Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4/5 stars. Who doesn't love a bit of ancient rad and bio-alchem munitions?
Background.
Shunned by many. Not use by several legions (e.g., Salamanders). Regarded as an evil necessity, and potentially dishonourable. Embraced fully by others (e.g., Death Gard). The Destroyer Squads are a remnant of the old wars on Terra and use weapons that are otherwise proscribed and leave behind a scorched earth.
Strengths.
Rad grenades have lost none of their impact in the new edition of Horus Heresy. Fundamentally, destroyer squads remain the way in which to bring these weapons to the battlefield (along with rad missiles and phosphex bombs for the sergeant). I will also give an honourable mention here to the toxiferran flamer with its poisoned 3+ and rending which makes an excellent addition to the squad. As standard, the squad also comes with jump packs and therefore this is a fast moving and potentially deadly squad.
Weaknesses.
This is a close combat squad whose only real limitation is how fast they get to deploy and use their weapons. I like the two bolt pistols and chainsword as standard and to be honest, there is not much not to like here. Perhaps except for the fact that the elites options are a crowded set of tasty decisions to make.
Difference to First Edition.
Very little realistically with the notable exception of coming with jump packs as standard. The foot slogging variety are still available as the Legion Mortalis Destroyer Squads.
Builds.
5 Destroyers, melta bombs all round, sergeant with thunder hammer and one phosphex bomb (190 points).
Fly over, destroy vehicles, irradiate their transported troops, scorch the earth. The choices are many, and this squad is nicely flexible.
5 Destroyers, 1 toxiferran flamer, 4 with two hand flamers (165 points).
A risky strategy to rad grenade an opponent and flame them into none-existence. Nice for eliminating heavy support troops entrenched in buildings. The trick is getting there in one piece.
10 Destroyers, 2 Rad Missile Launchers, Legion Vexilla, Nuncio Vox, Augury Scanner, Sergeant with power fist and artificer armour (315 points).
Extra members of this squad are "relatively" cheap in comparison to the base unit tax and therefore there is a nice economy at work here for this full squad and the points cost attached.
5 Destroyers, 1 Rad Missile Launcher, 1 Power Axe, Vexilla, Sergeant with Power Fist (195 points).
A build for if you are not sure what to take. Sufficient to cause a headache to opponents and generalist enough to be deployed in many scenarios.
Glad I'm not the only one to notice how much cheaper 5 additional guys are than a whole new squad. At 10-man squads, the melta bombs being a flat price for the whole unit becomes an even better deal. WS4 melta bombs can be tough when dealing with dreadnoughts, but with 10 guys attempting to place one, the poorer To Hit roll odds are somewhat mitigated.
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