Tantalus and/or Reaper in Cults

So, one of the issues I've always had with pure Wych Cult armies is the lack of high-strength firepower - yes, there are Reavers and Raiders, but I'm not sure they're enough on their own.

So I've been looking at the Reaper and Tantalus, and am becoming very tempted - especially with the Reaper's Beam profile for the Storm Vortex Projector (D6 Dark Lance shots? Yes please!) - and I'm curious to hear your thoughts on these two units, particularly in Wych Cult lists.

(I have searched this section of the forum for previous discussions on the subject, but the most recent one I found was based on the (ancient) Imperial Armour books - so I'm keen to hear what you think of them regarding their new profiles/points costs in the Imperial Armour Compendium)

They're both too expensive for what they do, although I quite like the Reaper with Dark Technomancers.

The Reaper was quite strong at the start of 9th, when dark lances hadn't received the damage boost yet. They were especially good with either Dark Creed or Dark Technomancers. The former, to snipe characters with brutal efficiency, the latter because wounding T7 on 2+ is nasty. They're still solid in Dark Technomancer, but the amount of self-damage they inflict has gone up. Hard to justify 30 points more than a Ravager.

Glass Battleaxe wrote:

So, one of the issues I've always had with pure Wych Cult armies is the lack of high-strength firepower - yes, there are Reavers and Raiders, but I'm not sure they're enough on their own.

Bear in mind aircraft can be Wych Cults, too. The Razorwing's in a weird spot but the Voidraven seems to have some play, especially with how the bomb has changed.

sekac wrote:

They're still solid in Dark Technomancer, but the amount of self-damage they inflict has gone up. Hard to justify 30 points more than a Ravager.

Remember though that the Reaper is a single weapon firing multiple shots so it's only 1d3 mortal wounds, no matter how many 1's you roll to hit. The Ravager would need to roll each weapon separately, taking damage if any weapon rolls any 1's.

Just put a kabal ravager in your cult detachment. Sure, the ravagers won't have obsession, but they aren't THAT useful on ravagers.

Count Adhemar wrote:

sekac wrote:

They're still solid in Dark Technomancer, but the amount of self-damage they inflict has gone up. Hard to justify 30 points more than a Ravager.

Remember though that the Reaper is a single weapon firing multiple shots so it's only 1d3 mortal wounds, no matter how many 1's you roll to hit. The Ravager would need to roll each weapon separately, taking damage if any weapon rolls any 1's.

Oh good call! I had initially read it that they take D3 MWs per 1 they roll, not D3 per weapon that rolls one or more 1s. Much better than I thought. I might bring the reapers out of retirement for my next tournament...

dumpeal wrote:

Just put a kabal ravager in your cult detachment. Sure, the ravagers won't have obsession, but they aren't THAT useful on ravagers.

This.