AoS Battleline units: what's your flavor?

[Killer Angel]

Matched plays require to field battleline units, but I saw that there are really different approaches in the way of choosing and using battlelines.

ONE
given that i need to pick them, i will invest on them.
Battleline units are usually cheap, and gain bonuses when fielded in hordes, so 10 saurus warriors are bad, but 30-40 warriors in a single unit are good. At that point, you will use heroes to support them and your battlelines become almost the core of your army.
The upside is: the "tax points" of battlelines become your functional main force. No points wasted!
the downside is: you will have less points for behemoths or other elite units.

TWO
given that i need to pick them, i will cut the losses.
Battleline units are usually cheap, so I will save as many points as I can, using those few points I need to spend, in the best possible way.
a 10 skinks unit is good, because it costs only 80 points, they offer a really nice mobility and so they can go and take objectives, or follow my fast units and act as screen. And screens save your precious key units from bad things, as you don't want the enemy to directly charge your heroes!
The upside is: you will spend very few "tax points" (saving them for the really strong units) and you will have some disposable chaff unit.
the downside is: you will spend anyway a certain amount of points (from 16% to 20% of your total) on suboptimal units


THREE
When you use certain allegiances, you have elite units that become battleline.
That's good, because you can field strong troops without having to waste points on weaker units and so (for example) I can pick Saurus Guards as battleline.
The upside is: your battelines are strong troops, you won't have weak points.
the downside is: you will probably lack chaff units and every loss will be severe, especially facing mortal wounds.



What do you like / use more, and why?

Do you have in mind some other ways to choose / employ battlelines?

 

[Padre]

For me, it depends on the faction and the unit involved. All three methods work in different situations.

When I use my old Empire army, I tend to max out my battleline units, as they get bonuses for the unit size and can get quite deadly. With a general and hurricanum supporting them, 30 handgunners can hit and wound on 2+. Halberdiers can get up there as well.

On the other hand, I have a Death Soulblight list that runs around with 30 Blood Knights as battleline. Each loss hurts, but they have ways to bring them back. Or, if I wanted to bring a more normal Death faction list, I could use 180 pts to run 30 zombies and just dispense with my tax. Tactically, I could then combine them into a single unit on turn 1. Or just run them as chaff or sit on some objectives, or... The possibilities are endless.

In Seraphon, I tend to go a bit middle of the road. Buff my warrior numbers as we get bonuses, but not too high so I can take the cool stuff. I a little leery about running minimum size knight and guard units as losses just hurt more.

 

[Bowser]

60 percent option 3, 30 percent option 1, 10 percent option 2.

 

[Killer Angel]

60 percent option 3, 30 percent option 1, 10 percent option 2.

Personally, i tend to favor option 2.
But i believe it also depends from your meta, 'cause @Padre is right: factions and units involved are a big factor to the kind of approach in the choice of battlelines, but what you are going to typically face can impact on your tactic.

Yeah, option 3 is Golden, who doesn't like Saurus Guards? properly supported, they can break almost everything.
But if you face fast heavy hitters (beastclaw allegiance, Beastmen) or heavy deep strikers (Stormcast), then you need disposable screen units to neutralize deadly charges. Option 2 is probably the way to go.
If you tipically face armies with heavy mortal wounds (ratmen shooting, spirit hosts...), then option 1 is better, 'cause you won't give your enemy precious targets.

 

[Bowser]

I mostly face Fyre slayers and skaven/Nurgle, ironjawz occasionally stormcast, haven't played at the local store in a bit so current meta for me is a 3-4 player game. But I like having knights or guard as my battleline, so that's my preference. You are absolutely correct that the build depends on if I know what I am up against I will usually take option 3, or if I don't know which army I am facing I will usually take option 1 or 2.

 

[LordRibbit]

Knights and guard for me most of the time though a big blob of skinks can come in handy for annoyance/objectives. The difficulty lies in writing tournament lists lol what do you go for???

 

[Bowser]

Most tournaments will have objectives and other points ratings. So I would build for that.

 

[DeadlyRecluse]

Depends what I'm playing against, but I usually pick either guard or warriors as my battleline. I tend to play with models that I like the look of more so I lean more towards guard as I like their aesthetic. But if I'm facing a list that could punish expensive units(eg. My bfs 1000 point beastclaw raiders list)I tend to pick warriors so I don't have to worry about losses as much