So after a fairly long hiatus, I have finally got around to looking at the 7th edition rules.
I have to say, I am not really impressed. For a rough estimate, I would suggest around 95% of the core rules and around 99% of special and weapon rules have stayed the same. For the price of the books I expected more.
Which brings me to the books. There is a big rule book, a background book and a sort of painting book.
The painting book has mostly big photos of models with no real explanation on how they were painted. There is a heavy emphasis on Ultramarines and not much on other factions and something that may possibly be classed as tactics, but it really doesn't come across that way in reading it. I could quite happily have never seen this book, never mind paid actual money for it. If it had shown a few more gamers armies, or shown how to do some of the painted models, or painting methods, then I would have been much more impressed.
The background book is a rehash of what has been said in previous publications. I couldn't actually see anything new in this whole book. While I am sure it is of some value to new gamers, to someone who has been playing for near twenty years, its not very much use to me. The specific sections on different factions is covered in much better details in their own codexes.
Now those books have been dealt with, back to the rules. The rules are really just 6th edition with a couple of changes. This isn't a bad thing as 6th was a solid set of rules.
Big changes, as far as I can tell are as follows;
Psychic phase. It looks like initially a small nerf in the volume of powers cast, although certain armies will see a boost I think. Its quite similar to the old fashioned dice pools for casting from fantasy. Its early to say for sure, but focused witchfires actually look usable now, which is a nice change. There doesn't appear to be an upper limit on how many dice you use to cast either. This means you can throw all your dice at a spell you really want. I also like how you get the primaris power for free if you pick all your powers from the same deck. Overall this is an improvement.
Shooting phase. There has been a fairly interesting change. You now roll all the weapons of one type, then resolve the effects before rolling the next set. This will slow games down, but provides a tactical choice to the game in trying to stack melta hits on characters when the fodder is hosed down in front of him with lesser weapons. I like this.
Charge ranges: Has stayed the same, but with small changes. Now difficult terrain reduces the charge by a set distance. Makes it a bit more predictable. I think this is good too.
Vehicle damage: It is now no longer possible to blow up a vehicle in one hit with an Ap3 or worse weapon. This makes vehicles across the board tougher and thus more desirable. Except oddly landraiders, and other 14 all round vehicles, which were virtually impervious to these lower damage weapons in the first place. I am unsure how much of an effect this will have, except armour 10 vehicles become considerably tougher.
Lords of war are now included in the Force Organisation Chart.
New missions are far more dynamic, allowing armies built around speed and reaction to do well, where as static armies may struggle.
Overall my impressions are that 7th is a positive step forwards. I can't think of any changes that have been for the worse, but it does strike me as more 6.5 than a new version of the rules.
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
Saturday, 1 February 2014
New Tyranids, a brief look at the new codex
There has been a lot of hate on the Internet about the new book. But some crucial points have either been missed or brushed under the carpet.
A lot of units have a sizable points reduction. Anywhere between 20 and 25% in some cases. Their statistics mostly remain the same.
They now also gain a bonus attack from two sets of melee weapons. Something they never used to have.
For me, most of the book is usable with a couple of exceptions. The Tyranid Prime is massively over priced now, and I think everyone could see Tervigons being hit by the nerf bat. Lictors, previously the worst unit are slightly improved now having infiltrate. The Deathleaper is a really good unit.
Boneswords being AP 3 didn't surprise me. It doesn't affect MCs but warriors suffer. But were you really expecting them to go up against terminators? I didn't think so.
Daemons got similar points drops and they had reductions in statistics. Their book is very usable and I really see no reason to not think the Tyranid one will be too.
Also, the Tyrant gets very cheap wings. Expect to see ALL flying tyrants unless someone stumps up the points for Swarmlord and Tyrant guard.
A lot of units have a sizable points reduction. Anywhere between 20 and 25% in some cases. Their statistics mostly remain the same.
They now also gain a bonus attack from two sets of melee weapons. Something they never used to have.
For me, most of the book is usable with a couple of exceptions. The Tyranid Prime is massively over priced now, and I think everyone could see Tervigons being hit by the nerf bat. Lictors, previously the worst unit are slightly improved now having infiltrate. The Deathleaper is a really good unit.
Boneswords being AP 3 didn't surprise me. It doesn't affect MCs but warriors suffer. But were you really expecting them to go up against terminators? I didn't think so.
Daemons got similar points drops and they had reductions in statistics. Their book is very usable and I really see no reason to not think the Tyranid one will be too.
Also, the Tyrant gets very cheap wings. Expect to see ALL flying tyrants unless someone stumps up the points for Swarmlord and Tyrant guard.
Tuesday, 28 January 2014
Wraithknight thoughts
So my attention has recently been turned towards the Eldar Wraithknight. One of my gaming group is consistently telling me I need to buy one. With the considerable price tag attached to this unit in both money and points, you need to ask and answer yourself a number of questions first.
1. Do my armies have 240-300+ points spare for a large monster with just two guns?
2. Will it synergise with my existing Eldar force?
3. Is it really better than taking two Wraithlords or Fire Prisms who cost half as much?
The first question is very important. How cruicial to the running of your army is having one or more of these creatures? I play a fairly wraith heavy eldar army and I have no spare points, never mind slots for this to take part.
Its firepower, while on the face of it impressive, is really not. If you think about it, the Wraithcannons are just a pair of longer ranged Wraithguard guns. So it has the firepower of two Wraithguard. Fielding this naked is the most points efficient, but should only be done if you really need two more long ranged anti tank guns. I am fairly certain Fireprisms work out a lot better choices, because they can fire blasts as well as a powerful lance shot from their main gun. Absolutely noone ever looks at the standard Landraider and goes "Wow, two twinlinked lascannons, thats a very powerful battle tank". They buy it for its dual nature as a heavily armoured transport with guns. This version of Wraithknight has roughly the same firepower, although it isn't twinlinked, nor can it fire any shoulder weapons, and can't transport either.
I would ignore the Sword/Shield entirely. Paying extra points, lose both my guns, gain a shield and a single rerolled miss in close combat. Really? I think not. I think this is the only chassis that would ever use both staggeringly over priced shoulder mounts though.
The third option, Suncannon/shield initially looks pretty viable. You get more or less 3 plasmacannon shots, without gets hot and at s6 not s7. So far so good. But the price is an eye wateringly high, when you buy the nigh on compulsary scatter laser. You also lose anti tank for a bunch of anti infantry shots. This is horribly inefficient compared to the Fire prism also. Do you really need more anti infantry fire? Eldar are full of them! Also, two Wraithlords with paired starcannons would throw down 8 shots between them, and can also have the sword.
Next up you need to check if it will synergise. It is a very unusual unit. It has very little firepower and its combat ability, while strong vs s3 or s4 units, it will fold like a soggy cardboard box in combat against something like Thunder Hammer terminators or anything armed with poison. It is reasonably tough against shooting, but even kitted out with a force field, its better to keep in cover than rely on that. Otherwise you could find a mere 6 krak missiles ending your day prematurely.
Thirdly you need to consider if other units can do its job better. First to consider is the Wraithlord. It is half as much and comes with half as many wounds. It doesn't however come with built in heavy weapons, so you will need to purchase them. Wraithlords are characters, so can challenge characters, unlike the wraith knight. Wraithlords are also considerably smaller and easier to hide in cover. Wraithknights are faster due to jump jets and can in theory deep strike, provided you want to risk it mishapping. It can't however be in two places at once, and its firepower is pretty much worse than a pair of Wraithlords who can have flamers and swords without penalty.
That is all well and good, but they seem to come out much the same as a pair of Wriathlords really. I think I would prefer two models over one big one, especially given theres not all that much difference between a brightlance and a wraithcannon, but each to their own.
No the biggest problem is the Fire Prism. This tank, for a lot less points, even with the compulsory holofields works out at least a hundred points cheaper and is faster, tough, and can engage both tanks and infantry with ease on the same chassis.
My conclusion from this piece is that the Wraithknight is not an ultra competitive choice. It may be in some builds, specifically Taudar or Eldau or wraithwing lists, that fielding three of them works out just fine for you. My issue is that their armour save is not all that ultra fantastic considering most weapons being aimed at it will bypass it entirely, and invulnerable saves are not brilliant on the two chassis which can have them. I mean how often do non stormshield terminators fail their saves? A lot!
1. Do my armies have 240-300+ points spare for a large monster with just two guns?
2. Will it synergise with my existing Eldar force?
3. Is it really better than taking two Wraithlords or Fire Prisms who cost half as much?
The first question is very important. How cruicial to the running of your army is having one or more of these creatures? I play a fairly wraith heavy eldar army and I have no spare points, never mind slots for this to take part.
Its firepower, while on the face of it impressive, is really not. If you think about it, the Wraithcannons are just a pair of longer ranged Wraithguard guns. So it has the firepower of two Wraithguard. Fielding this naked is the most points efficient, but should only be done if you really need two more long ranged anti tank guns. I am fairly certain Fireprisms work out a lot better choices, because they can fire blasts as well as a powerful lance shot from their main gun. Absolutely noone ever looks at the standard Landraider and goes "Wow, two twinlinked lascannons, thats a very powerful battle tank". They buy it for its dual nature as a heavily armoured transport with guns. This version of Wraithknight has roughly the same firepower, although it isn't twinlinked, nor can it fire any shoulder weapons, and can't transport either.
I would ignore the Sword/Shield entirely. Paying extra points, lose both my guns, gain a shield and a single rerolled miss in close combat. Really? I think not. I think this is the only chassis that would ever use both staggeringly over priced shoulder mounts though.
The third option, Suncannon/shield initially looks pretty viable. You get more or less 3 plasmacannon shots, without gets hot and at s6 not s7. So far so good. But the price is an eye wateringly high, when you buy the nigh on compulsary scatter laser. You also lose anti tank for a bunch of anti infantry shots. This is horribly inefficient compared to the Fire prism also. Do you really need more anti infantry fire? Eldar are full of them! Also, two Wraithlords with paired starcannons would throw down 8 shots between them, and can also have the sword.
Next up you need to check if it will synergise. It is a very unusual unit. It has very little firepower and its combat ability, while strong vs s3 or s4 units, it will fold like a soggy cardboard box in combat against something like Thunder Hammer terminators or anything armed with poison. It is reasonably tough against shooting, but even kitted out with a force field, its better to keep in cover than rely on that. Otherwise you could find a mere 6 krak missiles ending your day prematurely.
Thirdly you need to consider if other units can do its job better. First to consider is the Wraithlord. It is half as much and comes with half as many wounds. It doesn't however come with built in heavy weapons, so you will need to purchase them. Wraithlords are characters, so can challenge characters, unlike the wraith knight. Wraithlords are also considerably smaller and easier to hide in cover. Wraithknights are faster due to jump jets and can in theory deep strike, provided you want to risk it mishapping. It can't however be in two places at once, and its firepower is pretty much worse than a pair of Wraithlords who can have flamers and swords without penalty.
That is all well and good, but they seem to come out much the same as a pair of Wriathlords really. I think I would prefer two models over one big one, especially given theres not all that much difference between a brightlance and a wraithcannon, but each to their own.
No the biggest problem is the Fire Prism. This tank, for a lot less points, even with the compulsory holofields works out at least a hundred points cheaper and is faster, tough, and can engage both tanks and infantry with ease on the same chassis.
My conclusion from this piece is that the Wraithknight is not an ultra competitive choice. It may be in some builds, specifically Taudar or Eldau or wraithwing lists, that fielding three of them works out just fine for you. My issue is that their armour save is not all that ultra fantastic considering most weapons being aimed at it will bypass it entirely, and invulnerable saves are not brilliant on the two chassis which can have them. I mean how often do non stormshield terminators fail their saves? A lot!
Monday, 27 January 2014
Asurman and Dire Avengers. Why my opinion has changed
Anyone reading this blog for a long time will no doubt be laughing at the amount of backtracks I have made on actually using units, as opposed to just reading about them. This is another such article.
Despite much trepidation I have been using both Dire Avengers, and Asurman in my lists. Both seem over priced for what they do, yet in using them, I have won more games.
In football management terms, sometimes you can have a player in your team, who doesn't appear to do a great deal, but his inclusion means you have more wins, so you keep including him without knowing why.
This is the case with my Dire Avengers. Everything about them screams over priced to me. Yet they consistently do a job and do it well. Perhaps its because I don't waste points on Exarchs and just field units of 8 normal warriors. At the moment I don't really know, but I am endeavouring to find out.
Asurman on the other hand is solid as a rock. This is the reason he is my Warlord. He has worse shooting than half the other Phoenix Lords, and worse combat than pretty much all of the Phoenix lords, but is one of the most expensive.
The key to using him is to understand his Warlord trait ability. D3 Warlord traits. What you are hoping to roll is number 4. This allows him to reroll his armour save. A 2+ rerollable save, with eternal warrior and a 4++ invulnerable save rerolling 1s is insanely strong. Small arms fire will bounce off him 35/36 times he is wounded which makes killing him virtually impossible outside of ap2 fire.
Stand at the front of the unit he is in, and tank everything. You can look out sir any Ap2 hits and even if you fail, you are eternal warrior so its not the end of the world if a railgun hits you in the face. In the event you don't get the Warlord trait you want, you can always hope you get Fortune. You do have a farseer right?
His shooting attacks are pretty lame. A pair of catapults making them twinlinked isn't really all that, considering his high bs of 7 would have made it kind of twinlinked anyway.
Get him into combat however and he shines. His special Diresword makes him S5 AP2 striking on initative with a boat load of attacks. He can and will carve through anything without a decent save, and if they have poor leadership, he will do an even more damage when they fail their leadership tests. This special ability even bypasses eternal warrior!
Despite much trepidation I have been using both Dire Avengers, and Asurman in my lists. Both seem over priced for what they do, yet in using them, I have won more games.
In football management terms, sometimes you can have a player in your team, who doesn't appear to do a great deal, but his inclusion means you have more wins, so you keep including him without knowing why.
This is the case with my Dire Avengers. Everything about them screams over priced to me. Yet they consistently do a job and do it well. Perhaps its because I don't waste points on Exarchs and just field units of 8 normal warriors. At the moment I don't really know, but I am endeavouring to find out.
Asurman on the other hand is solid as a rock. This is the reason he is my Warlord. He has worse shooting than half the other Phoenix Lords, and worse combat than pretty much all of the Phoenix lords, but is one of the most expensive.
The key to using him is to understand his Warlord trait ability. D3 Warlord traits. What you are hoping to roll is number 4. This allows him to reroll his armour save. A 2+ rerollable save, with eternal warrior and a 4++ invulnerable save rerolling 1s is insanely strong. Small arms fire will bounce off him 35/36 times he is wounded which makes killing him virtually impossible outside of ap2 fire.
Stand at the front of the unit he is in, and tank everything. You can look out sir any Ap2 hits and even if you fail, you are eternal warrior so its not the end of the world if a railgun hits you in the face. In the event you don't get the Warlord trait you want, you can always hope you get Fortune. You do have a farseer right?
His shooting attacks are pretty lame. A pair of catapults making them twinlinked isn't really all that, considering his high bs of 7 would have made it kind of twinlinked anyway.
Get him into combat however and he shines. His special Diresword makes him S5 AP2 striking on initative with a boat load of attacks. He can and will carve through anything without a decent save, and if they have poor leadership, he will do an even more damage when they fail their leadership tests. This special ability even bypasses eternal warrior!
Friday, 27 September 2013
To Exarch or not
The question is, should you take an Exarch in your aspect warriors?
This is actually more of a difficult question than it seems. Not all Aspect warriors benefit as much from their Exarch as others.
The key is to look at the skills the bring along in the form of warrior powers. Some Exarchs are nailed on essential in even a 5 man squad, while others are only useful in bigger units. Remember Exarchs are your Sgts and Special weapons guys rolled into 1.
In my opinion Striking Scorpions, Howling Banshees and Shining Spears should always, always include an exarch, even in minimum sized squads. The reason for this is that Exarchs have strictly superior weapons and statistics to their squad, and the cost to upgrade them is more than reasonable considering you get better WS and BS as well as access to much more powerful close combat weapons. Always take Scorpions Claw, Executioner and Star Lances.
Swooping Hawks really don't get much mileage out of their Exarch. Their special guns really are not all that great, and neither are their abilities. I suppose you can attempt to blind someone, but I would rather just field 6 for the large blast and leave it there.
Warp Spiders maybe want an Exarch, but only if you want to use him with the Spinneret Rifle and maybe Power Blades. Against certain armies he turns the unit into a reasonable melee threat.
Crimson Hunters should always be Exarchs. Better BS, can snipe characters, weapon options. All very worthwhile.
Fire Dragons it depends. I always take one with a Firepike with fast shot, as his damage output is greater than two normal dragons this way. The Heavy Flamer wastes his exceptional BS to give some decent anti infantry firepower, but I suppose he can man a quad gun or something. That said, the unit doing its primary objective of wasting tanks, don't actually need an Exarch.
Dark Reapers. Again it depends, as a small squad of three is quite lethal vs marines and the Exarch pays all kinds of extortionate taxes on his upgrades. But the Exarch adds flexibility. With my favourite heavy weapon in the entire game in the Tempest Launcher, I always include him. Fast shot is a must.
Dire Avengers. Leaving the worst until last. Their Exarch varies between being completely pointless and quite decent. I would only ever include him if you have already got a full sized squad of Avengers, and then I would always give him the Power Weapon and Shimmer Shield combo to boost the entire unit. He really doesn't have the statistics to go around assassinating multiple wound characters with a Diresword, a twin linked catapult is laughable compared to what it was in 4th edition and sword and pistol really doesn't make the squad a valid combat threat.
Now you might be wondering why I say the power blade option on the Warp Spider Exarch is a good idea, but the power weapon pistol combo on the Dire Avenger isn't. The reason is the Warp spider keeps his considerably decent gun, and doesn't have a pistol. He is also more liable to survive combat due to his better speed, and has hit and run.
This is actually more of a difficult question than it seems. Not all Aspect warriors benefit as much from their Exarch as others.
The key is to look at the skills the bring along in the form of warrior powers. Some Exarchs are nailed on essential in even a 5 man squad, while others are only useful in bigger units. Remember Exarchs are your Sgts and Special weapons guys rolled into 1.
In my opinion Striking Scorpions, Howling Banshees and Shining Spears should always, always include an exarch, even in minimum sized squads. The reason for this is that Exarchs have strictly superior weapons and statistics to their squad, and the cost to upgrade them is more than reasonable considering you get better WS and BS as well as access to much more powerful close combat weapons. Always take Scorpions Claw, Executioner and Star Lances.
Swooping Hawks really don't get much mileage out of their Exarch. Their special guns really are not all that great, and neither are their abilities. I suppose you can attempt to blind someone, but I would rather just field 6 for the large blast and leave it there.
Warp Spiders maybe want an Exarch, but only if you want to use him with the Spinneret Rifle and maybe Power Blades. Against certain armies he turns the unit into a reasonable melee threat.
Crimson Hunters should always be Exarchs. Better BS, can snipe characters, weapon options. All very worthwhile.
Fire Dragons it depends. I always take one with a Firepike with fast shot, as his damage output is greater than two normal dragons this way. The Heavy Flamer wastes his exceptional BS to give some decent anti infantry firepower, but I suppose he can man a quad gun or something. That said, the unit doing its primary objective of wasting tanks, don't actually need an Exarch.
Dark Reapers. Again it depends, as a small squad of three is quite lethal vs marines and the Exarch pays all kinds of extortionate taxes on his upgrades. But the Exarch adds flexibility. With my favourite heavy weapon in the entire game in the Tempest Launcher, I always include him. Fast shot is a must.
Dire Avengers. Leaving the worst until last. Their Exarch varies between being completely pointless and quite decent. I would only ever include him if you have already got a full sized squad of Avengers, and then I would always give him the Power Weapon and Shimmer Shield combo to boost the entire unit. He really doesn't have the statistics to go around assassinating multiple wound characters with a Diresword, a twin linked catapult is laughable compared to what it was in 4th edition and sword and pistol really doesn't make the squad a valid combat threat.
Now you might be wondering why I say the power blade option on the Warp Spider Exarch is a good idea, but the power weapon pistol combo on the Dire Avenger isn't. The reason is the Warp spider keeps his considerably decent gun, and doesn't have a pistol. He is also more liable to survive combat due to his better speed, and has hit and run.
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
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.
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.
Tuesday, 3 September 2013
Normal Service will be resumed
Normal service will be resumed, hopefully this month. I have had a crazy few months doing exam revision and this should be over in the next month or two.
This blog isn't dead. Well not yet anyway! I am in the middle of writing an article on Howling Banshees at the moment, which should hopefully be up this week sometime.
This blog isn't dead. Well not yet anyway! I am in the middle of writing an article on Howling Banshees at the moment, which should hopefully be up this week sometime.
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