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I played Ulthwe Strike Force in 3rd edition which featured BS 4 Black Guardians, psykers and Dark Reapers. This list is a (hopefully) competitive list with a similar theme but instead of having a Seer Council running around sniping ICs and special weapons with Mind War, this list has a Dark Reaper unit kitted out with some psyker support. And I'm using my old Black Guardians as Dire Avengers.

HQ
Farseer - 100
Spiritseer - 70

ELITES
5x Fire Dragons - 110
Wave Serpent w/ SL, HF, GWM - 145

5x Fire Dragons - 110
Wave Serpent w/ SL, HF, GWM - 145

TROOPS
5x Dire Avengers (Using Ulthwe Black Guardians) - 65
Wave Serpent w/ SL, HF, GWM, SC - 155

5x Dire Avengers (Using Ulthwe Black Guardians) - 65
Wave Serpent w/ SL, HF, GWM, SC - 155

5x Dire Avengers (Using Ulthwe Black Guardians) - 65
Wave Serpent w/ SL, HF, GWM, SC - 155

FAST ATTACK
6x Warp Spiders - 114

HEAVY SUPPORT
3x Dark Reapers w/ Starswarm and 1x Exarch w/ Fast Shot, EML and Flakk missiles - 184

3x War Walkers each with SL and Starcannon - 210

Total points is 1848

I don't see many Dark Reapers being used in competitive lists, and it's probably because Wraithknights and War Walker are just so darn efficient for the points. So I'm mostly just experimenting but I would love to find a place for them. The Spiritseer and Farseer will join the Dark Reapers to give them support and hopefully good cover/saves and also some offensive synergy with rerolls or possibly ignore cover. Being Slow and Purposeful, they can move and shoot their heavy weapons which is a huge change from previous editions of the codex. This will allow me to start them in reserves if I'm facing an Alpha Strike list and walk on and shoot at 48" range. I'm used to Dark Reapers being immobile glorified Devastater squads but they're much more than that now that they can move and shoot.

What do you think?

I would suggest play testing with a few variant changes. I would play around with dropping the spiritseer and/or Warpspiders in order to field more Reapers either as a larger squad or two smaller squads.

Between the Walkers, and the serpents I would say you're pretty covered on anti-air (unless you see a lot of flying circus lists in your meta) so need for flakk.

Looks like a pretty strong list. I see that the spirit seer is really just there to give shrouded to the dark reapers. I don't think it's worth it given the size of the dark reaper unit. If there were more reapers than it would be worth it. I also think you are lacking on long ranged anti-tank power. If you go against a necron or AM opponent spamming av13+ then you will have a really tough time doing damage until the fire dragons get into firing range, if they do at all.

I would consider dropping a dire avenger unit for another squad of warwalkers but with 6 bright lances. That will give you a good option against long ranged enemy tanks that are just going to sit back and shoot you from range for a couple turns until the fire dragons get in range. With scout they can basically deploy in any terrain on your side of the table. Also low ap str8 shots are really nice against multiwound t4 models

You could also drop the warp spiders and GWM off the wave serpents to buy more dark reapers. Maybe upgrade the spirit seer to another farseer? Telepathy can give you shrouded as well or invisibility and divination could be vicious if you roll the ignores cover spell.


I like your idea of bringing dark reapers because they are really good against other eldar! Nothing says f you wave serpents like a good sized squad of dark reapers with starshot missiles

Good points all. Thanks for the responses.

The Spiritseer is mastery level 2 and can roll in Telepathy. I plan to make 1 roll in runes of battle and unless I get Protect (+1 to armour saves) I will just take Conceal and roll on Telepathy. I basically wanted to ensure rolling a defensive spell and conceal was the easiest way to get that. But a second Farseer would probably be better if I drop a few GWMs. I'll experiment with this.

AV13 spam is going to be a tough matchup. The Dark Reapers, assuming rerolls to hit, will be able to average 2 Hull Points a turn against AV13, with a decent chance of penetrating to make them AV11, easy pickings for Wave Serpents. It helps immensely that Dark Reapers ignore Jink. 6 Bright Lances on WarWalkers, assuming rerolls to hit and Jink, average 1.5 Hull Points per turn with a small chance to penetrate and 1 shot with AP 2. So taking War Walkers for the purpose of AV13 spam isn't going to help. I will probably try taking out a Dire Avenger unit in order to pick up more Dark Reapers though.

Also, with a new Necron codex coming soon, the meta is going to change and maybe I won't have to worry about AV13 spam as much.

I just realized that Dark Reapers can take a Wave Serpent as a dedicated transport. So I could trade out a unit of Dire Avengers for more Dark Reapers while giving the Wave Serpent to the Dark Reapers.