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 still managed to feel like a stand alone army list.

• Jet packs everywhere
• Walkers in troops
• Everyone could deep strike
• Tons of shuriken cannons
• It’s space elf ninja pirates!

In short Eldar Corsairs are like 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 opponents 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 run (rather than choosing before or after) but the Corsairs always run the full distance of 6" instead of rolling for it. This plus the Jetpacks and bikes means that Corsairs are still one of the most maneuverable armies around.
• 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. Cannon 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. 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.
• 6 Webway Maze WC3 An enemy unit with 12" of the caster, not locked in combat, is placed into Ongoing Reserves (cannon target Super-Heavys). 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 dont 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 fluffly 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. It causes Pinning, but since it only has a 8" range that's almost entirely irrelevant since you'll be charging the unit. (it actually is relevant since that pinned units cannot fire overwatch)
• Dissonance Cannon: Like 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 adds S+1 and AP-1 for each hit after the first. Meaning a whole squad of Jetbikes can fling out a bunch of S10 AP1 very easily.

Melee Weapons

• Void Sabre - a S+1, AP-, Rending Weapon... REALLY not worth it since it costs you more than a power weapon (choice of: Sword, Mace, Axe, Spear) and you'll take one of those for your daily needs. If the simply made it the same cost as a power weapon you might find a niche for it. But relying on Rending to save your bacon only works when you've got lots of attack dice.

Special Wargear

• Combat Drugs: If your Prince is a seeker of forbidden pleasures your army may take these, giving them a roll 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.
• Void Hardened Armour: Corsairs with this option gain a 3+ armour save and may reroll difficult and dangerous terrain checks. But the lose Fleet if they had it, which is not so much of a loss since they still have Reckless Abandon. For obvious reasons, this should be an Auto-take if you're doing Zone Mortalis games, especially if you don't like your guys dying to Rending Flashlights

Vehicle Upgrades

• Corsair Kinetic Shrouds: Provides the Vehicle with a 5+ invulnerable save, increased to 4+ until its next turn if the vehicle has opted to move flat out.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• Corsair Prince: Space elf ninja pirate pimp master. He’s the a 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 now get to customise 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
  • 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".
  • 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.
  • Survivor of the Endless Darkness: Your Prince gains IWND, but if he ever fails a IWND roll he pins himself due to being old as fuck. In addition units in your army may buy FnP for 10 points per unit.
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • 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.

• Corsair Blade Sworn Retinue: Cheap meatshield retinue for close-combat oriented Princes. Basically stripped down Aspect Warriors, since they have the same statline, although with +1 Attack, -1 Leadership basic. Though they have unimpressive wargear options, they can tear vehicles apart if equipped with haywire/melta grenades and/or fusion pistols. Also Jet-Packs come cheap, but only if your Prince has one too. One of your better infantry units, but don’t expect to make miracles with them.

• Corsair Void Dreamer: Corsair Farseer, but (usually) nowhere near as good. He has 4++ like crafworld psykers, but has some fairly average psy-powers (Mastery Level 1, but upgradable to ML2 due to the way rules translate into 7th). Spiritshield has gotten a little boost, since it flatly nullifies incoming powers on a 4+, especially since Deny the Witch has become harder to pull off. Withering Radiance also gives you some nice higher strength AP2, even though it is reduced by opponent's toughness, that's still S6 versus marines.
  • Can be given neural shredder: S8 AP1 flamer pistol, but uses the older rules where it has to roll to wound against Ld (most Ld is around 7/8 so wound on 3/4+), however it FUCKS vehicles, as it auto-pens, though only rolls a D3 on the damage table plus the AP1 bonus.
  • Oh, and he can get webway portal for extra dickish reserve tricks.

Troops

• Eldar Corsair Squad: Two shuriken cannons or eldar missile launchers. On deep striking jet pack bodies. With BS4. It's gonna be Christmas. Additionally you can get two fusion guns, if you feel your army have not enough vehicle-raping power, or two flamers in case you need powerful overwatch shots to prevent charges. Although the rest of the squad is armed with flashlights lasblasters and have poor 5+ armor, jet packs would boost their survivability a lot. In case you really want to charge someone (like fire warriors, guardsmen or gretchins – everyone else would rip you apart), they even have plasma grenades. Alternatively you could keep them in start count of five without jet packs and heavy weapon, to take the awesome armored gunhouse Corsair Falcon is. There is no sense in middle points in between - either you go full squad jet pack bristling with guns, or stock guys as upgrade for the Falcon.

• Corsair Wasp Assault Walker Squadron: 25pts more than regular War Walkers. With jet packs. Taken as troops. That can Deep Strike. If there is a reason not to take them, I don’t know it. Give them scatter lasers and deep strike to get that beautiful Leman Russ's rear armour (bit of maths: 3 Wasps with scatter lasers = 24 shots, 3+ to hit means on average 16 hits, rear armour of standard Leman Russ is 10 so 4+ needed to glance, 8 glances on average, if there is a full squadron that leaves 2 Tanks down and 1 on it's last hull point, in 1 turn of shooting, combine with guide or prescience from allied Farseer for more cheese). Just remember they are still AV10 open-topped 2HP, and being tall its hard for them to fully hide behind BLoS, especially since 6-th ed randomized thrust move.
  • Worth noting is that you can't have more of these than Corsair squads so you are essentially limited to 3 units (up to 9 models) per FOC.

• Corsair Cloud Dancer Band: Your Jetbike squadron,Tougher, faster and much more expensive version of regular corsairs. They can bring up to 3 shuriken cannons, and draw a lot of fire – not even T4 and 3+/5+ saves would make them survive in the open – its good they have Outflank rule and the eldar jetbike jump-shoot-jump move to hide behind the walls or tanks.

Dedicated Transport

• Corsair Falcon: It’s your standard eldar Falcon, only with BS4 and 10-men 6 elf (read the FAQ) transport capacity, and it don’t take heavy support slot. Awesome. BS4 makes the bright lance awesome on this guy, you can never have too much S8 AP1. Taking 2 Princes with Bladesworn and 4 squads of 5 corsairs, mounting them all in Falcons and deep striking is a rapetrain with no brakes. Combine with 2 Squads of Wasp Walkers for more deep strike and some units to start on the map (since no more than 1/2 of your units can start in reserve) you can reserve as much of your army as you want in the new edition, so ally in DE for the Scalpel Squadron formation and enjoy full null deployment.

• Corsair Venom: I love Venoms. You love Venoms (Silence, xeno. We hate your heretical grav witchcraft). We all love Venoms. Corsair 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 likily to hit something while transporting your dudes. It deals much less anti-infantry dakka compared to 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 Venom, although fast open-topped transport work in great synergy with Outcasts. The most rage inducing elves to put in this thing are Fire Dragons, however their short range and the fragility of the Venom can let you down.

Elite

• Corsair Voidstorm Squad: Corsair veterans. Most notably for up to 3 meltaguns on jet pack body, and ability to take melta bombs or haywire grenades – so any enemy vehicle in their charge range is already dead, just don’t know it (though, Swooping Hawks could do haywire grenading much better, swooping hawks don't have melta guns so can't focus on vehicles as reliably). Don’t be fooled by their melee-oriented wargear – with only 1A they are not dedicated HtH fighters – don’t even think to charge ork boys or hormagaunts with them.

• Harlequin Troupe: both a fluffy choice and very likely something that you'll end up taking in Corsairs even if you would leave them home in Craftworld/Dark Eldar lists since they are pretty much your main melee option here.

• Eldar Craftworld Outcasts (0-1 restriction): These are Eldar codex fast attack, elites choices or Rangers/Pathfinders. See eldar tactics for details. The ONLY reason you should do this is for either Venom/Falcon dedicated transports or Prince's Deep Strike, take Eldar Allies for anything else. Unfortunately you can only have one Outcast choice in your army so you can't spam 3 deep striking wraithguard squads. Pity.
  • Rangers - Should have been a troops choice in this army already, since they are THE outcasts, but Forgeworld probably just wanted to sell you corsair jet packs and wasp walkers. You already have enough Dakka, however these guys are useful for holding back-field objectives, but there are better choices for your Outcast selection
  • Fire Dragons – Its Fire Dragons – Good old meltabane of any vehicle or TEQ you remember from Eldar codex, but unlike Eldar codex Fire Dragons, these ones can take Venom as dedicated transport, deep strike with Prince sky raiders rule or pop out from Void Dreamer webway portal. It’s a good news for the unit which need to be as close to enemy as possible. These guys are an excellent source of anti Nobz/Paladins (since you can't take Fire Prisms).
  • Howling Banshees – Your good old screaming psycho-feminists with power weapon. Good at butchering MEQ’s and nothing else. Even better with Venoms, which are assault delivery vehicles.
  • Striking Scorpions – This guys are designed to slaughter tarpits, and while they still can do this in corsair army and beef up the melee/dakka ratio a bit since the rest of your army would be focussed on shooting.
  • Shadow Specters – Your army already has a lot of medium-ranged shooty jet pack infantry, but like dakka there is no such thing as too much jet infantry. Take these guys and blast MEQ’s to oblivion or evaporate tanks with ghostlight shots. Just remember, that they are MASSIVELY expensive and draw a lot of fire – ALWAYS hide them behind cover or they die pointlessly.
  • Shining Spears – You’re playing corsairs, your own jetbikes are better, cheaper, and don’t take oh so precious elite slots. Pass.
  • Swooping Hawks – Your fast and decently armored haywire grenades. Grenade pack/Skyleap bombing could be good, and eldar flashlights aren't terrible in shredding light infantry, but nothing says fuck you like a cheap squad of 5-6 Hawks, wrecking Land Raider in one charge, or 10-Hawk squad, tearing apart entire Leman Russ tank squadron as haywire is the new HP shredding king in 6th ed.
  • Warp Spiders – Spiders themselves are awesome with their high mobility, tough armor and brutal guns, but in corsair army almost anyone could spam S6 shots with much higher range. Only reason you should take Spiders is their exarch with powerblades and withdraw power, who work surprisingly good in challenges.
  • Wraithguard – HOLY [HAVING SEX WITH POOP] DO IT! Deep striking a unit of 10 Wraithguard behind enemy lines is the ultimate rage inducer. They are your ONLY source of D weapons to deal with Daemon Princes, bikers and Ogryns. They also perform their traditional functions of vehicle annihilation and MC pulping just as well as they do for Craftworlders.
  • Wraithblades - The main drawback of Wraithblades in vanilla codex is that they are slow, but here they can deep strike, pop out of webway portal or even hijack dark eldar kabalite Raider. Enjoy your Eldary assault terminators.
  • Vyper squadron – No. Just no. You have Hornets for that
  • Hemlock Wraithfighter - Coupled with the new Deathjester rules this could be a fun unit to have on the board
  • Crimson Hunter - Why not, who doesn't like 4 BS5 (potentially BS6) S8 shots (with the option for precision shots) that re-roll on the vehicle damage table when firing against other flyers...easily one of the best (if not THE BEST) flyer in the game at the moment (Necron Nightshroud Bomber being another contender for said title albeit for a rather different role on the battlefield)

• Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors: (0-1 restriction) You get a basic Kabalite squad without paying the allies tax and including a HQ choice... that's about it. Though you cannot have more Dark Eldar or Outcasts than you have Corsair squads.
  • There is one redeeming point in taking warriors - they can take Dark Eldar transports. While a double-cannon Venom is good for shredding infantry, you really should consider the Raider. Your Scorpions, Banshees and Wraithblades would be happy to ride on a big assault transport.

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 = 125pts 80pts (IA:A 6E updated costs) for 4!! S8 AP2 shots or Scatter Lasers for 8 S6 AP6 shots at 80 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 of these will kill ANYTHING you point them at, combined with the ability to outflank taking 3 will cause immense butthurt. Just don't forget, that full Hornet squadron with good guns would cost you 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. From the outset, they have twin-linked lasblasters instead of shuriken catapults, which when coupled with their heavier turrent 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.

• Nightwing Interceptor: Pure undiluted destruction, BS4, 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.

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 customisation 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.

• Corsair Phoenix Bomber: The only Heavy Support really worth taking for Corsairs. Like Nightwing, this flyer also comes with shrouded and vector dancer for unparalleled mobility and a modicum of protection, plus strafing run for BS FIVE against ground targets. It can torrent absurd amount of anti-infantry dakka, but it almost reaches Land Raider’s price-tag in points. There is 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 underslung 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.

• 0-1 Corsair Warp Hunter Squadron: This is your D Tank, and 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 Falcon with 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. With The new 7E Craftworlds codex, you can take them in squadrons and, to boot, you gain the combined fire mode back, but now under more lenient terms: One tank can fire, and they gain +1 S -1 AP for each Fire Prism in the squad (generally not worth losing another tank's shooting). However, two tanks in a squadron could drop an S6 AP2 large blast, very nasty for dealing with Terminators and their ilk with slightly greater odds than the small blast - which could, itself, be amped up to S9 AP1.

• 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 focussed 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 7E codex gave it a huge point reduction and the option to to team up with up to two other Nightspinners to do a combined fire like the Fire Prism, only now the firing tank adds +1 shot +1 S for each tank joining in. And for some reason the way it is worded means the tank firing gets 3 pie plates that can get up to strength nine. Covering an IG parking lot or Necron pirate fleet with S9 pie plates sounds nice.

• 0-1 Corsair Lynx: 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.

Formations

• Corsair Fleet Raiding Company: Like the Decurion/Gladius you get a formation of formations.
  • 1 Command Crew (1-2 HQ, 0-1 Elite, 0-1 LoW) - Nothing special here, just mandatory for the formation
  • 1-4 Coteries (1 HQ, 1-3 Troops, 0-2 Elites, 0-2 Fast Attack, 1 Heavy) - Your Troops get ObSec, in addition each Coterie has to choose a speculation 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 model may reroll 1s to wound in Close Combat.
    • Night Hunters: 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.
    • Titan Breakers: Each unit in the Coterie gets Preferred Enemy (Tanks & Walkers)
  • The drawback is that different Coteries treat each other as Allies of Convenience, so cannot be joined by allied corsair characters or targetted by allied blessings.

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:

• Dark Eldar:

• Harlequins:

Desperate Allies

• Forces of the Imperium:

• Tau:

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
  • Corsair prince is my personal favorite here, the void strikes and Deep Strike ability make for very interesting tactical choices, and in the new edition you can now have more then 50% of your army in reserve. Take 2, give them a Blade Sworn bodyguard and put in Falcons.

• Elite, Painfully limited in this Codex.
  • First, squad of 10 Wraithguard with a Warlock and deep strike using Prince's ability. Drink opponent's tears.
  • Second, Harlequins love Venoms (it was originally a harlequin vehicle) but you can only fit a small squad in one, Shadowseer's powers work VERY well with Darkfire Skyburst (Prince's void strike).
  • Third, Small squad of 5 Voidstorm with fusion guns and haywire grenades automatically get to deep strike (all Jet and Jump infantry do in 6th Ed) will annihilate vehicles.

• Troops
  • I go for 3 squads of Corsairs in Falcons and 3 Squadrons of Wasp Walkers with Scatter Lasers. But others go for 2 of each and 2 Jetbike Squads.

• 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. Just wait for FW to update these babies.

• 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. Still waiting for an update. Holofields and shit, you know.

• A good idea is also to get eldar as allies and get eldrad/or Irillyth, add dem S9 AP1 Lance fire prisms, and a Void Dragon Phoenix. and Bingo instant salsa.

Tactics

- I prefer a 5 man squad of troops with lasblasters and an Eldar missle launcher in a venom with an eldar missle launcher (EML) for 120pts. It is a fast platform guarding the rear, supporting the front with 48" range and can fire EML at 2 different targets (open-topped). 6 of these gives you 12 shots effective against either troops or vehicles and can score late game objectives.

• In short, prince + 10 wraithguard with D templates = deep strike shenanigans, void dreamer with webway portal = more shenanigans, hornets are supurb, a few small squads of corsairs with jet packs = mobility, wasps are annoying for the other guy, and allied Harlequins make the rest of your rather fast dodgy army look like a bunch of couch potatoes (also = additional shenanigans) If you're not in combat by turn 2 you're doing it wrong
  • Farva approves the previous tactic