Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Is there any competitive flair for this super-brittle fighter?

If I already plan on taking an autarch and the radio tower (for reserves rerolls) so I have optimal control of when it enters play, is this a unit which people have found can help them win major battles? or does it nearly always end up being a liability unless you are Extremely lucky?

Is it important to take the exarch? or does the skyhunter rule make this much less important and -in fact- more optimally priced for the normal variant?

Kitting this vehicle is extremely simple and depends on two questions.
What do you need it to kill?
How much AA do you already have?

If killing elites...starcannons are wonderful
If killing heavy armor, skimmers, or fliers, stock.

If you lack AA you need an Exarch. If you have 3+ Serpents you're probaby good.

I never find the Comms necessary...my Autarch generally does well enough by himself.

I have found that this unit is extremely deadly if you're smart with it...it's the epitome of a glass cannon.

With your range and Vector Dancer you can avoid S5-S7 weaponry...the most dangerous kind for a Hunter as it usually comes en masse. (It's avoidable as most of it is range 36-)

S4 is too weak to worry about unless it somehow got skyfire. And S8+ usually comes with too few shots to worry about...unless its on a flier. In which case...your Hunter came on too early.

I can't really think of a competitive scenario involving a crimson. I think it's too fragile and flyers imo are at a disadvantage having to go into reserves and the possiblity of not coming on when you need it. Funnzies no problem. Tournaments leave em at home.

I have been pleasantly surprised with how easy it is to hide that thing on the table top. It's very small hull fits behind a lot of the taller ruins that I have gotten the chance to play on.

I used two in a tournament a few weeks ago and was very pleasantly surprised. They were dominant in two of my three games, and it was because I could hide from the dedicated AA, then destroy it with the serpents to give myself air superiority.

A lot of fun, but you will find matchups that completely ruin you... I think that is true for all flyers though. At least it was true for my Necron Flyer list as well.

I ran an autarch and was lucky enough to roll strategic genius in all three of my games that day, so I was able to completely control my reserves. It was brilliant.

An additional surprise was that in all three of those games, the crimson hunters were hull pointed to death.... it was amazing to not see my "frail" flyer just blow up when a single bit of space dust hit it. Again, very pleasantly surprised.

With all that said.... it is not the most competitive choice you could take, but it is in no way a terrible one. Very Meta Specific, and match up specific... which are both criteria in units that people tend to deem unworthy.

It's not an easy unit to use by any means but as with Eldar and Deldar units, this bird becomes extremely competitive as you become increasingly competent.

 ductvader wrote:
It's not an easy unit to use by any means but as with Eldar and Deldar units, this bird becomes extremely competitive as you become increasingly competent.

COLD HARD TRUTH

 ductvader wrote:
It's not an easy unit to use by any means but as with Eldar and Deldar units, this bird becomes extremely competitive as you become increasingly competent.

well with everything but serpent spam

Am I wrong for thinking that if I had a Farseer and, got lucky on my psychic rolls, to throw some 4++ on it? Yea it don't sound like much but the reality of a 4++ is that it's a 50/50 save against -anything- (which is way better than the -nothing- of a save it currently has). I mean Venoms are also 10F/S/R, and they withstand a surprising amount of fire with just a 5++, and that's against regular shots.

So it ...might... stand to reason that 4++ against only snap shots is good? Thoughts?

Use that Vector Dancer. That ability to turn 90, move, turn 90 again, repeat the next turn, literally means you can dance on your side of the board with it.

Vector dancer is incredibly nice.

Imo if you are running 2-3 of them you have to take the Comms - the issue isn't that you can't get them on the board fast enough - its that you can't keep them off the board when you are going first. In my experience they are incredibly powerful units, they just require a few support units (just the Comms relay is enough most of the time, but an Autarch or now a Communion Inquisitor is helpful as well) and plenty of finesse. Purely in terms of damage output they rate among the best anti tank units in the game - guaranteed side armour shots from 36" with 4 S8 AP2 shots is pretty nasty. The main reason you take them is to deal with other fliers and heavy armour/MCs, but I've found the main thing they have to be careful of is other fliers. Against ground based shooting you can use Vector Dancer and your long range to dodge the worst of it (its funny watching Broadsides running out of cover to try and get a couple of shots at you only to get ID from the return fire), but other fliers always have the option of zooming straight at you to get shots and there is nothing you can do about it. You can definitely run them competitively, but they need to be filling a specific hole in your list - in a generalist list you are usually better off with another Serpent.

I have been running 3 in the Jetcouncil list I have been running, I found that the Council had no issues with anything on the ground (particularly with the Venoms for some support fire to trim back hordes), but it had literally no way to deal with fliers - which left it at the mercy of Necron fliers in particular which would just fly around all game and dump troops onto objectives late for the win. The Hunters completely remove this issue, short of a full blown flier wing list with 6+ fliers they can easily deal with any air units they come up against (they tend to one shot AV10-11 fliers, 2 Hunters kill an AV12 flier) and with a Comms and a Communion Inquisitor (and potentially Scriers Gaze if I roll it and decide I need it) they almost always come on after other fliers to get the first shots in. If they have no air targets then the AP2 shooting also fills a nice hole for the Council who can struggle to punch through 2+ saves.

@RancidHate. In theory yes, a 4++ would be nice. However that shackles the Seer to the flier, but more importantly is just going to remove the flier as a target option. Since in this context we are talking about running more than one Hunter (better returns from the investment in the support stuff like the Comms and Autarch) the 4++ isn't going to acheive much because people will just shoot the other one. More importantly your Wraithknight wants that 4++ more lol.