Pathfinders are the easiest way to get large amounts of markerlights in your army for a relatively low price. Each and every one of them has one by default, in addition to a pulse carbine, mind you.
(6 dudes with markerlights: 66p)
Medium range firepower
They have the option of taking some prototype drones and the one that really shines for me is the pulse accelerator drone. +6" on pulse weaponry. Those carbines just went from 18" to 24" range, making them strictly better than Storm Bolters (S5 to S4).
(10 dudes + pulse accelerator: 125p)
Hunters
Give them some upgraded weaponry in the form of ion or rail rifles and they can even ruin vehicles in the side or rear, instakill Nid warriors or raveners, hurt high T targets or heavy infantry.
(4 dudes with 3 ion rifles: 74p)
All round
Add in Darkstrider and your pulse rifles suddenly are (effectively) S6, making them wound MCs on 4s and marines on 2s... not bad if you ask me, but this does get expensive if you take some more options in the form of pulse-accelerator and/or special rifles.
(10 dudes + darkstrider: 210p)
Conclusion
I would probably field:
A cheap markerlight squad + a hunter squad.
OR
An all round squad fully kitted out.
Thoughts? Experiences?
Pathfinders are definitely one of my favorite units in the new 'dex, at least in terms of potential. I really like the Hunter unit, but my worry would be that they'd give up first blood in any sizable game as soon as an opponent sneezed in their direction. That said, having the rapid-fire option should allow them to stay mobile and hopefully out of harm's way.
ReplyDeleteA unit with the pulse accelerator is definitely tempting; my concern though would be that then I'm not using their markerlights. It's great for if they have to move, but putting 5 markers on a unit is definitely hard to pass up. That said, some mathhammer might determine that the 20 S5 24" shots will do more damage than the boosts from 5 markers.
If you have 20 pulse carbine shots, that means you have 10 dudes and that means you also have 10 markerlights... so the mathhammer might sway towards the markerlights... then again, this gives you the option to use whichever you need most at that time. (This makes the Pathfinders better than Drone squadrons imho, a drone has either/or, not both)
DeleteAlso, even if you only use the markerlights when shooting in your turn, you get 20 pulse shots on overwatch if you get assaulted... that at least might do some damage before your guys go down... and go down in combat, that they will...
Definitely more flexible than the drones. I think I was mostly wondering if the Pulse Accelerator drone was worth while. I love the concept, but as you allude to, the times when the pulse shots might be more valuable is probably usually when within 18" of the enemy anyway. That said, a squad with pulse accelerator, since you'd want to use it, could then become more mobile, and maybe valuable as a flanking harassment unit. Regardless, I really like the pathfinders and can see running at least one, if not two units of them most of the time.
DeleteAll that said, this is all just me playing it out in my head - no idea how it works in practice yet.
Same for me, I'm just theorizing about the possible options and builds, no actual experience yet.
DeleteYou might be right about the pulse-accelerator, however, this again opens up options, like for example, you can shoot 6 markerlights and add some supportive fire with 8 pulse carbine shots @ 24" if you don't need the 10 markerlights... and we all know having options is good.
This unit is getting better and better in my head :D
A unit of 10 outflanking pathfinders is rather cheap and dishes out some decent firepower (in theory).