Monday, November 28, 2011

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'.

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