Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Eldar Corsairs (7E)

The army list can be found in Imperial Armour Volume Eleven - The Doom of Mymeara.

Why Play Corsairs

Turned from a Meh army into something with a whole flavour of its own, you get options from both Craft world and their Dark kin, but it still manages to feel like a stand alone army list.

• Jet packs everywhere
• Everyone can deep strike
• Tons of shuriken cannons, dark lances and blasters
• It’s space elf ninja pirates!

In short Eldar Corsairs are about as mech-capable as Eldar (without Wave Serpents though) and are faster than Dark Eldar.

Playing Corsairs could get you the most powerful alpha-strike IN THE WHOLE GAME as well as a lot of jump-shoot-jump and deepstrike tricks to fuck your opponent's shit up ASAP. On the other hand you are paper thin. If you fail to shoot him right away or hide behind some solid cover or BLoS, your guys would drop like a flies to ANYTHING your opponent could point at them. If you like glass-cannon type of armies, which are able to blast anything to pieces in one volley of fire and avoid payback if used properly, but collapse into pieces after one mistake, Corsairs are your army. If you like the cheese fortress tactic, play Craftworlds.

Army-Wide Special Rules

• Reckless Abandon: This is a variant form of Battle Focus that craftworlders get. Corsairs within 12" of an enemy may shoot THEN make a move of 6", or 6+d6" if Jetpack/Jetbik, (note that you ARE NOT running) but you cannot use it to move closer to your shooting target. This plus the Jetpacks and bikes means that Corsairs are still one of the most maneuverable armies around. Note that if your target dies you can use it to move closer to their position, as your target is no longer there.
• Dancing on the Blade's Edge: Because Corsairs are self serving pirates, they suffer leadership penalties when trying to regroup. They all have a second leadership score on their profile (typically base Ld minus three) but they still use their regular leadership for everything else.

Psychic Powers

Corsairs have their own discipline called Aethermancy which is focused heavily on movement.

• Primaris: Path-Ward: WC2 Blessing. The target unit always rolls sixes for randomly determined movement effects, like Charge distances, Terrain checks, Hit-and-Run moves etcetera.

1. Warp Blink WC1 Move any unit within 6" of the caster friendly or enemy 2d6" in a direction you choose. Cannot be used on units locked in combat.
2. Dispersion Field WC1 Blessing. A friendly unit within 12" of the caster gains a 4+ cover save.
3. Webway Rift WC1 Witchfire. 12" S3 AP6, Poisoned 3+ Large Blast.
4. Webway Breach WC2 Select one friendly Corsair unit not locked in combat within 12" of the caster, that unit enters Ongoing Reserves.
5. Warp Tunnel WC2 Blessing. The Void Dreamer and his unit*, OR a friendly Corsair unit within 6" of the caster may be picked up and Deep Strike anywhere on the board without scatter AND may shoot and assault after arriving. However, take a note of the distance the unit traveled, and for every full 6" the unit rolls a D6, for each 1 rolled the unit takes a savable wound. *I'd argue that RAW, the way the power is worded, that if the Void Dreamer was attached to an Eldar/Dark Eldar/Harlequin unit, he could use this power.
6. Webway Maze WC3 An enemy unit with 12" of the caster, not locked in combat, is placed into Ongoing Reserves (cannot target Super-Heavies). Other Corsairs, DE, Eldar, or Harlequins add +1 to their Deny attempts when targeted.

Regardless of the discipline you use, Corsairs also have their own Perils of the Warp table to represent the whole reason why the species finds Slaanesh terrifying, which we have never seen in the rules before since Dark Eldar simply don't use Psykers and Craftworlders spend a lot of time training to make themselves "safe"

• 1 Devoured: The psykers switches sides as his soul is torn out and replaced with a Slaaneshi daemon. They get all the rules associated with Daemon of Slaanesh and are now under the control of your opponent. Sucks to be you.
• 2-3 Soul Wracked: your psyker and his unit are pinned, and your opponent may choose to change the target of the power that was cast.
• 4-5 Warp Terrors: The unit and all Corsairs within 12" must take a Morale check on the worst two dice of 3d6 or start falling back, and considering how Corsairs don't like regroup tests this can absolutely cripple your army.
• 6 The Eye of She-Who-Thirsts: Nothing happens straight away, but for the rest of the game your psykers now perils on any double.

Wargear

Ranged Weapons

• Brace of Pistols: Your "basic" weapon is awesome and fluffy for space pirates. It counts as both a pair of Shuriken pistols and a pair of Splinter pistols that you can chop and change between whenever you like. Remember the Gunslinger rule so that you always fire two shots per turn and you always get +1 attack for two weapons.
• Balelight - a one-use weapon. Assault 3d3, Rending, Blinding flashlight which is only suitable for when you're just about to charge in close combat. Your HQ choices are the only guys who get access to this. No more pinning so this is a bit overpriced but not a waste of points.
• Dissonance Cannon/Pistol: Weird cousin of a Vibrocannon that starts smaller, but is still better because it can be mounted on Jetbikes and can be gathered into greater numbers. The first shot is S5 AP4, but all dissonance weapons in the unit adds S+1 and AP-1 for each 6 on To Hit rolls from this shooting attack (so sadly, not such a great chance to score 10-1 shots). This is not very reliable so think about it before wasting 60 points for 6 shots at S6 AP3 at 24". For the same points you can take Shuricannons. The pistol can be taken in pairs by HQs and Voidstorms/Felarchs with the same S5 AP4 as the cannon. Don't forget they have the Pinning rule as well.

Melee Weapons

• Void Sabre - Finally a decent melee weapon. S+1 AP3 Rending. FUCK YEAH. Only your HQs can be kitted with this. Take with a Close Combat Prince and enjoy your S5 eldar space ninja (with Reaper of the Outer Dark he can match 9 attacks on charge). An auto-take for each aggressive character.
• Venom Blade - Stolen from our EMO cousins it's a cheap addition for Felarchs and Barons, because with only S3, compared to a prince, they do not benefit so much from a void sabre.
• Power Weapons - Worth mentioning. If you know you are going to be facing MEQ then take the lance, adding a Maul gets your guys to S5 for target flexibility. The axe doesn't let you take advantage of your Initiative and the sword is less effective than the lance (with T3, 4+ save, 1W (Malevolents have 2W but it wont help them much more) you want to put as much hurt on in the charge as you can. Later rounds will spell your squads doom). The Venom Blade is still better for hitting most Infantry and MCs by far though.

Special Wargear

• Void Hardened Armour: Giving you the Void Hardened Armor rules from Zone Mortalis (so no Rending Flashlights). Don't confuse this with the Voidplate Harness. 10 points per squad. It's practically mandatory if you're running anything in Zone Mortalis, and don't want them to die in troves. Otherwise you don't want to waste points on a rule that won't apply anywhere else.
• Heavy Mesh Armor 5 pts for a 4+. For the same cost you can buy a JetPack with a 4+ armor save built in. Only if you want a questionable armored unit that can be transported.
• Void Harness VoidStorm and HQ only. Giving 3+ and reroll Difficult and Dangerous terrain, but losing Fleet. Considering that is 10 pts and the CloudDancer is only 5 pts more, not an auto-take at all. For the Voidstorm is insanely expensive.
• Tanglefield Grenades a S2 AP- blast 3" grenade. Units that are hit have to take a strength test or they see their I and WS halved for one turn
• Shadowwave Grenades basically defensive grenades.
• Dissonance Breach Charges a free upgrade for all of your corsairs within a Coterie with the Vault Breachers specialization. It's a S2 AP3 unwieldy CCW that throws 3d6 against AV (only if they are a building, immobilized or stationary vehicle). If you score at least one six for armour penetration you gain +1S and -1 AP.
• Combat Drugs: If your Prince is a seeker of forbidden pleasures any unit in your army may take these for 15 pts, giving them the same buff as him on the Drugs table. 1 gets +1 A, 2 gets +1 S, 3 +1 Init, 4 +1 T, 5 +1 WS, and 6 provide two rolls on the table.

Vehicle Upgrades

• Corsair Kinetic Shrouds: Provides the Vehicle with a 5+ invulnerable save against shooting attacks if the vehicle moves at least 6" in the movement phase, increased to 4+ until its next turn if the vehicle has opted to move flat out or comes by deep strike. Also get rerolls of the failed invuln saves after deepstriking.
• Corsair Void Burners: Grants Deep Strike.

Fighter Aces

Unfortunately taken from the Any Other Faction table. 35pts for a Flyer to get:

1. +1 BS
2. +1 Cover (up to 3+)
3. 12" Fearless bubble.

The first two are not very useful for the Phoenix or Nightwing since they already have good jink/cover saves and accurate enough firepower. However, a Lynx can benefit from all three and the 12" fearless bubble on it meshes well with Corsairs hatred of regrouping. Same goes for the Vampire Raider.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• Corsair Prince: Space elf ninja pirate pimp master. He’s the bastard son of an Archon and Autarch with a bit of Rogue psyker or Chaos Lord thrown in, giving him more toys to play with. He's a versatile choice who can do decently in close combat or shooting with appropriate upgrades. You MUST include one and only one per detachment. He can dip into Divination or Telekinesis (ML1). You now get to customize your Prince with a chosen obsession which can utterly change how he plays or give the army a boost.
  • Collector of Ancient Treasures: one of the Princes weapons becomes Master-Crafted, and the Prince also gets access to the relics lists of Dark Eldar, Craftworlders and Harlequins. Sweet In addition any character from the same detachment can make one weapon Master-Crafted for 10pts. Note taking the Uldanorethi Long Rifle with a jetpack (which gets you relentless) lets your prince jump around taking AP3 pot shots at people as he pleases.
  • Reaper of the Outer Dark: Your prince gets Rampage and any unit can take the Rage rule for free, but are forced to declare charges against enemy units within 8" even if you shot against another unit. Nice way to tricks. The look on your opponents face when you wipe out one unit with pistols, then charge and wipe out a second unit in the assault phase.
  • Seeker of Forbidden Pleasures: Your way to bring back Duke Sliscus. He gets a roll on the Combat Drugs table, and unlock combat drugs for the rest of the army for 15 points a squad. Better drugs than the dark kin at all.
  • Survivor of the Endless Darkness: Your Prince gains IWND and FnP (5+), but if he ever fails a IWND roll he pins himself due to being old as fuck. In addition, your other characters may buy FnP for 10 points. Stronger on Cloud Dancer or other Jetbike units because most medium strength shooting will be ignoring your FnP, but it seems to work for Dark Eldar most of the time, so it might work for us. If you're fighting Craftworlds, don't bother, they've got a ridiculous amount of S6, but against any other army, most generals don't want to have to commit their heavy weapons to dealing with the lower toughness segments of an army. Ally with Craftworlds and bring Wraithguard. See which guys your opponent chooses to shoot.
  • Traveller of Ancient Paths: The prince can Deep Strike. Furthermore instead of shooting the Prince can deploy a webway portal generator onto the table, creating an entry point for non-vehicle reserves, and an exit point for falling back units, which are NOT destroyed when they come into contact with it, but are placed into Ongoing Reserves instead. In addition any other character from the same detachment can purchase a portal for 25pts. "Oh I don't need to take an Archon anymore to deepstrike my Wraithguard? Faaaantaastic!"
  • Wielder of Profane Powers: gain +1 ML, which can become Mastery 2 if you bought the generic upgrade that Princes get. They open up Malefic Daemonology to all psykers in the army, but must also generate at least one Malefic power for themselves. Remember too that any Psyker that isn't a Daemon suffers a Perils on any double when using Malefic. So overall a very meh choice.
    • In addition, they replace the Eye of She-Who-Thirsts result on the perils table with Lust for Dark Power where for the rest of the game they must always attempt to cast a Malefic power each turn using at least two warp charges. If they somehow cannot (like other psykers hoovering up the charges before the Prince tries to cast) the Prince automatically becomes pinned. This is a difficult balance: take a malefic power, and hope for something useful, or just take the risk you're going to roll a 6 and perils on any double. It's better than some of the other options, anyway. More useful if your prince is already a Psyker, as otherwise he's just going to be demon summoning the whole game, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there are better obsessions to take if you aren't trying to avoid one result on the Wild Psyker perils chart.

Also note, that you're most likely going to be building your army around whatever the Prince chooses as his obsession, as for four of these options, you have to pay points for them. Choosing the wrong specialisation can make or break an army.

• Corsair Void Dreamer: Corsair Farseer, but (usually) nowhere near as good and you can only take 1 per detachment. Has some fairly average psy-powers (Mastery Level 1, but upgradeable to ML3 for 20pts per lvl...90pts total). Must select at least one power from the Aethermancy list, but can dip into Divination or Telekinesis. Aethermancy is a very powerful discipline but the Corsair Psyker have their own PoW. The balance is difficult, when you risk seeing half of your army pinned or falling back (and corsair VERY much dislike regrouping). However there are the same wargear options of the prince so you can customize as you wish, though he cannot take a Jetbike.
  • Selecting Powers Some folks around the internet have taken notice of the wording for acquiring powers. It states that a Void Dreamer must select a power rather than generate their power and, therefore, you can just pick any old power you feel like (this goes for Divination and Telekinesis too, as the wording is the same). Obvioulsy not RAI and one could argue against it RAW (The Wild Psyker SR states they follow all the usual rules for Psykers, for example). As always talk with your opponent before the game and don't assume you can just pick powers until FW says otherwise.
    • Another Point of View It is hard to disprove RAW vs intent because FW actually stated clearly in the book that they can select a spell. Consider that is why the corsair army can only select one Void Dreamer per detachment and that they cannot join other corsair detachments because they are allies of convenience. Each army has a lot of wild and crazy unique units and this may add to the corsair uniqueness.

• Corsair Baron 30pts and can take everything your Prince can sans his lofty titles. He has to stay with a group of guys from Elites or Troops and if you give him a bike you must put him in a bike squad. So you essentially have to leave a squad out of their Venom/Falcon. Or you put him in a group of bikes (maybe with a Shadowfield...and a lucky roll on Divination could land you a 2++ rerollable), give him some melee and throw him in a Malevolent Band (with the aforementioned Shadowfield to help your weak ass T3 guys into combat), he's damn versatile.

Troops

• Corsair Reaver Band: Your "basic" Corsair troops, with build options ranging from pseudo-Guardians to 4+ armor jet pack harassers. For every five guys you get two weapon slots, open to your choice of flamers, fusion guns, shredders, or blasters. The rest of the squad gets lasblasters that can be swapped for a variety of basic Eldar guns. They even have plasma grenades and the option to take some CC gear. The entire squad can equip haywire or tanglefield grenades. They also can pick a Venom or Falcon as a transport depending on their squad size if you prefer a nice solid gunship over JSJ tomfoolery.

• Corsair Ghostwalker Band: Morose and reclusive Corsairs with Stealth, Infiltrate, Scout, and the option to take Eldar longrifles for a point each. The entire squad can equip haywire or tanglefield grenades. Did somebody say "Jetpack Rangers"? Barons cannot join them, so their tax is a Baron and another troops/elite choice. Three Strikes: 1. No HQ can join them at deployment (Infiltrators). 2. They take up a Troops slot that could be more bikes. 3. They take up a Troops slot that could be 2 flamers/fusion/blaster in a vemon. They sure can camp an objective in ruins though!

• Corsair Cloud Dancer Band: Your bloodthirsty piratical Jetbike squadron. Tougher, faster and much more expensive version of regular corsairs. Following in the footsteps of their Craftworld brothers, every bike can take a heavy weapon for a cost. Their list of extras adds Splinter Cannons, Dissonance Cannons, and (oh baby) Dark Lances. The entire squad can equip haywire or tanglefield grenades. Quite the investment for a lot of firepower, so it's good they have Outflank and the Eldar jetbike jump-shoot-jump move to hide behind the walls or tanks when they aren't making your opponent froth at the mouth as his vehicles spontaneously combust.

Dedicated Transport

• Corsair Falcon: It’s your standard eldar Falcon but with Scout for a very impressive maneuverability, with 6 elf transport capacity, and it don’t take heavy support slot. Awesome. You can never have too much S8 AP2. Can only be taken when the unit that bought it is size 6 or less. May take standard Eldar weapon options plus Splinter Cannon and Dark Lance (if you don't like the lighty one). With the Kinetic Shroud is reliable both as a GunShip and as a Transport. With Obj Secured it's good at camping too.
• Corsair Venom: I love Venoms. You love Venoms. We all love Venoms. Corsairs also loves Venom but less, compaired to the Dark Kin. Their ones lack inbuilt flickerfields, making them more fragile than their counterparts and jinking now causes snapshots, but with shuriken cannon with twin catapults you're still likely to hit something while transporting your dudes. It deals much less anti-infantry dakka compared to the Dark Eldar set of two splinter cannons, but can threaten vehicles. With all that deep strike and jet pack goodness corsairs don’t really need extra mobility of the Venom. It also has Scout. Can only be taken if the unit that bought it is exactly 5 models.

Elite

• Corsair Voidstorm Squad: An entire squad of Felarchs. They come with Heavy Mesh Armor, two special CCW, and one special firing option for each five models, with options for grenades and jet packs as usual. They have the option for the utterly overpriced Void Harness at 10 points per model. Pay attention to the squad's cost: it can grow quickly if you do not exclude the useless options (choose the venom blade instead the power weapon, avoid the Void Harness...Giving them Power Mauls gets spendy, but lets them threaten light vehicles as well.)

• Malevolent Band: Berserking Corsairs who have succumbed to their own vices and can feel She-Who-Thirsts tugging at their souls. Surprisingly unique in that they have two wounds, Feel No Pain, and a pile of USRs (Fearless, Furious Charge, Rage), they're clearly meant for charging headlong at enemy infantry, but cannot take a dedicated transport. Just make sure the rest of your army keeps a safe distance, since their cursed nature translates to a 12" bubble of -1 Leadership for ALL Eldar models. They are extremely fragile, although FnP and the 2nd wound they have only T3 so EVERYTHING will destroy this unit. A good set-up may be a 5-elf squad with two power spears in a venom, a bit more resistent than a foot-squad and very effective with 8 S5 AP3 attacks on charge. But then you are kicking someone out of their venom, said venom won't be deep striking, and probably won't be using its scout move. Furthermore you could take Voidstorms and give all five of them power weapons/venomblades and don't have to bend over backwards making them work.

• Corsair Wasp Assault Walker Squadron: 10pts more than Craftworld War Walkers. With pseudo-jump packs. That can Deep Strike (with an extra investment of 5 points per model). Not quite the autotake they were now that they're no longer Troops, but still perfectly capable of swapping in some heavier guns and bringing death from the skies. In fact, since they swap Battle Focus and Power Fields for Reckless Abandon and Kinetic Shrouds, Deep Striking them has the added benefit of giving them a 4++ re-rollable save the turn they come in. Just keep in mind that they're still AV10 2HP, so your heavy fire support won't hold up forever. Their Wasp Jump Packs are a little odd, if used in the movement phase you get to move like a jump type, have to snap shoot, but get a 4++ re-rollable against shooting. If used in the assault phase you use 3d6 for charge and pick the highest, gain HoW d6+1, AND the 4++ re-rollable...against shooting. Need to kill what you charge to make use of it, though it does make Overwatch less dangerous.

Fast Attack

• Corsair Hornet Squadron: AV11 fast scouting skimmers with two standard eldar guns. Vypers wish to be so awesome. Take them, zoom around and torrent death and destruction from their cannons. Pulse lasers: 80pts for 4!! S8 AP2 shots or Scatter Lasers for 8 S6 AP6 shots at 70 pts. Pulse lasers are rapetastic against wound allocation abusers, Missile Launcher will ruin every 4+sv unit's Christmas, Starcannons are pointless (costs the same as the Pulse Laser which is stronger and longer-ranged), Bright lances will knock down most vehicles reliably, Shuriken Cannons/Scatter lasers own Blob units and even some Monstrous Creatures. Seriously, an entire unit (5 models) of these will kill ANYTHING you point them at, combined with the ability to outflank taking 3 will cause immense butthurt. Last but not least they have Skimmer Assault, allowing them to move flat out and firing snap shot in the same turn. Just don't forget, that full Hornet squadron with good guns would cost you an arm and leg at both points and pounds, so use them wise and carefully.

• Corsair Vyper Squadron: A Vyper squadron, but different from the Craftworld versions due to their weapon selections and the Scout USR. From the outset, they have twin-linked lasblasters instead of shuriken catapults, which when coupled with their heavier turret mount means they have a slightly larger threat range (if a bit weaker) than the typical vyper without having to spend any extra points. When you look into upgrades, they have access to the full range of Craftworld options plus the Dark Eldar Splinter Cannon or the Dark Lance... which is the same as the Bright Lance, but whatever. This means your Vyper squadron can be kitted out to cover a HUGE variety of roles, from tank hunting, horde wasting, to monstrous creature slaying. Consider that a double splinter cannon viper is only 50 pts and a Eldar Missile Launcer (with the skyfire shot) carrier is only 55pts.

• Nightwing Interceptor: Pure undiluted destruction, BS4 (plus strafing run), 2 Shuriken Cannons and 2 Bright Lances, Supersonic and Vector Dancer make for pure terror in the hearts of your opponents. Arguably the best air superiority fighter, hell even best flyer, in 40K. Though, it's AV10 2HP, so the first time you roll one to save could be the last. It has Stealth, giving it a flat 6+ cover save even if you don't want to Jink and a +1 if you do. It also has Agile giving it yet another +1 to any Jink save taken. So this isn't as good as the Shrouded that is used to have before, though you can upgrade it with Kinetic Shrouds if you want yet another flat save which works against pretty much anything fired at it.

• Corsair Phoenix Bomber:Now a fast attack choice! Like Nightwing, this flyer also comes with stealth and vector dancer for unparalleled mobility and a modicum of protection, plus strafing run for BS 5 against ground targets. It can torrent absurd amounts of anti-infantry dakka, but it almost reaches Land Raider’s price-tag in points. There are a couple of things the Phoenix actually does really well: killing MEQ’s in the open - consider it a flying Dark Reaper squad. It also tears other flyers out of the skies by throwing around fifteen of S5-S8 shots depending on what your under slung weapon choice has been. Against Horde armies like Guard, Nids or Orks it can just remove entire squads, particularly if you replace the phoenix missile launchers with Nightfire missile launchers, giving you six frag missiles that pin and ignore cover on top of all the other firepower.

Heavy Support

• Corsair Balestrike Band: Your heavy weapon squad, with the potential for some REALLY awesome destruction options. You start with five dudes with lasblasters, but you can add five more and each and every one of them can be upgraded with a man-portable heavy weapon so you can create powerfully focused squads for your chosen role. They can also be upgraded with Jet Packs to give them more mobility and Relentless so that they never miss a turn of shooting. The customization doesn't end there either, since you can give them the range of grenade options and armour upgrades. So this unit is your go-to heavy weapon option unless one of the other choices can fill a more specific role. The ONLY option for a Titan Breakers Cotories Heavy Support slot, as its rule only gets granted to Infantry or Jetbikes...unless you don't care about the Preferred Enemy Tanks & Walkers you took it for.

• Corsair Warp Hunter Squadron: This is your D Tank, and you can only take one per detachment, though it comes in a vehicle squadron of up to three tanks. The latest rules incarnation increased the D-Flail strength from S7 right up to destroyer levels in keeping with the Craftworld Codex. The caveat is that any rolls of six on the destroyer table instead count as fives, so no Deathblows. Thankfully this isn't a flat -1 as with the D-Scythe rule, so you don't suffer the increased chance of a lucky survivor. The D-Flail firing options cover the short/mid ranges, so you can either fire it as a template and ignore cover with your D weapon, or you can fire it indirectly as a barrage of D3+1 small blast templates (per tank) up to 36" away. So if you get a few of these together they can easily lay waste to knights, titans or monstrous/gargantuan creatures.

• Corsair Fire Storm: Anti-air tank. It’s basically a Falcon with a twin-linked 6-shot R60 skyfire/interceptor scatter laser with the Rending rule added, in addition if it fires at a Zooming flyer it gains the Ignores Cover rule so they cannot even jink to avoid it; and finally they can be taken in squadrons of up to three vehicles, so you can fill the skies with disco laser lights. These buffs mean that the Firestorm is vastly improved as an Anti-Aircraft options, however it still has no real use other than killing flyers and if that's all you needed it for then you might have been better off taking a Nightwing or Phoenix which you should have done anyway. However, one thing it is really good for is raping AV10 skimming vehicles since skyfire works on skimmers too, but this means that you are playing against Craftworld/Dark Eldar, or against Land Speeders which is a bit of a niche that most of your other units can cover anyway. So its probably the worst Heavy Support choice you have.

• Corsair Fire Prism: Identical to the Craftworld version the Fire Prism is the answer to the long range guns of other races. This magnificent jeweled weapon focuses such intense power as to turn foes of all shapes and sizes into all shapes and sizes of slag. Now boasting THREE FIRING MODES the prism cannon rules as king of your culinary delights. For your meat lovers you have the dispersed mode, a S5 AP3 large blast, great for MEQ and anything more fragile. For your vegetarians you have the focused mode, a TEQ hunting small blast with S7 and AP2, good for all things the previous mode didn’t quite get. Finally we turn the volume up to 11 and give our vegans out there the lance mode, used to scythe down anything that doesn’t strictly walk where it needs to go (and will blow smoking holes in Daemons and Tyranids, too). At S9 AP1 with the LANCE special rule this weapon will crush any armoured vehicle going in the game today. What downsides does the Fire Prism have, you ask? Expensive tank + upgrades costs, high aggro generation and usual complaint of Eldar vehicles but nothing beyond that - a solid workhorse in the army. You could field three and no one would bat an eyelash. Three full squadrons, however, would make almost anyone cry. Sadly our squadron doesn't get the rules for combined fire so, it's only a squadron.

• Corsair Night Spinner: Less useful in the Corsair list, because you've got access to so many other heavy support options, like Flyers, Warp Hunters and Fire Prisms, the Nightspinner is still a useful choice when used correctly. The Doomweaver is the primary weapon and features 99% of the tanks actual threat, laying down a S7 shot of monofilament onto the board, as well as the mini rending power that makes it auto wound and AP2. Like its close cousin the Fire Prism, Nightspinners feature different modes of attack. The dispersed mode launches the shot high above the battlefield to rest silently and invisibly as a large blast, wounding and possibly pinning the target squad. Now there is also the focused mode, a torrent weapon that fires the same deadly web but with increased accuracy, ignoring cover saves and lacks the pinning. Nightspinners are possibly more resilient due to not needing to be exposed most of the time but also have a chaotic track record of actual threat, sometimes wiping whole squads from the board other times managing to wound maybe a model or two, not a great buy for the player who likes guarantees. The Nightspinner can, as a barrage weapon, hide completely from view to fire it's shot and can be used effectively as the least upgraded of the Eldar tank options, requiring no actual upgrades to its weapons or gear (excellent because it's already the cheapest tank). Exposing the Nightspinner to fire is doable and sometimes even necessary depending on the available terrain but in those cases it benefits from its BS to reduce scatter. The same as per Fire Prism, our squadron cannot combine fire. Because GW loves only the Craftwolders.

• Corsair Lynx: Only one allowed per detachment, the newly re-minted Lynx is no longer a Superheavy, and has been nerfed down to the regular Heavy Support slot where it has to compete with a lot of other options. However it still has things going for it. While the hull points were knocked down to five, the Front and Side armour was put up to the more sensible AV12 in line with practically every other Eldar closed-topped vehicle. The Pulsar cannon is still a Destroyer weapon, and can be fired either as a single Large Blast, or as a three-shot twin linked weapon both up to the 48" range, meaning it covers a larger section of the board than the Warp Hunters do, as well a being a "true" Destroyer weapon, unlike the Warp Hunters. As before, you may replace the Pulsar with the Sonic Lance, giving you effectively a Torrent Hellstorm Template for mulching hordes on a 3+ or better, regardless of toughness; the Sonic Lance is also AP2 now, so very few things are safe against it, so the weapon is a perfectly viable choice when compared to the Pulsar, so it really depends on what you regularly face up against. It also has a unique set of Skyhunter rules, where you may count the Lynx as a Flyer, unlike the old rules you may fire the weapons while it is zooming around, although you may not Jink and you can only fire Snap Shots, but at least your Pulsar is twin-linked in salvo mode, so you can still be a credible threat. It also lets you start the Lynx on the board in hover mode, which is nice.

Lord of War

• Corsair Vampire Raider: 730pts gets you an AV11 all around 12HP Super-heavy Flyer with Hover. Adding either a TL Phoenix Missle Launcher or TL Pulsar drops the 30-man capacity to 20.

Formations

• Corsair Fleet Raiding Company: A new hybrid between the Decurion-style detachment and the specific codex FOC like the Nemesis Strike Force. Came out a Formation of Force Organisation Chart.
  • 1 Command Crew (1-2 HQ, 0-1 Elite, 0-1 LoW) - Nothing special here, just mandatory for the formation. Put Wasps in this Elites slot so your Infantry elites can benefit from the cotorie special rules.
  • 1-4 Coteries (1 HQ, 1-3 Troops, 0-2 Elites, 0-2 Fast Attack, 0-1 Heavy) - Your Troops get ObSec, in addition each Coterie has to choose a specialization giving them different special rules.
    • Hate Bringers: Choose an Enemy unit at deployment, this Coterie gains Hatred (that unit) and if the unit is destroyed during the game, you claim an additional VP, even if someone else killed the unit.
    • Head Takers: Each unit can reroll "1" result to wound if a model in this unit is engaged in a challenge
    • Night Hunters: All Infantry and Jetbike model gain Night Vision and the Preferred Enemy (all) rule, but only during turns of Night Fighting, meaning this Coterie is only good for alpha striking at the beginning of the game.
    • Sky Burners: Units that Deep Strike only scatter D6" and any unit in the Coterie may reroll failed Reserve rolls. The only Coterie that effects your vehicles (Hate Bringer technically does also, but anything can grant that kill VP and Hatred only gives your Wasps a small non-shooty boost.) When you use it, take full advantage. Reavers with 2 special weapons in a deep striking venom or with jetpacks, give what you need Kinetic Corsair Shrouds for 4++ re-rolls and getting what you want where you want it.
    • Titan Breakers: All Infantry and Jetbike model in the Coterie gets Preferred Enemy (Tanks & Walkers)
    • Vault Breachers: All Infantry and Jetbike model receive a free Dissonance Breach Charge. If you are playing a game with lots of fortifications, these are your guys. One 6 on three dice turns your S2 AP3 hit into a S9 AP2 smack with the other two dice adding to penetration. Two 6s are auto-penetrating AV14 at AP1 (S2 AP3 with two 6s make it S4 AP1, then you add those two 6s plus your third dice for armor pen. So at the least AV17 is getting glanced.) Rolling no 6's though, well, at least its free and the whole squad gets a try!
  • The drawback is that different Coteries treat each other as Allies of Convenience, so cannot be joined by allied corsair characters or targeted by allied blessings. Which really isn't that bad considering the Command is unaffected by it. If you put your Void Dreamer as a Cotories HQ then yea, you're boned for sharing his powers.

Allies

Corsairs behave slightly differently with respect to Allies, they work with themselves out of Convenience if you use the Formation. Otherwise anything not on the below (Chaos, Necrons, Nids) you cannot ally with at all.

Battle-Brothers

• Craftworld Eldar:The vehicle formations found in The Doom of Mymeara for regular Eldar are quite good. If you were going to take the min reqs for the formations, you might just consider trading those pirate ships in for some craftworld versions.
  • Khaine's Hawks Squadron - 2-3 Separate Nightwings that turn into a squad. If targeting a zooming flyer they can add ignores cover to any 1 weapon each. And if they are in reserves when an enemy flyer comes on, they get to re-roll reserves.
  • Fires of the Phoenix - 2 Separate Phoenix Bombers that become a squad. When shooting non-flyers they re-roll hit/wound of 1.
  • Fist of Vaul - 2-3 Separate Warp Hunters that become a squad. Other Warp Hunters may give up their shooting for one TL, true S:D Large Blast that increases in size if all 3 join in.
  • Hornet Swarm - 3-6 Separate Hornets that form a squad. If you score an objective before they come in from reserves they come in on a 2+.
  • Wasp Phalanx - 3-6 Wasp Assault Walkers. So as little as 3 to as large as 6 units of 3 each. They gain a re-roll to their 5++ and their weapons gain Twin-Linked and Pinning when they Deep Strike...which, funny enough, they have no way of doing themselves.
  • Hammer of Vaul An easy way to bring in either a Cobra or Scorpion. Gives re-rolls to regroup within 6" (Nice for Corsairs dislike of regrouping), but gives another VP if your opponent takes it out.

As you can see they are straight up buffs for something you might have been taking anyway. Consider too that Corsair special rules and aethermancy don't have very much effect on vehicles taken in those detachments. Only the 4+ cover save, moving back into Ongoing Reserves and Warp Blinks 2d6" move can target Corsair vehicles (not a huge loss), none of the Prince paths help vehicles, and only the d6" scatter Cotorie helps them out. You lose out on Splinter Canons (and Dark Lances!), but gain Eldar Vehicle Equipment. Food for thought.

• Dark Eldar: The Dark Kin offer very little, but what does mesh well with the Void Dreamer/Prince is worth looking at.
  • Incubi Join the Void Dreamer and hope to get Warp Tunnel for a dangerous unit to charge whatever the hell you want. Add Drazhar or an Archon with a Huskblade.
  • Grotesques A fairly resilient Close Combat unit that can benefit from either or both the Prince/Void Dreamer.
    • Grotesquerie Take an already decent CC unit and turn the volume up a bit. Give one unit a Raider and stick your Prince and Haemy in one with a WWP. Add your Void Dreamer with the other squad for a potential Turn 1 charge with some pissed off Grotesques.
  • Raiders Great for ferrying around your walking Prince and his Voidstorm buddies.
  • Ravagers 9 S5 AP2 shots for 110pts isn't bad at all.

• Harlequins:

Desperate Allies

• Forces of the Imperium:

• Tau: Melta, Corsairs lack it in numbers (Fusion gun, pistol, and bombs as the only Melta you got 6", 3", and CC melta range, respectively, and on not too tough bodies). Crisis can spam it and the new formations Tau have are very powerful.

Building your Army

The best thing about this army is most of the infantry can be converted out of any regular Eldar/Deldar troops with greenstuff, patience and a steady hand. The worst thing is that most of the vehicles are Forge World (beautiful, but expensive).

As with Craftworld Eldar careful consideration should be taken when choosing your army however they do have more flexible choices over their craftworld brethren. The first thing you should notice is BS4 everywhere, this is a godsend when compared to the measly BS3 on many codices out there. Falcons are Corsair dedicated transports, put EVERYTHING in Falcons.

Now, lets look at the army:

• HQ
  • Obviously you want a Corsair Prince, the real question is which free specialization to take. You'll need at least one Baron as well and getting that Void Dreamer eventually is a plus.

• Elite
  • Two choices stand out here:
  • Suicidal CC shock troops
  • Deep Striking walkers with heavy firepower, a decent I save, and the option to blast into melee

• Troops
  • Reavers give you Venoms/Falcons, Ghostwalkers are Obj Campers, and bikes are Obj grabbers. Mix and match to taste.

• Fast Attack
  • Hornets are beautifully effective as are Nightwings, Hornets hit harder but Nightwings are harder to kill. 1 Squad of 3 Hornets and 2 Nightwings can't go wrong. Remeber that Vyper is only 50 pts for one Scatter Laser and one Splinter cannon (or two splinter cannon). So 150 pts gave you 12 S6 shots and 18 Poisoned (4+) shots.

• Heavy Support
  • Warp Hunters and Firestorms provide much needed firepower, Firestorm is better at killing light vehicles while Warp Hunter is better at killing infantry. Fire Prisms are great as well.

Tactics

Prince

• A very close combat orientated HQ. Has a range of weapon options, but only pistol types. He's best on a bike with his kick ass Void Sabre. The shadowfield is tempting, but once its gone your T3/4 3/4+ WL has no invuln left, better go for the forceshield and leave the 2++ to your Baron for bodyguard duty. Best place to put him, when he is on a bike, is with a bike Baron and a Cloud Dancer Band 3 strong upgraded to Felarchs. Venom Blades on them pumps out 16 poisoned 2+ and giving your Prince or Baron ML1 could land you a re-roll save. Best place to put him, when he is walking, is with Voidstorms. Venom Blades for them also. Downside to this is no dedicated transport, ally in some Dark Eldar for a Raider.
  • Paths Only a few really worth considering:
    • Reaper of the Outer Dark is pretty good. Gives a free buff to any unit you want and grants them another little trick to abuse (shoot one target and charge another, potentially). With this your prince can get up to 9 attacks on the charge and ups the biker felarchs/baron combo to 20 poisoned 2+ on the charge.
    • Traveller of Forgotten Paths is okay. The ability to Deep Strike is negated by jetpacks, but being able to do so in Zone Mortalis is the benefit of this Path. Could be a sound tactic to open three portals around the board and have one or two specialized units popping in and out of them...every other turn... Other than that not much going for it. If you could pull vehicles through it this would be the one, alas.
    • Seeker of Forbidden Pleasures seems good at first. But falls short in the fact that you aren't taking it for the army wide benefit of Drugs for all. All the bonuses are melee orientated, besides the +1T. So you are going to have whatever unit your prince joins take it and then not give it to your balestrikes/basic troops/all vehicles. The chance for +2 to a stat with the 6 allowing two rolls sounds pretty nice though. Good Luck.
    • Collector of Ancient Treasures is another that seems great, but falls short a bit. Any relic!? Then you see what you are working with and none seem like a "Oh man yes! Lets build my army around this!". There are some nice buffs no doubt, but all in all not amazing. Good for a second Prince if you were thinking of taking two for whatever reason. This one can definitely be expanded upon.

The other two are sub-par. FnP on any character for 10pts is boo. The Wielder of Profane Powers could be fun but that is about it on that.

Cotories These will shape your army a little more than the Prince's Paths will. It isn't too hard to fit 2 cotories in an 1850 list and mixing can be beneficial.

• Hate Bringers Will probably be used the most, even with just the Baron and 1 Troops choice. An extra VP for 80pts is very nice, with the added bonus of granting Hatred to anything in this Cotorie that gets in close to said hated unit...not bad at all.
• Titan Breakers Preferred Enemy Tanks & Walkers is pretty nice! If you want to take full advantage of it then Cloud Dancers with Dark Lances and/or Reaver Bands with 2 Fusion Guns/Blasters, Voidstorms with 2 Blast Pistols each, and finally a Balestrike Band with Dark Lances. Add one guy to the voidstorms/reavers/balestrikes for access to Falcons (which don't get Prefered Enemy, but more S8 AP2 never hurt no bodys). Bringing a Hate Bringers Cotorie to fit in all your other vehicles and grant you a chance for a free VP is a sound plan.
• Sky Burners Not much needs saying. We all know its awesome and how it can be used. 4++ re-roll on all your vehicles the turn they deep strike, only d6" scatter, and re-rolls on failed reserves...let your imagination run wild.
• Head Takers The biker baron/felarch combo will do great here (or anything with venom blades for that matter).

The other two are highly situational. Night Hunters...If no night fighting then a whole cotorie is just a formation without bonuses AND it only benefits Infantry/Jetbikes, if vehicles could join in it might be worth it. Vault Breachers are amazing at cracking fortifications, but catching a vehicle that didn't move is a drag and if something is already immobilized then sending a whole squad of guys to probably peel off a hull point doesn't seem like a good use of man power. It must be stated however, that the Dissonance Breach Charges are very good at least hitting what you attack, one 6 on three dice has the potential to blow up a walker/vehicle. Even if you don't get any 6s as long as you roll a 12 total on the three dice you are penetrating AV13 and glancing AV14. If you have a buddy who loves bringing bastions then pop a few bikes/reavers in here to (hopefully) ruin his day.

Combined Arms Detachment There are a few positives to taking a CAD

• The Baron tax is gone. Though he isn't expensive, taking a CAD will negate having to try and fit him somewhere and lets you bring Ghostwalkers a bit easier.
• More Heavy Support slots. The biggest benefit to a CAD. Having 2 extra slots without the need of 2 more Barons and Troops is a huge boon to fitting all your awesome Heavy Support options you want to bring.
• More slots in general. Another plus though not as big of a gain that HS gets.
• Your army gets along. All of your guys will be fighting the enemy, instead of wondering if the group next to them is from the same Cotorie. Not a huge plus, but a plus none the less.

Delivery Systems Corsairs have a myriad of ways to bring heavy weapons, this is a breakdown of which unit would be the best way to bring those to the battlefield.

• Lances Balestrikes are the cheapest way to bring lances at 150pts with jetpacks for 5. Jetbikes are 50pts more spendy for 5 shots, though the added mobility never hurts. Hornets and Wasps could be used as well at 80pts for 2 lances each, but their other weapon options make Balestrikes the clear winners. Vypers fall short costing the most to reach 5 shots and lacking the JSJ bikes can do.
• Dissonance Voidstorms are the best to bring these new weapons. Able to take 2 Dissonance Pistols for 10 shots at 200pts for 5 with jetpacks, or give them a Venom and not worry about needing Relentless because pistols. Jetbikes get way to expensive and could be using other weapons. Balestrikes would need jetpacks and cost 50pts more with no option for a vehicle.
• Eldar Missile Launcher Wasps, no doubt about it. Hornets pay the same, but don't get the Skyfire shot. Balestrikes are an extra 25pts per guy also without the Skyfire shot. Vypers are close being only 10pts more than a Wasp for the same amount of shots. But when you add the paltry 5pts to Deep Strike the walker it becomes clear that they are the ones.
• Shuriken Cannon Balestrikes again take the spotlight. 100pts for 15 shots and the option for a Venom. Vypers and Bikes are 100pts more (than a full 10-man Balestrike squad, 30 shots) for the same shots.
• Scatterlasers This weapon really shows the versatility in how Corsairs can get stuff in the game . Wasps, Hornets, and Bikes are all great ways to get this gun on the field. Bikes are the cheapest, are very mobile, and have Obj. Secured. The Hornets give you a reliable way to Outflank any target you want. The Wasps are the most spendy (cost the same as the Hornets if you don't buy Burners), but getting a 4++ re-roll save and a Deep Strike is a huge plus. Pick your poison on this one.
• Splinter Cannon The Vyper. Plain and simple, cheapest way to bring 2 Cannons at 50pts. Splinter Bikes are next with 3 Cannons at 75pts and cost the same as the Vypers when they both get to 6 Cannons. Wasp and Hornets give you their special rules, but then they aren't taking any of their other weapons. You could load up some Balestrikes at the same points cost as a lance squad. If you were thinking of a Vyper though, might as well just give a Venom 2 Cannons and call it a day, more expensive but more useful.
• Pulse Laser Hornet.

A Note: Its obvious that sometimes using a group of Balestrikes with all EML is a good thing or giving a Vyper a bright lance and a shuriken cannon. This is simply a guide line for making the most out the many options this army affords you.