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Hi all,

New player here. I had prettymuch decided on Dark Eldar as my first army... until I read about the Corsairs. They seem to take everything I liked most about Dark Eldar and go to the extreme with it - super-mobile, glass cannon, aggressive playstyle, high specialization - but without the BDSM and emo stuff going on.

Couple questions before I jump ship!

Is the Corsairs codex a massive cheese factory? As I get into looking at a potential list and buying models, I want to make sure I'm not being a "that guy" powergamer. A lot of the Codex looks incredibly powerful, at least from what I can gather reading summaries online, but it's hard to judge it in the overall scheme of things due to my lack of knowledge of the rest of the codices.

Models? I'm not seeing a lot of the models on the Games Workshop web store. Is it up to me to kitbash/convert most of the models myself? Honestly this would probably turn me off from the Corsairs as a first army, until I get some modeling/hobby experience under my belt.

You must convert the models yourself, yes. Although conversion kits are available on FW. (Corsairs being a FW army.)

The codex has several balancing factors, so it isn't inordinately cheesy. EXCEPT in Kill Team, where those balancing factors are ignored, and Corsairs are egregious.

As to power level - they are strong, but not broken or ridiculous, unless you decide to build an army of as many Warp Hunters and Hornets you can fit in. But the biggest issue with Corsairs is that they are Forge World faction, so many players will outright refuse playing against them.

There is no classic Codex for them, you have to purchase Doom of Mymeara from FW and there is a lot of resin parts/models all over the place. Basic troops are based on Eldar Guardians and Windriders with Forge World bitz packs and half of Corsair vechicles are Forge World also, so the cost of fielding Corsairs is much higher than Dark or Craftworld Eldar.

As a DE main with now 15k DE points I too went the way of the Corsairs.

1) They are extremely Fluffy
2) They are MUCH more fun (IMO) than Eldar and DE
3) They are weaker than Eldar but MUCH stronger than DE
4) You can have Weak and Power level lists, so if you wanted to play friendly or comp you can
4.a) A friendly list basically isnt Spam Hornets/Warp Hunters and Wasps.

Corsairs are weaker b.c they have Point sinks, Bikes cost more, you need more HQ's (30pts+ x3 builds up fast) Wasps are War Walkers than cost more.


Honestly if your area is against your playing Corsairs do to power level tell them they are stronger DE and weaker Eldar, they are a fluffy DE/Eldar army with some Taxes.

Corsairs have some amazing units and some sweet rules, but they also are not as strong as DA, SM or Eldar.

Honestly I love them.

You will need to buy the FW book, it is costly sadly, and if you want them to look like Corsairs you need 2-3 Upgrade apcks, I've been waiting for them for 8 months.......... I just emailed them and they are working on the master mold now. So they should be pack on the store soon.

 Jimsolo wrote:
You must convert the models yourself, yes. Although conversion kits are available on FW. (Corsairs being a FW army.)

The codex has several balancing factors, so it isn't inordinately cheesy. EXCEPT in Kill Team, where those balancing factors are ignored, and Corsairs are egregious.

I didnt like them for Kill team, honestly I did much better with Harlequins, we did a Kill team league and out of about 20 games I won 17 of them with Harlequins, Turn 2 charge hitting 1st , I had a mis of some with Caress and some with Kisses. Honestly in Kill team I think the Kiss did better on none Troupe Masters. blah anyways, I didnt like Corsairs for Kill team. Tho our points levels was 1st 2 games 250pts, then it slowly went up to 400pts. It was a campaign

Oh crap, it's ForgeWorld. Can I even get that here in the states?

It looks like all the Corsair infantry and bike units can be made from Eldar/Deldar units with the FW conversion packs. Simple enough, but hella expensive.

The vehicles are harder to find info for... FW sells Hornets and Wasps, but I can't tell if I could just use the base Fire Prism model for the Corsairs version or not.

I guess I'll have to talk to the owner/manager of my local games store and see what the attitude about Corsairs might be. Honestly it's my top army so far, but if the cost is high enough and the ability to find people to play games with is low enough, it'll quickly become not worth it.

 Chippen wrote:
Oh crap, it's ForgeWorld. Can I even get that here in the states?

It looks like all the Corsair infantry and bike units can be made from Eldar/Deldar units with the FW conversion packs. Simple enough, but hella expensive.

The vehicles are harder to find info for... FW sells Hornets and Wasps, but I can't tell if I could just use the base Fire Prism model for the Corsairs version or not.

I guess I'll have to talk to the owner/manager of my local games store and see what the attitude about Corsairs might be. Honestly it's my top army so far, but if the cost is high enough and the ability to find people to play games with is low enough, it'll quickly become not worth it.

You can, it just cost like 5$ extra shipping for the book solo.

Its just Eldar or DE models with an Upgrade pack, if you already bought a venom or 2 or a raider or 2, you can use the Dinamic posed riders as the models (thats what i'm doing) and use the upgrade packs.

A Hornet is a a Vyper/Venom chasey with large guns, google "Corsair Hornet"

You can use a Fire Prism for a Warp Hunter, thats what I did, but I model the gun a little differently.

If you local is against them, literally say "well I could play 3 Wraithknights 20 Warp Spiders and 20 Eldar Bikes instead" haha, honestly if he is against them then he is an

Tell other players its weaker/fluffy Eldar. B.c... it is.

 Chippen wrote:
Oh crap, it's ForgeWorld. Can I even get that here in the states?

It looks like all the Corsair infantry and bike units can be made from Eldar/Deldar units with the FW conversion packs. Simple enough, but hella expensive.

The vehicles are harder to find info for... FW sells Hornets and Wasps, but I can't tell if I could just use the base Fire Prism model for the Corsairs version or not.

I guess I'll have to talk to the owner/manager of my local games store and see what the attitude about Corsairs might be. Honestly it's my top army so far, but if the cost is high enough and the ability to find people to play games with is low enough, it'll quickly become not worth it.

You'll be signing up for a bit more converting than you might otherwise be doing, but it shouldn't be that difficult. The official models for your basic Troops just start from Guardians and have a different faceplate and optionally a different gun (shuriken catapult, splinter rifle, lasblaster, or pistol/CCW), your jetbikes have different tail fins, and your motor pool has the Nightspinner/Fire Prism and Falcon in it as well as the wackier Forge World vehicles.

With the Craftworld, Dark Eldar, and Harlequin ranges to draw on you should be able to come up with enough parts to at least approximate almost everything in the range with a minimum of work/extraneous costs; trawl Ebay for bits resellers and you can start mixing and matching parts until you've got a result you like. I've made long rifles for alternate Ranger models out of splinter rifles with a Harlequin's Kiss for the muzzle, the neural disruptor makes a great Balelight, that sort of thing. And don't be afraid of going to the fantasy Elf ranges if you need to, the Wildwood Ranger heads have made some of my favourite projects come to life. Would give a guide for trying to make Corsair jump packs out of plasticard and greenstuff but I'm still working on it myself.

Addendum: The only thing in the Corsair book that is actually problematically OP is the Warp Hunter. The rest of the book is fine.

How much from-scratch conversion is there vs buying the conversion kits form Forgeworld and slapping them on the models?

 AnomanderRake wrote:

Addendum: The only thing in the Corsair book that is actually problematically OP is the Warp Hunter. The rest of the book is fine.

And if complains on Warp Hunter get to heavy in your area, it is easily fixable if you treat it's Dispersed rule exactly same as D-Scythe rule, i.e. S4 for I.D. purposes instead of S10. It remains strong (somewhere in Fire Prism area), but loses a lot of punch against SM and alike.

I made my corsair bikes by simply putting de scourge heads on craftworld bikers. I used sister of slaughter heads for princes. Look great and got the heads I didn't already have cheaply on eBay. Had to go to FW for the hornets and warp hunter though

One thing needs to be made very clear, the Corsair upgrade set to give everyone Corsair Jet Packs (and Lasblasters if you want them) have been "temporarily out of stock" for about 10 months now, every time I've emailed them I get the same stock response about needing a new mold and given the recent rumours being that it's all hands on deck for Horus Heresy and Adeptus Titanicus I don't expect that to change anytime soon.

Persoanlly, I'm relying on a lot of converting for my army, being a Forgeworld list there just aren't models for everything and some of them are prohibetively expensive so it's best to spread the cost over a lengthy period of time instead of getting the army in one go.

I used Kabalites for Reavers, Reaver Jetbikes for Cloud Dancer Jetbikes, an Archon for the Prince, a Warlock on Windrider for a different Prince, a Shadowseer for the Void Dreamer, Eldar War Walkers with spare Dark Eldar Raider sails for Wasp Assault Walkers and Scourge for Balestrikes (their various special weapons are fairly easy to convert to counts as Dark Lances and they give me extra Blaster for the Reaver squads).

I can see how a Fire Prism can be converted into a Warp Hunter but theirs no getting around the fact that there's no plastic analogues for a Lynx or Hornet, but they are awesome Forgeworld models and well worth getting.

The hardest part is the Jet Packs, personally I used a Kabalite Warrior Dark Lance backpack and stuck a pair of spare Reaver Jetbike wings onto it, it looks good but I've now got to cast another 35 of the things because I'm not going to get that many back pakcs and Reaver wings from bits sellers.

 Imateria wrote:
One thing needs to be made very clear, the Corsair upgrade set to give everyone Corsair Jet Packs (and Lasblasters if you want them) have been "temporarily out of stock" for about 10 months now, every time I've emailed them I get the same stock response about needing a new mold and given the recent rumours being that it's all hands on deck for Horus Heresy and Adeptus Titanicus I don't expect that to change anytime soon.

Persoanlly, I'm relying on a lot of converting for my army, being a Forgeworld list there just aren't models for everything and some of them are prohibetively expensive so it's best to spread the cost over a lengthy period of time instead of getting the army in one go.

I used Kabalites for Reavers, Reaver Jetbikes for Cloud Dancer Jetbikes, an Archon for the Prince, a Warlock on Windrider for a different Prince, a Shadowseer for the Void Dreamer, Eldar War Walkers with spare Dark Eldar Raider sails for Wasp Assault Walkers and Scourge for Balestrikes (their various special weapons are fairly easy to convert to counts as Dark Lances and they give me extra Blaster for the Reaver squads).

I can see how a Fire Prism can be converted into a Warp Hunter but theirs no getting around the fact that there's no plastic analogues for a Lynx or Hornet, but they are awesome Forgeworld models and well worth getting.

The hardest part is the Jet Packs, personally I used a Kabalite Warrior Dark Lance backpack and stuck a pair of spare Reaver Jetbike wings onto it, it looks good but I've now got to cast another 35 of the things because I'm not going to get that many back pakcs and Reaver wings from bits sellers.

Ive been Emailing them every month. This month they told me "They are working on the Master Mold now".

So I "assume" that they will be available in the near future.

Like what Imateria said the Jet Jacks are the Hardest part, you dnt need the correct guns "As long as the gun you use is the ONLY version of it on the table" meaning if you use Splinter Guns you "shouldn't" ally in DE and have their splinter guns too, now you have the same gun "looks" with 2 different Profiles, keep the guns the same it should be fine, an Option is to cut the Tip off and replace the tip.

nou wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:

Addendum: The only thing in the Corsair book that is actually problematically OP is the Warp Hunter. The rest of the book is fine.

And if complains on Warp Hunter get to heavy in your area, it is easily fixable if you treat it's Dispersed rule exactly same as D-Scythe rule, i.e. S4 for I.D. purposes instead of S10. It remains strong (somewhere in Fire Prism area), but loses a lot of punch against SM and alike.

This is true. Backing it off to wounding on a 3+ also helps.

Most of their units can be taken by just getting Eldar or Dark eldar equivalents and then gussying them up a bit. For the jetpack troops, I've been using Hellions. It's a win-win, since the Hellions are such a gorgeous damn model and so useless in their original role, and they clearly represent a jet/jump unit.

 Amishprn86 wrote:

 Jimsolo wrote:
You must convert the models yourself, yes. Although conversion kits are available on FW. (Corsairs being a FW army.)

The codex has several balancing factors, so it isn't inordinately cheesy. EXCEPT in Kill Team, where those balancing factors are ignored, and Corsairs are egregious.

I didnt like them for Kill team, honestly I did much better with Harlequins, we did a Kill team league and out of about 20 games I won 17 of them with Harlequins, Turn 2 charge hitting 1st , I had a mis of some with Caress and some with Kisses. Honestly in Kill team I think the Kiss did better on none Troupe Masters. blah anyways, I didnt like Corsairs for Kill team. Tho our points levels was 1st 2 games 250pts, then it slowly went up to 400pts. It was a campaign

I found four Scatterbikes and 3 Splinterbikes to be ludicrously powerful. Your mileage may vary.

Oh PS: I made my own Hornets. I will post a Picture later (They are at my FLG). And when I post I'll show how I did it.

If you can't get the FW jetpacks, I've used the little vanes you get with Raider and Ravager kits and they look decently jetpacky to distinguish them from footsloggers.



Personally, I like the look of them better (I would, I made them!). While the FW ones do look damn cool, and are a great RT-era throwback, I can't shake the image of a Corsair walking down the corridor of a spaceship they're boarding and getting tangled in overhead wires or wedged in a narrow section...

I suppose they fold when boarding, or they use Voidstorms for boarding actions, but hey-ho

HAHA, Im about to do this too honestly XD

I was just trying to finish my Harlequins 1st (I play Harlequins+Corsairs I feel they complement each other very well)

 Chippen wrote:
Oh crap, it's ForgeWorld. Can I even get that here in the states?

It looks like all the Corsair infantry and bike units can be made from Eldar/Deldar units with the FW conversion packs. Simple enough, but hella expensive.

The vehicles are harder to find info for... FW sells Hornets and Wasps, but I can't tell if I could just use the base Fire Prism model for the Corsairs version or not.

I guess I'll have to talk to the owner/manager of my local games store and see what the attitude about Corsairs might be. Honestly it's my top army so far, but if the cost is high enough and the ability to find people to play games with is low enough, it'll quickly become not worth it.

As long as you don't mix armies (like having Eldar allied with Corsairs) you should be fine substituting in say wasps with regular walkers and such. Forgeworld is expensive so just make sure to plan ahead, and if people refuse to play an army just because its FW, they are not worth your time to even play with anyways.