Dark Eldar Reavers are goooood!

[Lost Vyper]

Hi,

When i first read the new Reavers Bladevane -rules, i thought they were nerfed...NOPE! It´s so much better, i wish i had more Reavers now! S4 rending and possibly 3 x d6 S6 with rending is AWESOME! In a desperate attempt to get the Relic in the last BATREP, i Rapid Fired with the Warriors and shot 3 x Blasters in to Terminators and charged them and wiped them out (there was about 4 + Arjak, in the beginning of the shooting phase)! Much more versatile, and with 3+ Jink and T4 are awesome! Only Ignores cover or flamers are a nuisance...

plus, i kit them out so, that three of them have the Blaster and the Cluster Caltrops. Keep them in the back and i have six "cannon fodder" in the front, to carry them through the table, it works! Maybe stick in a Farseer (when i´m done playing pure DE for a while) on bike to boost LD and give some extra punch to the bunch!

Love em!

- Lost Vyper

[Dave Mcturk]

just splot them in cc. :eek:

losing the overfly attack imo has turned them from threat unit to 'fast' skirmish/snipe although fnp boost and point drop still makes them viable

i think if you were running them in units larger than a trio - i would target them as an easy kill.

[Lost Vyper]

Yep, i wasn´t crazy, this was turn 4 and it had to be done. But now they have a CHANCE to do something and Hit & Run is nice too. They just zoomed the first turn, took fire, shot & attacked the building with the Long Fangs (we have house rules for the buildings, everything is more logical now. People even USE the buildings now :) ). And survived the game, even doing damage to a Drop Pod in the last turn...

My MVP was the Talos (just one!) thou, cleared Murderfang, one Rune Priest and a squad of Grey Hunters and remains of another GH-squad...need.more.of.those.too.

- Lost Vyper

[Charon]

Still not convinced.
People tend to forget that you have to be actually in B2B contact for the HOW attacks to trigger.

[Lost Vyper]

And? All the old Bladevanes were pretty useless against armor 2+ or 3+. You had to get a HUGE amount of wounds, to do damage. Now, especially with Caltrops, rending affects HUGELY...oh, i´m going to test more of them of course, but i´m just happy, that most of the things i thought was crap in the new codex, seem to work...new PfP = MUCH better, in the 5th turn, that Fearless is awesome, if holding fe. The Relic/Objective with a Warrior -squad out on the open and still getting blasted --> survivors don´t flee...

[Cap'nSmurfs]

Thanks for the tips. I kind of had this thought when I read through the book - need more of these guys!

[Lost Vyper]

You´re welcome, if these dudes had the 3+ armor save, that Eldar Jetbikes get...best units in the game :)...well, gotta be happy, until guys at my FLGC learn how to deal with them (as it happens all the time, when i get something new and exiting...)...

[Charon]

Now, especially with Caltrops, rending affects HUGELY

IF you manage to get the models with caltrops into b2b contact. Thats always a gamble with random charge ranges. most of the time I only manage to get 3 of 6 into b2b while the rest is 1-2" behind (so still in range to attack but not in b2b so no HOW hits).
And somehow I keep reading that people kill 5 Terminators with their 10 + 2d6 HOW hits and I wonder if the terminators in question are standing on dreadnought bases...

[John Bower]

Got to say I preferred the old way, fly by shooting (bladevane attack) was awesome with 10 of the things, even marines lost a lot of guys against that. Yesterday my Reavers got butchered by a bunch of orks.

[Lost Vyper]

Have you tried the new rules? And as for the Terminators. I had only 3 x Cluster Reavers + 1 regular left = dead Terminators...and, if you read the original post, the shooting with Blasters took care of some. So if i remember correctly, the CC killed three, i believe?

The point : They can ACTUALLY DO something in CC, if in dire straits...and i like them.

Try the new rules out and please do tell, if your game went either way!

[cthulhuchewtoy]

The more I play my dark Eldar, the more I'm liking them. Yes, they aren't perfect (bloodbrides should all have gernades) but they're still a challenging and fun army.

So, viper, you wanna fill us in on those building house rules? I'd love to use my terrain for more than LOS blocking.

and don't mind Charon, he's cranky when he hasn't been fed... :D

[Havik110]

Have you tried the new rules? And as for the Terminators. I had only 3 x Cluster Reavers + 1 regular left = dead Terminators...and, if you read the original post, the shooting with Blasters took care of some. So if i remember correctly, the CC killed three, i believe?

The point : They can ACTUALLY DO something in CC, if in dire straits...and i like them.

Try the new rules out and please do tell, if your game went either way!

I like them in for assaulting light armor...2D6 Strength 6 rending hits...will glance the hell out of some rhinos

[John Bower]

Have you tried the new rules? And as for the Terminators. I had only 3 x Cluster Reavers + 1 regular left = dead Terminators...and, if you read the original post, the shooting with Blasters took care of some. So if i remember correctly, the CC killed three, i believe?

The point : They can ACTUALLY DO something in CC, if in dire straits...and i like them.

Try the new rules out and please do tell, if your game went either way!

That WAS using the new rules :( It's why I liked 'em better before. With the old rules I used to fly around decapitating unit after unit with them. If they can't beat orks what chance do they stand against a real army? Btw DE conceded on top of turn 4 before bringing down reserves as not enough units left to hold the 5 objectives (not even enough to hold a win amount of them).

[clively]

I thought they were one of the better units last codex and was a bit unhappy when I first read the new rules. However after playing several games with them, 3 units of 6 with caltrops is now my core build.

They are so much better than last edition. I always had problems protecting them after doing a flyover attack. Now I don't have to worry about that anymore. The HoW attacks can really put the pain on whatever you want to remove.

[Anggul]

That WAS using the new rules :( It's why I liked 'em better before. With the old rules I used to fly around decapitating unit after unit with them. If they can't beat orks what chance do they stand against a real army? Btw DE conceded on top of turn 4 before bringing down reserves as not enough units left to hold the 5 objectives (not even enough to hold a win amount of them).

What kind of Orks? If it was a mob of lots of Boyz then it was never a good call to charge them anyway. Better to go for the smaller specialist mobs or whittled down ones. Alternatively, take out Mek Gunz with them, they can move 48" in one turn then charge in the next turn.

[Lost Vyper]

So, viper, you wanna fill us in on those building house rules? I'd love to use my terrain for more than LOS blocking.


Ok, we have normally couple of buildings on our table. They are AV12 with three HP´s each. Same rule apply, that you can´t target the building, before some one has claimed it. Before the three HP´s are gone, you DO NOT roll on the damage chart. Fe. My Wave Serpent shoots the building holding a unit of Long Fangs, using his Bright Lance and the Serpent shield. I score a penetrating hit with the BL and a glancing hit with the shield. Building sits now with one HP left.These cause two hits INSIDE too, hitting the occupants. Long Fangs can now take an armor save for the Shield hit normally and can choose to go to ground (4+ cover save) to save the AP2 wound from the Lance, these hits are distributed randomly. In the CC, my Reavers hit the building with Caltrops causing two more glancing hits, AP2, Rending. These will drop the HP´s to zero (plus hit inside) and the next penetrating hit will go to the damage chart.

[helvexis]

by the way here is some math on reavers in combat for you.
4 caltrops average 14 hits against a wave serpent that is 2.3 penetrations on front or side if you get the other 8 into contact which is unlikely but possible you have a 66% chance of doing a glancing or penetrating hit.

against 10 marines you once again get 14 hits from the caltrops and 8 hits from the bladevanes, which is 2.33 dead from caltrop rending, 9.33 wounds from the caltrops, 1.33 rends from the bladevanes, 2.66 wounds.

3.66 kills from rending
12 wounds = 4 kills
=7.66 kills before attacks.
37 attacks=18.5 hits=6.16 wounds
2.05 kills
9.71 kills w/o drugs

5 TH/SS terminators 3.66 rends, 12 wounds
1.22kills from rending
2 kills from wounds
=3.22 kills before attacks
37 attacks=18.5 hits=6.16 wounds
1.02kills
4.24 total kills w/o drugs

5.6 unsaved wounds on centurions after attacks w/o drugs

now this is of course with 4 caltrops in a squad of 12 with an arena champion and doesnt include any previous shooting from the squad.
hitting with a full squad can be annoying but realistically all you need to get into btb contact are the caltrops and anything else is just gravy.

[ShadowcatX]

Correct me if I'm wrong, don't close combat attacks always hit rear armor of a tank?

[helvexis]

close combat attacks do hammer of wrath attacks hit on the side they are facing