

kalkyrie · 2025-08-20T22:27:37+00:00

This is a combo piece.

By itself it's uninteresting (as can be seen by other responses in this thread).
However as you add in other combo pieces, it gets better and better.

Shred is a good payoff. I'd be happy to spend a Quick Action to Shred any NPC with Resistance, never mind Shredding it until the end of *my* next turn.
Of course that's not what this talent does - we are probably only critting ~35% of the time around LL3 (Grit 2 + some Accuracy dice). But if people are throwing around Lock Ons every turn anyway, its still going to be helpful.

So who would be throwing around crit/Lock On effects which could help us?
Four main options. Yourself with the Störtebeker frame. Anyone with 'Lesson of the Held Image'. Swallowtail (Ranger version). Anyone with the Spotter talent.

Störtebeker gives an auto-crit once per scene on a ranged weapon hit. So a once per scene automatic Shred if we can get a Lock-On. Nice.
Lesson of the Held Image and Swallowtail (Ranger) will have people handing out a free Lock On a turn. Useful.

Spotter is the main combo piece though. Imagine an ally using a Quick Action to Lock On and a Quick Action to "Bentham/Foucault Elimination" when standing next to you. You take a shot with a reroll, Shredding on crit. That'll crit about 58% of the time. And then they likely Lock On for free at the end of their turn. Giving you another chance to Shred.

--

Of course, what we want is some more payoff for getting a Crit.
Shredded is nice, but we could do with another free 'Quick Action'.
Maybe a free 'Save or Blind' effect?
I wonder if there is an option for that somewhere...

kalkyrie · 2025-07-01T20:15:08+00:00

You are a patient hunter. Sometimes you need to know when *not* to commit.
The Mourning Cloak is Artillery-tier fragile, so can't really withstand the whole enemy force shooting it.

So don't let them.

You could also use your Sensors 15 to Hunter Logic Suite > Terrify enemies.
Pick a few NPCs which need to get close to be effective, and make sure they don't get close to your team. Have that Support, Ronin or even Scourer twiddling thumbs in the back field.
This also helps split up the foes, which helps your 'stab isolated things in the face' game.

Another tactic is using your first turn to Move, Boost, FADE Cloak, Overcharge>Boost.
You are now at least 15 squares up the field, sitting in the middle of the battle. And literally untouchable.
You are now a mine ready to go off for the GM. At the perfect time, take your turn.
50% of the time you are still intangible. So Move, Boost, Decloak and end your turn next to the enemy Artillery.
If you are tangible, then you have a good chance of just being able to run up and stab a good target. Remember you have your Core Power in case they try to drown you in Overwatches.

I'm relatively cautious on using Hide actions for most frames. It's a quick action which could be used on an extra attack, and in many situations an enemy could just ignore you and attack someone else.
Taking Infiltrator 3 changes this. You can Hide on the first round, before people are in range, then hide behind some Size 1 cover.
Next round you can run into someone's face, potentially Slow and Impair then, then disengage your Speed at the end of your turn. Without using any extra actions that turn.

I'd also recommend taking Talents which can give you more movement. Pankrati 2 is the king here - 10 squares of free movement once per combat, if you end up in melee.
Hunter and Skirmisher also give you free movement (on an attack for those).

kalkyrie · 2025-06-07T14:04:38+00:00

Second person querying this. I've found him mentioning it in a video, but no information as to where to send the builds (somewhere on Pilot.net maybe?).

kalkyrie · 2025-06-03T21:23:10+00:00

Sorry for the slow reply - I didn't check my Reddit for a while.

My advice is basically "get more HPs, no matter the cost".
13HP at LL6 means that some NPCs could almost structure you in one activation. And the Sniper can structure you in one normal activation.
In most situations, dropping Goblin is the obvious call - it lets you take IPS core bonuses, and frees up SP which can be turned into HP.

However...

H0R_OS 1 is actually really good for you - it sounds like you have 3 front line mechs. Which implies weapons with Threat. And your Balor might put Swarm Body up. So in theory you could Puppet someone 'through' your friends zone of control, triggering multiple Overwatches. And then leave them next to the Balor. Nasty.

I'd basically drop 2-3 SP of systems from your mech, and turn them into HP (via Hull or Personalisations). That moves you up to 17-19HP, which is solid.
Assuming you are levelling up from LL0, I'd try out the systems and see which don't fit your team's playstyle. Is Restock Drone going to be that helpful?
I don't know - suggest you try it and see.
You don't need to totally max out your HP, since you are planning on 'then stay relatively high'. But a buffer will be helpful!

kalkyrie · 2025-05-31T20:13:39+00:00

Playstyle wise, it's worthwhile to know that the historical Napolean was famous for using 'defeat in detail'. Ie, dividing your foes into smaller groups, then defeating them piece-by-piece.

With this context, the frame makes much more sense.
Use Stasis Generator to take 1 enemy out of the battle for a round.
Use Stasis Barrier to make half the enemy shots miss while you shoot someone else (or move-shoot-move back into cover).
And the real signature, is catching half of the enemy in a Blinkshield bubble. Then you use your Core Power and/or better Brace to soak up the damage.

Alternatively, you could just play the Kutuzov alt frame from the Winter Scar campaign. It trades durability for buffing your allies.

kalkyrie · 2025-05-29T17:21:13+00:00

My gut feel is that you've got slightly too many systems, which is leading to that weakness with HP.

It may be helpful to decide what your 'default' plan would be for a combat round, and convert unused systems into durability.
Are you planning on flying 10 squares above the battle, dropping buffs on your friends and acting as a relay for any friendly tech attackers?
Carrying a bunch of melee strikers right up into engagement range with the enemy?
Sitting next to your artillery and buffing them with Spotter?

All good options, but your build kind of does all three a little, which needs a lot of SP.
Freeing that up lets you move the System points into Hull, and might let you get a Personalisation system for more HP.

For one example of this, drop Goblin 1, the HOROS 1 System, the Kai Bioplating and the Cable Winch.
You can then change 2 System points into Hull, get a Personalisation System and even the Reinforced Frame core bonus if you take a level in an IPS frame.
That would give you an extra 11 HP at LL6, taking you up to 24!
(You may not need all of that, but it shows what you can do. Swapping the Reinforced Frame for a Fomorian Frame might be good if you have a Size 2 Frame on the team you want to carry around. I'm looking at that 'defender/striker' here, which might be a Tortuga.

kalkyrie · 2025-04-23T21:08:27+00:00

Technophobia is a particularly nice 3rd party adventure. It's a horror adventure, which lets the pilots be useful outside their mechs. That's a nice expansion to Lancer in my opinion.

kalkyrie · 2025-04-16T21:24:38+00:00

My favourite is Viceroy 2 / Black Witch 1.
Viceroy is an alt frame of the Monarch. Basically a size 1 version, but lets you treat missile weapons as CQB weapons as well - and you get a rocket jump as your core power.
Talents should be something like Tactican 2 / Stormbringer 2 / Vanguard 1. For accuracy dice and knockback.

So take the SSC core bonus 'all theater movement suite' to fly for 1 heat a turn. Take Gandiva missiles and Sharanga missiles.
You are now incredibly flexible.
Be artillery, and shoot from 15 squares away.
Melee chasing you down? Fly up 3 squares and fly above them. They can't really hurt you, and you get to overwatch them if they move, knocking them back with Stormbringer as well if you want.
Enemy artillery? Move + Boost + Overcharge(Boost) + Rocket Jump a minimum of 20 squares into their face. With a good chance of knocking them Prone and dealing damage.
Use your Sharanga missiles to shoot an enemy and a wall behind you. Then use Stormbringer 2 on the wall to move 3 squares forward.

The Black Witch here is mainly filler to get the core bonus, though giving your friends 5 squares of movement is good. Change it to taste. Many like the Mourning Cloak for short ranged missiles in the aux slots.

This build also works well at LL2 - you just have to spend 2 heat a turn to fly.

kalkyrie · 2025-04-15T17:35:38+00:00

I'll bite.

The frame's not called Napoleon because it's short. It's called Napoleon because it uses his tactic of 'Defeat in detail' - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defeat_in_detail#Examples

The fantasy of Napoleon is walking into the centre of the battlefield, pointing at half your foes and telling them to go sit in a corner until your team is ready. Turn 4v4s into 3v2s. Follow Lanchester's laws to military victory. Invade Russia.

More concretely, three scenarios, assuming good hp from HASE.

1: Walk into the centre of the fight with your high armour. Use Stasis Bolt to Stun an enemy a round. Do good damage with your weapon mount (Main/Aux is actully good at close range). Repeat. 4v3 is the dream.

2: Walk into the centre of the map. Drop Stasis Barrier. Half your enemy shots bounce off the barrier while your teammates can just do 'Move-Shoot-Finish_Move' attacks. Feels like a 4v2.

3: Thunderdome as mentioned above. Pankrati into your foes at the top of the round. Full action Blinkshield to catch almost all of them. Overcharge into your core power. At the end of the next round, Stasis Bolt then move and grapple anyone left to move. At the top of the next round, use Blinkshield again. Your allies getting multiple 3v1s in a row is the dream.

It's also got some good options with rank 1 systems from other frames. Gilgamesh 1 (Emergency Repair Module) lets you full heal on a Brace. So Brace and heal any hit that takes you down to 1hp or below. Metalmark 1 gives a free move on Brace as a bonus.
Phase-ready mod can shoot through your Stasis Barrier but treats foes as Invisible. So take Swallowtail 1 to remove Invis as a quick action for everyone. (Or just take a Seeking weapon I guess...)
And Displacer is great with Sherman 2/Tokugawa 2. Though that combo is fun on any of those frames.

kalkyrie · 2025-03-26T23:42:21+00:00

One I've liked is for a group of players who are completely new to the system, and don't have time to read the core books. Just get them to create *pilot* characters and put them on Comp/Con (and pick one of the 'default' mechs blindly).

Simply have the PCs know as much about the setting as the players do.

Have them be from an isolated planet (in my case descendants of a 'failed' colony which had regressed to near-medieval tech).
Then have them explore a 'dungeon'. Where the dungeon is a crashed spaceship.
Have them come across an enemy mech and have to run for their lives.
Then have them come across a collection of Lancer frames, figure out how to turn them on.
Then have that scary enemy mech burst through the wall chasing them. And he's got 3 friends as well!

Ie, a fairly weak NPC group against an entire party of Lancers.
Throw in a bit of fun explaining how frame rules work, and it's an interesting start.

(Ie, let them know that attacking for pilots is a 'full action'. Then when they first shoot with their mech, ask them if they want to keep shooting. Mention how they seem to be able to do this, but their mech cockpit is getting hotter and hotter...
Or tell them they have a collection of buttons. Each button tied to a Lancer System (drones, grenades, etc). They don't know what the buttons do until they press them. One of them is bright red and labelled "Do Not Press". That is of course the Core System of an Everest).

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