Reavers OP?

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Kensou
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Reavers OP?

Post by Kensou »

Is it just me or are the DE Reaver Jetbikes heavily overpowered in 6th?

My reasons for thinking so are as followed:

Movement Phase
The reaver, following the rules of the eldar jetbikes, can move up to 12" in the movement phase. It can move over all terrain and land on top of buildings at the risk of a dangerous terrain test.

When moving the Jink special rule grants them a 5+ cover save, and the skilled rider increases that to 4+, while additionally always passing dangerous terrain tests, making the risk mentioned above void.

Shooting Phase
The Reaver Jetbike comes equiped with a splinter rifle and, while that is decent enough in and of itself, one in three models can replace that with a more anti-vehicle weapon.

However, it is not the shooting that is the most interesting during this phase. The Reaver Jetbike is capable of turbo-boosting 36" during the shooting phase. This increases the cover save granted from Jink and Skilled Rider to 3+ and combined with the movement phase allows a Reaver to cross the board in a single turn.

In addition, the bladevanes allows for damage to be done on a unit the Reaver turbo-boosts over. While D3 S4 AP- hits may not seem like much, when a larger unit flies over that number increases dramatically. And if that wasn't enough, one in three models can take cluster caltrops, turning them into D6 S6 AP- hits.

Simple calculation: With a maximum of 10 Reavers per unit and 3 Fast attack choices you could be looking at 9D6 S6 AP- and 21D3 S4 AP- hits per turn.

Assault Phase
If not turbo-boosting the Reaver can make a 2D6" move that does not have to be an assault. However, due to Hammer of Wrath combined with combat drugs, a unit of reavers could do rather well in combat.

Conclusion
While the above example of three units of 10 Reavers with 3 Cluster caltrops comes packing near 900 pts, I feel that with the damage it can inflict, the insane mobility it has and the fact that it has a 4+/3+ cover save at all times, it is a very good investment. Is there something I missed?
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Calisson
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Post by Calisson »

Insane mobility, yes.
But still, they fall easily to heavy shooting (and who has no heavy shooting?).
And they are shot very easily by the very troop they have damaged just before.
And mine have a tendancy to flee off the board at supersonic speed... :(
And in combat, I don't find them very powerful, because of the lack of attacks.

What they are doing very well is to hide in reserve, come later, hide as long as possible and deny an objective in the last turn.
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Drainial
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Post by Drainial »

As you yourself point out they only become a serious threat in large numbers. When you put that many points into any single unit type it can begin to look OP on paper but the weaknesses of that unit are magnified along with their effectiveness so while you might have some startling victories the lack of balance will come back to bite you against other opponents.
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Red...
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Post by Red... »

I'm pretty sure everything is OP in 40k - the game balances (or attempts to balance) by having lots of OP things facing other equally OP things. So, yes, those Dark Eldar Reaper Jetbikes might rip face on one turn, but the subsequent turn they'll get munched by a big unit of dropodding muhreens with rapid fire plasmaguns or 3 flanking squadrons of 3x Imperial guard Vendetta gunships, each carrying a command or veterans squad with plasma guns and armed with triple twin-linked lascannons and sponson mounted heavy bolters.
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