So I did a 2500 point, single FOC doubles tournament yesterday running mech corsairs with my friend's mech craftworlders. My first time running a lot of the units and there were some surprises for me. Here's what our lists looked like:
Me:
VoidDreamer
5x Corsairs, Fusion Gun
-Falcon, Scatter Laser, Holofield
5x Corsairs, Fusion Gun
-Falcon, Scatter Laser, Holofield
5x Corsairs, Fusion Gun
-Falcon, EML, Holofield
Nightspinner
Warp Hunter, Holofield
Warp Hunter, Holofield
Him:
Eldrad
5x Fire Dragons
-Wave Serpent, TL Scatter, Stones
5x Fire Dragons
-Wave Serpent, TL Scatter, Stones
10x Storm Guardians, 2x Flamers
-Warlock, Enhance
-Wave Serpent, TL EML, Stones
Hornet, 2x Pulse Laser
Hornet, 2x Pulse Laser
Nightspinner, Holofield
The Tournament Summary Highlights:
Game 1:
Win vs Foot Grey Knights
-Does an Eversor Assassin get 4D6 AP vs a Serpent or only 1D6?
-Don't deep strike Grey Knights within 36" of Warp Hunters.
-Tank shocking paladins on objectives is a good idea...that can go horribly bad if the game doesn't end. (we went to turn 7 or
Game 2:
Loss vs Necron Wraith swarm and Sisters
-Not sure if the necron player was lucky with the dice or we didn't have enough volume of fire, but we could shut the wraiths down before they started tearing through the tanks.
-Nightspinners did a great job supressing the sisters' Rhinos which were bunched up early on.
Game 3:
Buy (win with 0 points?) due to odd number of teams. Corsairs turned on their Craftworld allies, Eldrad put them in their place.
Surprises
-Nightspinners: I think 2 might have been overkill, but 1 was really effective at supression of enemy units. Forcing dangerous terrain tests accounted for some wounds and immobilized vehicles even against some of the nastiest stuff. I think we need to consider these more.
Other performance thoughts:
-I'm not sure about the Hornets...They either didn't do much or died quickly. Still need more analysis, or consideration with SCs or SLs but I'm leaning towards Nightwings.
-Warp Hunters perform as expected. They tend to get one or two good shots in before an opponent realizes how scary they are and then tend to soak up a lot of fire but are otherwise a 160 point bullet sponge. I didn't think they were the end all be all of Eldar weapons.
Overall, I don't think pure mech corsairs have enough firepower to play offensively. The tanks are too easy to shut down even if they are tough to kill. I would have loved to have some of my jetpack infantry staples, so hybrid may be the way to go. I'm also getting this feeling that despite my initial thoughts that corsairs are a pure shooting list, having some offensive close combat abilities in the mix from scorpions or Harlequins may be the way forward.
Expect to see some hybrid, broad spectrum of units lists from me in the future. This however is the last dirstside action my corsairs will fight for a good while. Now I'm shifting my focus to Zone mortalis boarding actions the next few months, and I'll be working on some Tau during August and September while I'm away learning to fly the Army's EC-145.