Topic: Swooping Hawks - A ripp off?

[elvishlord]

personally, i don't have any yet and probably won't for a while b/c my most frequent opponent is a sm player, and i would have to sacrifice a squad of reapers to get them. but they don't suck.  i used a squad of 9+exarch to shoot the crap out of a command squad, out of 21 shots, i got lucky and 18 hit, 13 wounded and he failed 6 of his saves. hawks are like jumppack gaurdians, their firepower only works in numbers and statistics against the sms.

[Zappa]

They suck with the new assault rules....sustained assault is now useless

[SKEETERGOD]

Hawks are my favorite unit.  They have earned thier points back plus some in almost every game I have used them.  With the new rules sustained assault is even more effective.  I use the exarch first and if there is anything left then the regular hawks will strike.  The hawks are extreemly good at nid removal, they are the ultimate nid killers.  I have used them effectivly against the marines as well.  They even killed a 6 man terminator squad, 21 hits, 11 wounds, and he couldnt make 11 5+ saves.  They are very good at devastator squad and scout squad killing.  They are not frontal assault troops.  Keep them moving from cover to cover, keep them out of assault range.  When fighting nids I use them to first remove any steelers, then go after the biovors, chewing through gaunts as they go.  Against orks they are very effective at thinning out mobs, and even crossfiring them.  Yes the hawks can be fragile if you leave them in the open, and charge into the guns.  Try to think of them more as surgeons as opposed to storm troopers.  They are very good at what they do, and used correctly will win you more games.

[Orlanth]

Maybe you should keep Hawks to very small squads as an 'exarch delivery system'.

The grenade pack can be useful too.

Swooping Hawks dont need to be tough, just tougher than the support weapon crew they are slaughtering.

If you use other Eldar lists then yes consider dropping Hawks entirely, but from were I see it Swordwind hosts only have Hawks and Shining spears as fast attack. So two squads of five doesnt squueze out anything, and allows you to take an exarch. Far better than taking a large squad dont you think?
 

[labmouse42]

Swooping hawks a few things going for them.

Move and shoot 24"
Sure its a high powered flashlight, but a squad of 5 of them does get 10 shots with that flashlight.  They can also keep backing up 12" and shooting it too.  That really makes them hard to get into hand to hand, unless they really want to.

Move fast
Look at how much a jumppack marine costs. 25 points.  When you consider that a jumppack costs 10 points, the cost of your swooping hawk is actually about 12 a model.

Free Ordanace Blast
So every time you drop 5 of them onto the board, you get a free ordanance blast.  Its actually pretty handy vs IG and other light troops.  See it rip away at the tyranids, orcs, and kroot too.

Ok in Hand to Hand
They are not super hand to hand monsters, but Ill deep strike them near a bunch of IG and then toss them into HTH with thier basic troopers.  Ill also do the same when blasting Tau.  Sure they are not great hand to hand fighters, but they are better than the tau and will keep them tied up.

Kick ass Exarch
The exarch really kicks ass.  The web is skulls is just gross, and hes quite argueably the most powerful exarch you have.

In summary
Dont field them vs a 'hard' army.  They suck vs marines, necrons, and chaos marines.  As thats incorporates 40% of the total players, dont use them in legues where you are only allowed 1 army list vs many foes.

[-Zeruel-]

A blast template on the IG troopers, 10 lasshots AND a HtH attack works pretty well with SH.
It depents pretty much on the situation, but its always a bad idea to charge a large IG squad.
The weight of numbers then is just too much even for the aspect warriors.
And most of the time, you have to wait with this tactic, till your main attack hits home. (scorions, guardians a.s.o. )
Then you can use this tactic against units in the rare and seperatet or unsupportet units.
Most likely mortar or anti-tank squats. Sometimes HQ squats too, but than, use an exarch.
This will give light troops the rest.
Especially IG, because they hardly move, so that your able to plan your attack pretty well.

[The Hive Custodian (Retired)]

Your crazy if u think hawks can kill death company not everyone uses rigged dice!! geez and they die easy hell guardiens killthem lol (happened to my friends hawks) so i laugh at u ppl thinking hawks are good even against nids they aint

They can be good against 'nids. Deep Strike them, and bomb their Hive Nodes. BAM!!! Their Gaunts are now Ld 5 instead of Ld 10... better stay close to that Synapse...

[Alexander Falcorian]

Yoo, Mick, calm down. Just take a big breath and be cool!