Hi All,
I've realized that the forum has been pretty umm... lackluster in terms of posts, so I thought that I'd add a bit by doing some tacticas.
Hope you all like the format.
I'll be doing reviews based off my practical in-game experience with some math-hammer, but really to answer two questions:
1. How do I use this unit?
2. How good is it?
I thought I'd start with Reaver Jetbikes as they've always had a soft spot in my heart.
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Part 1: Reavers
Reaver Jetbikes are the Dark Eldar equivalent of Guardian Jetbikes. Or at least they are in theory.
Fluff-wise they are what happens when you give Wyches jetbikes and tell them to murder everyone as awesomely as possible.
1. How do I use this unit?
Jetbikes are great as objective grabbers in Maelstrom, where they really shine as they can move 48" in a turn and pretty much be anywhere on the board at any one time.
They used to be only good for escorting Jetbike Eldar HQs and annoying people with bladevane attacks, but now they are much different.
As 7th ed has changed the rules for jinking, Jetbikes have to snap-shoot if they use their jink save.
This used to be somewhat disastrous as you basically couldn't shoot afterwards.
The new Codex changed all that by A) making them cheaper and B) totally changing Cluster Caltrops.
It used to be that Reavers could only hope and pray to one day hurt a tank in close combat, but not any longer!
Now this little upgrade (one per 3 bikes) lets you do 1d6 RENDING HAMMER OF WRATH hits.
...
I'll let that sink in a little bit. Plus, the normal Jetbikes have S4 Hammer of Wrath in addition to their normal attacks. That's a lot of I10 attacks.
(Squad of Three puts out 1d6 S6 rending hits on the charge, 2 S4 hits and then 9 attacks at their initiative. That's about half a rending wound and about 6 wounds to a T4 body, which isn't all that shabby at all).
You can put them on the Arena Champ as well, so you can use them to snipe out people in challenges and lets you do damage to invisible units who are normally immune to most everything (HoW are auto-hits), and even hurt tanks and take off the last few wounds on Monstrous Creatures or the like.
In my most recently published Battle Report I used them to snipe out a heavily wounded DRAIGO. It was pretty spectacular.
You can run them in large units to try and keep them viable all game (but a bigger target), or you can run them small as fire and forget squads. As the new Dark Eldar Formation lets you take SIX (!) Fast Attack choices, the temptation to make mass Reaver squads is rather tempting.
They fall into that wonderful category of "too dangerous to ignore, but potentially not worth the effort" that can make your opponent think twice about shooting them instead of something more valuable (i.e. Venoms, Raiders, etc).
Oh, and they have hit and run just to make things even more interesting.
2. How good are they?
The Reavers offer valuable board control, which is a value not easily quantified.
They can assault pretty much anything and do damage.
After a few games, your opponent will actively start gunning for them, which is again great as they don't die easily to anything that does not ignore cover (like most of the Dark Eldar army), so they can add to distract your opponent and mess with his target selection.
Just remember that your Jetbikes are BARELY more survivable than Warriors and will die horribly to templates. HORRIBLY.
Mobility: A
Offensive: B
Defensive: C
Overall: A
(Thanks to Narric for the grading scheme!)
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Please let me know about this tactica.
Did you like it?
Do you want to see more?
Do you want me to do other races or specific units?
If I'm off, let me know, I'd be happy to know more!
Best,
-BT
