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Hey y'all, I was poking around the interwebz and came across the awesome line of corsair minis. I think they could be a fun army to run, jump-shoot-jumping like those fishy Tau. Does anyone here play a corsair army? Just looking for some direction if I want to go in that direction. Thanks!

Corsairs are cool, but their rules are very out of date. You would find their army list in Imperial Armour Volume Eleven - The Doom of Mymeara (which appears to be out of print).

I occasionally use Corsairs as allies for my Dark Eldar, since they have the ability to bring Night Fighting back, as well as a template weapon that wounds on Leadership.

I've got more information on their role in my armies here.

I have updated mine, but have run them since the day the book dropped. Awesome speed! They are THE fastest army in the game. Basic troops with move, run with fleet, then jetpack gives a lot of deployment options. When in finish typing up my update, I'll post it in the proposed rules section.

There is honestly no reason to play corsairs as per rules any more, anything they can do can be done better by Deldar/Celdar/Heldar combinations.

Using the models for Celdar would probably be best.

I play them regularly. They're pretty awesome and recently got a shot in the arm with the Codex: Craftworlds and Dark Eldar updates. We're a super fast alpha strike army with very little staying power. With the update to the Eldar Missile Launcher in C:C, all of our EMLs get skyfire missiles for free - and our basic troop choices can run around with 2 of them, along with their choice of 2 flamers or fusion guns (melta). With Jetpacks, by the way, making them relentless. Our walker weapon choices are a little pricey, but worth it as they are troops - thus have ObSec (on a very fast JSJ walker). We can take Warriors in venoms or raiders as Elite choices, meaning you can load a venom with tricked out trueborn for tons of poison shots, or throw them in a Raider with some Dark Lances for anti-tank. Our flyers are fun, Hornets are dreamy, our transports are Falcons, and anything you might need for your list can be brought in through our borrow-an-eldar-unit elite option or by allying with Eldar/Deldar/Harlequins. Subbing in one of the great new Eldar formations makes for a great, strong, fluffy backup.

They're really fun on the table but, much like Dark Eldar, require a bit of finesse play to keep from getting wiped on the return volley.

Great feedback all. Unfortunately I don't think they get access to the bladestorm rule for shuriken catapults, or flakk for the EML's as I think IA:11 refers to "codex: eldar" correct? Now that we have craftworlds, I don't know if they roll over. If the corsairs had battle focus, bladestorm and their missile launchers got flakk, I'd have them be my backfield units with jetpacks and not guardians with a starcannon. Much more mobile and better firepower. More so with 18" lasblasters over 12" shuriken catapults.

I love the idea of having everything screaming around the board. I came up with this list idea at 750 points:
Prince - jetpack, lasblaster, power weapon, shimmer shield
Voidstorm squad - 3x fusions, 2 pistol/CCW, haywire grenades, jetpacks
5 Corsairs - EML, 4x lasblasters - venom w/shuriken cannon
5 Corsairs - EML, 4x lasblasters - venom w/shuriken cannon
10 Corsairs - jetpacks, 8x lasblasters, 2x EML's, 10 plasma grenades
10 corsairs - jetpacks, 8x pistol/CCW, 2x flamer

So that's 36 corsairs w/2 venoms zipping around the board. I feel like it's pretty strong at 750 but when you try to expand it gets much harder to stay around, as others were saying. I just love the models and fluff. The Void Dragons seems just so cool. Their fleet is much larger than I thought it could be.

Anywho, I was curious if anyone had any models, what they looked like and what kind of mileage you got from them? In a fun game I bet my opponent would let me get the rules like battle focus and bladestorm rules to make them a tad more viable. Thanks a bunch for your thoughts y'all! Jimsolo thanks for your tactica! It looks awesome. What ruleset do you use when you run them?

For all intents and purposes, the new codex supercedes the old one. Thus why you cant play Codex:eldar anymore(not that anyone would want to). Plus its just common sense to use it.

I use my corsair minis as CWE. The jet pack guardians make great counts as hawks.

Falcons can be used for the cloud strike formation which is pretty awesome when loaded with an aspect host (which you can use meltagun corsairs to represent fire dragons).

The new windrider jetbikes make fantastic corsairs with a simple head swap for a elf or eldar helmet-less head. The new rules match the corsairs strategy of small numbered force with overwhelming firepower very well.

Even the new crimson death formation is amazing for representing a corsair fighter wing. You can also get away with using the nightwing models against most opponents who will not care.

Castellan Alaric wrote:
Great feedback all. Unfortunately I don't think they get access to the bladestorm rule for shuriken catapults, or flakk for the EML's as I think IA:11 refers to "codex: eldar" correct? Now that we have craftworlds, I don't know if they roll over. If the corsairs had battle focus, bladestorm and their missile launchers got flakk, I'd have them be my backfield units with jetpacks and not guardians with a starcannon. Much more mobile and better firepower. More so with 18" lasblasters over 12" shuriken catapults.

I love the idea of having everything screaming around the board. I came up with this list idea at 750 points:
Prince - jetpack, lasblaster, power weapon, shimmer shield
Voidstorm squad - 3x fusions, 2 pistol/CCW, haywire grenades, jetpacks
5 Corsairs - EML, 4x lasblasters - venom w/shuriken cannon
5 Corsairs - EML, 4x lasblasters - venom w/shuriken cannon
10 Corsairs - jetpacks, 8x lasblasters, 2x EML's, 10 plasma grenades
10 corsairs - jetpacks, 8x pistol/CCW, 2x flamer

So that's 36 corsairs w/2 venoms zipping around the board. I feel like it's pretty strong at 750 but when you try to expand it gets much harder to stay around, as others were saying. I just love the models and fluff. The Void Dragons seems just so cool. Their fleet is much larger than I thought it could be.

Anywho, I was curious if anyone had any models, what they looked like and what kind of mileage you got from them? In a fun game I bet my opponent would let me get the rules like battle focus and bladestorm rules to make them a tad more viable. Thanks a bunch for your thoughts y'all! Jimsolo thanks for your tactica! It looks awesome. What ruleset do you use when you run them?

Started a similar thread not long ago (on phone or id link it now) and there was a post from fw talking about their rules being up for a rewrite (not the first time they say this but still).

Anyhow, why 4 corsair squads? Feels to me like the reason to take corsair squads would be to unlock the super sweet wasp walkers?

Cant recall the exact points but iirc you could ditch the 2 venomsquads and afford 2x2 walkers.

edit heres the fw post saying update coming later this year:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/1770/639757.page#7912331

I just run mine as an Allied Detachment to my Dark Eldar. They are a legal army in their own right, since they have a book which has no newer edition, they haven't been absorbed by a new codex, and can still fit into legal detachments.

Personally, I go bare minimum on troops in order to get a Corsair Prince with his night bomb when I use them. If I ever get their cool flyer, I may also run that.

I'm slowly converting my guardians into corsairs without using the forgeworld kit. Their rules are a lot of fun, but I've lost some of my steam on them. Their main appeal to me was the JSJ thing you can pull off with their jetpacks, but craftworlds can do that reasonably well too using battlefocus. They're also not as stabby as craftworlders, and they're even more fragile than dark eldar. Even using the CWE rules for their weapons, a lot of their rules require a bit of negotiation before you can use them. Does the WWP, for instance, use the updated Dark Eldar rules, or does it still function as the old version (thus letting you potentially use both versions when allied with DE). Spirit stones on the void dreamer are a bit out of place now too, and they still use a slightly different psychic system.

I also have my gripes with their elites section. The harlies actually work pretty well with them since you can deepstrike and use a prince to tank wounds with his shadowfield, but the void squads are pretty meh as are most builds of the hq retinue.

But yeah. They're fun when I use them. Hornets are snazzy. Wasps are nice (though technically worse than war walkers due to battle focus), the fluff is cool, and it can be a refreshing change of eldar flavor.

Castellan Alaric wrote:
Great feedback all. Unfortunately I don't think they get access to the bladestorm rule for shuriken catapults, or flakk for the EML's as I think IA:11 refers to "codex: eldar" correct? Now that we have craftworlds, I don't know if they roll over. If the corsairs had battle focus, bladestorm and their missile launchers got flakk, I'd have them be my backfield units with jetpacks and not guardians with a starcannon. Much more mobile and better firepower. More so with 18" lasblasters over 12" shuriken catapults.

Anywho, I was curious if anyone had any models, what they looked like and what kind of mileage you got from them? In a fun game I bet my opponent would let me get the rules like battle focus and bladestorm rules to make them a tad more viable. Thanks a bunch for your thoughts y'all! Jimsolo thanks for your tactica! It looks awesome. What ruleset do you use when you run them?

No, Craftworld *is* the Eldar codex. Confirmed by GW customer service months back. We get the Flakk missiles and Bladestorm, but not Battlefocus or new lasblasters (as the Lasblasters are actually in IA11 and suck gak through a straw.) There's actually some RAW shenanigans that can be pulled if someone gets persnickety about this that will teach them very quickly to back off of the CODEX: CRAFTWORLDS nonsense if they push it. Battle Focus would make us kind of stupid good, and we really don't need it.

I have a full army of them and am painting up the last batch of them now. Should have a table ready 4000pts by mid-July!

Waiting to see if the 2nd edition of this book is any good is the only reason I still have my elder army. I would love to do a cross DE/Craftworld/corsair army with the corsairs as the primary. Hopefully we do not have to wait too long for this. And yes I know we have many of the options already but I have two other 40k armies and a Bolt Action army, and 4 factions of warzone on my plate.

@number9dream I chose the 4 corsair squads because I like the idea of my troops rolling with jetpacks or in venoms. I like the wasps, don't get me wrong, but the models are just expensive too. I could get started with corsair upgrades cheaper than buying a bunch of wasps/hornets. I was also trying to keep the points cost down so I could play them relatively quickly from when I start acquiring them. I could even go down to 500 points losing the venoms and some upgrades.

The FW upgrade pack comes with enough jetpacks to give 10 guardians or models upgrades. The heavy weapons pack comes with 4 heavies (shuriken cannon, missile launcher, melta, flamer) and 4 jetpacks. So I was thinking of getting 2 of the squad upgrades and 4 heavies to make my list work. What do you guys think of lasblasters vs shurken catapults. No bladestorm sucks, but the strength of 4 could come in key. I do like the 18" range of the lasblaster though.

@Massawyrm: what corsair band are you painting up as? I am leaning towards the void dragons. I like painting black/grey/red (I used to play templars) and I think it looks ace on the table.

Thanks for your thoughts all! Love this discussion. Makes me want to actually invest in a squad of the corsairs and see how they look. Maybe run a corsair pince, void storm squad and corsair squad as an ally to see how they behave on the table top.

Castellan Alaric wrote:
@Massawyrm: what corsair band are you painting up as? I am leaning towards the void dragons. I like painting black/grey/red (I used to play templars) and I think it looks ace on the table.

Sunblitz Brotherhood. The combination of their color scheme and fluff made them too attractive to pass up.

Castellan Alaric wrote:
What do you guys think of lasblasters vs shurken catapults. No bladestorm sucks, but the strength of 4 could come in key. I do like the 18" range of the lasblaster though.

I haven't used my corsairs much, but I've found your basic weapon choice should really depend on your special weapon choice. If you're going for a small, cheap deepstrike squad that wants to sucker punch enemy rear armor with a haywire grenade and fusion gun shot, I say go shuripults. The higher strength means you might actually glance AV 10 to death, and the short range matters less if you're going behind enemy lines.

For long-ranged missile squads, I recommend lasblasters. The strength is off-putting, but the range is much more helpful when you're trying to keep your distance and hide behind line of sight blocking terrain. The sheer number of shots will also surprise you sometimes, especially if you've got an allied farseer dooming your target. Pretty sure lasblasters come out slightly ahead in overwatch too thanks to the increased number of shots. The pistol and sword idea sounds cool, but I'm not sure it really works out so well. ^_^;

The Corsairs have amazing fluff and models, but it's pretty shameful how out of date their rules are. It's taken longer for GW's greed to penetrate Forge World, but they're definitely suffering it now - previously we would have had army list updates at the start of 7th, but now they don't bother until they can flog a second edition book at us, even if that means a list hasn't been updated since 5th edition.

I remember the thing that first got me into 40k was browsing the Tau FW models in a catalogue. I was blown away by the idea of a bunch of new, awesome units for every faction. Now the Imperial Armour range is gutted and it's all about the Space Marines.

Castellan Alaric wrote:
@number9dream I chose the 4 corsair squads because I like the idea of my troops rolling with jetpacks or in venoms. I like the wasps, don't get me wrong, but the models are just expensive too. I could get started with corsair upgrades cheaper than buying a bunch of wasps/hornets. I was also trying to keep the points cost down so I could play them relatively quickly from when I start acquiring them. I could even go down to 500 points losing the venoms and some upgrades.

The FW upgrade pack comes with enough jetpacks to give 10 guardians or models upgrades. The heavy weapons pack comes with 4 heavies (shuriken cannon, missile launcher, melta, flamer) and 4 jetpacks. So I was thinking of getting 2 of the squad upgrades and 4 heavies to make my list work. What do you guys think of lasblasters vs shurken catapults. No bladestorm sucks, but the strength of 4 could come in key. I do like the 18" range of the lasblaster though.

@Massawyrm: what corsair band are you painting up as? I am leaning towards the void dragons. I like painting black/grey/red (I used to play templars) and I think it looks ace on the table.

Thanks for your thoughts all! Love this discussion. Makes me want to actually invest in a squad of the corsairs and see how they look. Maybe run a corsair pince, void storm squad and corsair squad as an ally to see how they behave on the table top.

Oh yes, painfully expensive... but regular war walkers should be fairly easy to convert into wasps, at least from pictures they dont seem all that different.

That's my plan anyhow. Hornets seem like a suck it up and pay for unit tho, not sure I'm good enough to turn something else into one of those Plus the hornet is like my favourite eldar vehicle model.

Forgeworld has zero interest in anything not Horus Heresy related at the moment. They also have little to no interest in updating old rules. Since armies of the Imperium are such a big seller for them, they will update those for major rules changes (like the addition of Chapter Tactics), but armies like Tau and Eldar are lucky to get a quick not of how many HP their vehicles have; supplementary armies like Corsairs are completely SOL.

With the recent new eldar codex though, and the way they worded it (eldar update, not corsair), I have some hope!

I'm building up a small Harlequin force in anticipation for the IA11 2E to come out, whenever it does :/

Good discussion all! I am still not planning on starting this anytime soon, but the idea of jetpacking space elves is just gravy. Add lasers, swords and missiles? Epic. Anywho, good stuff. PM me if you want to bounce list/painting/modeling ideas off me. I'm in full painting mode on my Eldar for the Iron Halo GT and am coming along nicely.