Dual Man Eater Units

I usually take 5 Man Eaters with this set up:Brace of ogre pistols, heavy armour, std or musician or both, poison, scout

they try to flank, or they sit in the middle of the table and disrupt the enemy lines and plans. They either stand shooting until they do something about them, charge through the middle of the line, or draw out a unit or two from the enemy lines again disrupting the line

I now wish to take a second man eate runit as i love them so much and they nearly always performsuperbly.

I am thinking of equiping them as follows: heavy armour, std, several with additional hand weapons, stubborn and vanguard or swiftstride

can people help me decide on swiftstride or vanguard please and how best to use the maneatrs. Forgfet about the rest of the army, i want to take on as much of the opponents army as i can with two units of 5 maneaters. I will be using an iron blaster and a butcher with maw though and quiet a few bulls.

no help for me and my mannies?

If you give them Swiftstride and the Banner of Swiftness, you've got a really good chance of getting great charges in

Swiftstride also improves their chances of getting ogre charge. But yeah you'll really need Stubborn though ,as they may be out of the leadership bubble if you do charge long distances, and they may need to be able to hold for a turn while the rest of your line catches up.

yeah,they will be outside the bubble no doubt so i think the stubborn is a must for them.

swiftness banner sounds good too. never used it before though. does it add 1 inch movement and 2 inches to charges or just 1 inch to charges and movement?

just the one inch to your move value, so your charge will be 3d6 (2 highest) +7.  Basically you're now cavalry.

i have been using 3x5 maneater units.

5 mannies, 5 BoP, Hvy armour, muso, std, poison, sniper
5 mannies, 4 pistols, 1 GW, Hvy armour, muso, std, scout, stubborn
5 mannies, 4 pistols, 1 GW, Hvy armour, muso, std, vanguard, swift stride

they really make a massive threat to the enemy. the bracer of Ps are with the main battleline whilst the other 2 go on a flank. pistols seem a waste but are great for clearing chaff out of the way. and really its only an extra 5 points per model over 2XHW. The unit chews through any T3 unit especially GW marauders. May drop the GWs for pistols.

supporting that are my core that march up if the mannies are focused upon.

Scout and ITP.

whats the main reasons for scout and ITP over other combos?

Yeah, i agree mannies are a threat no one likes. i have only ever used 1 before and they cause such havoc its unreal...so thought hey...whats two units going to do mwuahahahah

after i finish the tourney next month im going to start converting alot to get a third unit of mannies in. at the moment though i have got a giant in its place.

my main blocks atm in a 2400 list consist of:

5 mannies
5 mannies
giant
2 mournfang
ironblaster
9 bulls
4 bulls
4 bulls
1 killa kat

tyrant, bruiser bsb +rune maw and level 2 butcher with scroll

thats just a quick overview but basically, who they gonna shoot and magic to death? if they let any unit through other than the two small bull units theres going to be death all over the place for the opponent. hell, even the small bulls can hold there own as equipped with iron fists

i dont use ItP on mannies as really it only helps stop panic and for terror (fear) tests. These are rare when the mannies are used as vanguard or scouting. stubborn plus scout i have found is better. if you can spare the +1 ld banner or the gleaming pendent then they are going nowhere quickly.

Do you all find that units of 5 are sufficient?

I've found in armies > 2000pts I need 8+ to ensure they're doing enough damage after casualties against enemies that outspeed them (which, with Initiative 3 isn't exactly rare) or can inflict some damage on the way in (magic, shooting, fancy toys like fanatics, etc.). At best they're WS5, T4, with a 5+ save... I feel most decent troops will be able to knock a fair few wounds off them, and every Maneater lost from a small unit can severely hamper your damage output.

If running 2 units I think I would go with 1 with Scout and the gleaming Pennant for harrassment and early game pressure, and the other either with a fast setup (Vanguard/ Swiftstride and something) to get in and support the scouts or as a mainline stubborn combat unit.

I'm also a big fan on poison on pretty much any Maneater unit as a go-to ability as it can really up the damage output with 5 attacks each (on any equipment bar GW's).

In a nutshell: Scout on one, Vanguard on the other for a fast, alpha-strike setup. Poison, stubborn and Swiftstride are all good abilities in pretty much any setup.

Since i started using Mannies i have used a unit of 5, never more, never less. and they 90% are fan"hecking"tastic

How my usual 5 Mannie set up is:
Brace of pistols on all, heavy armour, banner of eternal flame, poison, scout, std, mus and a champ sometimes too

How they are often used are massive monster killers, they have killed terror ghesits in combat (charged with flaming impact hits..boom), giants (shot to death but could take in a  fight easy), hellpit abom's (in fights or shooting-flaming stops the bugger coming back), hydra's...again flames are our friend , im sure more beasties, but also units are a stomp for these guys taking on phoenix gaurd and any other t3 weaklings.

there isnt much these guys dont deal the pain to for me. My mind frame is simple "they WILL die", only question is, how much stuff will they take out first.

they dont always die, nevermind

i expect to lose them so play fast and aggressive with them and never defensive, if it seems stupid...it throws the enemy off like when i plonk them in the middle of the table on their own before even knowing who's turn fist.

i would defo give a try of that set up. maybe have more mannies in if you wish, but dont spend too much more than that set up and 6 mannies. i think that gives out more than enough.

can anyone tell they are my fave unit in the book

Im really looking forward to gettin my test game in next week and playing this fast hard hitting army. im sure both me and my opponent will have fun, if nothing else my opponent will see me making mental desicions and laughin at them (before i go smushin his army up)

has anyone ever heard of a famous lil anti hero called the merc with a mouth? well i play like him. he may not always make sense at first, but when you look back...it all works out his way...or mine in this case...would luv to see Deadpool play a game of warhammer (dreamy)

I've actually been having alot of luck with a "full-maneater" list, which is comprised of 3!  units of maneaters.  The first 6 are poison/sniper/BoP, and provide great chaff-clearing, wizard-hunting, and warmachine-killing capability.  The other two are 6 with scout/stubborn, and 6 or 7 with vanguard/swiftstride.  These two basically take control of a flank.  I've found it very easy to set up both combo charges and overrun/combo charges, which are particularly devastating.  The scouts charge something fairly squishy, kill it, and then overrun into whichever unit the vanguards charged, allowing them to attack again.

bet thats a tasty few points isnt it. how much is that running you and what you run along side it and in what sized army?

It's a 2500 point army I'm testing before I start converting.  I run 2 units of 9 bulls for core (FC,IF), and then a BSB with SoD, Firebelly with magic weapon, dispel scroll, and a SM with HH, CoC, and magic weapon, and then a pair of kitties.  Makes for very fast games (combat is typically joined by one side or the other on turn 1), with mixed success.  It's definitely got some weaknesses, but can also catch people off guard by putting immediate pressure on them.

The reason the Hell Heart is on the SM and not the FB is pure misdirection.  Most folks see a FB and assume "Hell Heart!"  Plus with it on the General, if any wizards get close to buff units going after him, he's more likely to hit them. 

I've been considering combining the bulls into a single horde, to increase combat power, take better advantage of the CoC, and increase the low-drop nature of it.  Hordes also make counter-deployment much easier.