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Hi,

For units of dark elves where they can take repeater crossbows and a shield or extra hand weapon , are they allowed to stand and shoot with the crossbow and then get the benefit from sword/shield (ward save) or 2x hand weapon (+1 A)

Thanks

If for some reason a unit has RXBs and shield or XHW yes they can stand and shoot and then use their shield or XHW in melee.

Note that if you have a XHW and a shield, you can only use the XHW as its a Special Weapon and you must use special weapons if you have one you are able to use.


The only way you can use a shield in melee is if you are using a single handed special weapon or a hand weapon. And you can only parry if you use a hand weapon(which can only be used if you don't have a special wepon)

You don't have the option for extra hand weapons on repeater xbows.
You don't have the option for shields with extra hand weapons.
You get:
Spears with or without shields.
Repeater xbows, with or without shields.
Repeater HANDBOWS, OR extra hand weapons.

Shades (special choice) come with repeater, and can get extra hand weapon.

You don't really have as many options as you make it seem like.

-Matt

A character could take all 3!!!

Spears get 5+ in combat, no ward.

RXB's can take shields, giving them Stand and Shoot, 5+, 6++ in combat.

Corsairs can take Handbows for Stand and Shoot with 5+ in combat, 4+ against shooting.

Corsairs can take XHW for +1A, 5+ in combat, 4+ against shooting.


Now a Master or Noble could take Heavy Armor, shield, Sea Dragon Cloak, XHW and an RXB. He'd have 4+ in combat, 2+ against shooting, +1A, and Stand and Shoot.

not that you'd want to do that as it's a terrible build.

 Aerethan wrote:
A character could take all 3!!!

Spears get 5+ in combat, no ward.

RXB's can take shields, giving them Stand and Shoot, 5+, 6++ in combat.

Corsairs can take Handbows for Stand and Shoot with 5+ in combat, 4+ against shooting.

Corsairs can take XHW for +1A, 5+ in combat, 4+ against shooting.

Corsairs have a 5+ in combat and a 4+ vs shooting regardless of what weapons they take.
Warriors can't get a parry, as they always come with spears. If they came with hand weapons instead of spears, they would be better.
The stand and shoot for handbows isn't all that great. You'll do 3-4 wounds from a large unit. That's great against fast cav, but not much else.
Likewise the stand and shoot from xbow isn't great either. If you're wide enough to get enough shots, you aren't deep enough to be steadfast.

Honestly, it isn't nearly as good as you think.
Take crossbowmen for example. If you rank up 5x5 so you have decent ranks, you're paying 295 points to have 10 guys shooting and 10 S3 attacks.
You could rank up wide for full shooting, then swift reform to go into a combat block. The problem with that is you're only going to get 1 volley at long range, and the volley you would have taken at short range you just tacked on a movement penalty. If you fail that Ld check, you lose your short range shooting entirely.

You are better off not buy shields on anyone. T3 5+ 6++ just doesn't win combat at 11 points a model.
Small units of corsairs on the flanks can work with handbows, I like bringing a unit of 20 just in case of a watchtower mission. But beefy units of corsairs are better off with extra hand weapons.
The range on the hand bows is so short, I often find that the only time I get to shoot is if: A) I stand and fire, or B) I swift reform to shoot at fast cav trying to sweep around to my flanks.

As you said, the payload options on heroes (who can take it all) isn't a good choice. Having less options on troops doesn't make the choice any better.

-Matt

Taking extra hand weapons on a character (aside from Khainites who really doesn't have any other option) is kinda pointless. Two-weapon characters are best at slaughtering rank-and-file... something Druchii troops can do just fine on their own. You'd be better off taking more troops instead of a tooled-out rank-and-file killer. Your character needs to be able to do something the troops cannot do, which is why high-strength weapons are de rigeur for DE characters.

Also, since all DE non-special charatcers are T3 they are kind of soft and squishy. They need a good defensive setup if they are going to survive to do much good with that high-strength weapon.

 Vulcan wrote:
Taking extra hand weapons on a character (aside from Khainites who really doesn't have any other option) is kinda pointless. Two-weapon characters are best at slaughtering rank-and-file... something Druchii troops can do just fine on their own. You'd be better off taking more troops instead of a tooled-out rank-and-file killer. Your character needs to be able to do something the troops cannot do, which is why high-strength weapons are de rigeur for DE characters.

Also, since all DE non-special charatcers are T3 they are kind of soft and squishy. They need a good defensive setup if they are going to survive to do much good with that high-strength weapon.

Except Pegasus characters which are now T4!!!