Catachan nerf, who to use for frontlines?

[Kim Jong Skill]

I've been having a rough patch, and am losing games left and right. People tell me that IG has fantastic early game fights, but since the catachan nerf I have no idea what I should be doing. Usually, I have catas and my hero to frontline things, get my spells down while my Guardsmen and Sent start throwing out shots. I don't always get catas though, but against space marines and chaos marines, they are usually a must have.

With the nerf, I'm usually forced to take a HWT, and obviously those are pretty awful compared the to HWT of other races, and I spend more time defending them, than the HWT is defending my army. Considering that IG has no jump units or teleporters, I usually end up with 0 idea of how to win engagements without bleeding models, compared to the triple/double tactical marines who never lose anything even though at 40 hp left. Am I doing something wrong? I'm not quite sure how to play IG anymore. Spotters are fine, but again, with no follow-up or frontlines, I'm just forced to back off.

[Torpid]

Catachans were unintentionally low in hp. For whatever reason they had 700hp but after the second hotfix for patch 3.1 they now have 900 hp by default and over 1k with their demo-man. It makes them viable again. Maybe that was what was giving you issues? I know it gave me massive issues...

Other than that you have to use your sentinels/heroes on the front-lines. Getting spotters helps them survive there much longer.

[Atlas]

I knew there was gonna be a catachan thread out there

Anyway, in practice my sent starts as my frontline unit. After that's there's a couple conditions that make gm's my frontline which is usually a lot of ranged av. I feel like the frontline problem is one that's pretty systemic with IG.

You're just going to have to accept the fact that you're losing models. It's the IG way.

[Crewfinity]

ummm HWT is a pretty awesome suppression team. not sure why you dont think its good. good damage, doesnt unsetup when you lose a model, best lascannon out of all the teams, and its immune to knockback in T2

[Nurland]

Immune to kb and suppression and 50% dramged damage resistance with the shield. It is probably the best set up team come T2

[Sub_Zero]

Indeed cats seem bad now. But even in their previous state I don't think they were meant to be your frontline units. They are primarily a melee counter and a very very good one. They have tons of abilities. I think it is better off to keep them behind your troops and throw smoke bombs and bombard enemies' positions and their time comes when some fool tries to get close. Anyway I enjoy using 2x cats along side a commissar lord or a lord general with his buffs. These 2 heroes play a very significant role for catachans.

[lolzarz]

You're not supposed to use Catachans as front line units; that's what your guardsmen and sentinel(s) are for. Guardsmen are far cheaper, while sentinels have more health. Hide your catachans behind the guardsmen, then when some poor fool jumps your guardsmen, use your catachans to chop them. Feel free to use explosive shot and the grenade launcher to disrupt any threats like charging melee squads and setup teams.

[Protagonist]

ummm HWT is a pretty awesome suppression team. not sure why you dont think its good. good damage, doesnt unsetup when you lose a model, best lascannon out of all the teams, and its immune to knockback in T2

Just to further hammer the point of how good the HWT is: You can 3 shot Dreadnoughts if you use it in conjunction with a Commissar.

[Torpid]

Air Dropped Mines/ol reliable to trigger their snare on a vehicle instantly while simultaneously combining execute + the HWT las-cannon and you can 3 shot most vehicles in the game while they become instantly 100% immobilised after the first shot. Only thing that can stop you other than melee is line of sight and the basilisk flare can counter that if you have nothing else.

[Cheah18]

Yeah I think your error is using them as frontline. If you think about it, GM are like the most quintessential 'front line' unit in 40k... Wear the enemy down against their cheap numbers, use them to draw fire etc. Sent can tank while being repaired by them too.

Catas are more of a counter initiation unit. They can be used to cover GM's flanks (figuratively speaking) and plug holes in your army's defences. Have them stand behind your hwt and they will punish any jump unit that comes in (except Apo ASM but Apo vs IG; all bets are off).

[Torpid]

Tank in T1 - Hero/sentinel, preferable sentinel as that allows room for the hero to go round a flank to deal with supppression/ranged squads in cover.

Tank in T2 - Chimera/upgraded guardsmen (more durable + cheaper reinforce + cancelled retreat)/ogryns (only to tank suppression/piercing damage; do not charge them into melee squads/walkers or plasma/inferno/artillery fire).

Tank in T3 - Leman russ' or THE BANEBLADE.

Ergo - hwts/Catachans/spotters/stormtroopers/kasrkin should never be leading your assaults with the only exception being if the stormtroopers are infiltrated and planning on initiating via a well placed fragmentation grenade!