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Author Topic: C&C please - draft guide to Scourges and Reavers  (Read 2341 times)

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Offline Plastikente

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C&C please - draft guide to Scourges and Reavers
« on: January 7, 2013, 07:03:15 PM »
I'm plodding slowly on with my DE unit guide.  Below is half of Part 4 (Fast Attack).  As always, feedback is welcome (particularly as I'm not so strong when playing this section of the list).
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SCOURGES
Strengths:Mobile.  Carry lots of special/heavy weaponry.  Can be customised for AI or AV.  May deploy by deep strike.
Weaknesses:  Expensive, still fragile
Upgrades:
Solarite.  A standard character upgrade, with leadership buff and access to cc weapons.  The blast pistol is expensive and has a tiny range and Scourges have no business being in an assault, so this character is probably best left with his shardcarbine if you want to take him.
While Scourges can’t achieve quite the same density of special weapons as Trueborn can, they are a respectable second, and offer the mobility of jump infantry.  Their weapon options can be loosely divide into :
Ant-Infantry.  These options complement the Scourges’ basic weapons loadout well, but DE lists have access to plenty of AI, so they are hardly essential in this configuration.
  • Shredder.  A bit of a buff for AI shooting.  Not much better than a shardcarbine (depending how many you can hit with the blast), but not that expensive either.
  • Splinter Cannon.  Apart from the range, this also doesn’t add much over a shardcarbine (assuming you want to move).  But it gives you a lot of shots if you are having to snap-fire anyway.
Anti-Vehicle.  If you take these options, Scourges become one of the limited number of AV choices available to you.  As always though, they must be chosen in the context of your whole list.
  • Dark Lance.  Almost pointless.  You take Scourges for their mobility, but if they move, the DL can only snap fire.  You may as well have a Blaster for the same points – it has almost the same effective range as a stationary Dark Lance.
  • Heat Lance/Blaster.  The relative merits of Heat Lances and Blasters were discussed in Part 1.  In short, Blasters offer good effect at a longer range, and have the strength to also worry MCs.  Lances give you a greater probability of a vehicle kill, provided you get right in close to benefit from the melta rule.  Getting close enough to use a Heat Lance is pretty suicidal for Scourges.  If you choose to go that way, Deep Strike is pretty risky, as you could easily scatter out of melta range.  A well-placed WWP is a much more reliable way of getting them into the kill zone to take out a vehicle.
  • Haywire Blaster.  Again, this weapon was discussed in Part 1.  The advantage with taking it on Scourges is that it lets them keep a greater distance from threats, whilst reliably stripping 1-2 hull points off any vehicle each turn.  It’s not likely to stop anything in its tracks, but suffers no problems from Blessed Hulls, Ceramite Armour, Quantum Shielding or any other tricks out there (as yet...).  If you take this loadout, make sure you wait to fire your Scourges last, and then pick on a vehicle that has already taken a bit of a beating in the hope of finishing it off.
How to use:  Scourges cost as much as Reavers, but aren’t as tough, aren’t as manoeuvrable and don’t get a jink save.  What they can do is deploy by deep strike, take slightly more special weapons (and a greater variety) and have a slightly better basic save with a pitiful invulnerable one tacked on too.  Scourges are best fielded in squads of 5 or 10, in order to maximise the number of special/heavy weapons you can bring with them.  Max out on one of the weapon upgrades discussed above (mixing usually isn’t optimal as everything has slightly different ranges/optimal targets) and then pick on your target of choice.

REAVERS
Strengths:  Oh so fast! 4++ cover save which can be improved to 3++ if you move flat out.  Can be configured for AI or AV role.  Can attack even at max speed (bladevanes).  Ability to move-shoot-move.
Weaknesses:  Expensive, poor armour, vulnerable to attacks which ignore cover.
Upgrades:
  • Arena Champion  A standard character upgrade, who can choose from the usual selection of Venom Blade, Power Weapon or Agoniser.  Take him if you want the leadership buff, and/or a little more punch if you like to assault with your Reavers.
  • Heat Lance/Blaster  You can tool up a proportion of you bikes for an anti-vehicle role.  The relative merits of Heat Lances and Blasters were discussed in Part 1 and the Scourges entry.  Unlike Scourges, Reavers can make use of their jetbike move in the assault phase to try and get and back off a bit after getting in close to get the most of a Heat Lance.
  • Cluster Caltrops  For slightly less cost than another bike, you can upgrade some to have bladevanes which are slightly more than twice as effective.  The subtle trap with this upgrade is that once you have taken it, you will want to make a bladevane attack every turn in order to get your money’s worth.  Doing that puts you at risk of making a foolish move which will leave your bikes in the open to be gunned down or (worse) assaulted.
  • Grav Talon  Makes your bladevane attacks (only from the upgraded bike) pinning.  Worth the investment against lightly armoured targets, but against MEQ you need 3 Grav Talons on average to get 1 unsaved wound and force a pinning check.
How to use:
  • Remember Skilled Rider.  Check it out! (BDB p.41) A bonus to jink saves and you don’t need to worry about dangerous terrain.  These are a real boost to your survivability.  This also leads on to 2 things you need to remember to extend your Reavers’ life:
    • Keep moving.  Without your jink save, your armour is no better than a Kabalite Warrior.
    • Avoid templates.  Anything that ignores cover will be the death of you.
  • Bladevanes vs. Splinter.  I have mathhammered the expected damage for one round of shooting/bladevaning against my standard targets below.
    Weapon  vs MEQ   vs TEQ   vs GEQ   vs MC
    Splinter Rifle (Rapid Fire)0.2220.1110.6670.222
    Bladevane0.3330.1670.8890.111
    Cluster Caltrops0.9720.4861.9440.389
    Note.  These numbers were worked out for the averaged number of bladevane and caltrop strikes (2 and 3.5 respectively), and assuming that the splinter rifles were in rapid fire range.
    This shows that you will get more kills on average by bladevaning pretty much any target that isn’t a monstrous creature, and cluster caltrops rock!  However, you can only bladevane when turbo-boosting, and thereby sacrificing your assault phase Eldar Jetbike move.  Also, to bladevane a unit you have to physically pass over it – this requires some careful thought to ensure you don’t leave yourself exposed to shooting or an assault at the end of your move.
  • Consider assault.  Reavers are relentless, meaning that they can still assault after firing their splinter rifles.  They carry a pistol and ccw for the extra attack, take combat drugs, and have a T buff compared to your standard DE.  And they get a free Hammer of Wrath attack – it’s only S3, but it automatically hits.  So, despite the fact that I just “proved” that bladevanes were better than your guns, you might want to shoot anyway, and then swoop in for the assault.
  • Avoid being assaulted.  Reavers have an ok T, and a poor save.  They don’t want to be on the receiving end of a charge.  Moreover, without Hit and Run, once they are caught in an assault your opponent has pinned them in one place, disabling their main advantages – manoeuvrability and speed.
  • Move-shoot-move.  As Eldar jetbikes, Reavers can make an extra move in the assault phase.  Use this to get them out of line-of-sight, into cover, or even just to rearrange so that the models closest to danger (first casualties) aren’t your special weapons or champion.
  • Endgame objective denial.  Although they are not scoring (except in the Scouring mission), Reavers are a denial unit, and their massive speed allows them to wait until turn 5 before swooping to contest an objective or claim linebreaker.
  • Screening.  If the enemy has to shoot through your Reavers to hit something, then the target unit gets a cover save.  This can be used to give a little more protection to a unit caught in the open whilst your flat out Reavers still get a decent jink.
Standard Builds: 6 or 9 Reavers w/ max Heat Lances/Blasters [156-243]. Add an Arena Champion with weapon if it suits your style.  Min unit sizes are too fragile to be of much use.

« Last Edit: August 2, 2013, 05:05:02 AM by Plastikente »

Offline El_Jairo

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Re: C&C please - draft guide to Scourges and Reavers
« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2013, 09:57:46 PM »
You have some format errors with bolding title.

Apart from that it is a good analysis of those units.

You might add that Scourges aren't competitive and Reavers are.

Scourges are too expensive to go suicidal on heat-lance hunt and Haywire only can take the last hull point. 2 If you buy 10 of them but that is really expensive, unless your meta runs Land Raiders or Monolyths. Which isn't likely in 6th. Furthmore Wyches are far better at glancing vehicles to death. You do have to except their death as well, maybe.

As you mentioned Reavers work best in larger packs. This increases their punch in blade vaning, shooting and assault.
Event on Reavers I think heat-lances are suicidal because you can only tackle lone vehicles. Even with the assault move, you are most likely in charge range of enemy infantry. Unless you retreat to terrain and the opponent doesn't have fleet.

Offline Plastikente

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Re: C&C please - draft guide to Scourges and Reavers
« Reply #2 on: August 2, 2013, 05:13:55 AM »
Thanks for the feedback.  It's nice to see someone active on the Dark Eldar boards.

I've fixed the formatting error you pointed out.  As for the issue of what's competitive, I find that to be a rather subjective issue.  In general in this series of articles I have deliberately avoided saying "this is competitive/not" - I prefer to just lay out the strengths and weaknesses and let people draw their own conclusions.

The stuff that I have posted for feedback on this board is eventually becoming formalised into Articles on the site - keep your eyes open for more uhttp://www.40konline.com/Smileys/default/wink.gifpdates  ;)

 


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