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What usually works better, running them with extra hand weapons or with repeater handbows?
Cant decide how to equip mine lol

Repeater handbows.
both units needs support to stay alive, yet repeater can do more damage before getting killed xD

It depends on what you intend to do with them, and what you are facing.

Big blocks tend to do better AHW. Small harrassing units work well with RHB.

Neither do well against T4+ targets unless boosted with magic/cauldron support.

I was thinking about running them in a unit of 30 with 6 per rank and 5 ranks

Extra weapon and frenzy, supported by a fighting character, or shooting on the flank, with a plan for swift reform.

I run a block of 24 (5 wide) with handbows and full command. They hold the flank pretty well, and if something tries to slip past them, they get peppered.
Swift reform to 12 wide, 5" move to close range, and then 50 shots (4 from unit champ), followed by 50 more on the stand and fire. You're looking at 20 wounding hits vs T3 opponents.
If an opponent gets close enough to you, you can do the same thing moving forward.

Why 24 in a 5x5 movement tray? Room for assassin. Or maybe not. Keeps my opponents guessing.


The advantage of the 2nd hand weapon and frenzy is that the extra killing power is generating combat res. A block of 30 could go into horde formation, and dish out 35 to 50 attacks to the front.

-Matt

You'd be better off planning to run them 3x10 really in my opinion.

I've tried them both ways, and there are some really nice synergies with handbows- for example, you walk as close as you can to an enemy unit (at least make sure the second rank is in range), then cast The Withering on the enemy unit. You shoot them with 40 shots, then in their turn they really have to charge you- and you get to shoot them with another 40 shots at the reduced toughness, and you then have a load of attacks against them- and they have to spend their magic phase getting rid of The Withering. You can do the same with Soulblight, but less well.

However, my problem with this is that it's a little too much work for something a little too cute- for this to work, you have to be at the furthest 13" away with your second rank, which is basically going to be 12" from the front. If you want to get The Withering off, you'll need to use all 6 dice (unless you're playing without a cap on DE casting dice, which is just silly). So, from exactly the same position, you can go for a charge where you'll need to roll a 7 (at the worst) and Mindrazor the Corsairs, which will do infinitely more damage if you connect. Even if you don't get in, you can still Mindrazor the Corsairs so that your opponent simply cannot charge you most of the time.

Handbows are a nice idea, but there just a little too cute for my liking. There's no denying their effectiveness, but I'd rather go with the much more reliable option which is Corsairs with 3 attacks. It is a sad state of affairs, but tbh there are very few plans in Warhammer that are either better or more reliable than multi-attack infantry with re-rolls and core...

Those handbows only have an 8in range. 1 or 2 shots and its cc time. I say ahw.

To be honest, huge units of spearmen do much of the same as 2 weapon corsairs. With the banner of murder (Armor piercing), warriors and corsairs kill at the same rate, in large enough units.
Since they die at the same speed (both WS4 T3 5+ sv), and warriors are cheaper, if you're going BIG, you're better off with warriors. The only downside to warriors is painting up the block of 60 is a paint in the butt.

So what does the price of a warrior have to do how to equip corsairs?
If warriors are a better melee option (in BIG units), then I'd arm my corsairs with handbows.


-Matt

TCWarRoom wrote:Those handbows only have an 8in range. 1 or 2 shots and its cc time. I say ahw.

Thats true and also not true. Dark Elves are high mobility, high int, high attack number. For every handbow unit that gets charged,
you should have 2 units ready to counter charge at the flanks.

Thanks for everyones help on the matter. After reviewing everything i think i'll give them handbows, plus they seem like fun too