Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Farseer Fail's Wishdex, part 5: Heavy Support

On to the Heavy Support slots. There are a lot of these, and mostly they are good choices. Mostly...


Dark Reapers
I loves me some dark reapers! The bane of smurfs near and far! They finally got an armor upgrade in the 4th edition codex (a fact most people seem to have overlooked), and their exarchs have access to some mean and nasty options. The only change I would recommend is giving the exarch access to the Dire Avenger exarch Bladestorm ability.

HA HA HA! No, I'm kidding. That would be way over the top. No changes.

Falcon 
BS 3 sucks. Make it BS 4 like the Fire Prism and Night Spinner OR upgrade the pulse laser to something scary, like S9 Lance. OR hey what about letting us use them in squadrons? I have five falcons. I never use them. 'Nuff said.

Fire Prism
The favored child. A higher BS than the Falcon with a blast weapon carrying two optional firing modes AND the ability to link up with another Fire Prism for +1 to Strength and AP. It also has a greater range than any of the other Eldar weapons. I'm tempted to ask for the ability to run these in squadrons, but my inner sense of game balance says no.

Night Spinner
I really like the Night Spinner. The Doomweaver is a fun, interesting weapon and above all it is different. I have three Fire Prisms that have been magnetized so that I can run them with as prisms OR spinners.

Earlier this year I ran three Night Spinners in a tournament, hoping to use them to blob up big sections of the board and slow down approaching enemies; it didn't go so well. Without being able to run these in squadrons, there's no way to cover enough of the board to bog down a massive attack force. That being said, I wouldn't change anything! Bringing one of these is a big win!

Support Weapon Battery
... these things really suck. Two guardians attached to a semi-mobile gun platform whose weapons seem more problematic for the Eldar than their enemies.

D-cannons are wonderful, but their short range, lousy BS and thus their scatter ability make them hazardous to use. BS 4 please, or the ability to twin-link their shots when run in units of more than 1.

Vibrocannons I just, I uh ... I just don't know what to do with these. They are a goofy weapon, and like the Doomweaver they are different and thus fun. No changes!

The Shadow Weaver profile should simply change to match that of the Doomweaver, small blast or large.


War Walker Squadrons
No changes

Wraithlord
Other than dropping wraithsight, no changes.

7 comments:

  1. I am glad you did this article, I have been playing my Fire Prism as BS4 all this time! What an idiot. Now there is even more reason for me to keep my Shuriken Cannon upgrades!:)

    Cheers mate

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  2. Even getting confused now lol, I mean BS3!

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  3. s'ok. I sometimes find myself abiding by some 3rd or 4th edition rule. It happens!

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  4. Night spinners only BS3 tho (which i think you know, but your 'falcon' section says it's 4).

    p.s. Your really like dark reapers? At 200+ points for a 5 man unit with exarch and powers? They're scandalously priced.

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  5. You're right about the Night Spinners; my mistake. I tend to think about them as BS 4 because they came out of the same box as the prism.

    I like dark reapers, but I don't use them much. They are too vulnerable in 5th edition unless you can drop them in good cover. Even then your opponent will expend a great deal of effort trying to knock them out.

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  6. I would like to see more weapon options on the Dark Reapers and just a touch cheaper. You can pick the weapon on the Exarch and I think you should be able to give all of them EML's. Also I think the Exarch's powers should effect the squad just like the other Aspect Warrior Exarch powers do.

    I couldn't agree more with the BS4 on the vehicles. I would like to see Falcons have more weapon options, perhaps all three guns upgradable? 3 lances, or 3 scatter lasers, etc

    I'd like to take the stupid twin link rule off of the wraithlords, give it WS5, and 2(3) attacks,

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  7. They are overpriced for what they can realistically expect to accomplish in a game, true, but the fact that the reaper launcher has the potential to wipe out an ENTIRE tactical squad each turn - even if only in theory - is going to keep their cost high.

    The problem is one of keeping them alive, and I'm not sure how you can do that without breaking them.

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