Fixing Swooping Hawks

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**Reecius**

I love the models, hate the rules. What do you guys think about this tweak?

Same stats and points, fix yo yo hawks so they can't deep strike and leave in the same turn.

Make their las blasters assault 3 or even 4. That makes them a unique unit in the game that actually puts out decent firepower. I think this is an easy fix. What say Dakka? Or has someone else already suggested this?

**Zio**

That's an awful lot of shots, but the yo-yo thing is pretty lame... so fixing that's pretty cool.

**Reecius**

Well, I see this topic set the forums on fire! Haha.

But yeah, the Yo yo things sucks and needs fixing but it is the only way to make them worth a damn now. They need an overhaul.

Making them assault 3 or 4, 24" range and jump infantry makes them a truly unique skirmishing unit. I think it would be cool, and as the weapons are only str3 ap5 it is not that powerful. Plus with all the horde armies coming to prominence it would give Eldar a good tool against those types of armies whom the typically struggle against.

**Powerguy**

The thing is that Eldar currently do mech really well (and always have really) and mech is generally one of the best matchups against a horde type list so I don't think Eldar need much help against hordes tbh. A squad of Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent is much more survivable, is scoring, has slightly better range and AT power and can put out a similar number of shots when they chose to disembark.

I agree the yo-yo thing is silly but as the Mawloc can do a similar sort of thing I don't expect it to disappear completely any time soon. I would rather Hawks were made into grenade specialists, atm they fill a very similar role to Warp Spiders (a skirmishing fast infantry role) and I would like to see them altered to give them a more clearly defined area of expertise. Perhaps something which gives them special rules to beat up skimmers, similar to the Apocalypse formation rules against flyers.

**Quintinus**

From the 5th edition Eldar thread...

Vladsimpaler wrote:

Swooping Hawks to me are the most troubling Aspect. What are they? Anti-light infantry? Anti-tank?

Swooping Hawk-WS:4 BS:4 S:3 T:3 W:1 I:5 A:1 LD:9 SV:4+
Exarch- WS:5 BS:5 S:3 T:3 W:1 I:6 A:2 LD:10 SV:3+

Weapons: Lasblaster. R24" Str 3 Ap 5 Assault 2

Wargear:

Swooping Hawk Wings. (Jump Pack, enemies trying to hit in CC get -1 to hit, has Hit and Run)

Exarch can take:
Sunrifle, R24" Str 3 Ap5 Assault 6, Pinning

Hawk's Talon R24" Str 5 Ap 5 Assault 3, Models or groups of models wounded by the Hawk's Talon count next turn as moving in Difficult Terrain. If they are already in difficult terrain, they roll 2 dice for movement and choose the lowest.

Special Rules:
Fleet of Foot.

Because the Swooping Hawks are without a doubt the most agile of the Eldar, they gain a 6+ invulnerable save (hard to hit) and may take both their normal saving throw and this invulnerable save.
-----

So what am I trying to do here? Yes it's going to be unpopular and to confess I'm not totally happy with it either. I'm going for a guerilla sort of Aspect, and that's what I think they should be. The Swooping Hawks should just be all about whittling your enemy down.

And I always thought that they should be harder to hit in CC. They're a pretty easy Aspect to shoot down, but I thought that for being so dang agile the Swooping Hawks should be harder to hit from shooting.

Perhaps one of the Exarch powers could be "Evasive Maneuvers- For the rest of the turn, the Swooping Hawks and Exarch get +3 to their invulnerable save but they may not fire or enter assault and conversely cannot be assaulted."

So if your guys are in a really tight spot, you do this and then they have a 3+ invulnerable save. However the trade off is that they can't shoot and for a shooty aspect that's a bit deal. However it goes with the theme of Eldar survival.

**Reecius**

I like that idea Vladsimpaler. I would just like to see more of them on the board as they are such a cool looking unit.

@powerguy
They do have a power for taking out skimmers, it's called intercept. It works on any vehicle actually. And when you add in the wave serpent, Dires are pricer, but yes, they are also scoring.

**SagesStone**

Reecius wrote:Plus with all the horde armies coming to prominence it would give Eldar a good tool against those types of armies whom the typically struggle against.

Wouldn't the Bolter template also help with hoards? Only scatters D6".

**Reecius**

It sure does.

**dumplingman**

I say add 1 to the assault of the weapon, with the option of giving them a heroic intervention power and changing haywire grenades to penetrating on a 5 or 6. Thus giving them some options to deal with either infantry or tanks

**Tri**

Make hawks works? 15pts each and leave them as they are. After all T3 and 5+ save dies very easily. They can hunt tanks but with the new rules not as well ... they can shoot people but str3 AP5 means they're only really very good at shooting guards men.