Dark eldar heavy support decision

A few weeks ago I finally made the choice on what heavy support units to take for my WIP dark eldar army. This choice actually took more consideration than my previous armies, as the selection would determine what kind of list I was going to create. I narrowed my options down to the talos/cronos or razorwings. Talos and cronos would make me shift my army into a WWP themed (and heavy emphasis on CQC) list, where the razorwings would solidify the army as a shooty vehicle-heavy list.

I went for razorwings. I thought the model was awesome (so much cooler once you see it in person, looks like a FW kit) and I prefer the playstyle of using fast vehicles; especially with the aerial assault rule. In the army I will be running them almost naked - just with an obligatory flickerfield upgrade making them 155 points a piece. No splinter cannon upgrade, no weapon swap or missile upgrades.

Most razorwings I've seen built are running disintigrators with the splinter cannon for maximum anti-infantry capability. From my couple of games running the razorwings this past week vs. marines, the monoscythe missiles alone usually kill an average of 6-8 (per plane) shooting all 4 missiles. The rest can be finished off by the dark lances or a venom. Taking dark lances lets me use them as anti-tank for the rest of the game (or rather start of the game if I'm fighting mech opponent). If there is one thing you should have learned by now playing 5th Ed (at least in a competitive environment); don't bother with units with no anti-vehicle capability. Never in this state of the game will I take a disintigrator cannon over a dark lance.

Why no ravagers? Well, for a few reasons. I really do agree that ravagers, point for point, are the best buy DE can get for heavy support. You can never have too many lances with dark eldar, that is for sure.

Advantages of the razorwing? What do you get for +40 points over a ravager?

-Not open topped, but -1 AV (equal trade IMO)

-36" flatout instead of 24" (great for end-game contesting but not practical your razorwings will be around)
-4 monoscyhe missiles instead of 1 lance. This is where the point cost is coming from. Why is this a big deal? Lots of criticism for the razorwing but has anyone ever played vs. DE before? What's the first unit you always go for? Ravagers, yes. Soft targets with a lot of firepower. Same with the razorwing. What's the difference? A razorwing dumps its load in one turn, a ravager will get 3 lance shots off and be stunlocked or killed immediately. Perhaps I am trying to find excuses to take razorwings. Howabout the model is bitchin'.

Tournament results

Today's tournament is over and unfortunately I did not place. Some poor tactics and horrible dice rolls. Normally I don't like to blame bad dice, you win some you lose some after all. But today was the certainly the worst luck I have had in my 40k career. Some highlights include rolling snake-eyes on 2 saves for 2 remaining hammernators that need to kill a measly 5 man group of necron immortals... Land Raider *exploding* immediately 2 of 3 games with the first penetrating hit scored...  Not passing a single cover save against Dark Eldar lances... Missing 3 of 3 direly needed melta shots in one round of combat. Cyclone missile launchers missing all but one shot and then rolling a one to wound. I could go on here but you get the idea.

Game 1 I actually managed to just barely win vs. Dark Eldar. Played another Dark Eldar army round 2 and I got tabled (lots of bad rolls in this one). 3rd and final game was against Necrons and I lost that as well. It was not all because of dice though and it never is. I made mistakes in both gameplay and list building. With the list I was using I needed to be more aggressive and deep strike with everything where instead I was mostly walking-on from reserve, too afraid of a mishap. I regret not taking the stormraven over the land raider. I needed mobility not armor, the land raider (being my only transport) blowing up as soon as it hit the table didn't help me out much.

No more ranting excuses, here are pictures from the tourney:

 

First place was Dark Eldar, second place was Necrons (new codex drops and now it's flavor of the month), third was Dark Eldar.

More to come

Sanguinary priests ready for battle

Tomorrow is tournament day!... Got some bits in from the warstore this afternoon to whip up these 2 guys real fast for a tournament. The painting style was an experiment but I think it came out pretty decently (process went like; basecoat white, 2 blue washes, white drybrushing and brown wear, devlan mud wash, damage etc). aka quite simple to paint - how I like it.

Sanguinary priests have kinda been the missing link of my Lamenters army for quite some time. I have always had the intention of getting a few and now I am pumped to get these gentlemen on the table. FNP is really going to help my lack of ability to roll 2+ armor saves.

Did I mention my hammernators are finally done too? :)


More to come