Keeping the Quad Fusion Commander Alive [40k 8th Edition - Tau]

Priorties for 8th Edition

With the release of 8th Edition, all my armies would need work, so in an effort to get armies up to spec as quickly as possible I decided to concentrate on my two favorite factions, which also happen to be my largest, so Dark Elder and Tau it is.

[Tau Commander Progression, from the 1st I bought 10 years ago when I started Tau, to my 7th edition Tau Commander and current Commander that I've only just finished, above is a WIP shot]

I thought my Tau would need more work than my Dark Elder, so oddly I decided to concentrate on getting my Tau redone for 8th first, including getting it fully painted, while I assembled the few extra models for my Dark Eldar so I could play them at my local club.  My decision was also driven by the fact that I had quite a few Tau models I wanted to finish painting including one of the new commanders, a forgeworld commander, some XV9s, and an idea I had for converted Vespids (as they don't suck this edition).

[Isn't there a weapon that is good at all targets ?]

The Right Tool for the Right Task

The biggest change in 8th, in my opinion is that you had to diversify the weapon types you used. No longer would a multiple shot mid strength weapon cover most of the targets in the game.  Against infantry they would wound most targets on 3's rather than 2's, most monstrous creatures had doubled or tripled in wounds, and vehicles tripled to quadrupled their hull points into wounds, plus gained a save.

One of the odd weaknesses of Tau is their long range anti tank. While Marines can spam lascannons and missile launchers quite efficiently, both predators with 4 lascannon shots and 5 devastators with 4 lascannons are under 200 points (190 & 165 respectively). Tau Railguns and Heavy Rail rifles are on much more expensive platforms for how many shots they get (chepest Hammerhead & Broadside are 171 & 165 points respectively).  Missile Pods are nice, but the poor AP modifier and D3 wounds means that it can strip a few wounds off vehicles but will struggle to do much to tough vehicles.

The best Tau answer to vehicles and monstrous creatures is fusion (melta) weaponry, having the same hitting power of a single shot from a heavy railrifle (less the chance of extra mortal wounds) with more reliable damage within 9" (rolling two D6's and picking the highest). Being the most efficient fusion platform; the Quad Fusion Commander, a Commander equipped with 4 fusion guns, was born. The QFC has a number of advantages over the other fusion platforms:

• BS 2+ makes the Commander a very points efficient choice
• The ability to carry, and shot them all at the same time, 4 fusion guns is 33% more than crisis suits can carry, and the same number of fusion shots (on average) as Ghostkeels and XV9 with Fusion Cascades.
• Being a character the commander can't be attacked in the shooting phase unless he is the closest target, barring other special rules such as Snipers.
• The commander can deploy in manta strike, so it can't be targeted until it deploys on the battle, hopefully within range of a juicy target

When combined with protection drones provide these advantages have seen people spam commanders, however while they are as tough as a space marine character on a bike (toughness 5, 6 wounds, 3+ save) that is not hard to get rid off if they are focused on.  It doesn't matter how efficient a unit is if it only gets to fire once before dying.

A perfect example is when I played a 1000 point game against Guard.  I identified the opponents Vanquisher as a key threat to Longstrike.  First turn my QFC manta striked 18" away from the tank, which was about 12" away from the Guard front lines, and after Longstrike fired the QFC finished off the tank.  However Pask in a Punisher tank (old rules so only 20 shots) made the QFC a red smear on the battlefield.  My QFC managed to kill half a Leman Russ before being removed, not the best return, even if Longstrike had a much easier game without the Vanquisher around.

So lets look at the ways to keep the QFC alive longer

Ablative Wounds

The obvious solution is to take ablative wounds, ie. drones.  You could use crisis bodyguards but drones does the job so much more efficiently.  The only issue we have is that a commander can only bring two drones.  You can take multiple commanders and they can all share the protection from all the drones, but that's still not many drones for how many points they are protecting.

You can deepstrike on mass with Crisis suits near the commanders.  Crisis suits can bring 2 drones per member of the squad, so it you have 2 commanders and a unit of three Crisis suits you could have 10 drones for protection.  Now were getting somewhere, but 10 drones aren't that hard to destroy, so there's one more option for heavy deepstrike, and that is to use Forgeworld XV9 Hazard Suits.  They can bring 4 drones per unit (I'm almost sure that this is a typo and should be 2 drones per squad member, but we have to work with the actual wording in the Index).  Luckily the XV9s can come in units of 1, so if we have 2 commanders and 3 monat (single model) units of XV9 Hazard Suits we can have 16 drones.  Not only will the 16 drones protect the commanders, but the enemy also has to kill (and most likely overkill) the individial XV9 Hazard suits.

As well as deepstriking with the commanders, you can have infiltrating units already in range which can have their own drones.  Both Ghostkeels and Stealth suits can infiltrate and bring their own drones to protect the commanders.  The Ghstkeels and Stealths suits are also great units to screen the commanders as their negative modifiers to hit make them harder to take out before the enemy can even target the commanders.

Being More Conservative

Rather than opting for the first easy target for the commanders to deepstrike against you can be more conservative and wait for a better position where their commander is less likely to die the following turn.  There are a couple of good options to help you deepstrike more conservatively while still getting a first turn hit against a good target.

Deepstriking behind advancing friendly infantry can allow the commander to still hit target units in your opponent's deployment zone while being safe for reprisal as he can't be targeted unless he's the closest target.  Tau have some good units for this.  Kroot and Pathfinders get a free 7" move before the game begins (and key, after the roll for the seize the initiative).  If they use this free 7" move combined with  7" move plus D6" advance on the 1st turn they can be 29-34" up the board, with the usual 24" gap between armies on deployment this 2-7" from the edge of their deployment zone, plenty of space to deepstrike behind them and hit something deep into the enemy's deployment zone with 18" range fusion guns.

If going 2nd you won't be able to be so aggressive with the pre game move, but a few inches move forwards into cover can help.

Kroot Hounds are another good unit to do this tactic with as they have a fast 12" move, so can be at the centre of the board (before the extra D6" advance move) still allowing commanders to deepstrike behind and fire into the front edge of the enemy's deployment zone.

Lastly Fast Attack slot Drone squads can also advance to give additional ablative wounds to the ones deepstriking with the commanders.  A decent advance roll will see the drones on the half way line, plus they have the advantage over other infantry in that they only have to be within 3" of the commander to offer protection rather than having to be in front of the commander, like kroot or kroot hounds.  Again this can be used to shoot fusion guns into the opponents deployment zone without being as risky as going it alone.


Another further tactic is building your list to be ready for going 2nd.  If you can build your list to be resilient to enemy firepower, eg. key expensive units protected by drones, having lots of units so it is easy to out-deploy the enemy with units that are expensive and can't be shielded by drones (eg. Stormsurges and Hammerheads) placing them in areas where they will face less enemy firepower (line of sight blocking terrain and/or out of the enemy's range).  In this scenario you have less need to kill the devastator type units straight away, and can focus on the fast moving enemy elements as your army moves up as a whole.  This gets you board control (especially good in maelstrom games).


Well that's my main tips on keeping the crucial Quad Fusion Commanders alive to keep killing the enemy armour and monstrous creatures as long as possible.  Let me know what you think of these tips, and how you keep your Tau Commanders alive.

Rathstar

PS. Next blog post will be an review of the models I've painted up for my Tau force since 8th hit, and the units that I'm still using, and the units that are moth balled until at least the codex comes out:

[My current non-forgeworld army list I'm using]

The Dawn of a New Era & A Last Tournament Send off [Dark Eldar]

The Dark Eldar codex is released tomorrow, any many of the rules have already been leaked on the web by peopel who already have their copy.


The Current

I will be picking up my copy of the new codex in the morning, but for the moment my thoughts are still with the old codex as I have a tournament next week that I am going to take my Dark Eldar to.  Also tournaments seem to be the best thing that motivates me to paint up new units.

One unit that's been on my thoughts is Grotesques.  The main reason was to have another option to combat vehicles.  Vehicles seem to be getting harder and harder to shoot down, when you consider the softer damage table, jinking and the availability of cover.  It was just seeming that unless you were Tau with markelights to remove cover and boost BS it took an inordinate amount of firepower to kill vehicles.  Then I considered close combat.

Dark Eldar already have easy access to haywire grenades (it'll be a shame to lose that in the new codex), and to support them Grotesques could add a good volume of high strength attacks (Str6 on the charge with an accompanying Haemonculus giving them Furious Charge).  A unit of 3 would throw out 12 attacks which should do 4 hull points on average to a vehicle with a back armour of 10.

Oddly enough the new codex will not give Grotesques Furious Charge till later in the game making them worse against vehicles, however the addition of Flesh Gauntlets (and the rumoured close combat weapon in addition to the Flesh Gauntlet giving them an addition attack in close combat) makes them better against non-vehicles.

Here's my converted Grotesques ready for undercoating:

Next week will my first and last time using Grotesques with their current rules, and the same for Hellions.  The tournament I'm going to has no strict comp, however in addition to the 9 tournament points available for winning the 3 games there are a bonus point for each of two critera below:

• If there are no duplicated units outside the Troops selection
• If you do not have a 2nd Non-Troop selection unless you have at least one selection from each of the Non-Troop selection, and you do not have a 3rd Non-Troop selection unless you have at least 2 selections for each of the Non-Troop selections.

With these 2 points worth more than a draw in a game I've designed my army to meet these critera, and the give me the opportunity to try out units I haven't tried before in preparation for the new codex (ie. Grotesques & Hellions).

Below is my draft list, let me know what you think ?  Also let me know how you deal with multiple tanks ? Now before I show you my list I want to give the sorbering thought of how many Dark Lance / Blaster shots it takes to strip the hull points from common vehicles (ie. ignoring the small chance to roll a 6 on the damamge chart to explode a vehicle):

AV11 in the open: 6.75
AV12+ in the open: 9
AV12+ with 4+ Cover (eg. Jinking or behind Ruins): 18
Eldar or Tau Skimmers Jinking with Holofields/Disruption Pods: 27
(yes 3 Ravagers firing for 3 turns to kill one jinking skimmer with a 3+ cover save)

I will pack as many as possible Dark Light weapons in my army, but there needs to be other answers, and I think this may be one of the big challenges of the new codex.

Anyway onto my list for the tournment:

Baron - 105
Haemonculus with Venom Blade - 55

3 Trueborn with 2 Splinte Cannons - 56
Venom with 2nd Splinter Cannon - 65
3 Grotesques - 105
Raider - 60

9 Wyches with Haywire Grenades - 108
Raider - 60
9 Wracks - 90
Raider - 60
5 Wyches with Haywire Grenades - 60
Venom with 2nd Splinter Cannon - 65

5 Wyches with Haywire Grenades - 60
Venom with 2nd Splinter Cannon - 65

3 Wracks - 30

Venom with 2nd Splinter Cannon - 65

10 Hellions including Helliarch with Agoniser - 185

Beastmaster Pack - 186

   consisting of 3 Packmasters, 10 Krymera, 2 Razorwing Flocks

Ravager (3 Lances) - 105

Voidraven Bomber with Void Lances & 2 Shatterfield Missiles - 165

Total: 1750 Points (73 models)


The Future

From the rumours of the new codex I know this list will change significantly.  The lack of haywire grenades will mean that I will have to cram as much anti tank into the list as possible. So the 2nd Ravager will come back.  The Voidraven will lose it's missiles, but will probably be supported by a Razorwing Jetfighter in Fast Attack.  The Splinterborn will change to Blasterborn.  The small wyches and wrack squads will disappear, to be replaced probably by warriors.  The beasts and hellions which both get worse in the new book (Hellion's Helglaive no longer gives +1 attack) so they are both up for the chop.

The rumours give some nice ideas, eg. a character with the armour that gives -2 ld, with the artifact that forces a ld test at -2 on nearby units causng wounds for each point they failed the test.  Combine this with an allied Spirit Seer and the Webwy portal which allows deepstrike without scattering.  Such things could be good, but I will need a full read of the codex and the total points costs to see if it is viable.

How will your army change ?

Rathstar

Troops in 7th Edition incl. Maelstrom Missions - Spare a thought for the little guy

[Disclaimer:  I will only be looking from the view point of Battleforged armies, as I believe Unbound is designed (and intended) to be used for fluffy narratives playing between gaming buddies or perspecially organised events, and NOT pick-up games]

Hi,

By the time this is posted 7th edition will be with us, and this will lead to changes in the way troops are valued and are used.

The biggest change is that all units can score.  This used be the domain of infantry based troop units, from the small and cowardly Inquisitoral Acoyltes and Eldar Jetbike units which would stay in reserve and pop out to dash to an objective late game to the in your face Dark Angel and Grey Knight Terminators who would smash through an enemy army to sit on a opponents objective.

So to stop a lot of armies just taking 2 troop units Troops do get the following new rule:

So if an objective is held by say a Space Marine assault squad, if they have left a gap for for a model to get within 3" of the objective a troop unit can swoop in and not just contest but secure the objective.  Eldar Jetbikes with their great speed will be perfect for this.

Close combat troop units are also good at this, because rather than clearing an enemy off an objective you could assault with a troop unit.  Rather than have to wait for the enemy unit to be completely wiped out, you'll probably be able to secure the objective (get within 3" via end of combat phase consolidations) the turn you charge.  You could secure the objective while being safe from shooting reprisals by being locked in combat - Orks, Wyches & Blood Angel Assault Marines rejoice :)

These tactics are particularly useful in Maelstrom missions, where tactical objectives are scored as soon as you complete them. Therefore the quicker you complete the tactical objectives the more tactical objectives (and therefore scoring potential) you get.

Below is an example of 2 Maelstrom missions:

Most of the tactical objectives are around controlling one or more objectives (most are controlling one object for 1 Victory point, while some ask you to hold multiple or more than your opponent to all for various Victory Points ranging from D3 to 3+D3).

Having a cheap troop that can quickly secure an objective and score the Victory points will be very useful

Lastly it appears (I will have to have a full read of the rulebook to be sure there is nothing disallowing it, but the screenshot below from the rulebook says that dedicated transports bought for troop choices count as troop choices in all respect:

This is huge, and increases the usefulness of dedicated transports.  A Wave Serpent (not just the 5 Dire Avengers inside) would now be scoring.  Dark Eldar Venoms & Raiders bought for troop wyches, wracks & wariors are now scoring.  For armies with good efficient transports for their troops slots it now doubles the number of Objective Secured units they can have.


Winners and Losers

So with these changes there will be winners and losers in the troops slot.  So lets look at my 2 main armies and see how their troops get on.

Tau:

[My 1750 Pts Tau Army in action last weekend at ASMOH '14]

Fire Warriors and Kroot are not fast units, and while they have a durable transport, I normally conclude that I'd rather have a 2nd unit of Fire Warriors rather than a single unit in a devilfish.

There are army styles where the majority of the army is fire warriors in devilfish for a mounted mobile cadre, but in most armies Fire Warriors in the main are seen on foot.

Fire Warriors and Kroot are also not that durable.  If they move up to capture an objective when an enemy is next to it they are likely to die the following turn, and they are not so cheap to expendible such as 3 Jetbikes, 3 Wracks, 10 basic guardmen.  Tau had this issue in 6th edition, normally they would have to clear an objective and the area around it before they claimed it.  In 7th edition it might as well be one of the tougher more mobile troops that does the capturing for distant objectives.

Kroot and Fire Warriors will still be good for capturing and defending objectives close to the Tau lines, so you won't suddenly see them disappear, but they will reduce in number I forsee, compared to the more mobile and firepower units (eg. crisis suits).


Dark Eldar

Dark Eldar have reasonably priced dedicated transports, which if bought for troop units can now score.  Wyches can secure an objective while in combat with a non-troop unit on an objective.  Units of 3 wracks can be sacrificed to get an objective, so that the rest of the army can move on to winning the next tactical objective (maybe next turn their transport does the sacrificing).

I'm going to try out my Dark Eldar list unchanged for a while to see how it goes, with no reduction is the number or size of the troop choices.  They are all good on their own merit and add something to the army, so having the Objective Secured ability is icing on the cake.


It's an interesting time for 40k with new tactics required and the composition of armies chaging to adapt to the new rules.  It will be a fun time trying to figure out new army builds that work as well as our existing 6th edition lists.


How will your troop choices change ?  Are they winners or losers ?

Next up I want to talk about objective placement, particularly in Maelstrom of War missions.

Rathstar

Dark Eldar Voidraven - Part Eight - Completed Pic and Musings on it's Use

Hi,

Browsing through my old posts I noticed that I didn't put a final pic of my Voidraven Bomber.  You can see my blog posts going over the conversion in 7 steps here.

The last pic I showed was before my first game at the MAD tournament last year:

However here's a better pic from the A Small Matter of Honour tournament from last year:

Musings on the Voidraven

Since the Voidraven was complete I have never played a Dark Eldar game without it.  Even though that it partially due to the fact that I really like the model, I wouldn't use it in so many games if I didn't think it added to my army.

Why haven't you taken a Ravager ?

When taking Dark Eldar heavy support choices you have to ask yourself the above question.  I would even go as far as to advise most people that they would have to consider a change of army list, or ensure they catered from a weakness in early game long range anti-tank firepower elsewhere in their army list, if they did not include at least 2 Ravagers in any games at 1500 points or more.

So saying this why should you pay 45 points more than a ravager (or 65 points in the configuration I use) to use the Voidraven.

1) The Voidraven is the most resilient vehicle the Dark Eldar have access to - still fragile, but tough by Dark Eldar standards :).  Unlike the Ravager it isn't open topped, and if the opponent does not have access to skyfire, or you kill their skyfire quickly (Quad guns die to splinter cannons as easy as 2 marines) then it is hard to hit (needing snap shots).

2) The Voidraven is fast, with a move of up to 36" it can target far off enemy units which the rest of the army might struggle to get to (particularly if it is later in the game when most of the Dark Eldar transports have been destroyed).  The height of the flying stand also helps to get line of sight against enemy units trying to hide.  An example being a small marine unit huddled behind 1.5" high wall (which blocks line of sight to the rest of your army) praying the game will end asap so they can claim an objective they're sitting near; the Voidraven's increased height will allow it to see the marines and can it let rip with lances and, if purchased, missiles.

3) It can me made dual purpose for a turn or two with the additions of missiles, I prefer using 2 shatterfield missiles, but the basic monoscythe missiles are also good (for the better AP5 to kill light infantry).  Most targets are already wounded on 2+, so the poison missile is pretty meh, and the implosion missile is expensive, situational and only a small blast.

4) The scare factor; mentioning str9 lances on a platform that can move 36" in a turn can make some opponents worry too unnecessarily about the Voidraven, and without skyfire it will take them the same firepower that could kill 3-4 venoms or raiders to kill the Voidraven :)

5) The Void Mine can be a nasty surprise, it may not do much most games, but a str9 ap2 lance small blast has killed vehicles for me.  If you're forced to fly off the board the Void Mine can be useful to do some damage as you fly off.

6) Outside of fortifications and allies the Voidraven is our best anti air unit.  Even having 1 Voidraven can threaten fliers, and distract them for a turn or two while the rest of your army concentrates of wiping out the enemy's ground troops.

7) By combining the fact that the Voidraven comes on from reserves, can move very fast (up to 36"), and by coming on at oblique angles means the Voidraven is very good at getting side armour shots the first time it fires.  A Ravager can struggle to get side armour shots against a good opponent, and Wyches have to survive the enemy firepower and sometimes take up to turn 3 to slap haywire grenades on a tank, so if a Voidraven can get side armour shots with str9 guns it can really help get rid of enemy vehicles early; assuming it doesn't stay in reserve for too long.


Why not take more fliers ?

I have tried this.  I took a Razorwing Jetfighter, Voidraven Bomber and a Quad gun in the same list to a tournament and in a few test games.  It was nice in some games ruling the skies, taking out the enemies anti-air quickly so my fliers were slightly less fragile than usual.

However by it's nature Dark Eldar are an alpha strike and glass cannon type army (particularly the way I play with them).  Although you can mitigate this, my taking more resilient wracks and going MSU (multiple small units) so the enemy has to kill multiple squads before really affecting your firepower, you will rarely win a war of attrition.

This leads to a problem with fliers - they don't start on the board turn 1.  Having both a Razorwing & Voidraven off the board meant that for at least 1 or 2 enemy shooting phases I had over 300 points off the board. This impacted the army too greatly, especially combined with the issue caused by using a Quad Gun.

Quad guns are great, and the Defense line it comes is also great...in some armies.  For the Dark Eldar I found it hampered one of their best advantages, speed and unpredictability.  Putting down a defence line and quad gun meant that before the enemy deployed s/he knew exactly where at least 2 small units of wracks were likely to be, in line of sight (rather than hiding on a hidden objective) that would probably be supported nearby by other units to ensure the guad gun was not overrun (one game I had to kill by own quad gun because it was overrun by traitor guard and choas space marines and was about to be used against my own flyer).

The Quad gun led to a more stand off and shoot attrition game which did not suit my Dark Eldar.  I much prefer the enemy having no idea how my army will deploy, and having the flexibility to completely switch their area of focus turn to turn to keep the enemy guessing.


So why a Voidraven over the Razorwing Jetfiighter

The Razorwing comes with 4 missiles for the same cost as a stock Voidraven before adding any missiles.  Iconically this makes the Razorwing Jetfighter the better Infantry Ground Attack vehicle (particular with the option for swapping the lances for disintegrators and having a nose mounted splinter cannon) while the Voidraven (with it's better lances) is the best best at taking out vehicles.

With anti infantry poison weapons through out the rest of the Dark Eldar army, the Razorwing Jetfighter more of the same of what I already had, while having some of the flier benefits mentioned above.

However having the stronger anti vehicular guns (in most cases 2 Void Lances is comparable to 3 Dark Lances) I didn't feel as bad not taking a Ravager as the 3rd heavy support slot.  Also the Voidraven was clearly the best tool against other flyers which was a concern, particularly if I was not taking allies (to get access to a Crimson Hunter) or a Quad gun.


So in Conclusion

The Voidraven helps with anti air, is very fast allowing it to target distant enemy targets, and it's missiles (for a turn or two) let it turn into a good anti horde unit, and if they pack too close even marines and terminators can find themselves having to make a good number of saves on top of the the two str9 lance shots the Voidraven has as it's main armament. To me it's Ravager+, and well worth the extra 65 points over a 3rd Ravager in my army list.

Mine for one will keep flying :)


What the future holds

Well 7th edition is released in less than 24 hours, and one change that helps the hard Dark Eldar heavy support choice is that all armies can ally with themselves*, so if you aren't using Eldar allies you can take Dark Eldar allies to fit in a 4th heavy support choice.  I'm tempted to have both 3 Ravagers and my Voidraven.


Let me know in the comments below, what your experience has been with the Dark Eldar fliers, and what you think of their anti-air capabilites.

Rathstar


* In 7th edition you can also have as many primary detachments as you want, but I'm sure that this will be restricted in any tournament, as the result can be become pretty ridiculous pretty quick, as the guys at the Sons of Sanguinius blog explain.

Where is the meta now ?

Hi,

The meta is changing so rapidly now that the codex releases are so much faster than before.  I'm particularly feeling this as I paint so slow.  One thing I can do is look at the army composition at big (and competitive) tournaments to see where things are going.  Another tip is listening to tournament report podcasts.

Anyway this weekend is the Mayhem tournament in Tolworth (London) which just posted the make-up of the armies attending on Facebook.  I haven't been for a few years, but the tournament is pretty competitive, and is the type of competitive tournament I will hopefully work my way up to playing during 2014.  Here's the make-up of their tournament from their Facebook post:

"Mayhem Tournament
All the army lists are in (bar 2) and a well represented array of armies
9 Eldar (both varieties)
8 Daemons
8 Necron
6 Tau (both varieties)
4 IG
3 Space Wolves
3 Blood Angel
2 Space Marine
2 CSM
2 Grey Knight
1 Ork
1 Tyranid
1 Dark Angel
1 Dark Eldar

21 of you decided to take Allies with Space Marines being most popular (5) followed by Guard (4) Space wolves and CSM (both 3)"


With all tournament army spreads it has to be taken with a pinch of salt, and any army should be given a +2/-2 margin of error.  However I guess none of us are surprised by the top 4 armies, particular the rise in Eldar now the codex has been out for a while.  I expect the next big rise to be marines, as people paint up bikes and the new anti air tanks.

You are still likely to face a lot of MEQ it's just spread between the codexs (11 Imperial MEQ, plus 2 more CSM), and as said this will only rise when marines increase in popularity.

An interesting point is that there are more CSM allies than there are CSM primary detachments, and I bet the helldrake is likely to be in all the CSM allies and feature heavily in the CSM primary detachments.

As one of my main armies rises in popularity (Tau) the other sinks towards the bottom (Dark Eldar).  Dark Eldar really stuggle against both Tau & Eldar, and the general trend towards multiple shot mid strength weaponry to strip hull points, because while they are good to strip hull points from regular vehicles these weapons murder Dark Eldar vehicles.  On the plus side opponents will be less likely to be ready to face the speed of the Dark Eldar (let alone the fearsome early shooting they can put out against an unprepared opponent).  A more common occurrence will be that Dark Eldar are underestimated, helping the Dark Eldar hopefully punch above their weight.

What do you think of where the meta is moving to at the moment.  Does your army have the tools to deal with top lists while still being balanced enough to take on other lists ?

Rathstar

Mind the Gap (Space Marine Allies)

Hi,

The new Space Marine book is out, and while it’s definitely an improvement, time will tell if the new lists people are coming up with are enough to make a Pure Space Marine army competitive.

Perfect for filling multiple Gaps ?

However one of the biggest things that they bring to the meta are perfect allies.  Space Marines seem to have good units in every slot, and have units that are good at particular aspects of the game, eg. tough troops, flyers, anti-air, anti-tank etc.  Not only that but there is normaly multiple units across different force organisation slots that can perform the same task (eg, Stalker in Heavy Support & Storm Talon in Fast Attack).  This makes them very good for filling the gaps in other armies.  This is magnified by Chapter Tactics which allows you to pick the Chapter tactics which benefits the gap you are trying to fill.

Lets take a look at my armies; both Space Wolves and Tau can ally with Space Marines as Battle Brothers.  One of the big weaknesses of Space Wolves is their anti air.  Now the Space Marines can bring some brilliant anti air in the form of either a Stalker or a Hunter, plus a Storm Talon.  When combined with a Quad gun it gives a Space Wolves chance to compete against multiple flyers a bit easier.

No more huddled in cover from flyers at the end of the game for Wolves ?

Space Marines bring some nice firepower when used with the Imperial Fists Chapter Tactic, which allows shots with Bolter Weapons (excluding Sternguard special ammo) to reroll 1’s to hit and give Devastators and Centurion Devastators Tank Hunters.  For 144 points you can have 6 Devastators with 4 Missile Launchers, which should contribute 2 HPs against Wave Serpents (before cover saves) a turn.  Now this is not quite  as good as MissileSides or Deathrains (dual missile crisis suits), but is good if you gave run out of Heavy Support slots, as Hammerheads, Skyrays & Riptides all compete for the same slots as Broadsides and Deathrains.  It also allows you to spread your long range anti tank across another unit, making it harder for the enemy to eliminate all of your long range anti tank quickly.

Tau lack an in your face distraction unit that will distract the enemy from advancing towards the Tau.  Basic marines in a drop pod, can be a great distraction that doesn't break the bank.  A full tactical squad with Heavy Bolter, Flamer and Combi-flamer in a Pod is only 200 pts, and if played right can be a thorn that is hard to get rid of that demands the enemies attention.  In some games the distraction and the damage they can do coming down turn 1 can win the game there and then, by giving the Tau elements the extra breathing space they need to decimate the enemy.

Another unit to distract and get in the face of the enemy fast is Space Marine bikes, which got cheaper, access to multiple Grav weapons (which are great on relentless platforms) and can still be made troops.  Again picking the right Chapter Tactics (in this case White Scars) can make these allies even better at their job.

Normally Chapter Tactics will make some of a pure marine army better (sometimes the majority of the list if it is built well, but that risks making the list unbalanced), however when picking only a few units to plug a gap you can choose units which will all benefit from the Chapter Tactics you are picking, as you are not picking a balanced Take All Comers force, but only units to fill a specific requirement.

Overall Space Marines add a lot to the game, before you even consider the new units (eg. my Riptides will target Devastator Centurions with Grav Cannons with extreme and excessive prejudice !!).  Whether they can really affect the top armies will take a bit of time to see.  The next tournament I am going to will be allowing the new codex, so it will be interesting to see the effect they have.

How do you think Marines will change the meta ?  Are you tempted to use them as allies ?  Do they add enough as allies to take points away from the main detachment (and in the case of Tau using the excellent Farsight Enclaves supplement) ?

Rathstar

PS. It’s been a while since my last post, but I’m hoping that after my hiatus things will get back to a more regular posting schedule.  Upcoming post will include:
• How my Space Wolves from my last post (here) got on, and my learnings
• How my Dark Eldar have got on over the year, including a one-day tournament win
• My experiences facing Eldar and in particular the Wraithknight & Wave Serpents
• And finally my Tau, which I am busy expanding so they can attend their first tournament in a couple of years.  As a tease my list has no rail weapons, no pathfinders, no plasma and no gun or shield drones (all stables in my previous lists).

A Razorwing and a Box of Bits...

Hi,

The Starsmash tournament has been and gone. My view of how 6th edition is changing the tournament scene is much improved (further explaination and how I got on at Starsmash will follow in a later post).  For now I will say that while some things worked, such using haywire grenades to allow me to reduce my dark lances for more anti infantry worked up to a point, my list and tactics need more work.

First things first, and for my Dark Eldar that is anti air. There is really only two options, take more aircraft myself and take a defence line or bastion with an emplaced gun. So I have options my next modelling project is to build both.

While the Razorwing is a great anti infantry tool with 4 missiles, and in many of my games it was the MVP, I believe it's time to bring out it's big brother; the Voidraven. Better armour, higher strength lances, a void mine for the turn you fly off the board, while still being able to take missiles.  I could just take the Voidraven without missiles keeping the same cost as the Razorwing, but I'm going to add 2 Shatterfield missiles.

Converting a Voidraven from a Razorwing is nothing new, and both the Dark City and Dakka Dakka forums have good guides. I will be attempting the 4 engine variety, englaged tail fin, and extended nose incorporating a jetbike canopy. WIP pics will follow as I progress.

My fragile troops could do with some more cover as they advance up the field (no point having loads of haywire grenades if you can never make it accross the field), especially now that vehicle explosions are so lethal (in 5th a pentrating hit that destroyed a raider/venom would sometimes do nothing but force a pinning test, and otherwise only give a str3 hit, now a lascannon needs a 4+ on the pen chart to not only blow the vehicle up, same as before, but now puts a str4 hit on all the squisy occupants).  Therefore my second little addition will be a defense line with a quad gun. My quad gun will be an anti grav platform made from a hellion skyboard with 4 lances, finished off with reaver jetbike blades on the base.

I have about 5 or 6 weeks before my next tournament, which is also a more relaxed tournament, perfect for trying out new stuff. I hoping to both the Voidraven and Quad gun assembled reasonably quickly so I can get some playtesting games with them.

Have you had experiences with the Voidraven ? What's the best set-up ? What problems have you seen Dark Eldar have in the transition to 6th edition, and what's the best way forward ?

Rathstar

Razorwing Jetfighter Loadout

Hi,

While browsing the Dark City forum I came across a question on the best Razorwing loadout.  After writing an answer including my thoughts on why I'd picked each piece of wargear I'd thought I'd repost it here to see if it could be of use to others and spark some discussion on people's experiences with the Razorwing:

Forum Aswer:

Unless you have loads of anti tank I think the best load out is:

2 Dark Lances
Twin-linked Splinter Rifles
4 Monoscythe Missiles
Flickerfield

My reasoning being:

Lances: You've already given up the slot that is normally filled by a ravager that is on the board turn one, so unless you list is filled with anti tank I'd take the lances.  However 6th edition has given us an improved way to kill vehicles in the form of haywire grenades.  If you have multiple wych squads and multiple trueborn sqyads with haywire you may feel that you can sacrifice the lances for disintegrators (I still wouldn't recommend the splinter cannon upgrade, as I'll explain next).

[Another good point Serin (see comments) raises is that if going after infantry the AP2 of the disintegrators does not mesh well with the missiles preferred target, so AP2 firepower is better left to dedicated units, eg. raiders with disintegratirs, trueborn with blasters etc.]

Splinter Rifles over Cannon:  In 5th edition I would have considered the splinter cannon, particularly if complimented by disintegrators, however zooming flyers can only fire 4 weapons a turn, and can only fire 2 missile a turn.  Therefore if you come on turn 2 you will probably fire the 2 wing mounted weapons and 2 missiles.  If you don't zoom off the board you will probably fire the same weapons again turn 3.  Therefore the earliest that you will fire the splinter cannon is turn 4, however that is unlikely, as you will probably have lost a turn either by not turning up till turn 3 or zooming off the board for a turn.  I think it's likely that you won't fire the splinter cannon till turn 5.  I just don't think the splinter cannon is worth it for how often it will be fired in addition to the wing mounted weapons.  The splinter cannon may be fired earlier, eg. a weapon gets blown off by damage, or you are firing at a target that it would be better than one of the wing mounted weapons, but how often this will happen does not warrarent spending the points when they could be spent better elsewhere.

Monoscythe Missiles:  These cost nothing extra while the tempting shatterfield missiles cost 10 pts each.  Ignoring other upgrades consider a razorwing upgraded with 4 shatterfield missiles is 185 pts, while a Void Raven with 4 shatterfield missiles is also 185 pts.  There is the issue that we don't have a Void Raven model, but I would advise against upgrading the missiles as 10 pts per shot is too much for the small increase in efficiency.  Not to mention the Ap5 of the monoscythe means it's better against a number of non-MEQ targets.  If you have 20 pts spare I can see adding two shatterfield missiles, but once a Void Raven model is available I would never use shatterfields on razorwings - if you can afford the 20 pts to have 2 shatterfield missiles on a razorwing you can probably find 20 more points to have a Void Raven with 4 shatterfield missiles.

[Correction (thanks Serin): A razorwing only pays 5 pts to upgrade the missiles, however I'd advise taking more than 2 as the monoscythe is better against a number of foes due to it's AP5.  With 6th edition there is a case that the str7 is better against vehicles, but unless opponents surround their vehicles with infantry you are wasting alot of anti infantry firepower for a small chance of an extra hull point damage]

Flickerfield:  A nice cheap upgrade that will allow the razorwing to take a 5+ save against hits without diving, and having significantly reduced shooting efficiency the following turn.

As with most DE units keeping it cheap (155 pts or the basic 145 pts if you forgo the flickerfield) is the best way forward.  Well that's my opinion, but everyone's opinion is formed by their own experiences, so let me know what you've found to work.

Rathstar

PS. A link to the original forum post is here, and if you collect Dark Eldar and if you do not visit The Dark City forum I would highly recommend it.

An Option to Fill the Gaps - Dark Eldar in 6th

With my first games of 6th edition I'm beginning to see gaps in the Dark Eldar arsenal, so I'm going to quickly explore what I think those gaps are and a possible solution.  I say possible because with all weaknessess one option is to not cater for it, and concentrate on your strengths.

So lets explore those weakness:

Pyschic Powers

While in 5th edition the lack of psykers (and psychic defense) was not much of an issue, but now some of the powers are downright game changing. Examples include being able to fire overwatch at full BS; our poor wyches didn't like overwatch to start with, but this wouldn't leave many wyches to make combat. Another example is a version of the Tyranid's Doom power to do wounds equal to 3D6 less the target leadership.

One option is to keep a good range away from enemy psykers, as most powers are quite short ranged, while trying to kill the psyker from shooting.  However this may prove differcult with most psykers being independent characters so they can Look Out Sir any wounds away on a 2+, plus most have easy access to options to increase their speed from hopping a ride with another unit in a transport to having wings or jump packs themselves.

Mid Strength Firepower

With the new Hull Points rules mid strength firepower seems to be coming to the fore.  Riflemen (double twin linked autocannon dreadnaughts) were already popular, and now with Hull Points a lot of the time it is easier to kill vehicles by stripping away their hull points rather than exploding them.  In this edition lots of mid strength shooting (best done by autocannons, assault cannons, psycannons, scatter lasers etc) are the most efficient at doing this.

Dark Eldar however can not move with the new meta because we don't have these types of weapons.  We have the single shot dark lance/blaster/heat lance, or multiple shot anti infantry guns (splinter cannons, splinter pods etc.) that can not affect vehicles at all.  The disintegrator cannon at str 5 is just too low to use against vehicles.

[Going to Ground - Dark Eldar don't survive like they used to]

Troop Units Resilient to Shooting

With multiple objectives being used more of the time having troops which can sit on a objective late in the game and be hard to shoot off is nice to have.  Again Dark Eldar with their glass cannon nature are not too good at this.  With lots of terrain reduced to a 5+ cover save, and Feel No Pain also reduced to 5+ sometimes it hard to keep an objective that was won earlier in the game.

I used to use small units of 3 wracks to came on from reserve, but will they still be able to hold objectives, when they have gone from 4+ cover with 4+ Feel No Pain to 5+ and 5+.  Also these wracks played no part in the battle and contributed nothing to killing the enemy.

The Solution ?

Well there don't seem to be any easy solution within the Dark Eldar codex, so my suggestion is to turn to allies.  Dark Eldar only really have the option of Eldar, as all the rest require tests to see if you're too suspicious of your ally to concentrate on the battle each turn.

Now a lot of people say the Eldar codex is a bit dated, needs an update, and is not competitive enough (nothing I totally disagree with), but when allowed to cherry pick some units to fill certain gaps I think they have some good options.

When picking allies there's two ways to go about it; either build your whole army list around the fact that it's going to be a joint force, or (as in this case) only picking certain units to fill strategic needs.  On this second methodology I believe the points spent on the allies should be kept to a minimum to stop them taking away the focus the main list has.

With this in mind lets look at psychic defense.  Eldrad gives the psychic defence we need, but also alot of offensive powe with 3 usable powers a turn, the option of using the new 6th edition powers and a staff that wounds on 2+ disallowing armour saves.  However at 210 points, maybe we can get away with a cheaper farseer.  Note: This gets rid of the need to figure out how to ensure I get the best use of all of Eldrad power (something I would do if I was designing an Dark Eldar/Eldar joint force from scratch).  If I take one of the  cheap 20 point powers (to immediate switch for a Diviniation power, as the basic power is Guide with double the range), add on Runes of Warding for the psychic defence and I've only spent 90 pts.

Next lets look at the mid strength shooting, well nothing does it better than war walkers.  They may be even more fragile at only 2 hull points each, but the fire output with scatter lasers is nasty, 8 shots each for 60 pts.  However with the increase in fragility I'm thinking it may better to go with the cheaper dual shuriken cannon option.  Each war walker is now a bargain 40 pts each, and I can have 3 for the cost of 2 with dual scatter lasers.

Although the shuriken cannon war walkers have the turn 1 (and maybe turn 2) issues with range, they keep their firepower longer due to having more models.  After suffering 2 hull points the 120 points of scatter laser war walkers have lost half their power down to 8 shots a turn, while the shuriken cannon war walkers have lost a third going down to 12 shots a turn.  There is the case that I could go for 3 scatter laser war walkers, but then the points start to get high (180 pts for all 3).  A quick note: Vipers were considered as they can take dual shuriken cannons (at 65 pts per Viper).  Although they are faster and therefore better able to make better use of short ranged weapons they pay for this being over 50% more expensive, are open-topped and can't outflank.

Lastly lets look at what troops I can take to make my allies detachment legal.  Guardians are very poor unless you take a large squad with a platform (and even then their medicore), and they wouldn't compliment the rest of the Dark Eldar army.  Dire Avengers are similar as without an expensive transport they are a bit weak.  Jetbikes are an option; they can be as cheap as 66 pts (for 3), and like the my small wrack units they can always start in reserve.  However I'd then have a problem with where to put the Farseer, unless I buy him/her a Jetbike and start the jetbikes troop unit on the board making the joint unit of farseer and jetbikes a fast but small and fragile unit.  Finally we have rangers (or pathfinders), they add something new to the army with sniper rifles.  Their precision strikes are great for kill special and heavy weapons, and can be used to threaten characters who could easily fail their 4+ Look Out Sir roll.  To keep it cheap lets just take 5 rangers and see what we have.

The suggested allies detachment comes in at a tidy 305 pts, not excessive, but large enough to cover the bases.  It will need some cutting to fit them into a 1750 force.  Going through my current list I have lost 4 Trueborn with 4 Blasters on a Venom (with dual Splinter cannons), plus 5 wyches with haywire grenades on a Venom (again with dual splinter cannons), and to make the last few points a krymera was lost.  That's a lot of anti infantry firepower lost with 24 poison shots from the 2 venoms, and then anti tank is reduced with less blasters and less haywire.  The war walkers should be able to pick up some of that, plus the farseer and rangers add to the tool box the army can draw upon.



After all this I'm not going use this as an excuse to start an Eldar army, so I'll be modelling and painting up my Eldar additions to be Harliquins (using a simular colour palette to my existing army).  I'll convert the rangers from warriors with the necron sniper rifles (who can avoid an excuse to use those lovely sniper weapons). The Farseer will be a Shadow Seer character, and I'll add spikes and blades to the war walkers.  It should be a nice project, even if I eventually decide to stay pure Dark Eldar, plus they'd always be ready in case I want to move up to playing 2000 pts games.

Lets discuss whether this adequately fills the Dark Eldar gaps ?  Do you agree the gaps need fixing/filling, or are there other gaps that are more important ?  Will the new Eldar units synergise with the Dark Eldar army well, or do they seem out of place with the style of the existing Dark Eldar army ?

Here's the complete army list with the Eldar additions.  Do the Eldar additions add more to the army than the Blasterborn, Haywire Wyches & 2 Venoms they replaced ?

Baron Sathonyx - 105

Haemonculus Nalix Soulseer - 60
  with Liquifier Gun

Farseer - 90
  Runes of Warding, Divination Power Prescience (a double ranged Guide)

4 Trueborn with 4 Blasters - 108
  in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

4 Trueborn with 4 Blasters - 108
  in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

9 Wracks - 90
  in Raider with Disintegrator - 60

9 Wyches with Haywire grenades - 123
  including Hekatrix with Venom Blade
  in Raider with Disintegrator - 60

5 Eldar Rangers - 95

3 Wracks - 30

3 Wracks - 30

4 Beastmasters - 186
  with 4 Krymerae and 6 Razorwing Flocks

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Razorwing Jetfighter - 145
  with 2 Dark Lances, 4 Monoscythe Missiles

3 War Walkers - 120
  with Dual Shuriken Cannons

Total: 1750 Pts, 64 Models, 19 Units, 5 Scoring Units

 
Rathstar

WIP Baron Going For A Test Run

With the changes to Beasts movement and the challenge rules I have decided to try out the Baron running with my Beastmaster pack. He solves so many of their issues; leadership, grenades, plus he gives them the usual buffs of stealth and someone to accept challenges, as well as the usual +1 on the roll off for 1st turn.

Here's a pic of my WIP Baron conversion who will be leading my forces this afternoon. His weapon is made from 2 power swords and the middle section of a hellglaive and the skyboard has been enlarged with raider keel blades. I've ordered some reaver fins to add to the model and I'll add some more decoration (skulls/blades) to the skyboard.

 By the way I recently noticed that Beastmasters are characters so they can accept challenges from enemy characters to limit them to +1 combat res, allowing the beasts to rip the rest of the enemy unit to bits.


After half a dozen small games of 6th edition, I be getting experience of normal sized games, and I'm looking forward to seeing how my Dark Eldar translate to the new rules.

Rathstar

Haywire - An 80's boy band, or a solution to tanks ?

Hi,


Sorry to disappoint any readers flocking to see a witty exposé on the merit's a 80's boy bands and the timelessness of their hairstyles, and while I like an occassional trip down memory lane and a rewatching of Lost Boys, this post is about the changes to Haywire in 6th edition and why it'll be making an entry in my lists going forwards.




My Issues with Haywire in 5th Edition


1) If you wanted any realistic chance of doing more than shaking a vehicle you had to roll a 6 for the effect of the haywire weapon to give you a penetrating hit
2) The biggest anti tank issues I had was stopping a moving transport with assault troops on board (once they were on the ground I could use my manoveability to run rings around them).  A vehicle moving more then 6" was 6's to hit in close combat
3) Another one of my bugbears was dealing with dreadnaughts as needing 6's to hit in combat with grenades meant that there was little chance of killing it in combat


With the changes in 6th edition all these issues have gone away.  Only needing 3's to hit moving vehicles, means that you get 4 times as many hits as trying to hit a vehicle moving full speed in 5th edition.  Also the fact that a glancing blow is anywhere from a quarter to half a vehicle dead means it doesn't take too many attacks to kill a vehicle.  Grenades hitting normally in combat against dreadnaughts means that a squad of wyches should kill a dreadnaught for the loss of one wych.


One final minor benefit of haywire is that you are more likely to wreak a vehicle rather than cause it to explode; very usful if you are near it with DE fragile troops for example, plus it can give you cover the following turn..




Haywire - The Options

Dark Eldar - Haywire Grenades:  These will allow wych units to easily kill any vehicle they charge.  Also because multi-charging doesn't reduce the number of attacks the wyches get, they are perfect for multicharging vehicles.  A full wych squad should be able to easily kill 3 vehicles, and has a good chance of finishing off 3 weakened vehicles.  At a measily 20 points for a full squad it's a bargain for the reliability it can kill tanks.  Plus the increased ability to kill vehicles in combat will take pressure off the shooting anti tank and the possibility of rubber lance syndrome causing a big issue.

Dark Eldar - Haywire Blasters: Available to Taloi and Scourges.  Scourges normally compete with Reavers with Heat Lances.  Reavers in 5th edition were the better all round option, being faster, able to move backwards in the assault phase after shooting heat lances at short range, and better able to make use of cover.  None of this has changed in 6th edition, but the haywire blaster being so good at stripping hull points gives Scourges with Haywire Blasters a good advange over the reavers in the anti tank arena, being the ability to operate at range.  Also although weaker the scourges can be in squads of 5 and still have 2 special weapons.  Reavers still have many advantages such as their slashing attack and the fact they are much better in combat (a Hammer of Wrath impact hit, plus 3 attacks on the charge), but if taken just for their anti tank the Scourges are now in contention for a place in peoples list.

[Talos Picture courtesy of Warseer's Tale of 40k Painters, click here to see the full thread]

The Talos could take either the Haywire Blaster or Blaster as shooting options.  The Haywire Blaster was usual taken for suppression fire as the Talos advanced, now being able to take the final hull point of weakened vehicles could see the Haywire Blaster taken more.  However I think the Talos' main strength is combat, so I would rather go with a cheap weapon as a backup (such as a splinter cannon) and then take chain-flails and an additional close combat weapon.  Running the Talos each turn to get it into combat would be better and mean your army is attacking more at the same time rather than bit by bit.

Necrons - Harbringer of the Storm: These guys come with a Voltic Staff, and come in 10 pts cheaper than the popular Harbringer of Destruction.  Their weapon has only 12" range, but has a good chance of killing any 3 hull point vehicle on the initial shot, as it fires 4 haywire shots.  It's high rate of fire also makes it good against infantry after tanks are gone.  My biggest issues is it's short range, particularly as basic infantry can assault up to 18" in 6th edition.  However the addition of a Lightning Field (D6 Str 8 Ap- hits on any unti charging the cryptek's unit) could deter some units.


I'll probably try out Harbringers of the Storm in my two large units of Immortals, as they are more likely to survive a charge if it comes to it, plus they tend to move forwards more that the small squads of warriors I have..


However Necrons anti tank got a huge boost in 6th edition, as they have a number of units that can charge tanks (Overlords charging on their Barges which are now chariots, Warscythe wielding characters, Wraiths, Scarabs), plus Guass weapons already can glance anything.  Therefore whether my necrons need the addition of short ranged tank killing will be something I'll be looking at carefully.


I think Haywire is one of the gems of 6th edition, and improves the Dark Eldar anti tank, meaning I may be able to rduce the amount of anti tank I have elsewhere in the list, as I think there will be a slight shift from anti tank to anti infantry in 6th edition.


In my Dark Eldar list to experiment with Haywire in 6th Edition, I'm going to swap Reavers Jetbikes (which I still think are a good unit) for Scourges with Haywire Blasters.  With the lower unit size requirement to get two special weapons it allows me to give the squad of 9 wyches haywire grenades (my new 6th edition practice list at the bottom of this post).


What do you think of Haywire, will it change your lists ?  Have you had experience using Haywire in your early 6th edition games, how did they do ?


Rathstar 






6th Edition Dark Eldar Haywire Try-out List:

Haemonculus Nalix Soulseer - 65

  with Venom Blade & Liquifier Gun

4 Trueborn with 4 Blasters - 108

  in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

4 Trueborn with 4 Blasters - 108

  in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

4 Trueborn with 4 Blasters - 108

  in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

10 Wracks with 2 Liquifier Guns - 120

  in Raider with Disintegrator - 60

9 Wyches with Haywire grenades - 123

  including Hekatrix with Venom Blade

  in Raider with Disintegrator - 60

3 Wracks - 30

  in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

3 Wracks - 30

4 Beastmasters - 198

  accompanied by 5 Krymerae and 6 Razorwing Flocks

5 Scourges with 2 Haywire Blasters - 130

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Razorwing Jetfighter - 145

  with 2 Dark Lances, twin-linked Spinter Rifle & 4 Monoscythe missiles

Total: 1750 Pts, 19 Kill Points

NB: Lance weapons reduced to by 4 to 21 (and it's more concentrated, in 7 rather than 10 places), offset by Haywire inclusion.  Anti Infantry increased with the inclusion of 2 Disintegrators, 3^rd Liquifier gun, and Scourge Shard Carbines.