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Can the S. Scorpions Exarch use both the Biting Blade and Scorpion's Fist at once? If not, which would you recommend?

No, you can only use 1 Special CCW at once.

As for what one to use, I'll leave that to people who play Fruity Space Elves, as I play Manly Space Vikings!

Thanks.

What would you recommend?

Biting Blade. Scorpion's Claw is super nice for MEQs and vehicles but it throws away your lovely initiative.

does what you're attacking have an armour save 4+(or better)? is so Scorpion's Claw.

or

does what you're attacking have an armour save 5+(or worse)? If so Biting Blade.

70-80% of the time i would rather just have a Scorpion's Claw and scorpion chain sword but if you've 5pts to spare go mad.

Assuming you are going to take the Scorpion's Claw (since it's the only power weapon a scorpion squad can get) the extra 5 points for the biting blade is worth it. It's as good or better than the Claw against monstrous creatures and vehicles.

Let's look at some examples.

Monstrous creature at T6:

Exarch has 2 base attacks +1 for mandiblasters, +1 for charging. Total of 4 attacks. His strength per hit is as follows. 1 hit = 5, 2 hits =6 3 hits = 7, and 4 hits = 8. As long as you hit at least twice it is as good as the fist, and has potential to be better. Against MC's with high armor saves the fist is probably still better.

Vehicle moving > 6":

Since you need 6's to hit, the fist is probably better than the biting blade. Assuming you hit once the blade will only get to Str 5. You could get lucky, but it's not that great a chance.

Vehicle moving < 6":

Here it's sort of a wash. It's about the same as the MC example above. With 4 attacks hitting on 4's the blade is likely to be at least as good as the fist, and could be better.

Stationary vehicle:

Now the Biting blade is really better than the fist. With 4 attacks auto hitting you have 4 auto Str 8 hits. Obviously that's better than 4 Str 6 hits.

Short version: against an army that uses a lot of MC's for 5 points you might get some use of it. Against an army that uses a lot of static vehicles (IG anyone?) definately spend the extra 5 pts.

I'd sooner question taking the Claw (at 15 pts!) than the biting blade.

Thanks, but I'll mostly be fighting Terminators and what my friend calls Nurgle Zerkers- minus one attack plus the Mark o' Nurgle and plus FNP.

If you're fighting MEQ you're probably going to benefit most from the PF but I do think that against most armies the Chainsabers or Biting Blade are more useful and it saves you a couple points.

I hate the thought of throwing away that amazing initiative score.

Given what you're fighting, definitely the Claw. Also, it adds flexibility to the unit.

I find, as an Eldar player, my greatest advantage against MEQs (for me, Black templars) is my high initiative. and so, I must go with the biting blade. It can can get up to four strength 8 attacks, which can instant death MEQs and prevent Necrons from getting WBB.

Exarch_Nektel wrote:I find, as an Eldar player, my greatest advantage against MEQs (for me, Black templars) is my high initiative. and so, I must go with the biting blade. It can can get up to four strength 8 attacks, which can instant death MEQs and prevent Necrons from getting WBB.

With the claw, you get 4 attacks at S6, that ignore armor, wound MEQ's on 2's, and still deny Necrons WBB.

whitedragon wrote:

Exarch_Nektel wrote:I find, as an Eldar player, my greatest advantage against MEQs (for me, Black templars) is my high initiative. and so, I must go with the biting blade. It can can get up to four strength 8 attacks, which can instant death MEQs and prevent Necrons from getting WBB.

With the claw, you get 4 attacks at S6, that ignore armor, wound MEQ's on 2's, and still deny Necrons WBB.

yes but you have to weather the space marines hits before you can use said attacks

Problem is that the Biting Blade does not ignore armour saves, whereas the claw does. It's not fun to watch all your lovely S8 hits ping off 5+ saves. Despite the initiative loss with the claw, it is usually better to take it against MEQ's as you can ablate some of the wounds you will recieve on your regular scorpions.

If you're playing a horde army take the chainsabres. And much judicious use of Doom, natch.

combo wrote:

whitedragon wrote:

Exarch_Nektel wrote:I find, as an Eldar player, my greatest advantage against MEQs (for me, Black templars) is my high initiative. and so, I must go with the biting blade. It can can get up to four strength 8 attacks, which can instant death MEQs and prevent Necrons from getting WBB.

With the claw, you get 4 attacks at S6, that ignore armor, wound MEQ's on 2's, and still deny Necrons WBB.

yes but you have to weather the space marines hits before you can use said attacks

You're not really weathering all that many attacks. Your regular scorps go first, and will take out a few, and then will be ablative wounds for your exarch anyway. The powerklaw more reliably kills MEQ's than the biting blade as well.

Simple Math.

10 Scorps vs 10 Assault Marines (exarch and serg have fists)

Scorps Charge
36 scorp attacks * (1/2)*(1/2)*(1/3) = 3 dead marines

Marines coming back
12 attacks *(1/2)*(2/3)*(1/3) = 1.3333 dead scorps

Exarch 4 attacks *(2/3)*(5/6) = 2.22222 dead marines
Sergeant 2 attacks *(1/2)*(5/6)= .833333 dead scorps

If the exarch had a biting blade
Exarch 4 attacks *(2/3)*(5/6)*(1/3) = .74 dead marines (I just assumed he had the highest strength possible, which isn't entirely accruate, it still doesn't help though.)

So obviously, the claw is much better than the blade against MEQ's.

9 Assault marines have 18 Attacks not 12.

since your fighting marines with FNP i would simply bin the scorps

take banshees instead.
you then have pure power weapon ownage.
no saves, no FNP.
you will be hitting 1st all the time, so there will be little to fight back.

nurgle players tend to field small units as they are heavy on points.
banshees should be able to carve up a unit each turn.

Waaaaaaagh! wrote:9 Assault marines have 18 Attacks not 12.

9 assault marines minus the 3 that died from the scorpions previous attack, because they have I5.

JD21290 wrote:since your fighting marines with FNP i would simply bin the scorps

take banshees instead.
you then have pure power weapon ownage.
no saves, no FNP.
you will be hitting 1st all the time, so there will be little to fight back.

nurgle players tend to field small units as they are heavy on points.
banshees should be able to carve up a unit each turn.

Ooooh, missed the FNP bit. Yeah, agreed with JD21290: against anything like that (and terminators), you want Banshees and Doomseers. Eldrad's a particularly good buy vs. Nurgle Marines, as the 2x Doom plus powerweapon that wounds on 2s is a nice combo.

Thanks everybody.