Distilling 40k armies

[Sevej]

Okay, I'm new here, and to be honest, I joined because of a question burning in my mind:

How would you distill 40k armies?

What I mean by distilling is stripping 40k armies to their bare cores. As time goes by, GW adds more and more units, and I don't expect this to stop. It's totally understandable, especially from business point of view.

But

If you were requested to choose six most base/iconic/defining units from an army, what would they be? Note that HQ and dedicated transports are excluded from the list. Your choices don't need to comply with the current rules, but they must form a whole army. Dedicated transports are assumed to be attached automatically to units (for example Tactical Squads will always have Rhino, and DE Warriors are always on Raiders).

Here's an example.

Space Marines
Tactical Squad
Assault Squad
Devastator Squad
Terminator Squad
Dreadnought
Predator

Unfortunately, I do not play the game often/long/intense enough to make up the distilled list for other armies. Note that some armies may lend to different types of listing. For example a CSM list may emphasize on the cult marines or the combat role.

Six is the number I ask, but you may add one as a bonus You may choose your own army to distill.

[Still Standing]

Sisters of Battle
Canoness
Battle Sister Squad in Rhino
Seraphim
Immolators
Exorcist
Retributors

[Hun]

Tyranids
Hive Tyrant
Carnifex
Hormagaunts
Termagants
Tyranid Warriors
Genestealers

[ForgottenLore]

Tau

Crisis suits
stealth suits
fire warriors
drones
broadsides
hammerhead

With kroot as the bonus unit

[Charistoph]

Tau
Crisis Suit
Fire Warrior
Broadside
Hammerhead
Kroot Warrior
Pathfinders

Chaos Marines
Plague Marines
Berzerkers
Obliterators
Defiler
Chaos Marines
Possessed for Imagery, but Chosen/Terminators for effectiveness.

[Lord Damocles]

Necrons
Lords
Immortals
Warriors
Destroyers
Scarabs
Monolith

[MajorWesJanson]

Guard:
Commissars
Infantry Squad
Heavy Weapon Squad
Sentinal
Leman Russ
Basilisk

Bonus- Valkyrie

[Dylius]

Orks:
Ork Boyz
Nobz
Gretchin
Battlewagons
Looted Wagon?
Lootas?

The top 3 are the most important. The bottom two, as cleverly shown by the question mark, I'm not sure about.

[Sami]

DE
Warriors
Wyches
Scourges (pretty much for the beautiful models that provoke a lot of envy).
Ravagers
Razorwings (the first flier?)
Venoms

Yes, I've included Venoms (a dedicated transport) in there, as usually you are taking a squad for the purpose of being able to take another Venom.

[TheDoctor]

Eldar:

Guardians
Aspect Warriors (9 different squads, fluffwise even more, but they are all iconically eldar)
Wraith Constructs
Warlocks
Rangers/pathfinders
Skimmers, I consider it a tie between falcons and fire prisms

[blackcherry]

I would perhaps change the predator of the space marines for the rhino or land raider. More iconic.

Eldar
Guardians
Farseers
Warlocks
Falcons
Banshees
Wraithlords

[Moriarty]

Orks:
Ork Boyz
Nobz
Gretchin
Battlewagons
More Boyz
More, more Boyz.

Dere, fixed it fur ya :-)

[S_A_T_S]

This is a pretty good idea for a thread. Someone bookmark it and send to GW when it covers every army. Maybe they can focus army building around these lists...

Blood Angels
Death Company
Assault Squads
Landspeeders
Priests
Chaplains
Predators (especially Baal)

Dreads are nice, but I don't think they are really part of the core of BA. Same goes for Sanguinary Guard and Vanguard. Stormraven I would put above Landraider (it isn't fast enough, and too ugly for BA - the 'raven at least flies) but Baal has to take that last slot because it is unique to BA and encapsulates the whole fast vehicle thing (as over-charged engines are gone). Chaplains I put in there because they have always been a big part of BA - always been my go-to HQ, and now I can take them as Elites if I want to take a libby instead!

Chaos Marines
Marines
Defiler
Daemons
Oblits
Possessed
Cults (even if it only means marked units)

Chaos need daemonic stuff to make them Chaos, otherwise why aren't you just playing spiky vanilla marines? Cults play up the religious aspect of Chaos, which also helps differentiate them from the vanilla.

This is so much fun! Come back for a 3rd go!
Tau
Fire Warriors
Crisis Suits
Broadside Suits
Kroot
Vespid
Drones

Bonus: Stealth Suits, Pathfinders or Hammerhead, I just can't chose!

People are going to really disagree with that list, but Tau for me are all about tech and auxillaries. Those themes mean you have to have the suits and the drones, as well as at least 1 auxiliary unit, preferably more. Fire warriors are the back bone of all Tau tactics in the fluff, so they have to be in there as well. I love stealth suits, but the crisis and broadside are a bit more iconic, as stealth are too similar to normal fire warriors to me.

[stroller]

I would distil it further - and have 1 choice - or that army's combat patrol. Then they're the "normal" army - which is more iconic still... soooo...

Dark eldar - warriors/wyches on a raiders
Space marines - tactical squad with a missile launcher
Orks - big boyz mob
Chaos - pass - something with tentacles
Tyranids - genestealers- max size
Tau - fire warriors in a devilfish
Eldar - Howling banshees
Guard - Bog standard trooper - cadian

and so on....

[Noobie2k7]

Orks.
Boyz
Boyz
Boyz
Boyz
Boyz
Gretchin

[Sevej]

Remember guys, no HQ

Orks:
Ork Boyz
Nobz
Gretchin
Battlewagons
Looted Wagon?
Lootas?

For Orks I went this myself:
Boyz
Nobz
Mega-Nobz
Tankbustas
Stormboyz
Deff Dread

Commissars
Infantry Squad
Heavy Weapon Squad
Sentinal
Leman Russ
Basilisk

I'd probably switch commisar with Storm Troopers because they're attached to units or HQ.

Guardians
Aspect Warriors (9 different squads, fluffwise even more, but they are all iconically eldar)
Wraith Constructs
Warlocks
Rangers/pathfinders
Skimmers, I consider it a tie between falcons and fire prisms

Ha! No cheating I went with:
Guardian (basic squad)
Fire Dragons (anti-tank)
Dark Reaper (shooting)
Howling Banshees (assault)
Wraithlord
Falcon

[Still Standing]

Farseer
Harlequins
Striking Scorpions
Wraithguard
Viper Jetbikes (relatively new addition to the range, but iconic nonetheless)
Falcon Grav Tank

Obviously the most iconic Eldar units!

[Kakapo42]

Hmmm, I think I'd have to say:

TAU

-Fire warriors
-Crisis suits
-Hammerhead
-Gun drones
-Devilfish
-Pathfinders

With a bonus 7th being Kroot.

Stealthsuits, while awesome, just aren't quite iconic enough to make the list, and Broadsides are (fluffwise) really just Crisis suits with extra Armour and a pair of railguns attached, sans jetpack. Kroot are also rather iconic support, but I'm focusing more on the Tau themselves, so they're demoted to a bonus extra.

EDIT: You know I just realised, distilling it to six fits perfectly with the six categories of an army list, HQ, Elites, Troops, Fast attack, Heavy support and Dedicated transports.

[lantzkev]

I'm actually surprised people are putting as much on space marines.

To me they are:

Terminators
Tactical Marines
Drop Pods.

[Gorbad Ironclaw]

Viper Jetbikes (relatively new addition to the range, but iconic nonetheless)

It's older than the Falcon, isn't it? I seem to remember the model for the Vyper coming out before the model for the Falcon but both were some time during 2nd edition and I'm not entirely sure.

Anyway, for Eldars to me it would be these:
Farseer
Jetbikes
Grav Tanks
Aspect Warriors or if you want to pick one Dire Avengers (Aspect warriors using the iconic Eldar weapon, they are even almost usable under current rules...)
Wraith-constructs
Anti-Grav platforms, especially the D-Cannons

It's all about psychic powers and weird tech.