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I'm kinda curious of the viability of spamming hexrifles. Not so much for the "turn to glass" trick, but the fact that it's a 36" ranged pinning weapon.

I frequently play against IG and Pathfinder loaded Eldar armies and it seems at the worst possible time, my unit gets pinned.

I was wondering if anyone has experience in using/spamming Hexrifle?

My thought is that in a traditional venomspam list, that instead of the 5x warriors+Blaster unit, that you'd put in a 2x wrack + 1x Acothyst with hexrifle. Then for your one HQ slot, you get 3x Haemy each with Hexrifle,

That way, you could have at least three of the following units:
2x Wracks
1x Acothyst with Hexrifle
1x Haemy with Hexrifle (plus additional gear if desired)
Riding in a Venom with xtra Splinter Cannon

Here's the tradeoff that I see: Instead of having 3x 18" Blasters, I'd get 6x 36" Hexrifle sniper shots.

So... tactically, for any exposed targets, you'd shoot the hexrifle first (2 Hexrifle shots at 3 possible units) and if you can pin the unit, you can decide to decimate that unit now, or ignore them for a turn (they're pinned till next turn). If you ignore them, then you can prioritize your Lance/Splinter shots at other units. Then, when it's your opponents turn, he has less effective units to use.

Because if a unit is pinned, the Dark Eldars are not getting shot at in the next turn. This is sort of the same philosophy that DE generailly employs when shooting at vehicles, in that if we manage to stun the vehicle, we re-prioritize our target selections.

Thoughts?

It won't work.
You will need a lot of hexrifles to get a decent result and to keep the pins coming, and frankly, due to the lack of AntiArmor in the DE army, blasters would be a better choice.
On the other hand, you could use them to harass demons and tyranids. EW/Synapse doesn't work against the Turn to Glass ability. Again, you will need a lot though.

CthuluIsSpy wrote:It won't work.
You will need a lot of hexrifles to get a decent result and to keep the pins coming, and frankly, due to the lack of AntiArmor in the DE army, blasters would be a better choice.
On the other hand, you could use them to harass demons and tyranids. EW/Synapse doesn't work against the Turn to Glass ability. Again, you will need a lot though.

Why won't the "Turn to Glass" ability won't work on EW/Synapes?

EW-is immunity from insta death... right? The "Turn to Glass" ability just removes model from play... that's different that insta death... right?

Synapse-What's this? Why would this protect Tyranids from the "Turn to Glass" ability??

whembly wrote:

CthuluIsSpy wrote:It won't work.
You will need a lot of hexrifles to get a decent result and to keep the pins coming, and frankly, due to the lack of AntiArmor in the DE army, blasters would be a better choice.
On the other hand, you could use them to harass demons and tyranids. EW/Synapse doesn't work against the Turn to Glass ability. Again, you will need a lot though.

Why won't the "Turn to Glass" ability won't work on EW/Synapes?

EW-is immunity from insta death... right? The "Turn to Glass" ability just removes model from play... that's different that insta death... right?

Synapse-What's this? Why would this protect Tyranids from the "Turn to Glass" ability??

No I meant that Turn to Glass will bypass EW/Synapse.

Synapse is the same as EW basically. Except...odder. Basically, a unit only gets it if they are within 12" of a synapse creature like a Hive Tyrant.

ie, you wound carnifex,
he fails his save (if not rending),
he then fails the wound test,
and even if he has like 20 Hive Tyrants nearby he'll still be dead.

Another point - the chances of all that happening are slim, hence the abundance of Hexrifles.

Synapse doesn't protect from instant death anymore, where have you been?

wileythenord wrote:Synapse doesn't protect from instant death anymore, where have you been?

It doesn't? I could've sworn that I read that Synapse creatures and things in Synapse range get EW.
Also, CRUDDACE NERF FTW! Warriors could now apparently be one-hitted by lemun russes. This is not unfair at all.

Ok then, disregard that example, and replace the Carnifex with a bloodthirster.

It would work, but you'd be taking out some of your needed AT for something unnecesary and gimmicky (sometimes)

So DE already having a shaky amount of AT lose more of it and gain turn to glass, please be running some big Critters, or IC's not in squads

jdjamesdean@mail.com wrote:It would work, but you'd be taking out some of your needed AT for something unnecesary and gimmicky (sometimes)

So DE already having a shaky amount of AT lose more of it and gain turn to glass, please be running some big Critters, or IC's not in squads

This.
You'd be better off using shattershard.

The only time you could effective use Hexes is if you know that your opponent will be running bugs. Fine in a friendly game with a friend who uses Tyranids, useless in a tournament and in friendly games against...well, every other army.

Here's another reason why I'm brainstorming this...

2/3rd of the games are objective based and so, it usually falls to my 5-man Warriors+Blaster in Venoms to hang back to be in range of the objectives. This almost always put the 18" blasters out of range, thus, the Warriors are just watching from afar and I'm not getting my points out of those blasters. Therefore, those single basters are rarely used. (in annihilation game, the warrior+blaster unit is golden).

Replacing those units with:
2x Wracks
1x Acothyst with Hexrifle
1x Haemy with Hexrifle (plus additional gear if desired)
Riding in a Venom with xtra Splinter Cannon

Wracks seems to be the perfect objective holders in the DE army. Being T4 with FnP... I'm tired of losing half/most of my Warriors when their ride blows up...

The the Hexrifle squads, they could sit back and be able to shoot something at range.

Oh.. and one other thing, I'm thinking of fielding 2 beast squads as well and I'd like to give a least 2 Haemy WWP. Not sure if I can afford the points tho... still thinking on that.

whembly wrote:Here's another reason why I'm brainstorming this...

2/3rd of the games are objective based and so, it usually falls to my 5-man Warriors+Blaster in Venoms to hang back to be in range of the objectives. This almost always put the 18" blasters out of range, thus, the Warriors are just watching from afar and I'm not getting my points out of those blasters. Therefore, those single basters are rarely used. (in annihilation game, the warrior+blaster unit is golden).

Perhaps instead of a change in army lists, an change in tactics would be more appropriate? It sounds like you play Dark Eldar like you believe they're Space Marines in disguise. Why don't you give the DE tactics guide in my signature a read...you might find it illuminating.

Secondly, pinning an enemy unit should always be considered a fortunate stroke of luck, not a foundational strategy. Worse, you're talking about doing this against IG, who can just use the order "Get Back In The Fight!" to unpin a unit prior to shooting.

CthuluIsSpy wrote:

wileythenord wrote:Synapse doesn't protect from instant death anymore, where have you been?

It doesn't? I could've sworn that I read that Synapse creatures and things in Synapse range get EW.
Also, CRUDDACE NERF FTW! Warriors could now apparently be one-hitted by lemun russes. This is not unfair at all.

Ok then, disregard that example, and replace the Carnifex with a bloodthirster.

That was last edition.
Well, Warriors are troops now, making them all immune to ID would be kind of crazy.

Jackster wrote:

CthuluIsSpy wrote:

wileythenord wrote:Synapse doesn't protect from instant death anymore, where have you been?

It doesn't? I could've sworn that I read that Synapse creatures and things in Synapse range get EW.
Also, CRUDDACE NERF FTW! Warriors could now apparently be one-hitted by lemun russes. This is not unfair at all.

Ok then, disregard that example, and replace the Carnifex with a bloodthirster.

That was last edition.
Well, Warriors are troops now, making them all immune to ID would be kind of crazy.

Yeah but still...that means that if they want a synapse guy who can take a punch, they'll have to invest in a tyrant.
And I do know one or two players who don't run tyrants.

Dashofpepper wrote:

whembly wrote:Here's another reason why I'm brainstorming this...

2/3rd of the games are objective based and so, it usually falls to my 5-man Warriors+Blaster in Venoms to hang back to be in range of the objectives. This almost always put the 18" blasters out of range, thus, the Warriors are just watching from afar and I'm not getting my points out of those blasters. Therefore, those single basters are rarely used. (in annihilation game, the warrior+blaster unit is golden).

Perhaps instead of a change in army lists, an change in tactics would be more appropriate? It sounds like you play Dark Eldar like you believe they're Space Marines in disguise. Why don't you give the DE tactics guide in my signature a read...you might find it illuminating.

Secondly, pinning an enemy unit should always be considered a fortunate stroke of luck, not a foundational strategy. Worse, you're talking about doing this against IG, who can just use the order "Get Back In The Fight!" to unpin a unit prior to shooting.

I've kept up with your posts... you are a great teacher of the game.

I just wanted to try something a "little" different and thought of this when I seemly get pinned at the worst possible time.

Thanks for your input!

As Dash said, you can't rely on pinning a unit.

If you really want pinning weapons take a razorwing with necrotoxin missiles, even then you'd be best off with another ravager.