Haemonculi are another one of my favorite units. I know I have to put away my custom Haemonculi Jetbikes, but the new codex really has done some wonderful things so I don't care. Haemonculi are the carriers of our starting Pain Tokens, so I am feeling that 1-3 of these twisted creatures will be in most lists. Lets see what they have evolved into for 5th edition.You may choose 1-3 Haemonculi per HQ choice. One of which may be upgraded to a Haemonculus Ancient. If you choose to have a Haemonculus as an HQ choice, you can take Wracks as troop choices. This provides a very distinct and different look to the army, and some unique options which I will get into later.
Their stat line goes something like this. WS4 BS4 S3 T4 W2 I4 A2 Ld8 Sv6+. An Ancient adds 1 to WS, BS, W, I, and Ld. You can only take one ancient per HQ choice.
Your Haemonculus comes with a splinter pistol and a close combat weapon. They are independent characters, have power through pain and altered physique (meaning they start the game with a pain token). They get an excellent selection of weapons, including venom blades, stinger pistols, mindphase gauntlets, flesh gauntlets, agonizers, huskblades, and electrocorrosive whips.
Haemonculi also get a large selection of Arcane Wargear. These will be alot of fun. Here is what we can choose from. Animus Vitae, casket of flensing, liquefier gun, soul-trap, vexator mask, scissorhand, archangel of pain, hexrifle, shattershard, crucible of malediction, orb of dispair, darkgate, and webway portal. As you can see, you can really get into customizing your haemonculus with a variety of weapons and wargear. Arcane Wargear of note. The Animus Vitae is a special close combat weapon that if you kill or destroy one or more enemy models (including vehicles) you may take a leadership test at the end of the round. If you pass, you gain a pain token immediately.
What will be interesting is how the Haemonculi work with Sharing the Pain. Sharing the Pain is an army wide rule that basically means that if an independent character with a pain token joins another unit, they pool their pain tokens. When they split up again, you must split the pain tokens as evenly as possible, with the owning player deciding where remaining tokens go. This brings up the possibility of what I am calling "Delivering the Pain", basically handing off pain tokens at the beginning of the game on your first turn.
Example. Haemonculi joins a unit of Incubi at the start of the game (deployment). Game starts. Round 1 your Haemonculi leaves the incubi. Now you would split the pain tokens. There is only one, so someone is getting 0 and the other will get 1. Obviously you simply hand off your pain token to the Incubi, you fly off towards the enemy. Or better yet, a different haemonculi joins them on their raider, and they all take off. This could conceivably give you Feel no Pain and Furious Charge round 1. It could work in reverse as well, with units like Wracks who have a pain token, handing them off to Archons etc. I almost expect this to be FAQ'd. We will see, but for now it looks legal.
To sum it up, I expect to see Haemonculi in almost every list. It is the quickest and fastest way to take advantage of Power through Pain. It allows for Wracks to become a troop choice, giving you variety and a more durable troop option. They also are no slouches when it comes to close combat, due to the wide variety of weaponry available to them.You will be able to unleash nasty arcane wargear with Haemonculi, and I cannot wait to field them. The only problem is in figuring out your other HQ choice.
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