Tuesday, October 14, 2014

DE: Realspace Raiders Detachment

And the award for worst Warlord Traits goes to...

We've all probably looked at it by now and I know the thought of having 6 FA slots makes some Reaver-happy players foam at the mouth.  However, we must analyze this in an intelligent manner and verify if the FA slot does indeed allow us to be competitive.

First, the Realspace Raiders Detachment and what it offers you:
  • Basically the same army except you have 6 FA slots to play with.
  • Restrictions: All units in this Detachment must have the Dark Eldar Faction (or have no Faction).
  • Benefit - Realspace Raider: If this Detachment is your Primary Detachment, you can re-roll the result when rolling on the Warlord Traits table in the Codex: Dark Eldar.
  • Benefit - Hunter from the Shadows: During the entire first game turn, and during any turn in which the Night Fighting rules are in effect, all Troops units from this Detachment have a 5+ cover save, and all other units from this Detachment have a 6+ cover save.
The first thing I have to ask myself is.. if I buy Raiders as dedicated transports for my troop choices, are they considered to be in 5+ cover?  Not the guys inside, but the Raiders themselves.  I would like to think yes because you're buying them in the troop slot.

It goes without saying that while Hunter from the Shadows can be good, I think we can all agree that it's not entirely game-changing.  All other units having a 6+ cover means absolutely jack shit with all things considered, especially when most buildings/ruins is 4+ and that you'd be stupid not deploying with at least some kind of cover.  No one really shoots in the wide-open field, so I don't think that the cover saves will be entirely useful.  If the 5+ cover also affects Raiders, I can see it being slightly useful as you can decide to not Jink and just take the cover save so you don't need to Snapfire.  Whether or not this is a good idea is also questionable.

As for the whole re-rolling on the DE Warlord Traits, this is a huge flop for anyone not taking a melee-centric Warlord.  In the list that I'm going to post with this detachment in mind, 4 of the 6 traits available to me are absolutely useless.  The only one I'm looking forward to is 2 - Labyrinthine Cunning, since it 's pretty much the best trait in the tree.  The ability to re-roll Seize, Night Fighting and Reserves is just godlike.  Towering Arrogance can be decent in later game when all your shit is getting shot to death, so a bubble of Fearless might not be too bad, but if you get to the later parts of the game to begin with, you will probably already have Fearless from Power from Pain.  Overall, the Warlord Traits presented here is a huge flop, and the designers responsible need to be sent to the Wych pits (so the Wyches can tear them apart for all the unneeded nerfs).

So what does your list look like with 6 FA slots?  A lot of people are thinking about tons of MSU Reavers, but I'm not sure if that's all that great.  Others are thinking 120 point HWB Scourges to go with their Ravagers, but where are they getting the points for all that?  So the question to ask yourself is this:  Is this detachment and the 6 FA slots really worth not having Objsec and re-roll on the Strategic tree?  I would love having almost ALL of the traits from there.

Anyways, here's what my pure DE list can look like under Realspace Raiders:

1850
20 KP

HQ:
Archon, WWP, Blaster = 110

TROOP:
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/AS = 120
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/AS = 120
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/AS = 120
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/AS = 120
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/AS = 120

ELITE:
5x Trueborn, 4x Blaster, Raider Lance/AS/NS = 195

FAST:
Razorwing, Lances/NS = 155
Razorwing, Lances/NS = 155
Venom SC = 65
Venom SC = 65
Venom SC = 65
Venom SC = 65

HEAVY:
Ravager, Lances = 125
Ravager, Lances = 125
Ravager, Lances = 125

With this list, you have the MSU playstyle of Warriors in Raiders, giving you 14 lances on the opening salvo, followed by 48 Venom shots coming from your supporting fire.  Is it more effective than my battle-forged pure Dark Eldar list I posted previously?  I personally don't think because I don't think it has the staying power or the objective-capturing flexibility.  The warlord traits alone is enough to deter me from building this style of list, but I'm throwing this out there so people can analyze for themselves.

Let me know what you think.

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