Are Solarites worth the Leadership Boost?

Hey All,

I'm going to be running 2 units of 5 Scourges, and I was wondering if you all felt it was worth the 10 points to gain 1 leadership for the squad. Do you think the squad should have no Solarite, as they will die fast once they come to your opponents attention?

Thanks!

Dez

I tend to believe, that barring getting him for wargear purposes, there's little value to the Solarite.

Let's be honest, by the time you're making the roll with a unit of 5 - you've already lost 2-3 guys. If you have special weapons in the squad - then you've had to debate putting wounds on them, or the Solarite. The only purpose of the SOlarite in a 5 man squad is to...protect the special weapons via a better leadership. So, by the time you're taking leadership, either he's dead or one of the weapons you bought him to save is dead because you wanted to protect the Ld. Meh.

That's what I was thinking in a squad so small, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking anything.

Thanks Thor665!

I take him for the blast pistol...and really only the blast pistol

I am just sticking together my second box of scourges and i am thinking the same thing. The first box got the two haywire and so what to give the second box ??? i think i am going for heat lances as i have had a good time with the ones on my reavers. I was therefore thinking about a solarite with a blast pistol.

This is my thinking, the heatlance scourges have a greater suicide element to them, i could even deep strike them so would having the blast pistol be worth it. I mean then at least i could up the odds of making sure i kill what i aim at and so there sacrifice isnt in vain if i all goes pete tong???

Actually, IMO, Heat Lance Scourges are somewhat less suicidal than Reavers since if you feel lucky or have no tanks to shoot at, the Scourges are optimal staying @ 18" whereas the Reavers need to get to 12" to get a good shooting phase off vs. Infantry. On the Anti-Tank account, both are pushing it getting into 9" and then the Reavers have a slight edge with being able to go back out to 15" but, has anyone got this distance down in their head yet? lol

Thor665 wrote:

I tend to believe, that barring getting him for wargear purposes, there's little value to the Solarite.

Let's be honest, by the time you're making the roll with a unit of 5 - you've already lost 2-3 guys. If you have special weapons in the squad - then you've had to debate putting wounds on them, or the Solarite. The only purpose of the SOlarite in a 5 man squad is to...protect the special weapons via a better leadership. So, by the time you're taking leadership, either he's dead or one of the weapons you bought him to save is dead because you wanted to protect the Ld. Meh.

Excatly - unless you're taking scourges for melee purposes (not exactly the most optimal configuration although i have tried it in 3rd edition) then he's a bit useless.

howardmonsoonmoon wrote:

I am just sticking together my second box of scourges and i am thinking the same thing. The first box got the two haywire and so what to give the second box ??? i think i am going for heat lances as i have had a good time with the ones on my reavers. I was therefore thinking about a solarite with a blast pistol.

If you've got a Talos box, use the haywire blasters from that, converting them to use the haywire barrel, and the body of one of the other heavy weapons. It's what I plan to do.

edit: just realised that if you've got a second box, you've got more haywire blasters. Disregard this comment...

Smurfy wrote:

Actually, IMO, Heat Lance Scourges are somewhat less suicidal than Reavers since if you feel lucky or have no tanks to shoot at, the Scourges are optimal staying @ 18" whereas the Reavers need to get to 12" to get a good shooting phase off vs. Infantry.

This would make sense if the Reavers weren't Eldar Jetbikes.

Um it still makes sense seeing as you only get 6 shots @ 18" with 6 Reavers (4 (4x1 shots) Rifles, 2 Heat Lances) whereas you get 11 (3 (3x3 shots) Carbines, 2 Heat Lances) with 5 Scourges? Equal points would put the Scourges clearly ahead with 4 (4x3 shots) Carbines and 2 Heat Lances...

I think Raneth's point is that, as eldar jetbikes, if Reavers shoot from 18" then they end up 24" away - also, they can shoot at 12" and end up 18"

I remember the time I ran a solarite in my large scourge squad, they got shot at the first turn, took casualties and had to take a morale check. I remember thinking, "haha! that is the reason for taking one". I then preceded to roll thinking thank god I had a solarite and then rolled a "10".

I dunno, when I fail a check it isn't usually by just 1 point - after that I never took a solarite again using small squads and just letting the basic stats alone. Solarite, no thank you.

I too suffer from Boxcaritis when taking leadership tests. I mixed on taking the Solarite. In a ten man unit I would take one every time. In a five man unit I would if there really wasn't anywhere to blow the 10 points on. (not that I ever have ten points to blow!)