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Hi everyone!

So I'm in the process of completing my 8th ed Emperor's Children/Slaanesh themed army. It has some components that can be switched in and out depending on the foe, with one army list tailored to dealing with more horde-like armies and one tailored to fighting ranged armies such as my friend's Tau army. In this latter regard, I bought two boxes of Raptors/Warp Talons. I read accounts online that Warp Talons using Warpflame Strike can be nasty for Tau when combined with a flying Sorceror with Warptime, and was hoping as well that they would be able to take advantage of the EC Legion Trait allowing them to always fight first. However, it seems this is no longer feasible with the new FAQ.

Would Warp Talons still be a great option here, or would Raptors with weapons be better? If so, which weapons should I give them? The Plasma Pistols look pretty nice. Thanks in advance for your advice!

If you had to take them.... id say be open to taking lots of 5 man units of warp talons. its a 9 inch charge. its not impossible but more chances to use it the better.

Otherwise id keep the raptors cheap with just flamers at most.

personally though if you need more anti tank or something then you could use them for that purpose.

Curreny, the only decent/reliable option is a min squad of raptors with 2 plasma guns and a combi-plasma sarge. Drop in near a lord and get 6 overcharged plasma shots where needed. Not great but you won't get any better out of raptors or warp talons.

I'm not sure about that. renegade talons has some potential.

Thanks for your responses and opinions so far guys!

@BoomWolf: Renegade Talons?

You can no longer use warptime after deepstriking so that's not an option anymore. However you can just deploy them normally and use warptime for 24 inch move and achieve a turn1 charge. I think this is what boomwolf is referring to, because if you use the renegade chapters legion tactic then your units can advance plus charge, so you can move 12"+D6 then warptime for another 12"+D6 and THEN charge. Unfortunately you can only do this with one unit per turn.

If you use world eater Talons/Raptors then you can reroll failed charges, which gives you a 44% to get into charge range after deepstriking.

You can also make them alpha legion and infiltrate them for a guarenteed charge if you get first turn.

If you're determined to use emperor's children as your legion then you'll be stuck with a 25% chance to charge after deepstriking or you can deploy normally and use warptime to get the 24" inch move and hopefully a turn 1 charge with one unit.

As you can see, it's actually getting your units into combat that is the difficult part of playing an assault army, not actually killing things.

For pure killing stuff ability they're pretty close. Raptors have the ability to take special weapons, which is nice. The -1 leadership rarely contributes much, but it;'s better than nothing. Personally I would pick warp talons because they have the daemon keyword, which opens up a lot of synergy with an allied daemon detachment.

Hope this helps