Time has passed. Lots of new books have come out. The meta has shifted. So my friends (and Tangi
) how do we feel about Phoenix Lords these days?
In the past, similar discussions have had these bones to pick with Phoenix Lords:
A. For the same points, you could just take another squad of their aspect.
B. They're more expensive than Farseers, Autarchs, and some special characters.
C. They're less potent than Farseers, Autarchs, and some special characters.
d. Their lack of invul saves leaves them very vulnerable.
Usually, these discussions have ruled that Phoenix Lords aren't terrible units, but that they simply aren't worth their points.
Now I love my man Baharroth, and his siblings-at-arms are just to cool for me not to break them out from time to time. As a result, I've found a few selling points that might help to some of the downsides listed above.
* Bikeless farseers are less reliable than before and can't cast while in transports. Autarchs are arguably better than before, but still hard to make worth it without a bike-and-lance combo. PLs, on the other hand are pretty much always at least somewhat useful whenever their squad is. They still cost quite a bit more than a 'seer or autarch, but the price gap is, perhaps, a bit less noticable now that many of our HQs feel a bit less effective in their own right.
* Some PLs do have invul saves now! Including Asurmen, Baharroth, iirc Irilitith, and Fuegan has FNP (which is sort of kind of comparable.) Jain Zar doesn't have one, but her disarm exarch power can help make it matter less against the right enemy.
* I feel like Fearless is maybe slightly more useful these days now that fear is handed out like candy, and many psychic effects are negated by fearless. Plus, it makes you immune to dark eldar soulfright or whatever it's called.
* Look Out Sir! means that you're almost guaranteed to be able to pass off the low-AP shots that come at your PLs squad to a mook while letting the PL tank small arms fire and high strength high AP shots. In other words, PLs are better tanks.
*Some PLs got handy new abilities like Baharroth's ability to blind gents after a scatterless deepstrike or Jain Zar's disarm.
* Overwatch means that it sometimes pays to assault a unit with more than one of your own to eat overwatch. So if Karandras or Jain Zar split off from their aspect warriors in teh movement phase, they can charge first, eat those nasty flamer and bolter wounds for their students, and thus free up their aspects to land more attacks.
The price tag on a phoenix lord still feels pretty high, and you'll still ignore them if you prefer competitive lists, but how do they look for more casual games these days? In the past, I felt like taking a PL generally meant I was handicapping myself a bit even against casual lists. Now? They might be a bit pricey, but at least they feel like they're reliably contributing. Unlike my farseer who either does amazingly well or else fails to meaningfully impact the flow the of the game.
If PLs still aren't quite where you'd like them to be, what do you think of a formation for each PL to give members of their aspect within the formation some sort of boost? Maybe skyfire for dark reapers the haywire rule for swooping hawk grenade packs? Things like that?
