With me finally getting my reavers primed for killing, I have been testing them out a lot in almost every game whenever the points and slot allocation would allow me to use at least a 6-man squad. So far as proven with my playtesting of a squad of three of them in 5th around a year or so ago, they proved to be a thorn at my opponent's side with their heat lances, bladevanes and flanking capabilities.
But what I am really enjoying about them in 6th edition is their role as a 'confusion-fu' unit. Thanks to the changes in the turboboosting phase in 6th edition, now I can actually do a 'bait and switch' with my reavers and take the best opportunities for my reavers to cause mayhem. The reaction to the Reaver's turboboosting phase always surprises my opponent as their 36" move is monstrously fast and now they would have to worry about an unit that is behind their lines in an angle that they did not expect. If I can bladevane something while I am turboboosting, even more power to me. Harassment on so many levels indeed.
In addition with the way things are going about, I truly believe that a squad of 6 is nice, but a squad of 9 is definitely better. Not only will I have additional heat lances, resilience, and attacks via bladevanes but I will also force a mental image upon my opponents whenever I move a squad of those units around the board. It is hard to ignore a swarm of hornets flying around, as I would say. If I can get a second squad into the mix, it would truly play to my strengths as well as I enjoy forcing my opponents to be engaged upon multiple levels whenever I play. That and my experiences that one does not need so many blasterborns (3 squads is excessive in my opinion) in an army only enforces my opinion that a 2 units of Blasterborns to 2 units of Reaver Jetbikers is the right ratio for me.
With that my army is quite set in killing units that I want killed. But of course, there are always unit that are either tough and or lucky enough to survive my army's killing potential. To truly support the entire army, there is a need for a large meaty unit as well that can help, in Malaysian Lingo, 'to clean shop' from all the damage that the Reavers, Ravagers, Raiders and Dark Eldar flyers.
Incubi are showing themselves to be viable in my army as I have stated before, as the inclusion of those 2+ blobs and also those infantry blobs are a nightmare to be tarpitted against and I need something to clear the field with. So far the flurry of Klaives actually managed to do some nasty damage upon my opponents in my playtesting, and I am actually contemplating getting a Klaivex with Onslaught into the mix to increase the damage output.
Interestingly enough with the inclusion of Reaver Jetbikers and Incubi into my list, an old friend in the Dark Eldar codex is returning into my list; Haemonculi. They allow me to unlock Wracks as troops which will help me in the cheap-troops department and also they could give pain tokens to either my Incubi and/or Reaver Jetbikers for added durability.
However as with every listbuilding process, there are some things that are just not as good in the general gameplan of the list (especially with FAQs thrown out) and will be relegated to benchwarmers;
1) The Beastmasters are a nice unit and their strengths are apparent to me, but the speed of my list means that they are often just camping upon my own objectives to prevent people from coming in close, instead of the true offensive rushdown play that I really enjoy; overwhelming opponents and force costly mistakes by using fast, confusing setups or counterattacking impatient opponents that are forced to a defensive play for a prolonged period of time.
2)Wyches: Haywire grenades are good, tarpitting is good, but.........they are not as viable as they were once before. Their lack of survivability against explosions caused by their own grenades even with FNP, and the inclusion of huge blobs of infantry and 2+ had taken their toll. It is sad to see an unit that had served me to retire, but nonetheless it is an honour serving with you wyches.
3)Baron: You are nice, you are nice....but you do not truly help either. The Baron is an unit that I find as a fun unit rather than a competitive unit, and in that capacity of being a fun unit he is quite nice. Will take him out once in a while for fun games.
4) Hellions: Too cumbersome with the setups and all. But I will take you out for fun games once in a while.
4)Duke Sliscus: As compared with the previous units, he's a viable unit in my gameplan. He is my go-to guy in the benchwarmer seat. Only gist I had with him is his restrictive setup option.
With these in mind, I will be trying to incorporate all of these things into my list for the upcoming 1850 pts tournament at my LGS and see if these things are truly as advertised during the playtesting phase.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI quite like the Baron with Beastmasters, giving them hit&run, plys grenades help them loads, and I haven't found them slow, by setting up on he deployment line and then running first turn, normally things are in charge range on turn 2. The razorwing flocks also give you a 2nd way to deal with good armour saves in combat (after he incubi). Lastly I like the fact that they do not need an av10 paper airplane to keep their speed.
Like you I've found wracks great for their durability, but I've still using one large wych unit in a raider and a small wych unit in a venom. Although they are fragile I like their dodge save in combat, fleet & haywire grenades. Even the pistol shots are occasionally useful.
However I look forward to your different take on the DE, and will look forward to seeing how you do. I also want to put a bit more durability in my lists, but am worried it takes too much away from the aggressive power of the list.
Rathstar
Heya Rathstar,
ReplyDeleteI recall that the Baron's improved hit and run only benefits the Hellions. But I would agree that the beastmasters are a viable second venue for AP2, albeit a more dice-dependent one. I also think that perhaps I can't deploy them as close as possible towards the deployment line as a result of the bulk of Large blast templates that are also quite apparent these days (damn you random weapon destruction chart!!!!) and a lack of a terrain in the center for some odd reason. I guess that would change when I play in the tournament by this saturday.
I have never really thought about putting Wyches in Venoms Rathstar. How did that work out for you? Are they more of an opportunistic squad or more of a suicide squad? Would be an interesting take on my usual Kabalites with blasters in venoms.