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I had a thought on Swooping Hawks today.

I hear of them being kept in reserve, and rolling onto the board to drop their packs, then Skyleap away.

Why would people deepstrike? Surely it's more advantageous to start with them on the board - hidden somwhere out of harms way, then skyleap away on turn 1 to guarantee dropping back in on turn 2?

From my understanding of skyleap, you guarantee deepstrike the turn after it is used. This would remove the chance of failing the roll on turn 2/3.

Am I missing something?

Yeah - they don't come back in automatically. Read that last bit of their description of Skyleap. It explains how you have to roll like normal to bring them in. So there is a chance of failing no matter how you work it.

You would probably need to check the FAQ and the wording of Skyleap tbh. 6th has changed things a bit with Ongoing Reserves and I am not sure if things will interact nicely with the very dated Eldar codex.

The better question is why are you taking Swooping Hawks in the first place lol.

Powerguy wrote:
You would probably need to check the FAQ and the wording of Skyleap tbh. 6th has changed things a bit with Ongoing Reserves and I am not sure if things will interact nicely with the very dated Eldar codex.

The better question is why are you taking Swooping Hawks in the first place lol.

Ahhh, fair enough. Guess i'd make a pretty gakky lawyer.

I think Hawks are a decent unit. They've got some utility in their grenade packs, and haywire grenades. Sure, their guns suck against pretty much anything but light infantry, but...cool models?

Big use for this is for Linebreaker or possibly holding (mission permitting) or contesting an objective. It can be challenging because of random game length, but by turn 5, you it generally isn't too diificult to land them in a relatively safe area. However, this is not to say they are a good buy as they are tremendously overpriced points wise.

Hawks can do good area denial too.

Large charge range and haywire grenades mean enemy transports may just take the long way round the board.
Stick them right in the middle of your backline to defend against things like outflanking Baal preds.

Don't expect them to fight/win against pretty much anything though...

 Sarigar wrote:
Big use for this is for Linebreaker or possibly holding (mission permitting) or contesting an objective. It can be challenging because of random game length, but by turn 5, you it generally isn't too difficult to land them in a relatively safe area. However, this is not to say they are a good buy as they are tremendously overpriced points wise.

Have you filled your troop slots? Eldar very rarely do (since their troops are garbage), so if you are looking for a Linebreaker unit then you are much much better off taking Jetbikes instead. You can nearly get two units for the cost of a unit of Hawks and you end up with a two units which can actually claim objectives and are more durable (2 less bodies, but T4 3+/4++ is much better than T3 4+). Offensively Hawks offer nothing, a S4 Blast and S3 Lasguns are pathetic, and they will never get in range to use their Haywires. Really they have no place in any form of competitive list.

Powerguy wrote:

 Sarigar wrote:
Big use for this is for Linebreaker or possibly holding (mission permitting) or contesting an objective. It can be challenging because of random game length, but by turn 5, you it generally isn't too difficult to land them in a relatively safe area. However, this is not to say they are a good buy as they are tremendously overpriced points wise.

Have you filled your troop slots? Eldar very rarely do (since their troops are garbage), so if you are looking for a Linebreaker unit then you are much much better off taking Jetbikes instead. You can nearly get two units for the cost of a unit of Hawks and you end up with a two units which can actually claim objectives and are more durable (2 less bodies, but T4 3+/4++ is much better than T3 4+). Offensively Hawks offer nothing, a S4 Blast and S3 Lasguns are pathetic, and they will never get in range to use their Haywires. Really they have no place in any form of competitive list.

Did you read my last sentence that you quoted?