torn:
Im wondering if anyone runs units of blunderbuss troops? I like the idea but the cost is very off putting.
Firstly the cost. 18pts per model makes them really expensive. Compared to dwarf irondrakes the blunderbuss seems pretty weak, but i suppose the counter argument is that blunderbusses are core troops.
So if i wanted to run 10 guys, i will get 10, 20 or 30 shots at str 3. If i have 20 I will get 20, 40 or 60 attacks with re- rolls to wound?
It seems less than 20 wouldnt be worth it. But thats 360pts minimum. With IG being a pretty solid combat unit without any upgrades is it better off just running them as combt blocks?
ThorAxe:
Depends on your list, really. Blunderbusses are more of a psychological weapon, especially useful if you run a heavy gun line with a magma canon, hellcanon, and rocket or two with khan and destroyer support. The opponent wants to close with you to stop being shot at by magma canons, or to stop taking panic tests from the hellcanons and rockets, but doesn’t quite want to be so close to you and fail a charge to have their more important unit be hit by crazy amounts of blunderbuss fire. My personal best is 150 shots into a warrior unit before they reached combat. Khans or other redirectors like sword and board bull centaur can hold up or chaff off units that ruin blunderbusses like fast cav, maybe elf knights, warhounds or saber tusks that try to waste the stand and shoot on them rather than the important unit. A destroyer, Iron daemon, and hellcanon can hold off more elite units that the blunderbusses have trouble dealing with.
Although blunderbusses are expensive, they are near impossible to shift with a castellan bsb in the unit due to high armor, good toughness, and rerollable stubborn tests. Really hard for the opponents to get the 800ish points for killing the unit.
On the other hand, I’ve lost track of the number of games they have failed to perform, or at least the number of games they did not perform much better than infernal guard without blunderbusses.
By the way, it is generally better to run blunderbuss units in multiples of 11, given that an attached character (castellan at the very least) takes up the space of one of the front rank models shooting, making a unit ten wide shoot with 19 models at the very most. My preference is to have a unit of 33 (32 plus castellan), as they are beefy enough to take a couple of losses and keep shooting. Also, this unit is expensive enough that I don’t have to run any other core should I not want hobgoblins in 2500 point games