Wych weapons?

[CyberIronard]

undecided which weapons to equip my wych squads with, i have asked aroung my local GW and club but everyone has conflicting opinions, just wondering which weapon is best and if there is no distinct best, what situations is each one good in

[eldargal]

Well it depends what you want them to do:

Shardnet Impaler: Reduces incoming attacks, enhances surviability and tarpit ability.
Razorflails: Reroll to wound, helps you kill higher toughness things. Problem is if you roll the drug that lets you re-roll wounds they are utterly redundant.
Hydra gauntlets: Generates more attacks, good for horde armies. Still only S3 until you get two pain tokens.

I tend to run squads of ten with a shardnet and hydra gauntlets, as there is a drug that renders razorflails virtually useless. However I also mix things up a bit as I like variety, so I might have a squad with two shardnets and one with two hydra gauntlets. Sometimes I take bloodbrides with three hydra gauntlets and a succubus leading them and enjoy throwing around 50 attacks.

[MaltonNecromancer]

I've been mulling this one over myself.

Each weapon strikes me as offering a roughly comparable boost, so I'm not sure that there is a "best"; it's more a case of the right tool for the job.

Hydra Gauntlets - increases your offensive ability against lightly infantry. Good against IG and Gaunt-level infantry.
Razor Flails - same as Hydra Gauntlets, but against tougher infantry. Giood against Orks and Marines.
Shardnet and Impaler - helps to protect against counter assault from dedicated anti-assault units like THSS Terminators, Genestealers, etc...

I would argue that mixing and having two different weapon options in a ten-Wych squad dilutes their effectiveness. I'd go all out, and have two of the same, with the Shardnet and Impaler for a Wych unit designed to hold objectives, and the other options for offensive builds.

I'd also recommend EldarGal's bloodbride squad, only I'd lose one bloodbride, and take Lelith Hesperax, just to make the squad properly insane

[helvexis]

i almost always go shardnets impalers as i only ever have wyches to tarpit something that is worryingly close to my guns. not really important what, ill send them into a dreadnaught if it is getting close to one of my shooty units if its lost its transport

i would agree that having different weapons dilutes their usefulness

bloodbrides withshardnets make great guard units for hqs as well ... i particularly like them with urien if you can always get your shardnets next to him in combat he is impossible to touch

[DrLove42]

I go Shardnets and Hydra...razorfails never seemed that great to me, and seeing as they give one of the combar drugs effects.

[eldargal]

Yup, if I took SCs in regular games I'd do that too, but I keep them for Apocalypse and whatnot. Obscene numbers of attacks, 60+ I believe if you roll decently.

Always take Haywire Grenades if you are facing GK, too, helps with dreadnought spam.

I'd also recommend EldarGal's bloodbride squad, only I'd lose one bloodbride, and take Lelith Hesperax, just to make the squad properly insane

[stonychavez]

There is nothing more fun than assaulting a Blood Talon Dread with 10 Wyches with 2xshardnets and haywire grenades!

[helvexis]

yes i did feel bad for taking urien and bloodbrides but it was a deathwing army so i felt justified

[w7west]

It has been my experience that wyche weapons are not worth taking unless you have a very specific job in mind for your wyches, then the shardnet will help. However, for the other 95% of the jobs you want your wyches to do, consider the two following squads:

squad #1
7 wyches, haywires, squad leader with agonizer
+haemoc
+raider

squad #2
10 wyches, haywires, 2 wyche weapons, squad leader with agonizer
+raider


squad #1 actually costs less than #2 and that is including the haemoc for a free pain token, making the wyches incredibly durable in close combat and to shooting.

Squad #2 has 2 more bodies, and one more wound. However, squad #2 loses half of its members once the raider explodes, which it will. Squad #1 is very resiliant to exploding raiders due to feel no pain as well as wound alocation onto the haemoc.

In addition, 7 wyches is enough to beat whatever 10 wyches would have beaten in close combat, after all, it is the agonizer that actually kills things. The str 3 attacks are nice, but realistically don't mean much. Razorflails and hydra gauntlets are both pretty poor options unless you feel pretty confident that you can be assaulting at str 4 through pain tokens or combat drugs.

Shardnets are good at holding up things like lone characters or big nasty things like soul grinders. Wyches are already good at that anyway though, and will do just holding up a soul grinder or greater daemon.

Bloodbrides are another story since they have a lot more str 3 attacks available. I still would not put much stock into trying to increase killing potential with razoflails, but hydra gauntlets would at least allow you to become super deadly against toughness 3 opponents. Shardnets again are great but if you are taking a full squad of bloodbrides with 3 shardnets, you just spent a huge amount of points on a unit that isn't going to win combats against similar point value of say twolfs or or purifiers, and whose main job of tying up a unit can be fulfilled at half the point cost.

When it comes down to it, a wyche squad is an agonizer with x number of wounds / haywire grenades. Shardnets can be useful in making your agonizer stick around longer, but a haemoc bringing a pain token is a much more effective choice against 95% of what you will be using your wyches for. Also the wyche weapons pushes you to make very large squads of wyches (9 for bloodbride, 10 for normal) meaning every exploding raider is a huge point loss. Keep your wyches cheep, they are distraction and holdup units. If you are sticking more than 150 points of them into a raider, you should have a specific purpose and plenty of support to make sure they don't just go poof on turn one.

[schulzed]

I like running mine with razorflails and hydra gauntlets. I usually take Sliscus, and I don't really worry about the drugs that do the same thing as razorflails. Plus, you get to reroll to hit with them anyway, so thats nice. It comes down to preference I guess.