[Hurricane]

Being that 5th edition is so meched up, I was wondering what armies stand out from the crowd in their ability to be all (or mostly) on foot and still remain competitive. I'm personally looking into beginning an army that does not rely on transports to keep it going since I'm a cheap bastard that doesn't want to have to buy tons of additional vehicles. I also feel, at least when looking at many other lists, that they are all ready for the inevitable mech onslaught and throwing a foot force down on the table would throw many opponents off guard.

So what do you think are the remaining, competitive foot forces?

 

[CLT40k]

Kirby has some good stuff on his blog....

Check here... http://kirbysblog-ic.blogspot.com/ I think he talks about foot armys in one of his "armies in 5th articles..."

But in short,
Space Wolves - TWC lists
Blood Angels (all jump packs)
Tau - sort of - you need the speeders....
NIDS - nuff said...

....

 

[gen.ahab]

Tbh, protection in a footslogger list comes from one of two things, numbers and speed.

 

[Underground Heretic]

I know of a C:SM army that is still absolutely brutal without a single vehicle. A friend of mine took it to tournaments and regularly walked out with first place. It's a simple list with a simple concept: Break the transports and hit what gets out with a hammer.

Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike
20 Thunder hammer assault terminators
20 Tactical marines with flamethrower and multimelta
20 Devastators with 8 missile launchers

It had a total of seven kill points, two very nasty squads and enough S8 to kill most mechanized armies. Landraiders were a bit of a problem, but they can only hold seven terminators and a character at most. Each terminator squad had three more terminators and they were all fleet. A very nasty army to fight and a very simple army to run.

 

[Inquisitor Malaclypse]

if you look at BoLs the 'Ard Boyz batrep includes a guy who took foot slogging CSM. i've thought about trying that myself.

IIRC, he had 12 CSM, 12 TSons, and 12 PMs in it.

i've always thought it regrettable you couldn't use more than 10 MEQs from the CSM codex.

i think it would be dam fun to use 3 squads of foot slogging, 14 marine total PM squads.

 

[KingOfCheese]

Orks are viable in a list that is technically foot sloggers.
9 Killa Kanz supported by KFF and Lootas and lots of Ork Boyz on foot.

Nids obviously do it too, although they have their version of drop pods.

IG can do it well as a gunline, although ChimVets are more effective.

Seriously though, id say just buy the vehicles. Things like Land Raiders still have a good moneyoints ratio if your short on cash, and are effective in marine lists.
In fact, most vehicles have just as good moneyoints ratios as infantry, besides the cheap transport vehicles.
But even so, dropping a couple of infantry models for a couple of transport vehicles wont add that much more to the cost of the army. Maybe 10-20%.
Foot slogging armies such as the example i gave above with Kanz, Lootas, and Boyz will set you back a lot more money than a typical mech list.

 

[Underground Heretic]

I forgot to mention the current craze for foot eldar. As I'm building mechanized eldar I don't really like the idea, but three wraithlords backing up thirty harlequins and pathfinders holding down points is a lot better than it sounds. Harles don't need a vehicle and are made more vulnerable by having a transport. If you like eldar, there's a viable foot build.

 

[Hurricane]

Ya I suppose the sheer number of infantry models might offset the cost of buying additional vehicles anyway. At the end of the day though it sure felt like buying all those razorbacks for my wolves was a lot more expensive.

In any case, I see that making footslogging viable (based on the above lists) depends a lot upon numbers and survivability. Are there others that do well with small elite foot forces? I'm including things like bike armies here as well since I kind of believe they fall under the same category.

 

[The Iron Savior]

'Crons and 'Nids work good because neither have dedicated transports, so you have to go on foot (unless you count teleporting for 'Crons).

 

[Kirby]

Elfzilla, Crons, Orks, etc. aren't good foot options. They don't have the mobility, combat ability or ranged anti-tank to deal with mech lists. Here's a list of good foot or hybrid lists (most of them linked). Their codex follows the link.

No vehicles:
SM Bikers - Space Marines
Blood Rodeo - Blood Angels
Jumpers - Blood Angels
Blood Hammer - Blood Angels
Bloodwing Hammer - Blood Angels
TWC - Space Wolves
Walky Death - Tyranids
Swarmy - Tyranids

And a mix of vehicles and foot:
Hybrid Tau - Tau
Dual Council - Eldar
Blast spam - Imperial Guard
Fast'N'Slow - Space Marines
Hybrid TWC - Space Wolves
Immo spam w/platoons - Witchhunters
Thunderbubble - Space Marines

That's not an exhaustive set but not going to run around for lists on everyone. Others that jump to mind are Loganwing (mass WG & LF w/missiles), etc. What a foot or hybrid list has to do is be able to compete with mech in terms of mobility, durability and firepower. Whilst most foot or hybrid lists have more models if they aren't mobile or don't have excellent suppression firepower, the advantages of the vehicle damage table signficiantly favor the mech list.

 

[neilbatte]

My marine army is totally foot based and seems to work well enough.
I use 2 libbys with gate of infinity to move squads as needed, a squad of termies that can deepstrike if needed, and assault marines to take out fast moving threats as they appear.
Other than that it's just basic squads of marines a squad of scouts with sniper rifles and devestators geared towards tank/ transport popping and a 9 man vanguard squad without jumppacks for 1 of the libby's to move as a mobile reaction force.

 

[Hurricane]

Thanks a ton for the responses guys! Especially that list you got down there Kirby, its given me some ideas as to how I may want to expand my current army and what I want to do next.

I've always proxied my TWC since I wanted to wait for GW to release some proper models but I think I may just take the plunge and get some non-GW ones since I don't really play in official tournaments.

 

[buckythefly]

Oi, whats dis! Orks is best at chargin' straight at da enemy and takin' dem to da bricks, if I bring my mate zog an you zig, he gonna catchya on da zag, don't need na fancy trukks ta do dat.


In other words, It is completely tactically viable to completely fill every inch of your deployment zone with orks, seriously, you won't give up hardly any kill points, theirs just no way to kill em fast enough

 

[gen.ahab]

TWC list, the beat any boyz footslogging..... boyz.

 

[mynameisgrax]

There are plenty of viable footslogging armies out there, but there are three painful truths you need to know:

1. A list is always more competitive if it has a couple transports in it. Sorry, it just is.

2. The lists that do best without transports are the ones that were designed to work well without transports: Nids, Daemons, Wolves, and Blood Angels to name a few.

3. Unless you can cross the board quickly, the Imperial Guard will eat you alive.


In short: yes, you can have a footslogging list and still be competitive, but you can't be 'slow' and be competitive. You don't always need vehicles, but you always need speed.

 

[Kirby]

Thanks a ton for the responses guys! Especially that list you got down there Kirby, its given me some ideas as to how I may want to expand my current army and what I want to do next.

I've always proxied my TWC since I wanted to wait for GW to release some proper models but I think I may just take the plunge and get some non-GW ones since I don't really play in official tournaments.

Not a problem mate. There are conversion TWC options (like using Horses or Cold ones from fantasy) that are relatively easy, some resin casts or some very hard conversions . I imagine TWC would be released by the end of the year...but who knows.

@mynameisgrax; footslogging armies can be competitive, you just have to build them right. Saying no mech at all isn't as competitive as some mech means Jumpers, TWC, Loganwing, Bikers, Tyranids, etc. aren't competitive when they very much are. You also don't always need speed. You need to equal or better your opponent's mobility. Tyranids & Loganwing do this by being able to fire on the move and suppress enemy mech, etc.

 

[Inquisitor Malaclypse]

My marine army is totally foot based and seems to work well enough.
I use 2 libbys with gate of infinity to move squads as needed, a squad of termies that can deepstrike if needed, and assault marines to take out fast moving threats as they appear.
Other than that it's just basic squads of marines a squad of scouts with sniper rifles and devestators geared towards tank/ transport popping and a 9 man vanguard squad without jumppacks for 1 of the libby's to move as a mobile reaction force.

could you post your list? i'm interesting in seeing what i looks like.

and don't forget to add Loganwing in Drop pods: even more viable if you take WG without termie armor.

 

[Culler]

Elfzilla, Crons, Orks, etc. aren't good foot options.

I strongly disagree, concerning the Orks. I run non-mech Orks very successfully. They got me all the way to the 'ard boyz nationals and have won almost every tournament I've ever played with them (single exception being a grossly unbalanced scenario where I tabled my opponent and still lost, this scenario gave all his units without number and me 3+ cover as long as I didn't move, because that's clearly equivalent.) Clever use of cover, loota support, boyz mobs being able to support each other, and ridiculous survivability can make for a highly effective force. Also, the ability to cover the board in bodies is an easy way to negate the movement advantages of mech.

 

[mynameisgrax]

@Kirby: What I was trying to say was that because of the way objective missions work, having at least one cheap transport in the list is all but guaranteed to make your list more competitive. I'm not trying to say that footslogging armies can't be competitive, it's just that a single rhino/chimera/trukk/etc never hurts, and always helps.

Also, I've seen Ork footslogging armies be extremely competitive. The trick is to exploit Ghazghkull's guaranteed 6in waaaaugh, and get your boyz into close combat as quickly as possible. Killa Kans, lootas, and again, at least one vehicle (as per the previous paragraph), is usually a must as well.

The other footslogging armies can be effective as well, as long as they keep moving.