Editing List of 40K Cheese (section)

== 6th & 7th Edition ==

7th edition came out barely two years after 6th and in many ways could be called 6.5 or so. There were differences of course, such as the reworked Psychic Phase, and shooting phase resolution, but most of the changes were small enough tweaks that it's sane enough to include entries for both editions in here.

===Allies===

A mechanic that got a mixed reception when it hit, and one it was never able to truly shake. Listed below are some of the most infamous examples that resulted from exploiting this mechanic.



*'''Allies of Convenience:''' 6th edition categorized alliances into four distinct tiers: Battle Brothers, Allies of Convenience, Desperate Allies, or Come the Apocalypse. Battle Brothers was the most straightforward and allowed allies to share buffs, use each other's transports, etc. On the other hand, Allies of Convenience meant that your allies treated each other as "enemies" for all intents and purposes, except that you could not intentionally target your own Allies of Convenience with Warlord Traits, shooting, charging, or Psychic Powers. However, all other abilities remained in theory able to interact with each other (barring exceptions like the Genestealer Cult ruling stating that Tyranid Allies of Convenience did not cause Shadow in the Warp/hinder Return to the Shadows). This meant that Allies of Convenience could activate "passive buffs" that triggered by enemy proximity, while it was "technically legal" to target your allies of convenience with "miscellaneous" powers.

* '''The Barkbarkstar:''' This combination came from [[Rage|allying Dark Angels and Space Wolves]]. Fenrisian Wolves were relatively cheap, at 8 points per model for a Beast unit with Marine statlines, but with a 6+ armor save. By themselves, they were mostly an escort of throwaway bodies for a Thunderwolf Lord. However, the real cheese came from the Fenrisian Hunting Pack, which allowed for 5 units of Fenrisian Wolves to be merged together into a blob of up to 75 Wolves. Such a huge unit could gain incredible mileage from stacking buffs on it, but the real piece de resistance was attaching Grand Commander Azrael of the Dark Angels to the unit. Azrael granted the entire unit a 4+ Invulnerable Save, while being able to choose a Warlord Trait that granted the unit Feel No Pain while within 3" of an Objective. Azrael's ability was designed around buffing a small squad of Dark Angels, but this unit was large enough to practically cover the entire map, since each wolf was mounted on a Terminator base, meaning with coherency, this unit was more than capable of locking down half the gameboard.

*'''ChaosCrons:''' In 7th edition, Chaos Space Marines and Necrons were considered Allies of Convenience. Notably, Anrakyr's special ability "Mind in the Machine" was RAW none of the above and [[cheese|in theory could be used on your own allied Typhon to have it fire its gun twice]]. [[Derp|More amusing however was a Black Legion Spearhead using Turn 1 Deep Strike while triggering Ethereal Interception from Allies of Convenience Deathmarks for a front-loaded alphastrike that required no Drop Pods to pull off]].

*'''TauCrons:''' Necrons had a lot of good mid-strength ranged weapons that could drown enemy units in saves or strip Hull Points off enemy vehicles, but most of their weapons were confined to the 24" range-bracket. Thus Tau were popular for providing longer-range: [[Cheese|The Firebase Support Cadre added 36" threat projection via Tank-Hunting Missile Broadsides and the Riptide was always appreciated]]. However, the real comedy came from the fact that [[Nemesor Zahndrekh]] had the special rule '''Adaptive Tactics:''' Whenever an enemy unit with one or more USRs from a bucket list (Counter-Attack, Furious Charge, Hit & Run, Split-Fire, Stealth, or Tank Hunters) was within 24" of Zahndrekh, Zahndrekh's unit also benefitted from that rule as well. [[Cheese|Many Tau wargear options (mainly, Vectored Retrothrusters and the Puretide Engram Neurochip) made it shockingly easy to acquire said USRs and provide them to Zahndrekh]]; [[Derp|perhaps he thought Puretide was actually a Necrontyr prodigy]]?

*'''TauDar:''' Allies Abuse was not entirely uncommon in 6th and 7th Edition, however the combined cheese from these two Codexes - each very powerful in their own right - resulted in a combination of Cheddar so potent it practically warped space and time. In short, imagine the best parts about both the Tau and Eldar Codexes, and fuse them together into a potent strike force. The even worse part? In 6th Edition, the two Factions were considered Battle Brothers - meaning there was no penalty for taking either one as Allies.

===Admech===

*'''[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Cult_Mechanicus(7E)#Formations|Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation]]:''' Includes units from Cult Mechanicus, Skitarii, and and Imperial Knights. Everything has Canticles of the Omnissiah, all wargear is free, and nothing Gets Hot. You like winning? Use this formation and literally pay to win.

===Chaos===

* '''[[Heldrake]]:''' The [[Heldrake]] was added to the 6th Edition [[Chaos Space Marine]] Codex as a new unique flier. It could Vector Strike like a Flying Monstrous Creature and was incredibly resilient due to numerous stacked defensive rules, but these ultimately played second fiddle to the real reason it was so powerful: the Baleflamer. Sure, you ''could'' give the Heldrake a Hades Autocannon, but as it only hit on 4+ and didn't ignore Marine armor, it was pointless considering both weapons cost the same. Imagine the Inferno Cannon of a Guard Hellhound, able to project a Strength 6 flame template anywhere within 12", but make it AP 3 so even regular Space Marines don't get an armor save. 7th edition brought a series of nerfs to the Heldrake, the most notable one being to limit the fire arc of its Baleflamer to a 45-degree arc, as well as Vector Strikes only doing one AP 2 hit (instead of D3+1 AP 3 hits) versus ground targets. However, the real reason the Heldrake lost its viability was an indirect one: Whereas only disembarked troops (and certain specific unit types, depending on scenario) could score objectives in 6th edition, 7th edition allowed any units to score and gave Troops ''Objective Secured''.

*'''The [[Screamerstar]]:''' a combination of artifacts and psychic powers that gives a unit of Screamers a rerollable 2++ Invulnerable Save, making them effectively invincible.

*'''[[Magnus the Red]]:''' Magnus the Red is one of the cheesiest units to grace this section. He got a plethora of special rules (including Eternal Warrior, It Will Not Die, and Fearless) and is a Flying Monstrous Creature. But, wait! There's more! As befitting the Demon Primarch of Tzeentch, Magnus was a psychic powerhouse. He was the only Mastery Level 5 Psyker in the game, and knew the complete Lores of Tzeentch and Change. He could cast these powers without needing line of sight, and possessed at least two Strength D powers. His Horus Heresy incarnation wasn't much off from this, becoming able to completely avoid attacks if he had Invisibility cast upon himself and able to boost his psychic attacks to Strength D with a 2D6 roll -- for fewer points than either his 40K incarnation or ''Horus'' himself!

===Eldar===

*'''[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Eldar(7E)|The Entirety of 6th and 7th Edition Eldar]]''': No really. Eldar were pretty much the pet army of [[Phil Kelly]], and it showed in how their army consistently managed to be the top or damn close to it. To include a few notable crimes against balance:

* '''Battle Focus:'''

* '''Serpent Spam:''' From 6th Edition, the Wave Serpent gained a massive upgrade in power from 5th Edition. Aside from getting a bump to Ballistic Skill 4 (as opposed to 3 in the previous Codex) for a pittance of point-costs, and all Shuriken Weapons gaining the Bladestorm upgrade (6s to wound ignore armor saves), the Wave Serpent's Shield was changed so that rather than capping the strength/removing bonus dice to penetrate it, it would downgrade Penetrating Hits into Glancing Hits on a 2+. However, the real the Serpent Shield could alternately be used "in extremis" as a glorified wave motion gun: [[Cheese|It would fire D6+1 strength 7 shots with infinite range, ignoring cover, and wrecking enemy vehicles]]. [[RAGE|Since the Serpent Shield was wargear and not a weapon, you couldn't destroy it with Weapon Destroyed]]. [[Anal_Circumference|The real fondue was taking a Twin-Linked Scatter Laser for "Laser Lock;" You got 4 S6 shots, rerolling to-hit, and if you hit with at least one, you could reroll to-hit with all other weapons being fired by the Wave Serpent. Thus, the Wave Serpent was transport, anti-aircraft, anti-everything in one go.]] Although Serpentspam got suitably nerfed in the 7th Edition update, it got replaced by the below:

* '''Scatpack Spam:'''

* '''Warp Spider Spam:''' Warp Spiders got a notable upgrade in 6th Edition, receiving a point drop and innate Hit and Run/Deep Strike, while their Deathspinners gained the '''Monofilament''' rule, making them deadlier against low-initiative models and vehicles. Although 7th Edition reworked Monofilament so they weren't innately stronger versus vehicles, they got upgraded in two additional ways: First of all, [[Cheese|Monofilament was changed so they wounded enemy models on Initiative instead of Toughness, and very few models had Initiative greater than 5]]. However, the real issue was Warp Spiders gained the ability '''Flickerjump:''' [[Cheese|If targeted by enemy shooting, the Warp Spiders could immediately move 2d6 inches, and if they ended up out of range/line of sight, the enemy attack was wasted.]] [[RAGE|Aggressively spamming Warp Spiders allowed an Eldar player to win Maelstrom objective games on your turn, after they dropped in to slag any real resistance otherwise.]]

* '''Wraithknights:''' "And you thought the Riptide was Big." The Wraithknight was the penultimate step (after the Riptide) to the reintroduction of Knights to 40k that Games Workshop was going to continue making the game revolve around giant models. It was powerful enough in 6th edition, where it cost like two Wraithlords while having twice the wounds, and extra mobility while sharing the same slot to boot, but [[Cheese|7th edition went and turned them from Jump Monstrous Creatures to Jump Gargantuan Monstrous Creatures, giving them Stomp, Feel No Pain, immunity to Instant Death (only taking D3 extra wounds instead), and the ability to fire an unlimited (rather than two) number of guns, split-fired at different units.]] [[Rage|This came with a point increase that was less than the price of an unupgraded Razorback, still making it cheaper than the Imperial Knight which it was vastly superior to.]]
**Note that despite the rage about the Wraithknight having access to D-Weapons, the most common variant was actually the Forgeworld Skatach Wraithknight. The Skatach cost a few more points than the vanilla one, but rather than having two Wraithcannons, it had two Deathshrouds. [[Rape|Imagine a Nightspinner's gun, but as a Hellstorm.]] [[Cheese|The Skatach became a tournament staple because it had innate cover-ignoring and crowd control that the rest of the Eldar army lacked, while being able to operate at optimal efficiency without needing a Farseer to buff it.]]

===Necrons===

Necrons technically got their codex update at the end of 5th Edition, but 6th really made them shine for awhile. Their 7th ed codex toned down a lot of that in exchange for adding the Decurion.

* '''ScytheWing:''' This was a build that was overpowered at the start of 6th Edition, and would only be slightly reduced in strength as 6th Edition continued. Essentially, ScytheWing (also known as Croissant Spam, 'Cron Air and a variety of other colourful names) was a build based around how many Doom Scythes and Night Scythes could be squeezed into a list - and the 'Crons could squeeze in a lot of these two units. It didn't even have the traditional weaknesses of Flyer-Heavy armies of 6th Edition usually had, as Scarabs and Canoptek Spiders were very easy to hide, minimising the odds of the army being tabled on turn one. As 6th Edition continued and factions gradually got access to actual Anti Aircraft options this died down, but it remained strong for the rest of 6th. 7th Edition finally put the Scythewing to a gradual rest, as changes to how objectives were scored, and the 7th ed codex upping the cost of Nightscythes/making Tesla no longer work on Snapshots put an damper on Necron destruction.

* '''Necron Pimpmobiles:''' The Catacomb Command Barge was infamously durable and only got moreso at the start of 7th. [[Cheese|Due to numerous rulings, taking a Phase Field gave both the Necron Lord AND the Barge a 3++]], [[RAGE|While making a successful Reanimation Protocols would bring back both the Lord, as well as the Barge at full Hull Points]]! Changes to how the Phylactery and Phase Field worked in 7th did a lot to tone the Barge to more realistic levels though it still remained a powerful unit so long as it did not come up against Destroyer weapons.

* '''Stormteks:''' The Storm Harbinger was a "free" swap for a Cryptek, that traded out its Staff of Light for a Voltaic Stave. As opposed to the S5 AP 3 3-shot weapon that the Staff of Light was, the Voltaic Stave was a 4-shot 12" Haywire projector. In 5th edition, this wasn't too dangerous but was annoying for stunlocking enemy vehicles. [[Anal Circumference|When 6th edition added Hull Points and changed how Glancing Hits worked, the Voltaic Stave became better than a Meltagun for tearing apart enemy vehicles; it was common for a Scythewing to run as multiple units of "5 Warriors, 2 Storm Harbingers" for them to drop down and zap enemy units to pieces.]] The Stormtek was eradicated with extreme prejudice with the 7th Cron codex.

* '''The Decurion:''' The 7th Edition Necrons got largely toned down from how they were at the start of 6th Edition. However, they would go back up to complete cheese in the same book. You see, GeeDubs had this great idea - what if we let people take armies that consisted...of nothing but Formations? Enter the Decurion, a force organization that would forever change the face of warfare for all the 7th Edition Codexes going forwards. This formation offered several, powerful bonuses to the Necrons - with individual formations granting rules like enhanced Reanimation Protocols for example. It would also make every Codex released prior to Necrons suffer from being severely underpowered for the rest of the Edition. The worst part was that every book after the Necrons had Decurions of their own, some more powerful than others but all of them making more traditional forces obsolete.

* '''The Orikanstar:''' The assorted changes to Reanimation Protocols and the introduction of the Decurion were both powerful upgrades for Necrons, but Orikan the Diviner also got a nice buff. Aside from being able to transform to have the statline of a C'tan Shard, his main ability was that he granted all models in his unit that had the Reanimation Protocols rule the ability to reroll 1s on all their Saves. Not just Armor Saves, but all Saves. Combined with Lychguard getting a point reduction and their Shields granting a 3++, this became a notoriously difficult unit to remove, and one whose defenses couldn't be debuffed by a Culexus. However, it wasn't until this unit took Zahndrekh that it became notoriously more powerful: [[Cheese|"Hit and Run" was a common ability used by tournament armies and Orikan effectively gave his unit Initiative 4 for the test, letting what should be a "slow" and frail unit pinball across the map to cap objectives and slay backfield units like.]] [[Anal Circumference|However, it was also common to swap out the Lychguard for Wraiths from a Canoptek Harvest, for extra threat range and the ability to destroy Knights with a pile of Rending attacks]].

===Space Marines===
*'''[[Chapter Master Smashfucker]]:''' Smashfucker is a character build for the [[Iron Hands]] that went through several revisions as 6th and 7th edition came along, starting from 6th ed Codex: Space Marines, getting a proper birth in Clan Raukaan, but ultimately reaching his ultimate form in the 7th edition Space Marines/Angels of Death codex and supplement. Smashfucker was a beatstick, an immovable rock and irresistable force in one that with enough buffs could beat most things into a pulp.

*'''Grav Weapons:''' After sitting out core 40k for three editions, Grav Weapons came back with a Vengeance. In an edition that introduced ever-tougher Monstrous Creatures, Grav reversed the normal rules of combat, as it rolled to wound versus the target's armor save instead of Toughness, while ignoring Armor Saves. Thus, a Guardsman in cardboard was wounded on 5+, but a Riptide was wounded on 2+. By itself, this seemed "ok," except Grav was an excellent troubleshooter weapon, and Bolters could reliably destroy most enemies that Grav struggled against. While the 6th Ed Marine codex became known for Grav Bikers and Centurions (the infamous "Centstar"), the real fondue came in 7th when Grav Cannons with Grav Amp became a Heavy choice for Power Armor Marines, so even a few Tactical Squads could reliably tear holes in the enemy. 
** Lest you think vehicles were safe, think again. Versus vehicles, you rolled a d6 per hit. On a 6, you inflicted a Penetrating Hit that automatically Immobilized the vehicle in question. This was FAQed to clarify that two 6s meant doing 3 Hull Points of damage...when the Leman Russ had 3 Hull Points. Since a Grav Cannon had 5 shots and could reroll to Penetrate...really, only Superheavy vehicles stood a realistic chance, or the odd vehicle with resilience versus Immobilization.

*The [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Space_Marines(7E)#Dataslate_Formations|Skyhammer Annihilation Force]], a Space Marine dataslate formation. Two Devastator squads in drop pods that ignore Drop Pod Assault, and two Assault Squads with jump packs. The devs are Relentless on the turn they Deep Strike, and the assault squads can charge immediately.

* [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Space_Marines(7E)#Gladius_Strike_Force|Gladius Strike Force]]: Space Marines' detachment-size formation. Anything in a Battle Demi-Company is Objective Secured, and any Drop Pods, Rhinos and Razorbacks taken as dedicated transport have their base cost reduced to 0 if you take two demi-companies.

===Space Wolves===

* '''Iron Priests:''' These models by themselves were simply Space Wolf Techpriests, right? Wrong! See, while you "could" run them on foot with Servitors and try to repair things, that misses out on their ability to mount them on a Thunderwolf. Not only that, but they could take a retinue of Cyberwolves, which were upgraded Fenrisian Wolves...and they retained Independent Character on top. Iron Priests could therefore lead their own mini-squad of souped-up wolves, joining or leaving squads as necessary like an amorphous blob of death; even Guardsmen could only combine squads during deployment, and thus Iron Priests were incredibly capable of skirting around the squad rules of 40, [[Cheese|being able to Deathstar or MSU as needed]]. [[Rage|Extra rage came when two Iron Priests, their Cyberwolves, Celestine, and her Geminae all joined to a Fenrisian Hunting Pack, stacked defensive buffs for a turn, then split off to deal with individual threats, circumventing multicharge penalties]].

===Tau Empire===

*'''[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Tau(7E)|The Entirety of 6th and 7th Edition Tau]]''': Sure, Tau had weak troops (not that anyone used them en mass, and Farsight had his Crisis suits as troops) and bad leadership with almost no access to Fearless/Zealot, but this was made up for by numerous items detailed below and generally great synergy. Minimaxed mono-Tau lists were great at wiping the table of almost any list, making them the bane of the local game store, if not necessarily the tournament scene due to lack of psychic powers/defense from those (as of 7th, because they were Battle Brothers with Space Marines/Eldar in 6th, with all that ensued).

*'''Markerlights:''' The Tau Empire had access to cost effective cover removal and Markerlights, allowing them to do things like increasing their to hit rolls for Overwatch (though they were chiefly used to remove cover). The fact that Markerlights only required a To Hit roll to apply their effects cheesed the onions of many players on the receiving end. Not a game-breaking mechanics per se, but it compensated the only thing holding Tau ''horrendous'' firepower back - their mediocre BS. Oh, and with so many Ignores Cover options (not all of them from Marketlights) it was sometimes faster to just remove marked unit that had no invulnerable without resolving the hits from an actual attack - most Imperial Guard infantry squads, for example, had virtually no chance to survive.

*'''Interceptor:''' 6th Edition brought back Overwatch...as a weakened form of WHFB Stand and Shoot. It also made Interceptor a Special Rule available to some units: A unit with Interceptor could at the end of the opponent's Movement Phase, shoot at an enemy unit that had entered from Reserves. Unlike 2nd Edition, this did not require forfeiting shooting during your prior Shooting Phase, but your *next* Phase. Very few armies got access to this, but Tau could give [[Wat|each and every one of their Battlesuits this ability for the price of a Melta Bomb]], [[Rage|thus letting said Suits shoot in their turn, shoot when the enemy tried to appear from Reserves, then hightail it to safety in the Tau player's next turn.]] Oh, and it combined nicely with the ability to give those battlesuits Skyfire, blasting enemy aircraft from the sky the moment it entered play. Thanks to this, Tau were the only army able to reliably table dreaded Flytyrant list.

*'''Riptide:''' The Riptide was introduced in 6th Edition, as a Jetpack Monstrous Creature. It came with a Primary and Secondary, and was about as tough as a Dreadknight on paper. However, while the Dreadknight was primarily a melee unit (with some gun options), the Riptide mainly existed as a shooting platform that could give Tau the option for the occasional Linebreaker or finisher assault. Its main draw however was the Nova Reactor: You could pick a bonus from four options and roll a D6. On a 3+ you got the bonus, while you lost a wound otherwise. In practice, since one of the four options was to upgrade the Riptide's Invulnerable Save from 5++ to 3++, [[derp|you statistically took less wounds from Nova-Charging your Shields than from your opponent shooting you unshielded.]] In addition, the Riptide's Drones allowed it to be treated as a Unit, thus making it a Monstrous Creature that could be joined by Independent Characters, such as a Buffmander (a Tau Commander optimised to hand out supporting buffs to Units he joins) or perhaps more infamously, a character like a Space Marine Librarian or Eldar Farseer, who got a big meat shield to protect themselves while they in turn buffed the Riptide with access to the Divination table, or Space Marine Captain (eliminating close combat weakness) with Storm Shield that allowed him to tank wounds with 3++ using Riptides T saving Nova reactor of the latter for more dakka. All of this for a relatively paltry sum of points that made it cheaper than a squad of Terminators, and it didn't cost much more due to the inexpensiveness of it's upgrades. As a result, the "Triple Riptide" (or Triptide) became a common 6th Ed build, becoming less prevalent in 7th due to general scoring changes. However, the Riptide would be largely untouched for 7th Edition, remaining a very strong unit that practically made all other options in the same slot obsolete (At least until the Ghostkeel became a thing).
**'''The Riptide Wing:''' And then the Riptide Wing came out for 7th. This Formation simply required you take 3 units of Riptides, with no extra tax. In exchange, the Formation got three obscene bonuses: If a Riptide unit from the Formation was near its buddies, it could reroll the Nova Reactor, it could get +1 BS when shooting an enemy unit shot at by another Riptide unit from the formation in the same Phase, but the real fondue was that once per game, the Formation could perform a Hailfire Attack: Any Riptides that did not move in the preceding Movement Phase could shoot twice in that Shooting Phase. This formation was "no tax" for already-good units while eliminating two of their only real weaknesses (marginal damage without Markerlight support, unreliable Nova Power). That said, the sheer power of the Riptide Wing meant that this Formation was commonly used to support an Eldar army.

*'''Farsight Enclaves:''' This was the next logical step for Tau Cheese. It had access to several very good formations (most notably The Eight, a Formation of Independent Characters unique in that you could take some or all of it's members, who in turn got some of the best relics from this supplement and the OG Tau Empire Codex and allowed you to '''have two unique relics''' in a single army as members of the Eight didn't count for 1 per army relic limitation. Bears mentioning Riptide was also an Independent Character, so even in 7th edition it could be joined by Buffmander) as well as removing a key weakness of the Tau on paper, its weaksauce selection of Troops Choices. Instead of Fire Warriors or Kroot, now you could take Crisis Suits as Troops choices! This allowed for even further Min-Maxing, which capitalised on some of the other problems listed above. Compounding this, in 6th Edition it was perfectly legal to take a Tau Empire Force and a Farsight Enclaves force, and the two treated each other as Battle Brothers (meaning there were no penalties).

*'''The Firebase Support Cadre:''' Introduced in 6th, the Firebase Support Cadre was the OG Formation. Two units of 3 Broadsides and a Riptide teamed up, getting [[Cheese|Tank Hunter and Preferred Enemy(Space Marines)]]. This was a popular Formation for Necrons.

*'''The Optimized Stealth Cadre:''' The last real rage-inducer, the OSC had a Ghostkeel unit and two units of Stealth Suits. Any units from the Formation near the Ghostkeel got +1 BS, Ignore Cover, and automatically hit the Rear Armor of enemy vehicles. The OSC basically said "Flanking? Meh." That said, Stealth Suits were generally seen as a tax for this formation, which was mostly taken for the upgraded Ghostkeel(s).

===Tyranids===

Well, you see, Tyranids had bad codexes back in 6th and 7th edition. They were so bad Tyranid players still hate [[Robin_Cruddace|Treadhead's]] guts, but they also had the power to create one list to rule them all...

*'''Flytyrant list:''' aka [[Flying Circus]]. You take 3 Tyrants with wings and Devourers with brainleech worms, 3 Crones, Spore Mines as Troops and Venomthrope to allow them to live through the first turn. The trick is Flying Monster Creatures were able to start on the board in 6th and 7th, but not begin in Swooping mode, therefore being hit not only on 6's. However, they still could Jink, and Venomthrope upped that save to 2+, enabling you to live through first enemy turn, reach to the sky and blast enemy below with impunity, while also being virtually unhittable, and even Invisibility-spam couldn't save from Vector-strike autohits. It was not unheard of for people to outright refuse to play with this list on tournaments. Shield of Baal even introduced formation that was basically this list, but weaker.