Corsair-themed army (ramblings and ideas)

[Frostglaive]

Greetings, ladies and gents, and a Merry Christmas to you all. I have a few thoughts and questions for you guys that I'd like your input on.

 

Last month, I decided to start up an Eldar army. Bought the new Start Collecting set and a couple more odds and ends, but nothing built yet. Mainly because I didn't know for sure what kind of theme I wanted for my army. Well, earlier today as a Christmas Eve present, I got the IA Xenos book. Read through all the Eldar entries, and the Corsairs caught my eye. Now, the original plan was to do a Ynnari army just so I could have access to a bit of everything instead of JUST Craftworlds and IA. But now I'm thinking of just doing multiple detachments instead of Eldar melting pot.

 

Here's my thinking: I do Ynnari, I lose Battle Focus, Power From Pain, and Rising Crescendo. If I were to add in Corsairs into my army, seeing as they are a faction all about speed, I feel like losing Battle Focus would be a hindrance for me. Power From Pain I'm not TOO worried about, since I won't have much Dark Eldar anyway. Harlequins... yeah, I don't want to give up Rising Crescendo to be honest.

 

HOWEVER... since Corsairs don't have the <Craftworld> keyword, if I were to add them into a Craftworld detachment, I'd lose out on those bonus abilities. Now, I'm not too worried about losing out on that, seeing as this army is going to focus more on Rule of Cool than winning tournaments. But I lose out on certain stratagems, bonus abilities, and certain relics, just so I can run units that may or may not be all that great (never seen Corsairs in action, so I have no idea how well they operate).

 

I'd like to know your guys' thoughts on all this. Gameplay-wise, would I be better off just accepting the loss of Battle Focus, Power From Pain, Rising Crescendo in exchange for Strength From Death? Or is running multiple detachments of different Eldar factions a better idea? And to those who actually use (or at least know enough about) Corsairs, are they good units to field, or are they better for just Rule of Cool instead of being combat-effective?

 

Moving on from gameplay into the hobby aspect. Since the actual Corsair conversion sets (other than heavy weapons and jetbikes) on FW are gone, I was thinking of utilizing other sets to kitbash for a more raider/pirate look. I'm thinking maybe use Age of Sigmar elf sets like the Shadow Warriors or Wildwood Rangers and kitbash with Guardians and Kabalites. Maybe some of the Sigmar unnamed characters as well to kitbash as sergeant-equivalents and leaders and whatnot. Do you guys have any other suggestions I could do?

 

Your suggestions and any other advice you may have is very much appreciated.

 

Merry Christmas to you all.

[Captain Coolpants]

Why merry Christmas!

 

Well here's something to read about the corsairs in the exiles tab.

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/334939-eldar-corsairs-questions/#

 

 

Game play wise it's actually quite literally impossible to have a full functional "army" of corsairs. Since they have no keywords to allow transports/powers/auras ect. Or even HQs anymore.

 

So if you are wanting to use them, you definitely should just have a single detachment of them along an actual army.

 

Remember that some of the costs and such were changed on the errata/faq/chapter approved thing.

 

BUT if you were to play them, you lose nothing major as ynnari (although they have been absolutely battered with the nerf stick recently).

 

Looks wise, I think corsairs are so cool. As you can mix and match all different aspects/eldar/deldar/exodite/sigmar parts.

 

I was forced to purchase everything from a recaster though for obvious reasons.

Edited December 25, 2017 by Captain Coolpants

[Spiritual Liege]

Counts-assing Corsairs as Craftworlders is another option.

[Captain Coolpants]

^^^ this is probably the best bet until corsairs get redone again.

[Frostglaive]

Thanks for the input guys. I do have one more question though:

 

Say I were to not run Ynnari, but still run an army with a mash-up from all three factions (ex. Farseer and Archons as HQs, Kabalites with Harlequins as Troops, etc.). Now I know I'd lose out on the Craftworlds rule since not everyone has that keyword. but would rules like Battle Focus, Power From Pain, and Rising Crescendo be lost as well since they're not 100% of that faction? Or do the units that have those still keep them?

I care nothing for Ynnari, but rule and fluff-wise. Plus I hate the idea of being forced to take one of the Triumvirate models (of which I also do not like). So I'm trying to avoid that as much as possible. I know I can run all factions in separate detachments, since they all share Aeldari keyword at least. But I'm just trying to see all what I can do.

Edited December 28, 2017 by Frostglaive

[Dr. Clock]

Yep; mix 'n match is totally feasible IMO, and yes you keep battle focus and PfP in such a detachment... it's also worth noting that it's not difficult to throw down multiple detachments on Eldar to keep the factions separate to keep Craftworld rules; Minimum effective detachment of DE is around 750 points.

 

For a Corsair theme, MSU based on Falcons is fun and fluffy, and Warp Hunters are still wicked fun. I go maximum diversity in my Corsair lists: 1 each of falcon, hornet, ravager, warphunter, and then 2 venoms and 2 Raiders, topping the rest up with scoring and Scourges.

 

Scourges are fantastic, and pretty much do everything that you might want Jetpack Corsairs to do. The main annoyance is just that you can't take small Troop jump units or like 5 guys with AML in a Falcon, but I've taken a good number of 'double threat' Eldar lists, and won games...

 

And Harlequins are perfectly excellent as 'mad assault Corsairs', but Incubi can also be fun lol.

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.