Is The Scourge Awesome?

I first played Dark Eldar when they were the shiny new army. I'd played a couple games of 40k before I started collecting DE but it was these guys that really got me interested in the game. What got me hooked was the sleek look of the Raider (I associated them with the galleys of ancient Greece and the design has only got better over the years) and the very idea of the Scourge. Lets face it, the Scourge is just awesome! When I used to play they were the only thing that could deep strike and they could do it in any game where other deep striking units were restricted in when they could do that. They could run in the shooting phase when only Eldar (and I think maybe Nids?) had the luxury of running and they could load up splinter cannons (that were probably the best assault weapon in the game back then) and strafe an enemy to death or they could take Dark Lances and just drop tanks for fun. They were awesome when they hit the table. They're better now!

So in this brand spanking new codex your Scourge can take one of three weapons. Actually they can take more but really they can take one of three. You can load up on splinter cannon and they work very well with the awesome shardcarbine they get for free. I'd happily pay to put carbines on the warriors or trueborn, Scourge them for free! You can equip them with haywire basters and just troll the hell out of enemy tanks (you're gonna take 2 hull points off a tank unless you really fluff it). If there are no tanks nearby then your haywires just blast infantry instead. Sahrdcarbines rip through toughness and haywires rip through armour so long as they're not MEQ's. Or you can give your Scourges heat lances and make tank sized firework displays. If you get bored of shooting tanks then you can make terminator kebab instead.

Now as DE players you already know this. You also know they can deep strike without paying a vehicle or webway tax (but I think vehicles only got DS in this codex? And webways have only just changed). But might not have been picked up on is that Scourges have Plasma Grenades, in an army that largely lacks assault grenades! You've got a unit with high initiative (but then everything Eldar has) and assault grenades when some of your best assault troops are scratching their heads about infantry hiding in cover. But the Scourges also bring armour to the table, they get a 4+ save which in combat is equal to your vanilla combat unit the wytch. Only power weapons alter this but they're usually on sergeants whom you can kill before they get to strike. Yeah wytches aren't great but they're the closest thing you can compare Scourges too in combat ability. Scourges aren't Incubi or Grots but you have to pay a lot to get those. And add to this chassis you can equip the Solarite with venom blades (only two things in the list can take them, him being one of them) a power lance or an agonizer. The agonizer is probably too expensive for this unit but the other two may be worth it for what you will do with them.

Where am I going with this? Well you have a unit that is amazing at shooting, arguably the best in the book (maybe a complete tank hunter death squad of trueborn could challenge them in this). But they're also pretty decent assault too. Throw in some PfP bonuses too and Scourges look great for assaulting. This is because their threat range is greater than your other infantry and if you set it up right you can get your HoW bonus on the charge too. But before you charge a unit with them you pump them full of poison shot first! None of this unloading a pistol in the face nonsence, you have shardcarbines, haywire blasters and/or heat lances to unload first. Doesn't matter how tough a unit is before you charge them, they're gonna be significantly weakened when you do. And when you do contact that unit you're hitting first (cover or not) and you have some PfP bonuses to give you the edge! Ok so they won't far well against a real close combat unit but why would you charge any DE unit into an enemy combat unit? You'd shoot them instead. So your Scourges face down a nasty combat squad - shoot them. They're dead, or at the very least they aren't charging you now that half are dead and you have 36 poison shots on overwatch! If your Scourges face a crappy infantry squad in cover, you shoot them first, soften them a bit and then you charge! By the time they get to hit back there shouldn't be much left of them. Odd's are you'll cut them down when they try to flee.

So, are Scourges the ultimate Dark Eldar unit? They can do pretty much anything you need them to do. Only thing they can't do is bullrush through a gunline like an Archon riding a pack of Grots can but you have an Archon riding a pack of Grots to do that. Whilst your Scourges do everything else! Am I right? Are Scourges the go to unit for Dark Eldar?

I'd say Grots and Reavers are the do just about everything units in the army.

You could build your list around 4 gunboats, 2 dedicated to Grots, 2 to Gunboats, and 2 reaver units for AT. Note that such a list is designed to run at breakneck speeds towards the enemy.

Short answer: yes.

Longer answer: I always run 2-3 HWB squads in my army now. Coupled with Ravagers, Talos (formations preferably), Blasters, and/or Razorwings, they have yet to let me down when it comes to anti-tank. I miss HWG Wyches, but having a unit that can put our four BS4 Haywire shots with a 36 inch threat range has helped tremendously with the grieving process.

Scourges are awesome, even if they die without shooting.

A perfect unit when shooting
A perfect bait when she die

You can also put Blasters on Scourges.

Agonizer is actually cheaper for the Solarite.
25pts. in the Melee Weapon List, 15 in the Solarite entry.

And yes i think Scourges are awesome (though i'm a noob so take that with a grain of salt)

As someone said about scourges in a batrep: "On paper, they are brilliant, but against a good player on the tabletop, they'll use an expendable transport to bait the scourge into destroying it, and then the scourges get destroyed soon after."

Marrath wrote:

You can also put Blasters on Scourges.

Agonizer is actually cheaper for the Solarite.
25pts. in the Melee Weapon List, 15 in the Solarite entry.

And yes i think Scourges are awesome (though i'm a noob so take that with a grain of salt)

If you you want a highly mobile unit with four Blasters, better take Trueborn and put them in a Venom. They will be faster, slightly better protected and get 12 Splinter Cannon shots on top of their Blasters.
Scourges are at their best with Haywire Blasters, followed by Heat Lances.

And I would definitely not invest 40 points just for a melee weapon in a "heavy" weapon squad. If they get into close combat, all their firepower goes to waste.

PainReaver wrote:

As someone said about scourges in a batrep: "On paper, they are brilliant, but against a good player on the tabletop, they'll use an expendable transport to bait the scourge into destroying it, and then the scourges get destroyed soon after."

Well, if you're falling for that...

It is not falling for the bait, it is the fact that you tie up your anti tank in a unit that has toughness 3 with a 4+ armor save. They are a prime target, and whats worse, they are an easily removed threat. You put them on the table, and you will be picking them right back up. You deep strike them in and hope for no scatter and decent results from the 1 time you get to shoot.

I would pass.

there are much better things in the Dex that do what the scourges can both better and with more survivability.

Skulnbonz wrote:

there are much better things in the Dex that do what the scourges can both better and with more survivability.

There is one thing, to be exactly: The Ravager.
And we've already been discussing the pros and cons of Scourges vs. Ravagers here: http://www.thedarkcity.net/t11183-dark-lance-ravagers-vs-haywire-scourges

This is where having multiple AT threats is useful. Three units of Scourges. Three Ravagers. Grots. Blasters. Coven formations. Give your opponent something scary and relatively resilient to focus on in the first two turns instead of your Scourges.

PainReaver wrote:

As someone said about scourges in a batrep: "On paper, they are brilliant, but against a good player on the tabletop, they'll use an expendable transport to bait the scourge into destroying it, and then the  scourges get destroyed soon after."

Yes it is.

And this is why Scourges are played

Scourges are great - today I used two units, one with heat lances walking out of a webway portal and one with haywire blasters deep striking. Those 240 pts not only took down a manticore, a hydra, and vanquisher and a taurox, the three remaining haywire scourges on turn 5 charged into the 3 remaining scions who were holding one of only two objectives on the table (in cover), killed all three thanks to furious charge and a higher initiative (thank you plasma grenades), and therefore completed the tabling of my opponent.

So yes, I think scourges are awesome. They are not however the be-all and end-all of our codex or our anti tank options (and clearly aren't the only anti infantry option either). They survived that long because I made sure there were enough threat to my opponent that they couldn't deal with everything. If he'd ignored my Scourges, he'd have left my ravagers or my razorwing unscathed instead.

Scourges and Ravagers are better than just Scourges or just Ravagers.

Scourges are a high threat, low resilience unit. They are best used with other such units as the opponent will eventually run out of answers, or with the knowledge that they are unlikely to survive without careful consideration.

Personally the most DE thing against most enemies for me is the venom. Their reaction cussing out DE when I roll 12 dice 7-8 time to destroy squads is priceless.

The_Burning_Eye wrote:

Scourges are great - today I used two units, one with heat lances walking out of a webway portal and one with haywire blasters deep striking. Those 240 pts not only took down a manticore, a hydra, and vanquisher and a taurox, the three remaining haywire scourges on turn 5 charged into the 3 remaining scions who were holding one of only two objectives on the table (in cover), killed all three thanks to furious charge and a higher initiative (thank you plasma grenades), and therefore completed the tabling of my opponent.

So yes, I think scourges are awesome. They are not however the be-all and end-all of our codex or our anti tank options (and clearly aren't the only anti infantry option either). They survived that long because I made sure there were enough threat to my opponent that they couldn't deal with everything. If he'd ignored my Scourges, he'd have left my ravagers or my razorwing unscathed instead.

Exactly! This is what Scourges are for. You deep strike them where you need them - safely into mid table by themselves (haywire?) or tactically with webway (heat lance?) and you use them alongside other units to force difficult choices on your opponent. Should they survive to the end game they're a solid melee threat against anything that isn't combat specialised.

A lot of the caution espoused is due to their fragility but they're ctually some of the tougher units in an army that is entirely fragile so why is this even a downside? Ravagers might apper to be tougher but they're aren't really. Scourges may die to bolter fire just as easily as Ravagers die to krak missiles. And neither of those weapons are exactly the best at their respective roles. If you're using anything in the DE list exclusively and without support from the other units then you're playing DE wrong (and probably losing a lot of games). You can line Space Marines up on a table and just blast away knowing they're pretty tough and you can win by just rolling dice. You win with DE by forcing choices on the other player - kill my Scourges or kill my Ravager or kill my Blasterborn. Which one will it be? Oops, wrong choice!

I think where Scourges might shine is that nobody is expecting that last turn charge and if they are they don't realise how good Scourges are in combat. And in an army where you rely on finesse and keeping your options open any unit that can perform two two roles well should be seriously considered for your list.

They're certainly our toughest infantry outside of the coven units. Now that's not saying much given they've not got much to beat in that regard, but it does count for something, and even with a full squad shooting at them, I often find there are survivors (don't forget either that deep striking them further up the table gives you plenty of chance to rally them if they fail a morale test).

Don't get me wrong, I don't advocate them as an assault unit, they are generally taken in numbers too small to work on that basis, but occasionally as above, when there's only a few members of a squad left, they can be worth using in that fashion. Of course had I not had the chance to table my opponent and there'd been a definite next turn I'd probably not have charged in, but with those 3 scions holding an objective I needed to clear them to secure the win.

I'm not sure what bait the good player is putting out there that leads me to deep striking in Scourges where they blow up an insignificant transport (because if it is a significant transport it isn't very good bait) and are in the open to die.

I've played games where I haven't had as prime of a target with Scourges as others and I usually drop them where they will be an annoyance and can flit around and take pot shots. Certainly a horde Ork army isn't going to worry about this, but any army that has 2+ save models, vehicles and etc are still going to have to account for the squad of guys floating around the perimeter. Often, since I use WWPs, this means dropping them in a spot where they are protected for the turn and the Archon can make a run for unoccupied territory to claim Linebreaker.