Goatboy here with a top 5 list of the best “elite” units who wear power armor both good and bad, to carry you to victory.
These “elite” units are the 3-6 man ones we see in a lot of current armies. They are normally the best armored, the most deadly, or just plain toughest units in your codex. Giant tough monsters that represent the glorious nature of your army seem to be the key to these awesome warriors of the neoprene battle mats. Let’s look at the top 5 we currently see dominating in 10th Edition. You should expect to see them and have a strategy to deal with them to achieve victory.
5. Blood Angels – Sanguinary Guard
These represent the ultimate golden warriors of combat for the Blood Angels army. They come in units of 3-6, have awesome jump packs, a giant sword, and even some cool bolt guns strapped to their arms. They are not nearly as tough as some of the others on this list, but fit into the glorious nature of the Blood Angels. They move fast, hit hard, and might survive a few rounds of attention with their golden armor and invulnerable save. They also got some nice point drops to make them extremely efficient even if they die a bit to quickly for bad players like me.
4. Space Marines – Bladeguard Veterans
I know what you are thinking – how are these guys before the Sanguinary Guard? Well Bladeguard Veterans are so dang cheap with an invulnerable save, decent movement, and pretty good attack power. They also have a huge amount of different characters you can join up with them and that just increases their abilities when facing other armies. You put them in a powerful Detachment and watch as they easily become mid table Marine bullies hiding within mdf buildings and waiting to counter attack into your lines.
3. Death Guard – Deathshroud Terminators
The boogie man from the new Death Guard Codex update these guys are a pretty rough unit to face. I think what keeps Deathshroud from being the best is that while three units appear rough it really works out just having one unit become the mid table bully. These guys pack in 4 wounds, tough bodies, ability to deep strike within 6″, and a pretty decent damage output. I think a 6-man unit is usually all you need but man is it an amazing unit to play with. I think just about every army would play a single unit if they could.
2. Dark Angels – Deathwing Knights
I really could split this with the top one I like. This unit is just extremely good and every army has problems trying to deal with them. Deathwing Knights are tough as heck, hit most other units really hard, and just are not that cheap. It is one of the few “Elite” units that start at a 5 man squad and they show up in packs of 3 in just about every Dark Angels list. They get up there, are hard to chew thru, and just punch you so hard in the business parts.
1. World Eaters – Eightbound
I know I love the World Eaters army but this unit does so much for the crazy blood driven madmen of the 40k units. The ability to scout up for movement tricks, they have a ton of attacks, a powerful bonus hitting aura, and just hit super hard. I think the biggest pain is Eightbound lost their Damage 3 option but they just seem so good for the army. I see almost every list at least pack 2 units with the 3rd being an Exalted unit. I really wish they would drop in points to help the army out as they still feel too expensive even if being as good as they are.
What do you think? I went with Infantry units that show up a lot as I feel tough little MSU options are going to be key to trying to survive the Knight Apocalypse will be dealing with the Meta in the near future.
Do you think there is something else tahat’s “elite” I missed that we see all the time out there?
Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on – or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.