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As a craft world altansar player I love Maugan Ra and his aspect warriors the dark reapers. However I has been a long time since the unit was truly relavent.

It seems to me that the meta has shifted to the power of the jink save. Space marine armies are commonly based on bikers now with white scars and raven claw zipping about the battlefield, and the super power of the day, seer council makes a mastery if the jink. I believe when you figure out how many wounds you have to put on a fortuned council, it's like 36 wounds because of 2+ cover save re-rolling. Most high volume fire either doesn't ignore cover, or is not ap3. Tau have their large blast super guns, but generally you aren't going to get enough wounds to take out the council.

With good strength, decent rate of fire and the ability to ignore both jink and most armor, the dark reapers fill a food niche in the current meta. I still like the tempest launcher on an exarch myself, but fast shot and put him on an aegis las cannon and you have a cost effective plane killer as well.
When it comes to marine bikers it has the strength to consistently harm them, and once again, only invul will protect them.

Just thought that might be a useful rethink to share with the world of Dakka.

I use 4 with missiles...if the board has a building with a fire point or a LOS blocking piece in my deployment...they go there...otherwise I keep mine in reserve...with their range, walking on the board means you can touch every part of the board unless deployment is the long way.

They generally do exactly what I need them to. Been toying with taking 3 with an extra shot exarch as it's actually cheaper than 4 of them.

Point wise I would think it breaks even. Twenty for one additional bs 5 shot, or thirty for two bs 4 and an extra wound. I like the walking on bit though.

Adding in Krak missiles also makes them more flexible.

 seapheonix wrote:
Point wise I would think it breaks even. Twenty for one additional bs 5 shot, or thirty for two bs 4 and an extra wound. I like the walking on bit though.

Adding in Krak missiles also makes them more flexible.

My Eldar list was built to endure...besides my reserves...all of my reserves are meant to deal a single heavy blow and be cheap about it before dying.

I have absolutely no complaints with these 4 reapers with krak missiles. Slow and Purposeful is nice.



The Autarch helps though.

Since the new codex dropped I've felt that Reapers are a very solid choice in the HS slot.

not what meta means... whatever...

how have cover saves become more important now than in 5th edition, where a blade of grass gave a 6+?

 viewfinder wrote:
not what meta means... whatever...

how have cover saves become more important now than in 5th edition, where a blade of grass gave a 6+?

Because cover saves on vehicles are far easier to get.
Well - on relevant vehicles anyway.

As to cover saves and how they are effected by the dark reapers. They now have the reaper range finder which ignores jink saves. Not any cover, just jink saves. However one of the important tenants of space marine bike builds and seer stars is that they get a free cover save once they move. For their cost, reapers provide a solid counter to something seen as terribly dangerous. The gravy of using them to shoot at vehicles, fliers, and clusters of marine armor makes the suitable for a tournament list.

I have heard a lot of success is to be had with a large unit of Dark Reapers behind an ADL with a Spiritseer and a Tau Buff Commander all with Krak Missiles. 8 Bs 4 Re-roll to hit Tank Hunting Ignore Cover shots is going to put a whole in anything, same with 16 Strength 5 Ap 3 Ignore Cover Shots. The Spiritseer is there for Shoruded (2+ cover save anyone?) and the possibility of Jinx (Aww, you think you are safe with a 2+ save?) while the Buff Commander stands at the front with some drones and tanks on his 4 wound 2+ save.

It's quite expensive, but it erases practically any unit in a single turn that isn't a deathstar. Heck, even against Av 14 The Fast Shot Bs 5 Las Cannon with Tank Hunter and Ignore Cover is very likely to put a dent in it!

Ally in Buffmander and sit them with a Spiritseer or Farseer (or both if you're feeling ritzy) and you've got some incredibly killy sons of guns at your disposal. They should be getting 2+ cover from conceal or have a 2+ armor save from protect, then you've got buffmander there granting them TL, ignores ALL cover, and Monster/Tank Hunter. Possible Fortune goodness for ultimate win.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 astro_nomicon wrote:
Ally in Buffmander and sit them with a Spiritseer or Farseer (or both if you're feeling ritzy) and you've got some incredibly killy sons of guns at your disposal. They should be getting 2+ cover from conceal or have a 2+ armor save from protect, then you've got buffmander there granting them TL, ignores ALL cover, and Monster/Tank Hunter. Possible Fortune goodness for ultimate win.

EDIT: Ninja'd