A returning players oppions on our units; Transports

Well transports it's very rare that you will see any Dark Eldar army without them, the raider has humbly served our armies since day one of our release and the venom is a great alternative for smaller hit squads. So lets dive in withhh....

The Venom
Well, you really get allot for your points with the venom. Transport, fire support, eating overwatch and an almost unreasonable melee assist. It's small, fast and a great way to transport your MSU units plus their supporting character (Archon and his stag doo). It's the most efficient way to boat splinter cannons (which are a pretty good gun but they loose out because they are heavy and compete with a dark lance) great in Black heart, Obsidian rose and Poison tongue. With a potential for 6 strength 6 -1 save attacks they are pretty vicious vs non MEQ or tougher stuff.

They are all this said however and quite unsurprisingly to everyone reading this, a little bit squishy. On average 36 bolter shots will drop it, the baked in -1 to hit is amazing but only goes so far.

I generally see venoms as small deliver systems, that once they have dropped off their cargo can go on to harass enemy fire support/weak characters, once flensing fury is up (See power from pain) they are hitting on 3+ and wounding on 2+ vs toughness 3 stuff maybe even with a reroll in there for good measure, so they will hand out some decent offence.

The Raider
It packs a dark lance, or a disintegrator (oh how I miss you plasma cannon stat line) both of which are really good guns. The dark lance let it be said is our best anti tank/monster/deathshroud terminator gun nothing even gets close to its reliability and abundance. The raider has always served as an integral part of our ranged anti tank capability (at least it did when I played) long may it do so.

The disintegrator is another great gun 3 shots, strength 5, high ap and 2 damage it's a reliable MEQ killer and will threaten even sneak a few wounds onto higher toughness models thanks to its ap. That said with more models receiving a -1 on damage the gun will fall off to being just not worth it.
Raiders can be used to

Even more so than the venoms, the raider is kinda good in melee and the list of cabal/coven/cult bonuses it can have in this area is well kinda large. Lets look at a few.

Who wants a strength 8 transport with 6 attacks? Us... Cursed blade and experimental creations both increase your stats, combined with shock prow and you have something that is capable of threatening vehicles you already damaged with destruction. A nice little finisher

Well if being strength 8 doesn't excite you how about another -1 on the enemies saves? coven stuff in general can provide reasonable buffs to a raider (yes I know black heart meta booo!) though I don't advocate building an army around it, it is definitely worth keeping in mind. Being a coven raider does have a down side however, you can't use the -1 to hit strat, something you might want to do if your boat of grotesques is getting targeted.

Well I can't really talk about obsessions without talking about that one in particular, you know the one I mean yes DT. If it's not nerfed soon the sea level will rise from all the tears (I jest!). But in seriousness consider that even with the down side of d3 mortals on your raider per 1 rolled, that a disintegrator wounds terminators on a 2+ and kills them, gravis on a 3+ and kills them and everything else bar toughness 10+ on 4+ and does 3 damage with each hit. That's the kind of firepower that is worth the trade off.

Well that basically sums up most of my thoughts on them, really looking forward to putting mass raiders/ravagers into a hoard of orks popping ancient evil and then seeing what happens. Oh by the way did I mention they hold 11 models now? eh it's probably not important.

Next time Talos and Chronos (Minus the Dark Technomancers)

No thoughts about Grizzly Trophies, PGL and Dark Creed? -3Ld, the chance of MW after rolling against said Ld and -1 to attrition?
You could at least have mentioned it. Or the attacks, hitting on 3+, when the enemy Ld is then 7, or less.

I know, this is not Sparta! Ahem, Meta, but its a nice approach. And the look on your opponents face is worth a photo shot.

Zenotaph wrote:

No thoughts about Grizzly Trophies, PGL and Dark Creed? -3Ld, the chance of MW after rolling against said Ld and -1 to attrition?
You could at least have mentioned it. Or the attacks, hitting on 3+, when the enemy Ld is then 7, or less.

I know, this is not Sparta! Ahem, Meta, but its a nice approach. And the look on your opponents face is worth a photo shot.

Several good points! I will try to be a bit more comprehensive in future. The hitting on 3+ in melee is great for turn one and 2 but it is always up after turn 3. Though I suppose you ignore negatives at that point, good for killing mandrakes and the like.

Trophies are a great synergy item for our best melee unit the incubi, if they hug the hull of their raider after a fight (assuming no new targets can be reached) they become a very unattempting target to charge by anything with average leadership. They are also the enabler item for the PGL which is a some what random way to hand out MW.

Funny thing: Try to add Poisoned Tongue Venoms. When their Cannons kill something, you gain another -1 to the attrition test.
So, when a unit fails a test of morale, they flee at 1-3. Thats 50/50. Not so bad...