On Harpies...

The skaerkrow · Post by **The skaerkrow** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:30 pm

I've never really run Harpies in my Dark Elf army, so I was wondering what the general consensus was on optimum unit sizes. The list that I'm working on currently features two units of 5, but I'm considering combining that into a single unit of 8 or 9. Does anyone have any insights on the peaks and pitfalls of either approach?

Post by **Loki** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:38 pm

If you're going to do more than 5, you should go with 9. From 5-8 they need to take 2 casualties for a panic test. At 9-12 they need to take 3 casualties for a panic test. Personally, I run 2 units of 5 and have never been too disappointed in them. At 55 points for the unit, you can't really complain when they die.

Crawd · Post by **Crawd** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:22 pm

2 units of 5 does pretty much the job. Always use them for screening, rushing warmachines, killing small shooting unit, rushing flankers or even triggering fanatics.

They are just plain awesome.

Badhatharry · Post by **Badhatharry** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:39 pm

The other night, a buddy showed me a trick that had me place a unit stretched out around a hill, one end was able to marchblock one of his units (my original intent), but the other end of the unit was directly behind an existing combat..
I won the combat, and when he broke, was gobbled by the harpies.

Post by **Dyvim tvar** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:43 pm

2 units of 5 for me.

Tzelok · Post by **Tzelok** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:49 pm

2 units of five, never leave home without them. They are the best use of 110 points in my whole army.

Marauder mitch2 · Post by **Marauder mitch2** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:40 pm

2 Units of 5 for me a must. remeber when they were a 0-1 choice and how many armies didn't have them.

The are as ace as Ben Curry throwing a beer soaked sock in the road.

Lasthobbit · Post by **Lasthobbit** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:49 pm

As for me: 2*5 is a best solution. 110 pts for 2 flying scirmisher's units (core!) with 10 attacs each, possibility to marshblock, divert, scoring a quarters and so on... Perfect. Simply perfect.

Gastronauticon · Post by **Gastronauticon** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 6:31 pm

Two times five, like anyone else...

I did consider two by six to maintain US 5 for longer but that really does not pay most of the time.

Niceas · Post by **Niceas** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 8:11 pm

Given how well mine have worked, contemplating 3x5 - but like everyone else, I'm running 2x5 atm

Post by **Calisson** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 6:22 am

Loki wrote:If you're going to do more than 5, you should go with 9. From 5-8 they need to take 2 casualties for a panic test. At 9-12 they need to take 3 casualties for a panic test. Personally, I run 2 units of 5 and have never been too disappointed in them. At 55 points for the unit, you can't really complain when they die.

Fully agree, except the max size is 10.
I run 2x5 as well, with great satisfaction. 3x5 is considered, if ever GW releases a new set of harpies.

5 or 9?
9 cover a wider area, and fight better (harpies, not having hatred nor armour, are one of our worst fighter).
5 are more expandable and may hide more easily, if required.

Thedemolishedman · Post by **Thedemolishedman** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:20 am

2 x 5 - in any list. 3 x 5 for 2000+ pts.

Lordmonkey · Post by **Lordmonkey** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 9:57 am

2 x 5 here too. After baiting/distracting/dieing for the rest of the army, they can contribute weight of attacks in combat. Two of them ate an ushabti that was on it's last wound on turn 6, securing a nice chunk of Vp's

Darkangel16 · Post by **Darkangel16** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 5:21 pm

Your probably getting bored of hearing this but 2x5

They always earn their points back, whether its forcing a warmachine to shoot them instead of expensive druchii, redirecting charge, or just securing a table quarter they really can never fail

The skaerkrow · Post by **The skaerkrow** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 6:24 pm

Thanks for all of the replies, everyone. I'll definitely give two small units a try and see how that works out for me.

Post by **Dalamar** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:08 pm

2x5 is bare minimum.
Most I used was 7 units of 5

they rocked but the army lacked a bit of substance.

Bergerfett · Post by **Bergerfett** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 1:08 am

i use 7 so that when i flank chaarge or even front charge a soft enemy im guarenteed 14 attacks if their at full strenght. altho im making a khainite list so they will change a bit.

Los manticores · Post by **Los manticores** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:05 am

To show my age, and to quote the Album title from the Minutemen. "Double Nickles on the Dime". Just to flush Fanatics alone is worth 55 a unit.

PS: SK, i didn't get a chance to meet you at Buckeye, how did you fare?

The skaerkrow · Post by **The skaerkrow** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 12:27 pm

I ended up going 2-3 with two Major Wins, a Minor Loss and two Major Losses. Had two very, very tough games against Lizardmen and got matched up against a Daemons of Chaos list at the very end (Kevin Petit, who ended up coming in #4 Overall).

Ryan Matthias and I ended up playing out one of the most epic games of Warhammer ever (which turned out to be a minor loss for me).

I heard no cheers of Frodo, how did you do?

Fr0 · Post by **Fr0** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 1:54 pm

Normally I field the seven that I have. I will be trying out 2 units of 5 as they seem to work reasonably well.

Los manticores · Post by **Los manticores** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 4:51 pm

The SkaerKrow wrote:I ended up going 2-3 with two Major Wins, a Minor Loss and two Major Losses. Had two very, very tough games against Lizardmen and got matched up against a Daemons of Chaos list at the very end (Kevin Petit, who ended up coming in #4 Overall).

Ryan Matthias and I ended up playing out one of the most epic games of Warhammer ever (which turned out to be a minor loss for me).

I heard no cheers of Frodo, how did you do?

The Exact Same as you. 2 big wins, 2 big losses and 1 minor loss. I'll see Ryan on Wednesday if not I'll see him on Saturday during my Warhammer Cookout. I'll have to ask him about your game. I did learn one thing though. If it's "Gateway" for the win, then it's certainly stupidity for the loss. Hello CoK's.

Willowdark · Post by **Willowdark** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 7:09 pm

Warhammer cookout... mmmm....

On topic. It seems to me that if you have room for 2 you should make room for a 3rd. For 55 points there are so many uses that I want as many as I can to be sure that the job gets done.

2 x 5 seem like they die very quickly.

The skaerkrow · Post by **The skaerkrow** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:26 am

Los Manticores wrote:The Exact Same as you. 2 big wins, 2 big losses and 1 minor loss. I'll see Ryan on Wednesday if not I'll see him on Saturday during my Warhammer Cookout. I'll have to ask him about your game. I did learn one thing though. If it's "Gateway" for the win, then it's certainly stupidity for the loss. Hello CoK's.

I didn't have the "pleasure" of facing any Gateway lists, though I'm told that there were at least two WoC lists at the event built around that spell. Stupidity is why my 14 Cold One Knights from 6th Edition have thus far gone unpainted. Every proxy game that I'd run them in saw them either torn apart by Arcane Bodkins or succumbing to Stupidity at all of the wrong moments. At least the Chariots have Toughness 5 to fall back on when they get charged.

Makes me slightly nervous about running an army that includes two units of CoKs, but I have a friend that absolutey swears by them.

I wouldn't be opposed to running three Harpy flocks at some point (I ran three units of Dark Riders for quite a while), but as I don't know the unit, I want to get a feel for them before I throw more into the list (and purchase more models!).

Tyzaronius · Post by **Tyzaronius** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:56 am

Small units seems the go I guess...

tmr · Post by **tmr** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 11:18 pm

take a look at the gamezone harpies... I have 8 and plan to buy more... love them and they look fantastic...

Calisson wrote:
Loki wrote: if ever GW releases a new set of harpies.