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So it's been a long time, and I'm breaking my old Dark Elves back out, painting them up, and plan on playing some.
Wondering what the general thought it on what weapons to give Black Ark Corsairs; a pair of weapons, or the handbows.
Wanted to get some thoughts before modeling any new ones I got.

For reference, I plan on running a fast-moving, fairly shooty army with some surprises. Reaper Bolt Throwers, Shades, Dark Riders, Crossbowmen, and, for the harder-hitting units, Executioners and Cold One Knights, since I love the models for both. Morathi or a few wizards. And a bunch of assassins; Shadowblade if I have the points.

I prefer x2 hand weapons, they're meant to get into CC. For shooting, Crossbowmen with shields makes a solid firebase with decent CC abilities already

You familiar with 8th edition at all? My buddy almost cried when I told him his dual wielding mark of khorne warriors only get 1A each for the supporting rank. Sure the front rank gets all those attacks but I feel in 8th it's kind of a waste.

Hargus56 wrote:You familiar with 8th edition at all?

Getting there, but still working on it.

The only good use I've found for handbows is a supporting unit on the outside. The swift reform and rapid fire, and the rapid fire on the stand and fire takes out smaller flanking units pretty effectively. In the middle of the table, you're likely to be tied up in melee for a few rounds, and that's where more attacks is really a bonus.

-Matt

I don't have much experience and I am still trying to decide myself, although I am leaning towards handbow and weapon. I figure to move them in to get a round of shooting (40 shots) then use a stand and shoot for another 40 shots and reforming once in combat, that is quite a few rounds of cc to make up the difference of 80 shots. I know that is a big "IF", but still just my humble opinion.

IMHO, I've always seen them as a combat unit, so I roll with 2HW and the Sea Serpent Standard to put out a plethora of attacks from the front rank.

I've heard of success with handbows, but really I feel like if you're sticking them in combat might as well give 'em the edge.

Hargus56 wrote:You familiar with 8th edition at all? My buddy almost cried when I told him his dual wielding mark of khorne warriors only get 1A each for the supporting rank. Sure the front rank gets all those attacks but I feel in 8th it's kind of a waste.

To each of their own. On the corsairs, I think the extra 1/3 attacks helps them out immensely

The two have very different uses; they are almost not the same unit when you change the weapons.

As has been noted, AHW Corsairs are close combat specialists. They have large numbers of attacks, a decent armor save, and are (relatively) cheap. Best of all, they fill core points with a reasonably potent close combat unit. A unit of 21, 70-wide, with the Sea Serpent Standard will chew up T3 stuff all day long. Smaller units of 10 or so make good sacrifical buzz saws, to take a rank or two off a large block that wants to remain Steadfast when it hits your battle line. A Really Big Unit of 40 or so can be the mainstay of your army.

RHB Corsairs do one thing well - Stand and Shoot. They aren't bad in close combat, they just aren't terribly good either. And they can't shoot at anything approaching long range at all - if you can shoot them, they can likely charge you. So... make use of that. Again, 10 on the flanks make good guards or distractions. The Sea Dragon Cloaks mean they take fire better than most of our units, so they can get close and pinprick the other guys to death. They also make decent Sorceress Bunkers. 10 of them give LOS saves to her for a good while, and again they cannot be just shot out too easily. Best of all, the ususal Caster Hunters (flyers, scouts, and fast cavalry) die quickly under that volume of Stand And Shooting. A Reaver with two crossbows helps this application quite a bit - still more S&S, and someone to take the challenge if the unit gets engaged in close combat.

I think they are fantastic as AHW guys. I may get slack for this, but I run them as a 10x4 horde. Add in SSS and you can get 50 attacks in a round of combat, plus as stated there armor is not bad. They can take shooting with their cloaks and are much better than spearmen for combat. They are definitely worth using all the time. I originally made mine RHB and ended up ripping all the box arms off because they were not that effective, especially when for the same price RXB units for the same price have 3x the range.

That's the general opinion. AHW are great, RHB not so much.

At least one person on Druchii.net advocates 40 RHB corsairs with the SSS. I would worry about getting 'frenzied' into charging when what you really want to do is walk up, shoot, S&S, and recieve the charge, but it seems to work for him.

And that's the real truth of Dark Elves. There really aren't any bad units. Everything can work, it just depends on your play style and tactics.

Vulcan wrote:I would worry about getting 'frenzied' into charging when what you really want to do is walk up, shoot, S&S, and recieve the charge, but it seems to work for him.

I've had some fun doing this exact tactic, but with group of 20 rather than 40. Ld.9 General with BSB re-roll typically keeps them in place and away from charging off of Frenzy. Walk up, double tap. Stand and shoot double tap. Still have two attacks per man in the front row. Alternatively, having that many Flaming shots could be a bunch of fun if you know you'll be facing Regen (Ogres, VC, etc).