Enhanced Aethersails

Hello TDC

I'm been playing a series of games vs a Tau player with mixed success and I've noticed a few trends.

Equipping ravagers with night shields to troll battle suits, and throwing a pack of grotesques down Tau throats to force decision making etc
And then I noticed how much of a bargain aethersails are.

Can someone please explain to me why we don't use these more often lol. They seem so good for the extra potential they provides. Sure, you can roll a snake eyes, but that's the risk you run with everything.

I often put them on my vehicles if I have the points, I've had good use out of them every time I've equipped them. They're really useful for getting a close combat squad where you need them, or for a rapid redeployment. I think a lot of the time people are worried about making flimsily armoured open-topped vehicles more expensive because they'll just get blown up, but I've found I get plenty of use out of them before that happens (if it does).

I tend to play Wrack-heavy lists, and Enhanced Aethersails are a godssend. Getting your CC-oriented troops to where they need to be before their transports get downed, stranding them midfield, is a good thing.

And they're only 5pts.

If I wasnt in desperate need of those points I usualy have some Aethersails or raiders with CC units.

They are usefull and cheep and 90% of players dont know what they doing so you can suprice them.

Ehhh this remainds me of our old scaling nets.....good times.

Perhaps with the number of venoms most people field, they simply aren't aware of what this upgrade can do for an army, so even when they include a raider or two, they just skim read over it and decide to save points

I love them. Frankly, they're the only thing that raiders have going for them. They make the raiders so fast that people's eyes bug out. Send a couple up a flank and your opponent will freak out and change his battle plans.

I love them, always put them on my assault unit transports. Getting right in the enemies faces turn one is hilarious and definitely puts them on the back foot.

The reason I have never tried them is the "cannot shoot in the following shooting phase" part. When I think about it though, it could be helpful near the end of a game to move troops quickly to an objective.

I can also see if you have a group of wracks or grots where the troops not shooting isn't bad, but I hate losing a dark lance to miss with.

They are my upgrade of choice on assault raider, that can be kept in reserve. That thing i discover - the later assault unit come into play, the more effective it is. Less AV, more chipped and wounded squad, ability to pick any target you want.

Tau have some saying against this with stupid Interceptor, but this is more or less working.

With no assaulting the turn you come in from reserves, and no shooting, it would seem that you would become a huge sitting duck. The flipside is that I can see a 12 inch move onto the board, then a 2D6 additional move, followed by an 18" flat out move can put you dead in the middle of his formation with a 4+ jink. That a 32-42 inch move-as long as they don't have avoid cover weapons and are not close enough to charge you, it could be a very rude awakening.

I could see it used when not in reserve to completely change the orientation of the enemy. Start out with your forces spread so he has to do the same, then first turn move everything to one place and concentrate on his divided forces.

If only we could disembark after using them....maybe in the new codex.

I am glad I saw this thread.

I could see them used in a shooty army if you need to redeploy on T1, for setting up an attack T2.

As for the shooting limitation I read that as not shooting in the same turn as using EA. So use EA T1, can then shoot T2 or do I have this wrong

That is right, it says no shooting in the same turn...so if you use then in the movement phase, you can't shoot in the shooting phase or disembark. I don't see where it says you cannot tank shock?

You can.

Quote :

With no assaulting the turn you come in from reserves, and no shooting, it would seem that you would become a huge sitting duck.

There are some targets that are sitting ducks regardless. Say Raider with a Grots, if i would be opponent i'd just have to leave it in Deployment Zone. And if you play agressive enough, turn 3-4 is where you cause substationall amount of damage and your big bad raider is suddenly safe.

Enhanced Aethersails work well (coming from someone who foot slogs everything)

If i was willing to throw my coven in transports I'd take them all the time, gets you where you need to be pretty fast.

To me it really depends on why you're bringing them and for what unit.  We can already move 30" base, why the extra?  Hammer and anvil yes, keeping out of range first turn during night fight and using them to make up for lost time, yes.  However, something to be mindful of is your opponent wrapping your vehicles and them assaulting.  Remember there is nothing saying they can't assault first turn, if you leave yourself open for it.  Generally I would rather spend the points on flicker fields or night shields.  But like I said earlier, it depends on what you would use them for.  All in all it's not a horrible choice becuz it definitely opens up your options DURING the game.  I'm thinking while I'm writing lol.  It's not horrible but I would definitely take the necessities first.  And I would never EVER move close enough for my opponent to wrap.

Another little concept I developed was buying a small squad of wracks (typically about 5 would be fine) then giving them a raider which has both aethersails AND a shockprow. I know what you're thinking, "a waste of points for either let alone both"!! Hear me out lol.

As far as I'm aware, troops inside vehicles aren't scoring. They have to be on the ground. So for last turn shenanigans, why not kill your own raider, on the objective, thus claiming it.

The aethersails give you the extra movement to get moving fast enough to ram other tanks that are on objectives. I'm at work so I can't remember if tankshock and ramming is in move or shooting phase for flat out, might anyone confirm one for me? Either way, you're able to hit into a tank with enough speed to possibly damage it OR tankshock their infantry off their objectives, regardless of terrain (skimmers woot) from a ridiculous distance away.

If you ram,

You're armour 10, open top and you moved really quickly, so you're probably gonna get penned. Thus your vehicle has a high chance of exploding, which puts your wracks on the ground. :3 just pass your pinning test and tada, you sir have claimed an objective from a stupidly long distance away on the very last turn.

If you tank shock,

Congratulations on pushing their scoring units off an objective. If your opponent tries to death or glory and succeeds, congratulations, see the comments for ramming since your raider is toast and you have a squad to contest with.

aethersails rock.
if you can deploy out of line of sight somewhere central in your deployment zone, they give you huge reach, easily being able to get into the enemy deployment zone if you so wish, or behind other LOS blocking terrain whilst re-deploying on T1
all my assault squads get AE rather than getting stranded in the midfield

I"m with Azdrubal; put them on on assault raiders. Since using them means I can't even snapshot form the unit on board, I basically treat it as an extra flat-out move (and remember, if you immobilize yourself, you don't crash, because it's not flat out), with the net result of 37" on average. (12 move + 7" sails + 18" flatout). That forces your opponent to have to start making hard choices immediately. Do you attempt to neutralize the ravagers at distance, or the whyches and/or incubi in your face?

Now, it's my strongly held belief that playing DE is about playing your opponent, not the army, so forcing them to make hard choices is a *good* thing.

And all for 5 points.

Hydranix, tank shock/ramming are performed during the movement phase. So you're looking at a hit with S4 to possibly S8 on a perfectly lucky roll (and intervening distance) of 24". Not so awesome, I'm feeling.
Love the idea though, and wracks are definitely the perfect delivery choice!

hydranixx wrote:

If you ram,

You're armour 10, open top and you moved really quickly, so you're probably gonna get penned. Thus your vehicle has a high chance of exploding, which puts your wracks on the ground. :3 just pass your pinning test and tada, you sir have claimed an objective from a stupidly long distance away on the very last turn.

That

is

Genius   

Laughingcarp,
I think you're forgetting the rules which add +1 for each armour value point about 10, and the +1 for being a tank.

An average vehicle (transports particularly as they want to camp objectives) with armour 12 front, like a devilfish, wave serpent or chimera, which will likely face its armour towards us, therefore adds +3 minimum extra strength.

(land raiders add +5 so they're prime targets )

As long as we roll more than 3" for our aethersails, we're hitting ourselves with a minimum of 5 + 3 vs those transports = Str8 = 3+ to penetrate our raider, and if we roll 6" its a 2+ to penetrate. Its even easier if we roll higher or ram vs tougher targets.

For example, if we get 12" + 12" into a land raider, we receive a strength 13 hit and your strength 8 hit on the land raider might even get lucky and take away a hull point.

Of course we are fortunate so many vehicles out there are indeed tougher than us and are tanks too, but the potential is there for any target. If we roll higher for our sails it just gives us more potential and more reach. The biggest limiting factor is that sometimes you aren't far away enough from the target, so you lose a lot of your speed regardless, but imagine pulling off that strength 13 hit I mentioned above against someone in a tournement from across the board to claim victory on a forgotten objective turn 7