Howling Banshees, can they be competitive in an Eldar list?

Howling Banshees.  Can they be a competitive choice in an Eldar list?

They are the unit which has virtually no love in the new book.  This article is going to compare them to units they compete against, within their own codex.  Specifically Striking Scorpions and Wraithblades.  All third units occupy the Elites slot, with Wraithblades having the ability to move into troops with a Spirit Seer.  Origonally I had included harlequins in this but they pretty much came last on everything.

For the sake of simplicity, we will take a ten man unit of each aspect and 5 wraithblades since they are quite similar on points.

10 Howling banshees
5 Wraithblades
10 Striking scorpions


These will be tested against MEQs, tau firewarriors and GEQs.  We are only including the melee ability of these units, not their shooting ability.  The reason being that all the units except Wraithblades have exactly the same BS and pistol weapon making this point redundant.

Fighting vs 10 GEQs
So, one of the more common match ups is against space marines.

Eldar Charge
Guardsmen stand and shoot.  They kill on average;

0.835 Banshees
0.184 Wraithblades
0.551 Scorpions

So Banshees are bottom for taking damage.  Lets assume that they all make it into combat though.
All of the eldar units strike before the guardsmen.  Banshee mask therefore contributes nothing to this combat.

Banshees kill 10.05 guardsmen leaving none to strike back.
Wraithblades kill 8.34 guardsmen leaving two to strike back.
Scorpions kill 3.35 with mandiblasters, and 9.023 with normal attacks, leaving none to strike back.

They all mop up guardsmen with ease, except the wraithblades.  Taking points into consideration, Banshees are cheaper than the other two, but kill 10 models all the same.  Banshees may win this round.


Fighting vs Firewarriors
This may be seen as quite an unusual choice of unit, but tau are increasingly common in games and fire warriors are perhaps the most points efficient troops choice in the entire game.  While pre 6th edition many players had never seen a tau army, they are everywhere like a bad smell these days.

Eldar charge
Tau Firewarriors stand and shoot.  They kill on average;

2.78 Banshees!
0.363 Wraithblades
0.92 Scorpions

That is really, really bad for Banshees.  Nearly 3 die on average charging just ten fire warriors.  Assuming some kind of miracle, and everyong makes it into combat, this is what happens.

Banshees kill 10.5 Firewarriors, leaving none to strike back.
Wraithblades kill 8.34 Firewarriors, leaving two to strike back.
Scorpions kill 2.5 with mandiblasters, and 6.734 leaving one to strike back.

Banshees out perform scorpions here.  Power swords make short work of the reasonably good tau armour, where scorpions struggle somewhat.  Wraithblades are consistent but don't kill a lot.  Still I expect them to wade through the remaining tau in the second turn with no losses.

Finally we will look at Fighting vs Marines
Still the most common unit type on the table, we need to consider how effective each type of eldar is against the humble tactical space marine.

Eldar charge
Marines stand and shoot.  They kill on average;

1.19 Banshees
0.184 Wraithblades
0.746 Scorpions

Again, the Banshees do badly here taking more damage.  Their lower armour is really hurting them.  Assuming they all make it over to combat, again, highly unlikely and we will run the numbers.

Banshees kill 4.95 marines, before the marines swing.  Not good for a unit designed to kill marines.
Wraithblades kill 6.225 marines before they swing.  They are super consistent vs any unit.
Scorpions kill 2.21 with mandiblasters and 2.475 with attacks.

None of them kill ten marines. 

Conclusion.
Which is best?  Well in all honesty there is not much to pick between Scorpions and Wraithblades.  Banshees die far too easily to be considered.  If I had taken their deaths into account on the maths, they would have come consistently bottom, and that is without factoring in any turns of shooting they may suffer on the way in.