The Shredder

[eldargal]

No. not this guy:
http://worldfamousdesignjunkies.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/The-Shredder-TMNT.png

The thing on the right:
http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1420134a_99120112007_DEKabaliteWarriors6_873x627. jpg

These were largely dismissed when the Dark Eldar codex came out,why take S6 Ap- blasts when you could take a splinter cannon or dark lance or blaster? But lately in my re-examination of 'poor' codex choices I've found them surprisingly useful. All those S6 blast hits munch through any T3 enemies and the amount of saves they force on Marines still results in a decent amount of kills for what is a 5pt weapon. I've used it to good effect against large units of Orks, combined with a splinter cannon it does a lot more damage than a blaster could. Five trueborn with two splinter cannons and three shredders makes a terrible mess of anything, you can even mess up guard if you are lucky enough to take out their chimerae with your venoms weapons.

Opinions? Anyone else rehabilitating the humble shredder?

[DrLove42]

I used all the shredders I got in my warriors boxes.

I cut the muzzle off, stuck blasters from the Reavers on them and used them as Blasters on Trueborn :P

[eldargal]

I converted some ofmine to blasters too, hehe, but now I've found them quite useful, more so against armies like tyranids of Orks, particularly Orks. But even against Space Marines they do a lot of damage.

[DrLove42]

Also like to take this opportunity to point out, the warrior on the left with the rifle has THE WORST helmet ever. I have 40 warriors but have never used that helmet....

[snikrot]

Also like to take this opportunity to point out, the warrior on the left with the rifle has THE WORST helmet ever. I have 40 warriors but have never used that helmet....

Agreed i HATE that thing.

[eldargal]

I don't mind it, reminds me of those overrated Viking helmets from Sutton Hoo and whatnot.

But, focus, shredders.:p

[Frankio9]

For its points it is REALLY good. Instead of just Blasting an Ork or Gaunt, this thing kills 3 or 4 of them before my charge. I must confess that I have not yet given my Trueborn Shredders, but I'll certainly give it a go.

Oh, and that helmet is indeed ugly.

[Archon]

I wouldn´t give my trueborn shredders cause the elite slot is too valueble. The priority for a DE Army is to kill armour an here i need the blasters. If you are not able to kill the armour you´re not able to get the precious paintokens and that is of the essence. For anit-infantery the DE have plentley of tools - last but not least close combat.

Only in a prebuild or antiarmy the mass-shreddars (:cool:) are of value for me. Besides this i field shreddars since the old days of the DE. For 5 Points it´s a nice giveaway and i usually have one unit equipped with them - to sad i have to rip of the shreddars of my bikes, cause they are no longer available.

[Anggul]

I think the problem is that Dark Eldar just don't need them to be good against infantry, and if you're riding in a Venom, that's just increased. Dark Eldar are one of those armies where 5pts can have all sorts of uses, which I believe is why they don't get used much. That's certainly my reason at least.

[eldargal]

All true, like I said I've found these more useful against low mech, horde armies like Orks and Tyranids, being able to hit 3-5 models with a S6 blast seems to end up causing more wounds than the 4/6 poisoned shots from a splinter cannon given that shredders wound on a 2+. I've also been using the disintegrators/dark lances on nearby raiders to destroy transports before using the shredders and splinter cannons on the things inside, keeping the Ravagers and Razorwings for heftier stuff. As I said, shredders are most useful where you don't have to worry about so much mech and your own transport weapons can deal with the armour letting you shoot up the stuff inside. Against marines or Guard I would take blasters and splinter cannon on my trueborn.

I'm not saying they are a must-have, I just don't think they deserve the 'useless' title a lot of people seem to give them.

[me_yourself]

I have used shredders once or twice too. They are not too shabby. But what makes them usefull is the fact that the enemy will think twice about marching inot range of 4 S6 blasts. So they can be used as a deterent if you don´t want the enemy in your lines. Otherwise they have a problem which is their short range. Meaning that you will be retaliated and possibly charged if the you do not wipte out whatever you are shooting. Which is the reasen why I prefer SC, it is so much easer to position yourself in a good way when you have 36" at your command.

[Caldera02]

How are you destroying transports with the splinter cannons exactly? They are only Strength 1....

[eldargal]

Simple, by being an idiot.:rolleyes: I mean't to say the disintegrators on my raiders, keeping the dark lances on the ravagers and razorwings for heftier stuff. I've slept for something like 6 hours in the past two days, and it is starating to show I think I'll rewrite that post.

[Caldera02]

Ok cool, I was about to feel real stupid if I had been missing something for the past 9 months! lol

[eldargal]

Changed my first post, but to summarise again here:

Against low mech armies like Orks and Tyranids I would use the dark lances/disintegrators on the raiders to take out the few transports, keeping razorwings and ravagers for dealing ith bigger nasties like battlewagons or monstrous critters while pouring lots of poisoned shots and S6 blasts onto the enemy. Against other armies I would only take shredders if you have a few points spare and there is nothing you need more.

[jorz192]

If you give a squad of kabalite warriors a blaster then you have one shot dedicated against tanks.
If you equip them with a shredder you add a S6 blast to the anti-personnel you already have.

[Xas]

I've been playing them basically since the codex came out (yeah I started like every other noob with an archon, a box of warriors, a box of wyches, two raiders and a ravager) on a 10 man unit of warriors /w a splinter cannon and the shredder (if you are curious: the archon went with the wyches to keep all the CC together).

The unit allways performed so well I now even field two (in addition to other troops, so not only for scoring) regardless of how "hard" I want to play.


In Dark Eldar terms that unit is the equivalent to a squad of tactical marines and the shredder really adds to the close range punch (and the ability to engage vehicles) to round the unit up.


The weapon itself might only kill something every other game but the existance of a s6 blast weapon (with an effective range of more than 24" if its within a transport) is enough to force many enemies spreading out (and therefore becoming cumbersom to maneuvre). If they do not spread out the shredders value rises exponentially depending on how stupid your enemy is. against a very stupid MEQ player (or an unlucky one that suddenly has 10 marines sitting inside a small rhino wreckage after an incident with some lances...) the shredder can suddenly be more effective than even a plasma gun (get 6 wounds and you'll equal the PG's best case scenario of two hits in the open! on top of thet the shredder sort of "ignores" cover by doing damage with strenght and not AP).

[thecactusman17]

Shredders would be an amazing option if they were a template instead of a small blast. However, I just never have luck with small blasts, even my voidraven bombs tend to go well off mark at 1d6 scatter.

Oh, and AP- can't seriously hurt tanks. Being that one of my key facets of a successful unit is the boy scout
Be prepared" motto, i can't reasonably take a unit that has no realistic response to armor of any kind.

[eldargal]

Well I tend to specialise my units more, habit of being a long term Craftworld player probably. So I have anti tank units (Blaster+Dark Lance), anti-infantry units (Shredder + Splinter Cannon) etc. Of course the Raiders still have Dark Lances so that helps a little. I would imagine the utility of shredders depends on your local game meta, if it is mostly Marines and mechanised guard I wouldn't bother with shredders, but if you have nids, Orks, Tau and less mech shredders do become useful, in my opinion at least.