Eldar Allies: Craftworlders or Corsairs?

im curious what others think would be best to take as allies to DE, craftworld eldar or FW corsair eldar? im leaning more in the corsair direction, personally.

craftworld eldar do give access to psychic powers and great psychic defense, but may have trouble keeping up with DE and matching the playstyle.

corsairs seem to match the DE playstyle a bit more. most of the units are fast, even the basic troops choice can be made into jet pack infantry, as well as has a basic gun that is twice the range of most CWE basic guns. and to make it better, the prince has a power that can be used to cause night fighting for a turn, and we all know that DE benefit from night fighting. granted, corsairs dont give us access to RoWa, but is that really needed when you can usually stay out of range of most powers?

In my opinion, corsairs are more about theme and cool looking models, plus a few neat tricks and an extra flyer, and craftworld are about semi-power gaming with the use of psychic powers.

If you want an awesome looking addition to your army, plus being more thematic, and calling in orbital strikes, go corsairs.

If you want to fill in the few gaps we have in our codex, i.e. dedicated snipers and psychic powers, go craftworld.

Just my 2 cents.

your 2 cents are appreciated, i shall add them to the jar

and it just occurred to me that this should be in general discussion, not tactics. could have sworn thats where i put it in the first place. would a mod please move this?

My two cents:
I play Corsairs and Craftworlders. While I am yet to use them as allies with my DE, I can share a few (hopefully useful) thoughts that might help.
Craftworlders give you a solid choice for your HQ option. The Farseer is useful for the reasons mentioned above. For troops you can bring in the cheap GJB squad, Rangers, even Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent aren't bad. I've never been a fan of Eldar FA slots, but the heavies do bring nice and cheap War Walkers. My local meta doesn't really have enough psychic shenanigans to warrant bringing the Farseer. Most of the net lists including the allied Farseer seem to be overreactions to what people think that they MIGHT run into. For the most part I have been able to neutralize psychic threats using just DE. I don't like using allies for the simple reason that in an effort to "fill holes" in your codex, you take less of what makes your army awesome to begin with.

Corsairs bring more of what DE are good at to the table while adding some great bonuses.
HQ
The Prince allows you to take a decent melee addition while adding the awesome barrage attack. Night fight, ST9 AP2 Lance 5" blast, OR a 6"+d6 St $ attack? Use it once, and you will be hooked.

Elites
I don't take any of the Corsair Elites in my Corsair army, no reason to take them as allies.

Troops:
This is where Corsairs complement what DE already do well. You can add a 5 man squad with a fusion gun, SC, in a Venom with a Scatter Laser for 125 points. That unit is gold. You can mount that unit in a Falcon instead (remember, Corsair vehicles are BS4). You can use the great "shoot n' scoot" jetpack unit to stay in your backfield and take potshots with missile launchers while holding an objective. The Corsair Jetbike squads also give you a much needed flanking unit(Scouts). They beat the hell out of GJB squads with BS4 for only 3 points more per model. I don't own any of the Wasp Walkers, but I see nothing wrong(outside of not being able to afford the models ) with taking them, though I prefer to max out my scoring troop units.

Fast:
Nightwing. Period. Once you have played with a Razorwing, you will appreciate how awesome Vector Dancer is. ALL of the weapons on the Nightwing are useful for taking down the majority of flyers that you will run into. (No splinter cannons)
The Hornet is also awesome, though I would stick with the Nightwing given that you only get one choice.

Heavy:
I don't take any heavies in my Corsair army and wouldn't give a thought to adding them to my DE.

Add that to the jar?

haha, yes, to the jar.

thats why i was thinking corsairs would be better to use as allies. they match the DE playstyle, and they add stuff that really benefits them other than psychic powers/defense. DE did well without powers and defense before, so why is it so important to have them now?

im hoping to get some corsairs as allies eventuallly, but i have yet to complete my DE army. still need 1 reaver, 2 raiders, and 2 ravagers (selling my nurgle army if anyone is interested).

Oops, I should have really mentioned these when breaking down the Heavy Support slots:

These are 125pts of AWESOME

and probably cost around that much in USD >_<

hivey wrote:

and probably cost around that much in USD >_<

Exactly why I haven't ordered 3 of them

ESE hit all the major points here. Just going to add a couple observations of my own.

Corsair prince is great because he can take a shimmershield, making a unit like Grots, Wracks, or Hellions much better because of the invuln save in CC.

Wasp Walkers require you to have another troop, so while they could be nice, it's too much of an investment in allies I'd think.

Nightwing is what our Raven should be, I really cannot see putting one in any time you can.

Heavy: You have the bombers which can add another flyer element, and they put out a ton of fire. The upgrade for missiles that ignore cover are really nice.
The Warphunter is definitely one of my favorites, it looks menacing, and is actually twice as nasty as it looks. Tank mounted D-cannon FTW.

Hmm... Nightwing practically looks the same as Razorwing. Maybe I should convert one up, seeing how the FW model is quite pricey (though very pretty), and made of resin, which, I fear, will give a new dimension to my already fragile vehicles.

Corsairs, the forge world models are brill.

I'm trying to decide between craftworld and corsair allies as well, and I have 2 more questions:

1) Are you allowed to use Corsairs allies in a GW store? They're Forgeworld only, and I'd rather not spend the money on them only to find out they're worthless in the only place I would be playing them.

2) Which FW book has Corsair rules?

Im thinking of taking some allies in my list to, which will be CE as i like a few of the models to paint plus the fact i discovered my classic Harlequin models in a box last night & i love the idea of them bring an alliance together for the good of the Eldar race.

Spitfire wrote:

I'm trying to decide between craftworld and corsair allies as well, and I have 2 more questions:

1) Are you allowed to use Corsairs allies in a GW store? They're Forgeworld only, and I'd rather not spend the money on them only to find out they're worthless in the only place I would be playing them.

2) Which FW book has Corsair rules?

1. I would ask your local store.
2. Imperial Armor 11

1. A GW store should not and really can not refuse to allow you to play with Forgeworld Models... They are a subsidiary of GW. Although there might be people who dont like to play against forgeworld (I have ran into a few). It is still nice to ask...

I asked the GW store, they say they're fine with it but I should make sure my opponent is ok with it as well before playing.

I'll use Eldar allies for the time being and add the Hornet and Warp Hunter to my wish list.

CWE have Farseers and jetbikes or rangers as troop choises (well, Guardians and Avengers as well, but they're not very good), while the Corsairs can trigger nightfighting for a turn and have better jetbikes and Warrior-equivalents with jetpacks as troops (and Wasps, but you must have one Corsair unit as troops to get them). CWE have better elites (tho Corsairs can take one CWE elite or FA choise as elites), while the FA and HS choise are pretty similar assuming Forgeworld units are allowed for both armies (if not, then Corsairs are better). I'd probably go with Craftworld Eldar since Farseers are very useful, and if FW stuff is allowed Craftworld version of the Warphunter is better than the Corsair version (unlike a lot of CWE vehicles it also has bs4, and for some reason it glance anything on 2+ while the Corsair variant glances on 3+).