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This weapon seems to get alot of hate and overall is pretty underated but if you think about it str6 assault 1 blast is actually pretty good. Yes it is short range with only 12" but with an army consisting of fleet infantry riding in fast, open topped skimmers I don't really think this is an issue. Ok so the shredder is no darklight weapon but they average 15-20pts each where as a shredder is only 5pts. They are certainly under used in most DE lists but i think they could be quite useful for trueborn; the most common loadout for them is ussually the blasterborn, 4x blasters and a 2 splinter cannon venom. The blasterborn run you a total of 173pts for the venom and four guys with blasters, a very fragile unit and sure to attract fire once it overkills that one tank. A trueborn squad of 5 guys w/4 shredders and a dracon w/power lance* +plasma grenades for all will run you 165pts, not much cheaper and not much tougher either but I argue that it is far more versatile. I'm not saying this is better for killing tanks and I'm not saying blaster born are bad, I'm simply saying shredder born is a phrase you should be hearing more often. Anyway back to the point, 165pts will get you 4 men/women, 4 shredders, a powerlance wielding dracon plasma grenades for all 5 and a dual cannon venom. Now you can either deepstrike the venom using retrofire jets for 5pts, this will allow the squad to act normally and the venom to shoot or you can simply be sneaky but either way at full strength if this unit can get within 26" of a unit it WILL kill that unit, the venom can move up 12" and fire 12 4+ poisoned shots at bs4 then because its an assault vehicle the squad can dismount, move 6" to be within 8" and fire 4 str6 blasts and the dracon can throw a plasma grenade(str4 ap4 blast) then if anything survives they can charge it, if theres significant overwatch to contend with like flamers charge another more expendable unit in first then the 4 trueborn will get a total of 12 str3 I5 attacks at ws4, and the Dracon will get 6 str4 ap3 ws4 attacks at I5! This should finish anything off even marines, now repeat, they only get better as they go along as the pain tokens just serve to strengthen them.

What do you think?

*I say powerlance because dark eldar are only str3 but taking a power axe gets rid of their I5 so in my oppinion its the best choice and it should do alot of damage on the charge and in my experience if they dont they're dead anyway.

I would never use this stragety, but the shredders are the last reason why.

1. Assault trueborn. Absolutely, absolutely not. Ever, for any reason. Trueborn should only be assaulting as a last ditch effort, or if they are escorting the Duke...but even still, more an emergency thing. Trueborn should be loaded to the teeth with guns, nothing else. Now plasma grenades are not terrible if you need to kill 3-5 points, same with haywires as those can do some serious damage now days.

2. Deep striking a venom. Retrofire jets?! Or, take the duke.... a deep struck vehicle counts as moving at crusing speed, so the passengers can only make snap shots. Shredders are blast weapons and can not fire snap shots. Can't fire overwatch either, so another hole in your plan.

3. If you survived the venom blowing up(you will lose 2-3 models) and then any bolter fire that is pointed your way(you wont) then if you get assaulted, 1-2 models will not carry the day, and MEQ...or I would even say grots will beat you.

4. Shredders are pretty bad weapons, but not because they are bad themselves, just that you don't need S6 small blasts in a codex that can put poison and darklight weapons in every unit. Blasters kill tanks and terminators more reliably, poison works through mass infantry. I can see taking a shredder if you want to throw in another kabbie venom but dont have the points. That's it.

Ok, thanks for the advice, it was more a theoretical idea and because I felt like doing something a little different

Also, unless Dark Eldar have a rule I am unfamiliar with you can only get out of transports if it moves 6" or less, regardless of their assaulty nature.

The vehicles are considered assault vehicles but anyway I am actually realizing that I was a bit hasty posting this strategy, I played my first game using blaster born today and I'm sure they're far more effective than shredderborn and not that much more expensive, I had a squad of blaster born kill 4 grey knight terminators in 1 turn so 100% sure I was wrong about shredder born


Automatically Appended Next Post:
How do you delete a thread? lol

walkiflalka wrote:
The vehicles are considered assault vehicles but anyway I am actually realizing that I was a bit hasty posting this strategy, I played my first game using blaster born today and I'm sure they're far more effective than shredderborn and not that much more expensive, I had a squad of blaster born kill 4 grey knight terminators in 1 turn so 100% sure I was wrong about shredder born


Automatically Appended Next Post:
How do you delete a thread? lol

not sure if you can, dont be embarassed or anything though because because thats the idea of this page is to post ideas like this and get opinions. I do like the shredders, its just that the other weapons outshine them. At least the fluff of them is pretty cool.

I couldn't do this if i wanted to, I've used all my shredders and converted them to blasters!

Thats funny, I did exactly the same thing! Far better than buying four boxes of kabalites for every blasterborn squad

Yeah, again, shredders are not bad within themselves, just completely outshined by darklight and poison.

A funny build would be 5 trueborn with 4 shredders and plasma grenades in a venom. Anything that gets close gets hit by 5 small blast templates. Combined with the splinter cannons on the venom, your talking about an infantry mulching machine.

they arent terrible. I believe they are actually 18" range now. But they certainly are not good.

I sometimes include them in 10 man foot squads with a splinter cannon, because i dont want to waste the 9 other guys on shooting a tank and I dont want to spend 15 points on a special weapon.

 Exergy wrote:
they arent terrible. I believe they are actually 18" range now. But they certainly are not good.

I sometimes include them in 10 man foot squads with a splinter cannon, because i dont want to waste the 9 other guys on shooting a tank and I dont want to spend 15 points on a special weapon.

No, the blaster went to 18", the shredder stayed at 12". Don't spend 5 points on a worthless special weapon and be too cheap to spend 10 more for one that is awesome.
If the shredder had a 24" range, it might have a use. At 12", it's a waste. It means, any time you fire it, you should be dying in an assault the next turn.
I don't know about you, but I'm going to want better firepower than that to be putting my units that close on the enemy.

The 12" range though is bad for us. Usually my guys are in their venoms with nightshields, staying at least 24" away. If I get within 12", it means my venoms/raiders are in rapid fire range, which is a bad spot.

If shredders were 18" or 24", then I would probably take them. So far in 6th I haven't had any problems cracking armor on the ground, and I've considered dropping blasters on my 5 man units. I may expirement with that... but it scares me.

The reason I still take blasters is because if I can't pop armor/transports, then 2/3 of my army can do zero damage. The key to DE is finding the right balance of Darklight and Poison for your local meta.

If you face a lot of hordes on foot, then I'd probably take a razorwing instead of switching blasters to shredders.

I thought it should be 18"(thought it was) and assault 2 blast.

 Exergy wrote:
I thought it should be 18"(thought it was) and assault 2 blast.

I agree with this, its still a risky range so balanced but attractive to take

 Shredder wrote:
I couldn't do this if i wanted to, I've used all my shredders and converted them to blasters!

^ This.

Saved a fortune!