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Author Topic: C&C please - draft guide to DE Heavy Support  (Read 2480 times)

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Offline Plastikente

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C&C please - draft guide to DE Heavy Support
« on: January 27, 2013, 06:42:52 PM »
Following is the draft for the next section of my unit guide.  As always, please let me know your opinions on the units and the breakdown I have given below - I am keen to improve the content with the communal experience of the forum before publishing.
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Plastikente’s Dark Eldar Unit Guide Part 5 – Heavy Support [6th Ed]

 HEAVY SUPPORT
Unsurprisingly, this is where the real heavy hitters in the army list can be found, including several of the Dark Eldar’s options for taking out vehicles.  Pretty much every unit in this area of the Force Org chart is exceptional, and you can’t go far wrong by maxing out on Heavy Support choices in almost any list you build.

RAVAGER
Strengths: Manoeuvrability of a fast skimmer. Deadly armament.  Can fire all guns at cruising speed.
Weaknesses: Light armour.
Upgrades:
  • Disintegrators.  You can swap your Dark Lance armament for these at no cost.  DL Ravagers are more common because DE armies usually need to maximise the anti-vehicle fire they can bring, but if you have that covered, a disintegrator Ravager absolutely annihilates armoured infantry.
  • Night Shields.  These can be useful for extending the life of a Ravager.  They’re not much use against decent heavy weapons, which outrange you even after knocking off 6”, but they are great for reducing your exposure to mid-range weapons like plasma guns.
  • Flicker Field.  Of limited use, because you can get a 5+ jink save just by moving.  For the paranoid though, the FF does offer a couple of advantages:
    • Still works before you’ve moved (like if the enemy gets the first turn).
    • Still works against weapons which ignore cover, and in assault.
    Nonetheless, the FF doesn’t offer much that you can’t get by careful placement and keeping moving.
  • Everything else.  Other vehicle upgrades were covered in Part 2 (Core Units).  While they have their uses, they all required that you get close to the enemy to get an effect, and a Ravager doesn’t want to be anywhere near the enemy.
How to use:  Fly around at max range, shooting the enemy to bits.  Ravagers are the most cost-effective way for us to bring heavy weapons to the table; they have a great manoeuvrability and good BS.  This will make your Ravager a prime target for your opponent.  Unlike our flyers, the Ravager can bring its guns to bear from turn one, and you will generally want to make use of that to deploy them on the table and try to hit your enemy first.  Make maximum use of cover to try to mitigate your fragility, and keep moving to get your jink save.  Night fighting can really help in this area.  Don’t waste points on upgrades that you are very unlikely to use – only Night Shields are likely to give you a decent payback, and even they are far from essential as your front and side armour is bolter-proof (unlike Raiders).  Suggested build: Ravager w/ Night Shields [115]. 

TALOS PAIN ENGINE
Strengths:   Tough, scary monstrous creature.
Weaknesses:  Slow, no invulnerable save.
Upgrades:
  • Twin-linked Liquifier Gun.  Liquifier Guns are generally awesome, with a 50% chance of melting straight through power armour every time they fire.  Add the ability to re-roll failed wounds, and they become truly terrifying to the enemy.
  • Ichor Injector.  Gives your attacks a chance of inflicting instant death.  Useful if you want to hunt characters in close combat, but not so effective against other monstrous creatures as it is toughness-based.
  • Chain Flails.  Your average number of attacks with chain flails rises to 4.47, from 3.5 usually.  Also, the random distribution gets skewed to the right, so high numbers are more likely than those frustrating 1s and 2s.  Can be worthwhile for an assault-Talos, if you have the points to spare.
  • Extra CCW.  Costs 5 points more than the chain flails, and increases your average number of attacks to 4.5, although these are on an even spread between 2 and 7.  This upgrade is pointless if you have taken the TL liquefier – as you exchange a CCW to get that then the extra just brings you back to 1 in total and doesn’t give you an extra attack.
  • Stinger Pod.  Gives a slightly better effect against infantry than the bog-standard TL splinter cannon.  Useful, but hardly essential.
  • Twin-linked Haywire Blaster.  Will probably cause 1 glancing hit per turn on enemy vehicles.  Not that impressive – at long range you’ll get more effect from just shooting infantry with the splinter cannon, but at short range the Heat Lance is much more effective.
  • Twin-linked Heat Lance.  Useful if you want to go hunting vehicles with your Talos.  The main threat will actually come from an assault, but this is useful for softening the victim as you approach.  And if you are lucky enough to pop a transport with it in the shooting phase, then you are allowed to charge the occupants.
How to use:  The Talos is a great psychological weapon.  Opposing players seem to be inordinately scared of what they can do, and will therefore devote a lot of firepower to trying to take them out, and will often avoid moving units or vehicles too close.  This effect will also apply to a WWP if you still have a Talos in reserve – only a foolhardy foe will get too close if he knows that there is a TL Heat Lance and/or Liquifier gun just needing a 3+ to appear.  The best use of a Talos is therefore for area denial.  It is always worth hugging terrain, as you have move through cover and without an invulnerable save you are always vulnerable to high strength, AP3 shots.  Suggested build: Talos w/ Twin-Linked Liquifier [105].  If you want to be able to threaten vehicles at range, add a TL Heat Lance.

CRONOS PARASITE ENGINE
Strengths:  Pain token multiplier, high toughness, access to AP3 weapons.
Weaknesses:  Short range, slow, no invulnerable save, not great in assault.
Upgrades:
  • Spirit Syphon.  Not actually an upgrade – you get this included in the cost of the Cronos, but it’s worth discussing specifically.  This is a flamer that was practically designed to melt Space Marines.  And every time you get a kill with it, you can give a pain token to a nearby friendly unit.  This disadvantage is, you need to get *really* close to use it, and the Cronos isn’t great in an assault.
  • Spirit Probe.  Allows the Cronos to dish out pain tokens if it gets a kill in assault.  Thing is, the Cronos isn’t that great in an assault, so you probably want to avoid getting in the position where this upgrade will benefit you.
  • Spirit Vortex.  Lower strength than the Spirit Syphon, but a much more useful range (although still not that long).  A significant points investment, but worth it.
How to use:  The Cronos is unusual compared to the other Heavy Support slots, because unlike the rest, it’s not incredibly killy.  It can act as a real force multiplier though, and shouldn’t be written off.  In an assault it’s not terrible, but certainly nothing compared to a Talos, and its low number of attacks makes it liable to get tarpitted.  If you haven’t paid for a Spirit Probe, you can’t then make use of the Cronos’ special abilities.  It is always worth buying a Spirit Vortex for a Cronos because it allows you to keep the enemy at arm’s length.  The lower strength does make it harder to kill SMurfs, but you still burn straight through power armour and you only need to get one kill to benefit.
To make use of the Cronos, you need to keep other unit nearby to benefit from the tokens he dishes out.  As he is so slow, this requires some thought at the list building stage.  One option is to deploy via WWP, allowing you to arrive up-table and near the action.  Alternatively, if you love MCs (or are running a coven-themed list), a Cronos paired with 2 Talos makes a very imposing centre-field.  These units can benefit particularly from FnP as their lack of invulnerable save makes them a prime target for krak missiles.  Obviously, if you go down that route then you will need to find your ranged anti-tank elsewhere (Blasterborn anyone?).  Suggested build: Cronos w/ Spirit Vortex [100]. 

RAZORWING JETFIGHTER
Strengths:   Flyer, nasty anti-infantry missiles, can Deep Strike.
Weaknesses:  Paper-thin armour.
Upgrades:
  • Disintegrators.  For no cost, you can swap your Dark Lances for these.  These fit better with the aircraft’s other weapons, which are suited for an anti-infantry role.  Nevertheless, many players prefer to keep the DLs for the flexibility to take on vehicles, and particularly enemy fliers.
  • Splinter Cannon.  Next to pointless – as you can only fire 4 weapons per  turn, you won’t use it at all until you have fired off all your missiles.  This will be Turn 4 at the earliest, and if you don’t have to fly off the table that turn, you will most likely have to do so the next turn.
  • Missiles.  All of the missiles available to the Razorwing are Large Blasts.  I have mathhammered the chances of getting a wound on each individual model caught by the blast:
    Weapon  vs MEQ   vs TEQ   vs GEQ   vs MC
    Monoscythe0.2780.1390.8330.111
    Necrotoxin0.2780.1390.8330.278
    Shatterfield0.3240.1620.6480.250
    As can be seen, Necrotoxin doesn’t increase kill rates against anything that doesn’t have a very high Toughness to start with (although it is pinning).  The Shatterfield gives you a slightly better kill rate against MEQ and TEQ, but AP- makes you worse off against lightly armoured units.
    All told, the free Monoscythe missile is pretty effective anyway, so it is rarely worth investing more points in a unit which is already expensive in order to get a slight increase in missile kills.
  • Night Shield.  Very useful.  Because your armour is so thin, even Bolters have a chance of glancing you, and the number of shots mean that they’ll get a few hits even snap-firing.  Night shields are great for reducing your exposure to small arms fire, and particularly from rapid fire.
  • Flicker Field.  Invaluable.  Unlike skimmers, Flyers don’t get jink for moving, if they want it, their shooting next turn is downgraded to snap shots only (and therefore missiles can’t be fired).  With a Flicker Field, you never have to evade.
How to use:  Zoom around the table, annihilating troops with your missiles.  If you have stuck with Dark Lances, you can always switch target if required to take on some armour or other flyers.  The limits of Flyer movement require a bit of thought to get the most out of your assets.  If the enemy already has flyers on the table when you arrive, Deep Strike is a great option to stick you in their rear fire arcs where you can have a go at their weak rear armour and they can’t manoeuvre to shoot back at you.  Beware though, your own armour is pitifully thin, so you will want to take out anything with skyfire and/or intercept with other units before your flyer turns up.  Even a lowly Guardsman can expect to get 1.5 penetrating hits on you with a Quad Gun (if you don’t evade/have a Flicker Field).  Suggested build: Razorwing w/ Night Shields, Flicker Field [165]. 

VOIDRAVEN BOMBER
Strengths:   Flyer, killer anti-tank gun, can deep-strike
Weaknesses:  Light armour, gets expensive if you want missiles.
Upgrades:
  • The Voidraven has access to all the same missiles as the Razorwing, and also Implosion Missiles:
    Weapon  vs MEQ   vs TEQ   vs GEQ   vs MC
    Implosion0.8330.5560.8330.500
    The great thing about implosion missiles is that they cause instant death (following a characteristic check – see the codex, p.47).  This could make them great against multi-wound armoured opponents.  The downside is, you can still take cover or invulnerable saves against them, so it’s not that hard to dodge their effects.
    The problem with taking missiles of any sort on the Voidraven is that you have to pay extra for them (a lot extra, in the case of implosion missiles).  The missiles are all anti-infantry, whilst your main armament is the best long-range anti-vehicle weapon we have access to.  Therefore, to get the most cost-effectiveness out of your Voidraven  you should avoid missiles altogether and just concentrate your Void Lances on enemy armour and flyers.
  • Night Shield.  See the comment for the Razorwing Jetfighter.  The big difference is, the Voidraven doesn’t need to worry about Bolters in front or to the sides, so this becomes less of a worthwhile investment.
  • Flicker Field.  See the comment for the Razorwing Jetfighter  - it applies to the Voidraven in exactly the same way.
How to use:  Ironically, the Voidraven “Bomber” plays much more like a dedicated air combat plane which can target ground armour in a pinch whereas the Razorwing “Jetfighter” is optimised as an anti-infantry ground attack craft.  How to use?  Fly around the table, targeting enemy armour.  If he has any flyers, the Deep Strike trick will again pay dividends.  If you happen to fly over an enemy vehicle, the Void Mine has a reasonable chance of hitting it, but your Void Lances are your most flexible and reliable weapon on this flyer.  Suggested build: Voidraven w/ Flicker Field [155]. 

Offline Zilverscale

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Re: C&C please - draft guide to DE Heavy Support
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2013, 04:19:45 AM »
Nice read :0

Only one suggestion for the below

Ichor Injector.  Gives your attacks a chance of inflicting instant death.  Useful if you want to hunt characters in close combat, but not so effective against other monstrous creatures as it is toughness-based.

Also useful for going up again multiwound TEQ's.

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Offline Plastikente

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Re: C&C please - draft guide to DE Heavy Support
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2013, 11:32:38 AM »
Thanks for the input - I'll stick it in the final draft.

Offline Mordecai

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Re: C&C please - draft guide to DE Heavy Support
« Reply #3 on: February 7, 2013, 02:56:38 PM »
Remember that although you may fire 4 weapons on the flyers, only two missiles may be fired a turn. Therefore the Splinter cannon may be still a worthwhile purchase for the razorwing.
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Offline bebe

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Re: C&C please - draft guide to DE Heavy Support
« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2013, 12:05:16 PM »

If I'm not mistaken the new FaQ disallows DE flyers from deep striking - not that you would necessarily want to.
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Offline Plastikente

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Re: C&C please - draft guide to DE Heavy Support
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2013, 02:13:13 PM »
Ah, you're right - good spot.

Offline Khira'lyth

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Re: C&C please - draft guide to DE Heavy Support
« Reply #6 on: May 6, 2013, 03:06:25 PM »
I was going to point out the withdrawal of the Deep Strike rule from both flyers, but it's already been covered.  Instead, I would like to comment on a potential up-side of the Spirit Syphon upgrade for the Cronos.

You're right in saying it's not very killy, mainly from it's low number of attacks.  The Cronos is, on paper, a shooty beast (moderately shooty, very support-y).  However.  Seeing this, and the low damage potential in combat, an opponent is likely to be quick to throw a cheap unit at the beasty to keep it from shooting (and therefor throwing out pain tokens willy nilly to everything nearby).
For barely more than the cost of a warrior (ie, cheap) you can thwart this tactic by saying "hey, I'm not going to kill much, but I'm pretty likely to kill one thing... and that's all I need".  You'll still be pumping out Pain Tokens fairly regularly, which is (at least in my opinion) the real reason to take this thing.
It's a potent, if cheap, distraction in the same way a Talos is.  One is big and scary and will hit you hard, the other will make the rest of your army obscene if it's not dealt with early on.  Both require, thanks to unusual durability, a real effort from the enemy to get rid of.

Khira'lyth

 


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