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Every Dark Elf army needs Repeater Crossbows, but I don't know how many to take. My army is largely melee-oriented, with lots of Spearmen (with shields), Corsairs (with Lokhir Fellheart and Assassins) and Executioners. But those S4 Armour Piercing shots are just too good to pass up against Bretonnians and Chaos Warriors. Should I take any at all? Say, two units of 10?

Cheese Elemental wrote:Every Dark Elf army needs Repeater Crossbows, but I don't know how many to take. My army is largely melee-oriented, with lots of Spearmen (with shields), Corsairs (with Lokhir Fellheart and Assassins) and Executioners. But those S4 Armour Piercing shots are just too good to pass up against Bretonnians and Chaos Warriors. Should I take any at all? Say, two units of 10?

Maybe bad news for you but rxb's are only s3 ap.
Anyways, as it looks like you'll have a battleline full of stuff (ie. infantry), you won't have too much room for large shooting units. 2 unit of 10 sound like good amount altough give these units shields so they aren't total pushovers in melee. If you want additional rxb's shades are probably your best bet especially you you wield cauldron.

Ya, Repeater Xbows are str 3, multi-shot.

I would say some Dark Riders or Shades would be the best place to get a few shots in. Plus you can get str 7 throwing stars on an assassin... 2 squads of 10 still won't be killing much.

To be honest if your running that much melee, you might as well just grab a war hydra for the same amount of points.

Only S3? Bugger. Forgot about that.

What about some Reaper Bolt Throwers for support then? After all, Xbows can only shoot so far.

reaper bolt throwers are amazing for their points and are a must in my opinion. Are you taking hydra's in your list? If not I recommend 2 or 4 reaper bolt throwers depending of course on how many points you want to invest in fire support.

I won't take Hydras in casual games for the sake of fairness. I don't want my melee units to get in the way of any Xbowmen or Reapers, so I was thinking of taking two units at most.

sounds like a plan. But your fielding lokhir fellhart? He's in my opinion the worst thing in the codex for his points cost.

I'd let you take a hydra based on the fact that he balances the cheese of the hydra out.

Cheese Elemental wrote:I won't take Hydras in casual games for the sake of fairness. I don't want my melee units to get in the way of any Xbowmen or Reapers, so I was thinking of taking two units at most.

Why would Hydra be unfair? RBT are way better anyways

Hydra has Regen, S5 Flaming Breath, Causes Terror, and has 7 Attacks.

Not fun to face.

I don't think people would mind you taking a War Hydra. After all, you are fielding Corsairs and Executioners which aren't really seen as competitive options by most players (especially the Executioners, which are just worse then Black Guard in every way).

Reaper Bolt Throwers are a good choice as well though. If you are going to take fire support, either take these or some Dark Riders with RXB's.

But, air,

Exec's have S6. Only thing better.

A single hydra yes (I had to face 1 in a 1500pt tourney, but I skink spammed it and 40 blow pipe shots and 10 jav shots later it had 2 wounds and was cowering behind a forest.) but 2 is sick and should be avoided.

Biggest problem with the hydra is that it counts as a skirmisher for mvt so can race through terrain in any direction to plug any gaps in the line.

I'd go with units of 10 or 12 with a muso.

Cryonicleech wrote:But, air,

Exec's have S6. Only thing better.

Actually, they serve me quite well thanks to that high strength, Killing Blow, and the fact that they are Khainite and become a silly unit when they're near a Cauldron of Blood. There are a few WoC and Bretonnian players around at tournaments, and the high strength is wonderful against them.

If executioners have the ASF banner hag with them, they are a down right scary.

As for the use of the cauldron, KB witches are fun.

I don't usually have a problem beating WoC, or Brettonians. Then again, I play a run away and shoot list. Lore of metal with 11 starting power dice make either army cry. Obviously not your style of list, so you need something else to do it. I have found if you don't take at least 3 bolt throwers, you won't have enough shooting to handle knights.

In my play with RXB, I have found the core foot Xbows to be weak. They don't hit well at range if you have to move (if you go first). They are too slow when the enemy gets close. And they don't have any punch against T4 with a 4+ save (I play vs a decent amount of lizards and WoC, not to mention Nurgle daemons) What they are good for is screening a counter charge unit, or an anchor. Its not too hard to set up a mild fire line with you CC units behind, and flee through your own units when the Xbows get charged.

The Xbows I take are on shades, dark riders, chariots, and Monster mounted heroes.

As for the use of hydras: I only bring mine in fluffy lists. My fluffy lists are full of units that are considerably weaker than what I could have taken, so bringing the hydra adds a bit of concentrated power that the list needs to be scary. Also I take it because I think some people got a bit upset when I brought the every unit can shoot list. Now I only bring 1/2 of the shooting.

If you want Reaper Bolt Throwers you need at least 3. However you have to be careful with deployment as you don't want your units blocking LOS. They are great because of the ability to take down large things or light infantry with ease.

I typically have to play against Skyre (sp?) Scaven and Tzneech/Slanesh WoC so I find Xbow's fairly ineffective except for knocking off a rank bonus. I would agree 2 hydras is a bit overkill for friendly games, I usually just bring 1 as it attracks so much magic and other fire that my other units like my Blackguard make it into killing range safely.