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Author Topic: Is the Cobra Overpowered?  (Read 1900 times)

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Offline bca11

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Is the Cobra Overpowered?
« on: January 13, 2018, 10:24:39 PM »
I played a 2,000 point game today and my opponent and I agreed to try out our Lords of War. I've owned a cobra for years, but had yet to deploy it in 8th. He had recently finished a knight, so we gave it a shot.

He fielded a mostly mechanized IG list with 3 leman russ tanks, a basilisk, colossus bombard, knight commander pask, and (of course) his knight. He also had about 50 guardsmen and a couple of assorted characters (none of which made a big impact. We played "Big Guns Never Tire," which seemed appropriate since we were both deploying our largest models.

I ended up with 3 of the 4 objectives in my deployment zone on a search and destroy setup, so I positioned on the objectives with a large dire avenger screen, with rangers, war walkers, reapers, farseer, reaper autarch and such behind the screen, leaving room to bring the tank in on my first movement phase. This way, he had to come to me (tough break for him).

He sends his column of vehicles at me 5" at a time to take advantage of grinding advance, kills all the war walkers on turn 1 and a couple reapers and rangers. I drop the cobra in response and one-shot his knight while the reapers blew up a doomed and jinxed Pask who had foolishly charged straight in on his first movement phase. We were both kind of stunned, but what followed was a tank-busting party of epic proportions. The cobra killed a tank every turn until they were all dead, and the reapers busted a couple as well. The 40 dire avengers had no problem out-shooting 50 guardsmen, and it was a wipe by the end of turn 4. After his first round of fire he pretty much fired everything that wasn't a lasgun at the cobra, but between fortune, fieldcraft, and lightning fast reactions he couldn't damage it effectively. It finished the battle with 14 / 26 wounds.

At one point the cobra put 37 wounds on a leman russ in one volley (this was the highest either of us had seen). I can only imagine the level crazy something like that would have if I buy a bonesinger model and start using it to repair the tank from behind.

Thus comes the question - has anyone fielded or fought cobras in 8th and have you found them to be as devastating as I did today? It almost didn't seem fair that his knight cost almost as many points as the cobra, but went down with such ease. Is this an overpowered "cheese" unit in your opinion, or did my opponents list just happen to be the kind of thing that played to the cobra's strengths?

Offline Blazinghand

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Re: Is the Cobra Overpowered?
« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2018, 03:13:55 AM »
The Cobra in particular is good against an army with many tanks. A Cobra will kill a tank every turn. On a good turn, it can cripple or even kill a full-strength Knight. This is also true of the IG equivalent unit, the Shadowsword, which also will kill a tank every turn and can possibly kill a full-strength Knight. Many armies have some kind of "anti-Knight super-heavy tank" and Cobra is the one Eldar have. The Cobra costs almost 50% more than a Shadowsword, has MUCH shorter range, is slightly worse at attacking in assault, but can fly and has an invulnerable save.

In this kind of situation, with a Knight-killer tank going up against a list with a Knight and a bunch of juicy targets for the Knight-killer's guns, the Knight-killer will do well.
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Offline bca11

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Re: Is the Cobra Overpowered?
« Reply #2 on: January 14, 2018, 03:27:41 PM »
I knew they had to have something.  He was a fair bit perturbed at the level of slaughter. I’m sure a large infantry blob would have been much tougher to deal with.

Offline magenb

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Re: Is the Cobra Overpowered?
« Reply #3 on: January 14, 2018, 04:23:40 PM »
The cobra used to be able to take down multiple normal tanks and infantry in a single shot as it had a massive blast template. So in some ways it was nerfed lol.

Offline Cavalier

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Re: Is the Cobra Overpowered?
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2018, 05:42:24 PM »
Blazinghand nailed it. The Eldar options from Forgeworld with the exception of the Hornet and the Nightwing are hideously overcosted and they only went up after Chapter Approved. The Cobra and Scorpion are excellent... but they are dramtically more expensive than their Imperial/Chaos counterparts.

The Cobra is meant to kill Titans, so yeah it did what its supposed to do. Its Imperial equivalents will do the same but for far less points and at longer range.
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Re: Is the Cobra Overpowered?
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2018, 07:12:43 PM »
I don't think the cobra is too expensive. Doesn't cost much more than a knight, but has far better damage output and survivability.

It's got one gun, but it'll alpha strike anything which can deal with it. I can definitely see how it'd create a bad feeling with your opponent. its wounds and toughness make it incredibly hard to deal with, especially when it's gun is just so powerful.

Imperial varieties of super heavies, you can at least lock in combat by surrounding them, but nothing will stop the cobra from shooting, besides being destroyed.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2018, 03:02:45 PM by Irisado »
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Offline magenb

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Re: Is the Cobra Overpowered?
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2018, 08:48:24 PM »
You are also forgetting that the IG option is not forgeworld, so it will be allowed in a lot of places that the Cobra isn't.

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Re: Is the Cobra Overpowered?
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2018, 09:56:05 PM »
You are also forgetting that the IG option is not forgeworld, so it will be allowed in a lot of places that the Cobra isn't.

I am aware. They are also not as good as forge world super heavies.
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Re: Is the Cobra Overpowered?
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2018, 10:29:14 AM »
The Cobra can also benefit from several key strategems and psychic powers.  Fortune, Guide, Cloudstrike, Forewarned (if with a Farseer) and Lightning Fast Reactions are all capable of causing your opponent great frustration.

As Killersquid identified, having Fly is a key benefit as well making it nigh impossible to lock the Cobra down.
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Offline Saim-Dann

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Re: Is the Cobra Overpowered?
« Reply #9 on: January 15, 2018, 10:47:45 AM »
G'day bca11!
It explodes on 4 plus. With a potentially large radius and high number of wounds, skim it into the enemy and dare them to kill it. I would only call it overpowered if your opponent didn't have a super heavy... Be well!
« Last Edit: January 15, 2018, 03:03:48 PM by Irisado »

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Re: Is the Cobra Overpowered?
« Reply #10 on: January 15, 2018, 03:04:40 PM »
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