FtW Bloggers Group

Friday 15 July 2011

Shockprows? Dark Eldar Anti-Tank

Photobucket

Hi guys,
So, I've been lately thinking about the controversial tactic of consistently ramming vehicles with my shockprow raiders to get damage results. The philosophy is to gain as much momentum and advantage early on in the game (something that imo dark eldar need to do well). You exchange your raider for a sure damage result on most vehicles.

I'm sure many have rammed a raider that lost its dark lance into the side of a rhino or land speeder. I've been lately trying out playing a list that aims to ram its raiders into opposing tanks right on t1.

Baron Santhonyx @ 105pts.

3 Trueborn with 3 blasters @ 81pts.
Venom with 2x cannons and night shields @ 75pts.

3 Trueborn with 3 blasters @ 81pts.
Venom with 2x cannons and night shields @ 75pts.

3 Trueborn with 3 blasters @ 81pts.
Venom with 2x cannons and night shields @ 75pts.

5 Wyches incl. hekatrix with power weapon @ 70pts.
Raider with disintegrator, shockprow and enhanced aethersails @ 70pts.

5 Wyches incl. hekatrix with power weapon @ 70pts.
Raider with disintegrator, shockprow and enhanced aethersails @ 70pts.

5 Wyches incl. hekatrix with power weapon @ 70pts.
Raider with disintegrator, shockprow and enhanced aethersails @ 70pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x cannons, night shields @ 75pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x cannons, night shields @ 75pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x cannons, night shields, grisly trophies @ 80pts.

Ravager with flickerfield @ 115pts.

Ravager with flickerfield @ 115pts.

Ravager with flickerfield @ 115pts.

Total @ 1748pts.

Lets look at the cons of shockprow madness:

  • You are giving away killpoints and vehicles early on
  • You can't have any squads inside (means you have foot units in the army)
Then the pros:
  • Ignores cover
  • Easier to angle side shots
  • str10 means sure results
In my opinion, the cons aren't even that bad. It's great to get some str10 hits into those dreads/predators that are hiding behind cover/other tanks.

Flickerfields would be pretty sweet, but in the end I decided that it wasn't worth it. Shockprows and aethersails are mandatory. aethersails give t1 reach. I went with disintegrators because your raider should be ramming on t1 until it gets wrecked (the str is reduced once your distance is reduced) and in a match where there are no tanks, the disintegrator is probably better.

6 comments:

  1. I'd rather the Dark Lance tbh and not using Shockprows as built-in damage. Shock Prows are a very good upgrade as they allow you tank shock (and with open-topped vehicles this is really important for breaking bubble-wraps and launching assaults) but not as part of your mainstream damage.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's just that a dark lance has very low chances of destroyinh av11 in cover (I think it's like 5.5%), meanwhile shockprows on str10 have a 27% chance. I haven't played enough with the shockprows yet, but I personally have found t1 nuking very nice.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My concern is that the str10 shockprow hit also has a 50% chance of blowing up the raider. I think the shockprow is better for the tank shocking (particularly late game), rather than exchanging 2 destroyed raiders and 1 or 2 damaged ones to kill one 35 pt rhino.

    Rathstar

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thx for the comments. I agree, it is unfortunate that the raider is also most likely gonna be destroyed, but I can say that the games against gk with shockprows have been a lot better then the games without shockprows.

    I always try to hit the most important targets with my raiders. If that is a 35 point rhino so that my venoms get something to shoot at, then so be it. More often it'll be a backfield tank like a dreadnought or predator.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just some help here... A raider can move 12' then 18' for flat out, then 2d6 for sails, at max that is 42' which would be a 14 str hit, add in the shock prows you could get +3 hit for 17str right? i may be wrong and thats why im checking here

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well, this post was written in 5th ed.. Tank Shocking (and ramming) is done in the movement phase so the ove would be 12" + 2d6. Haven't checked the DE FAQ lately so am assuming you can add the aethersails to it. Also, str can never be over 10 :/

    ReplyDelete

This blog is in no way affiliated with Games Workshop. Any and all Intellectual Property contained on this blog is used without licensed permission from Games Workshop, no harm intended.