Hey guys Cavalier here, commission painter for Frontline Gaming and co-host of Splintermind the Dark Eldar podcast. With the seeming demise of Eldar Corsairs as an army, lets look at some alternative uses for those cool models!
With the Index Xenos being released over 2 years ago, hope that the Index was a prelude to a new Imperial Armor 11 with army rules has all but died. The final nail in the coffin was when the last of the Corsair kits vanished without a warning a few months back from the FW site.
While the unit remains valid to play, they are very expensive, prevent you from getting command benefits in any detachment they feature in, do not fill up troop slots even though they are troops and can no longer be fielded as a standalone army.
Having an entire army of these guys I’m desperate to use them. Yet I’m not using them at that points cost and with all the other restrictions in place. So what to do?
Well in 7th edition as I built the army up, I used my various Skyreaver squads (and Jetbike units) as counts-as Asuryani and Drukhari units. Lets go back to that well 1 more time!
Here are my most recommended uses for Skyreavers!
#1 Scourges
Scourge are a unit I really like. They are a super cheap unit, they are versatile, effective, efficient. Scourge: 12 per model, unit with 4x Blasters: 128pts, Lances: 140, Haywire: 92, Heat Lances: 108, Shredders 92. I like these guys as a dirty work unit, that you can deepstrike into trouble areas you dont want to send your more valuable units into and root out either infantry, vehicles or to help strip off a few wounds on a Knight with their haywire.
Having a battalion of guys with catapults and flamers (gotta love those FW level expensive Storm Guardian reinforcements lol) I plan on using at least 2 squads for Scourge. I already had a unit with Lances from the old Balestrike Squad, but Blasters are the build you really want so I’m focusing on them now, most likely Haywire down the road.
#2 Swooping Hawks
Another fantastic dirty work option that can go in there and deluge units like Mortars with lots of lasblaster fire, or great support for clearing hordes. They are also great for scoring tough to reach objectives. These guys have had a great run for 2 editions now and probably will continue to do so, since so many T3 horde type units have been introduced into the game.
#3 Warp Spiders
While mine will most likely be used as Shredder Scourge, I did use these guys as Warp Spiders last edition. Warp Spiders are in a pretty bad place right now. Their guns are too close-range and too fickle for my tastes. All of these units are kinda suicide squads. I’d rather throw my Blaster Scourge at vehicles, Swooping Hawks at T3 infantry with confidence they’ll do something based either on volume of fire with Hawks or great AP and high damage output with the Scourge.
They might seem a bit odd as a proxy, but I used modified Shredders (which are mono filament weapons like the Warp Spiders own guns) and they are jump infantry, and Corsairs had a Void Hardended armor option for better armor saves so I thought it worked, but you might want to check with your TO if you are going to a tourney.
Anyway thats it for now guys. Hope I gave Corsair players a new route to take their now super rare Eldar units. Let me know any ideas you may have as well! If you are interested in more Aeldari discussion check out our podcast: Splintermind for exclusive Drukharii and all things Aeldari news and discussion. If you are interested in following my painting exploits check me out on Instagram! Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
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