January Dataslate '24 - Skysplinter Assault Detachment and Points updates

[TrawlingCleaner]

 

As you would've likely seen by now Drukhari have gotten a new Index Detachment! The Skysplinter Assault Detachment

It quite frankly dramatically changes the army's playstyle and is likely to reinvigorate the faction as a whole.

 

The detachment benefit is: A unit that has disembarked from a transport this turn has IGNORES COVER on ranged weapons and LANCE on Melee weapons.

The Ranged benefit is nice, I don't think it's particularly ground breaking and really you don't want your ranged units like Kabalites actually on the field. The Exception to this would be using the Skybourne Annihilation strat which allows a unit that has disembarked this turn to et SUSTAINED 1 or if they're Kabalites SUSTAINED 2! If you roll lucky a single Kabalite suddenly becomes a Ravager!

 

The Melee benefit really is what sells this detachment I think, LANCE is a massive boon to our melee units that were really struggling. With the inclusion of an Archon in a unit like Incubi (another change thanks to the Dataslate), they can really swing upwards. I think Incubi are basically what Chaos Space Marine's Chosen were, a Melee missile that is likely to knock out whatever it touches. The strats mostly reward this playstyle too, mainly focusing on Combat troops.

Wraithlike Retreat allows a unit that has fought this turn to jump back into their transport or if they're a Wych unit, to make a normal move which is incredibly good for the objective game! Pounce on the Prey gives us Assault ramps for one unit, allowing them to charge if their transport has moved before they disembark which the unit would also get LANCE too which is fantastic. Night Shield is great for keeping a key transport alive as transports really are the key to this detachement I think.

 

I think the main weakness is essentially what Dark Eldar's weakness has always been but magnified somewhat: Transports and Elf Flimsiness

 

You only get benefits to your army from the detachment if your transports are alive. If you're jumping out to shoot or to fight, the units need to be able to kill whatever they do otherwise they're very quickly toast. The Transports themselves are some of the weaker vehicles in the game so they will very quickly die. Incubi will hit hard and are like Chosen in that respect, except Chosen have 3x as many wounds and ways to reduce AP, bring models back etc so are incredibly fragile. The army is definitely all about positioning and picking your opponent apart, which is what they've always been to be fair

 

I think there's so really neat combos you can do here with Melee units like Wyches and Incubi, I also think there's some really nice things you can do with Kabalites. For example, a split Kabalite squad in 2 venoms with all the special weapons in one Venom can jump out, use  Skybourne Annihilation for Sustained Hits 2. Hopefully spike some extra Blaster, Splinter Cannon and Dark Lance shots and then at the end of the fight phase, jump back in with the Venom's ability.

One thing to note is that the Court of the Archon cannot join the Archon in an Incubi squad as they specifically call out being able to join Kabalites. Probably for the better as Lethal hits, -1 to wound and Fights First on a unit of Incubi + Rerolls to hit, +1 AP and Rerolls to wound is probably a little too much

 

I'm sure plenty more combos will be spotted shortly! I'm really excited to get games in with my Truekin, I've really been strugglign to enjoy the other detachment as it ultimately doesn't feel like Dark Eldar to me. These changes + changes to the faction ability + points reductions on some of the lesser taken units is a lot all in one go. There's a part of me that is worries it may have been a little too much in one go but I guess we'll see how it shakes out!

 

How does this change things for you?

What are you looking at running?

What are you most excited to try out?

Are there any combos you've spotted?

[Ming the Merciless]

Looks promising but melee units are going to need pain tokens and leaders to significantly increase damage output reliably. Archons leading Incubi is great!

 

Making good use of supporting units to generate pain tokens for a the desired big turn(s) of mass disembarking & charging assault troops will be key.

 

 

Does Drazhar's +1 to wound stack with [lance]?

 

[TrawlingCleaner]

22 minutes ago, Ming the Merciless said:

Looks promising but melee units are going to need pain tokens and leaders to significantly increase damage output reliably. Archons leading Incubi is great!

 

Making good use of supporting units to generate pain tokens for a the desired big turn(s) of mass disembarking & charging assault troops will be key.

 

 

Does Drazhar's +1 to wound stack with [lance]?

 

 

For sure, I think the same or similar core of Ravagers, Scourge and Cronos set up to make sure you're getting pain tokens and regenerating them just in case one of your missile units bounces is definitely  a way to  mitigate that.

 

+/-'s to hit or wound are to a maximum of +1 or -1 so you could have 3 ways of getting +1 to wound on a unit but it would only total +1. If that makes sense?

[Ming the Merciless]

List wise I'm going to keep it simple at first and try...

 

Archon (Nightmare Shroud)

5 Incubi

Venom

Archon (Phantasmal Smoke)

5 Incubi

Venom

Drazhar

5 Incubi

Venom

Lelith

10 Wyches

Raider

Succubus

10 Wyches

Raider

10 Kabalites

Venom (Kabalite assault weapons)

10 Kabalites

Venom (Kabalite assault weapons)

Raider (Kabalite heavy weapons)

Cronos

5 Scourges

Ravager

Ravager

[Karhedron]

2 hours ago, TrawlingCleaner said:

+/-'s to hit or wound are to a maximum of +1 or -1 so you could have 3 ways of getting +1 to wound on a unit but it would only total +1. If that makes sense?

 

Are you sure? I know that was the case in previous editions but I can't find anything in the 10th edition rulebook to that effect. The only place something similar is mentioned is that multiple instances of Cover are not cumulative.

 

EDIT - Never mind, I just found it in the rules commentary.

 

 

The only slight ambiguity is that it says "some dice rolls" but does not specify which ones. It mentions Hit rolls and I would guess Wound rolls as well.

Edited January 31 by Karhedron

[Zoatibix]

I think it written like that because Saves can be modified by more than plus or minus one. However, they couldn’t think of a straightforward way to write that.

 

As to the new Detachment…thank goodness! We actually get to be effective at both shooting and melee again. Not having some bonuses to our relatively fragile open-topped transports was actually quite galling. 

[TrawlingCleaner]

14 hours ago, Zoatibix said:

As to the new Detachment…thank goodness! We actually get to be effective at both shooting and melee again. Not having some bonuses to our relatively fragile open-topped transports was actually quite galling. 

 

For sure, I'm glad they went with an entirely new detachment rather than trying to make Realspace Raiders work. This new one (at least on paper as I've yet to play with the new detachment) feels like Dark Eldar. I'm not sure what they could've done with RSR to make it work, other than majorly rework it.

 

Now that Archons can go in Incubi squads, how do people feel about Court of the Archons? They're now in a bit of weird spot I think, they were a decent way to get at least a small amoutn of melee punch previously especially when attached to the Archon but now other melee units use the LANCE a little better and the Archon and Incubi can go together, they're in a bit of a weird spot

 

Also looking at the Tantalus' ability, can just use it to Mortal Wound bomb something?

You charge it into a unit with Tankshock and roll 8 D6 (+2 if they're less Strength) needing 5s

The Tanatlus' ability goes off and on a 2-3 you do D3 MW, 4-5 you do 3 MW or a 6 you do D3+3

Then use Vicious Blades strat for 16 D6 needing 5s or 4s if they're Wracks inside

 

Even just a Raider Tankshocking+Vicious Blades to something has the potential to spike really well and pick something up in a clutch play. You need good luck though!

 

Edited February 1 by TrawlingCleaner

[Montoya]

On 1/31/2024 at 10:49 AM, Karhedron said:

 

Are you sure? I know that was the case in previous editions but I can't find anything in the 10th edition rulebook to that effect. The only place something similar is mentioned is that multiple instances of Cover are not cumulative.

 

EDIT - Never mind, I just found it in the rules commentary.

 

 

The only slight ambiguity is that it says "some dice rolls" but does not specify which ones. It mentions Hit rolls and I would guess Wound rolls as well.

 

 

If you look up Hit roll and wound roll.   Both do specify that they can't be modified by more than 1.   It's in the last paragraph before the summary bullets in both cases.

 

 

[Dr. Clock]

Well colour me impressed. Played first game with skysplinter detachment to turn 4 win vs Sisters. Mission was Ritual with both delayed reserves and targets of opportunity so we went 40/40 on secondaries but I got up 25 to 10 by turn 4 on primary.

 

My list:

 

Archon + Court + 10 Kabalites

 

Archon (Shroud) + 10 Incubi + Raider

 

10 wracks + Raider

 

10 Kabalites + Raider

 

10 kabalites + 2 venoms (did one dark light sniper squad and one cannon/shredder instead of breaking all the lances into the one raider squad above. I kinda like having the full 10 man Raider squad because I find I do want to have credible anti-infantry on that raider as well as the lances... If I had one more Raider I might do one with the 2 lances I guess)

 

5 Incubi + venom

 

2x5 Scourges

 

2x Ravager

 

2x Cronos

 

1x5 Mandrakes

 

Can report - Wrack Blades missile is definitely satisfying; enough so that I'd consider a second one if I had a fourth Raider, though 4th Kab squad would slot into list a bit better (?)

Incubi charged out of a moving transport 3 times, and fell back into Raider afterwards once.

10 Incubi did murder Morvenn and 2 Paragons on the charge. Felt good.

 

Basically as a detachment I feel like you either plan to go big on assault out of transports and vicous blades OR do the shooting after disembark thing alot with Kabs, but there's not really enough CP to plan on both... And I'm perfectly happy with budgeting all my CP on Blades + Pounce + occasional Wraithlike and one or 2 Night Shields to try and make ravagers live long enough to do something.

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

 

 

Edited February 5 by Dr. Clock

[TrawlingCleaner]

That's good insight Dr, I didn't really think about how much CP you'd use if you plan to use both heavy shooting and heavy combat. Is there anything you'd consider not taking in your list? Or did it all perform as needed?

[Dr. Clock]

On 2/6/2024 at 4:58 AM, TrawlingCleaner said:

Is there anything you'd consider not taking in your list?

I think everything works well enough to be sure.

 

The main change I'm considering is just dropping the 5 Incubi + venom and 1 Cronos  for another Raider full of Kabs or Wracks. I use my Cronos as early middle trash/chaffe already, and the 5 in venom scored a heap of secondaries but feel like the 4th Raider just adds better core redundancy and later game options.

 

While I lost both Cronos, a Ravager and a Raider in one turn for a big turn 2 Bring it Down swing, that's basically inescapable for this list... Afterwards I still had the shooting options from Scourges, and Incubi and Kab Raiders running around. 2 venoms made it as well because they basically kite corners all day, hide and do actions and later picking on enemy action chaffe.

 

Another unit of 10 in Raider I think would give a stronger chance of a second use of Wicked Blades, while with another 10 Kabs I'd be actually planning on a Lethal / Sustained combo opening up after Wrack missile lands (and invariably explodes). 

 

I love the Foot Court, and do want to run a Fulcrum version some day... but putting second Archon in Raider +10 Kabs also looks plenty spicy?

 

On 2/6/2024 at 4:58 AM, TrawlingCleaner said:

Or did it all perform as needed?

 

Totally! My context is FAR less than 'competitive' - it's really just me and one friend out here playing games for over 20 years lol - so of course mileage may vary. Biggest material differences to mainstream are 1) We still play on a full 6x4', and 2) We play with an 'extra narrative POV character' which makes usual lists up to 2100 points. Thus, the list played did include a 'free Beastmaster', without whom I think the added Raider squad of whatever description would be even more important than the Cronos and harassment Incubi.

 

EDIT: Chiming back in to fete the 2 archons winning tournies this last week: one featured 3x reavers which was a bit surprising to me, and the other (good ol' Mr. McC) rocked up with triple beastmasters (in a Realspace Raid detachment maybe?). Also interesting listening to Realspace Raiders 'cast - they were largely going all in on MSU, which I get to an extent, it just feels like the CP, Paint Points and everything still makes full units pretty stonkin efficient? Some talk of party bus again, which would of course be very cool... Definitely a splattering of MSU is good for everyone, but I'm gonna keep trying to spend CP only on units of 10 when possible.

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

Edited February 10 by Dr. Clock