I walk again, a god among mere mortals
- Avatar of Khaine

Wednesday 18 December 2013

The Banshee Not So Scary



Happy Wednesday all!

So I have had a couple of games with my Banshee’s in my new list against Sean’s Tau and then against Erik’s Imperial Fists and here’s my thoughts on them so far.

In both games my Banshee’s lived but were severely depleted which I suspect is to be expected from a very fragile close combat unit that has to run the length of the battle field to reach their target. I fielded an Avatar in all the games and generally ran the Banshee’s quite close to him so they were fearless most of the time. My philosophy of running them in an army list that was full of higher priority dangers actually worked wonders and in the couple of games that I did use them, they weren't fired upon until the 3rd or 4th turns.
 

The problem was, when they did manage to get across the battlefield their numbers were too sufficiently depleted that their damage output was critically hamstrung. In the games that I played they were down to two or three Banshees’s and at Strength 3 (Strength 4 on charge) and rolling 5’s most of the time to wound you really need to be rolling as many dice as possible. I ran a unit of 6, Exarch with an Executioner but I think you really would need to field them in a unit of 10 to help mitigate the casualties in getting across the battlefield, which then creates its own new problem. 10 Banshee’s are hell of a lot more noticeable than the 6 I was fielding and I am sure they would attract increased fire.

Their kill tally in both games came to one Devil Fish and then two tactical marines so effectively they just mopped up a few of my enemies models near the end of the games. Certainly doesn’t warrant the investment in points into them.

I still love the models and the fluff behind them and I am sure I will get around to painting them at some stage but sadly my little play test has only backed up the general consensus of this unit that exists among Eldar players.

Pro’s:
Fast unit with +3” to run and with fleet
Great if charging a unit that isn’t in cover

Con’s:
No Grenades
Fragile
Damage output too low for Str 3
Needs large unit to be fielded to be worthwhile
No Delivery Mechanism


Recommendation: Do not field this unit

2 comments:

  1. Aww, I was really hoping we would all be proved wrong, that you would field them and they would work wonders :(

    I'm curious though, how were they S4 on the charge? Furious Charge doesn't grant that anymore, does it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Furious charge still gives +1 str on the charge, however it has lost the +1 Init that it used to have in 5th edition.

    Rathstar

    ReplyDelete