Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Eldar (section)

==Corsair Overview==
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A unique little sub-division of eldar, the Corsairs are to the Aeldari as the Death Korps of Krieg are to the Imperial Guard; an overpriced Forge World exclusive faction with a fancy little twist on the standard way they'd normally play. Unlike the Kriegers, the Corsairs are considerably less popular and as such, have significantly fewer units to play around with. Go figure. Regardless, Corsairs offer a much more flexible way to play your eldar factions, and practically encourage you to go wild with conversions to really make [[your dudes|your dudes]]... partly because the only visible difference between a standard Corsair Reaver and a Guardian Defender is literally just the helmet bit.
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'''Pros'''
* Corsairs have the most flexible weapon loadouts of all the Aeldari factions, allowing you to either specialize against a particular unit type (like GEQ or MEQ), or kit them out to handle a wide range of threats.
* With the 2017 CA dropping their point costs, most of the Corsair units are actually pretty reasonably priced for what they bring to the table.
* Troop choices with 16" moves that fly make securing or contesting objectives considerably easier compared to most ground-bound armies.
* Between the Craftworlders, Dark Eldar and Harlequins, Corsairs have more opportunities for conversions than any other Non-imperial army; fantastic for making [[your dudes | your dudes]].

'''Cons'''
* In the transition from 7th to 8th edition, most Corsair units have been liquidated. [[Fail | For some reason, this also included their HQ choices such as the Corsair Princes, Barons and Void Dreamers]].
* With only 5 unit data-sheets (2 of which are copy/pasted from Craftworld/Drukhari codexes), this is also the single smallest faction in the game. If you're all about diversity, look elsewhere.
* Like Imperial Assassins, can only be brought as a pure Corsairs detachment without an HQ, forgoing any command benefits for the detachment.
* As a Forge World army, its units are also the most expensive financially. Not that there's many of them left to choose from.
* Corsairs have all the frailty of the Dark Eldar, meaning that a single stiff wind could very easily wipe out an entire squad of your dudes. While they have access to the Falcon now, with no means to repair or mitigate damage received, it'll suffer all the more for it.
* For the time being (which will probably be a very long time), Corsairs lack any and all faction traits to shore up their weaknesses. With all the other Aeldari armies having Craftworld Attributes, Drukhari Obsessions and Harlequins Masque Forms, they can all perform more effectively both in defensive and offensive roles compared to the Corsairs. Coupled with your lack of unit choices, this leaves the Corsair faction with very little in-house incentive to pick them compared to what all the other Aeldari factions offer.
* Forge World has stopped supplying ''all'' Corsair conversion kits, meaning that you very much will need to [[counts as|pretend]] that your Swooping Hawks and Windriders are space pirates if you ''really'' want to run corsairs and don't have an existing army of them from days gone by.

'''Special Rules'''
*'''Reckless Abandon:''' Unique to Corsair units, this risk/reward ability triggers only if an enemy unit that is charging your squad loses a model to your overwatch fire. If these lofty requirements are met, you can move said squad 3" in any direction away from the dudes charging them. Borderline useless on the Cloud Dancer Jetbikes, though Reavers and Sky Reavers have an honest chance of triggering it between the Brace of Pistols each model has along with any flamers they might have tugged along with them. Don't get cocky though, that 3" potential reposition may not be enough to get your Corsairs out of their charge, and they are absolutely pathetic in a fist fight.  Not that you'd want to use corsairs defensively, but with most deep-strike/infiltration at 9" max, the 3" back-out makes an instant charge all but impossible. 
*'''Dancing on the Blade's Edge:''' This ability continues the risk/reward trend and allows Corsairs to roll an additional dice on Moral tests if they so wish, discarding the <s>lowest</s> highest result (the typo in the original Imperial Armour: Index Xenos was corrected via FAQ). If any models bail however, then one additional model flees along with whoever you lost from the test itself. This ability is pretty double-edged; on one hand, it could reduce or negate loses through morale tests for your pirate elves with some good rolls. On the other hand, bad rolls could just finish the job your opponent started on your fairly cowardly thieves.
'''Wargear'''
Corsairs are unique in that basically everything available to your standard Aeldari Troop choices is basically open game to your pirates. Most of their loadout selection can be found between these two factions:
*'''Craftworld Weapons:''' ''Shuriken Catapult, Lasblaster, Flamer, Fusion Gun, Shuriken Cannon, Scatter Laser'' and ''Aeldari Missile Launcher.''
*'''Drukhari Weapons:''' ''Shardcarbine, Blaster, Splinter Cannon, Shredder'' and ''Dark Lance.''
The three Corsair units also come with a few extra exclusive options for their perusal (some like the ''Brace of Pistols'' being manditory) that can give them even more flexible applications based on what you need them to do.

===Corsair Unit Analysis===

A quick overview of the Corsair specific units available for selection can be found within this collapsible box for those interested in using them.

'''HQs'''
Sadly, there currently aren't any Corsair-specific HQ units in 8th Edition. That said, you don't need any; per the '''28/09/18 FAQ''', so long as your army's Warlord is {{W40kKeyword|AELDARI}}, you may bring an HQ-less Corsairs Patrol, Battalion or Outrider Detachment, though you forgo any command benefits for the detachment to do so. Additionally this means faction-specific stratagems, auras or psychic powers cannot affect them. Fielding Corsairs more as a supplementary force as opposed to your core army is strongly advised.

'''Troops'''
*'''Corsair Reaver Band:''' The most versatile troop choice among the Aeldari, it'll run you 80 points base for a 5-elf squad armed with Lasblasters and a Brace of Pistols. However, for 7 points less each, you can freely swap out said lasblasters for either Shuriken Catapults or Shardcarbines (Dropping the cost to 50 Points including Felarch), and for every 5 models in the unit (maximum of 15), [[Awesome|one of them can swap out their gun for one of several heavy or special weapons, including Flamers, Fusion Guns, Shredders, Shuriken Cannons, Dark Lances, Blasters, and even Aeldari Missile Launchers]]. While the Reavers have all the flexibility of an SM Tactical Squad and can do a lot on the field, don't forget that they're still squishy little Eldar with only a 5+ armor to save their skins. These will be your best objective holders, though even if they're geared defensively, you'll need to keep them out of LoS or in cover to survive.
**'''Chapter Approved''': Interestingly, aside the Wraithseer, the only Eldar units to receive point ''drops'' were [[awesome|all of the Corsair units, including the Reavers, Skyreavers and Cloud Dancer Jetbikes.]] Reavers dropped from 9 points per model to 7, and the Felarch from 14 to 12.
**'''Felarch Weapons''': While the corsairs as a whole have their fair selection, their Felarch only has the ''Dissonance Pistol'' and ''Void Sabre'' to choose from, aside the standard fare. The Dissonance Pistol could find some use, if you would like a little extra bite on your squad leader. The Void Sabre ''could'' find some use on a spar-glaive squad of Reavers, though a squad with that kind of a loadout is basically begging for death.
**'''Note on Costs:''' The default loadout for each Reaver is a Lasblaster (7p) and Brace of Pistols (2p). In almost every circumstance, you should absolutely replace the Lasblasters with Shardcarbines or Shuriken Catapults, since it will drop the cost of each model almost by half.
** The Brace of Pistols is a mandatory take, so it may be a good idea to build around engaging at close range to make the most of it. A Shredder/Flamer with a squad of Pistol/Spar-Glaive or Pistol/Shuriken Reavers can dish out an unholy amount of shots despite being a relatively small squad. Works doubly so on Skyreavers, who can get right in the face (Preferably 9") of a squad to use their shredder for double the shots.

*'''Corsair Skyreaver Band:''' There's only one real difference between these guys and the normal Corsair Reaver Band. Jetpacks, and some of the best jetpacks available to most infantry at that too! All the flexible goodness of the land-bound Reavers given a nice 16" move with the Fly and Jetpack keywords. These guys will serve primarily as your objective contesters and forward skirmishers, as they can easily get into enemy territory as soon as Turn 1 if positioned carefully. Recommended special weapons for these guys would be the Splinter/Shuriken Cannons or Flamers for anti-infantry or the Fusion Gun/Blaster for anti-vehicle; you can give them heavier firepower through the Dark Lance or AML, but given how often your Skyreavers will be moving around, they'll be less effective with them compared to your ground-bound Reaver kin will be. Additionally, do note that at 100 points base for a 5-elf squad, or 205 base for a 10-elf squad, they can get expensive fast.
**'''Chapter Approved''': Like their Reaver brothers and sisters, the Skyreavers received a slight drop from 12 points a model to 10 (17 to 15 for the Felarch). It's not much, but that 10 point difference does make quite an impact.
**'''Note on costs:''' Identically to their Reaver twins, the default guns for the Skyreavers are the Lasblaster (7p) and Brace of Pistols (2p). Again, replacing the Lasblaster with either the Shardcarbine (recommended), Shuriken Catapult or Spar-Glaive drops their total cost by a little over a third of their original price.

'''Dedicated Transport'''
*'''Corsair Venom:''' A small paper boat with a Splinter Cannon and either a Twin Splinter Rifle or a second Splinter Cannon. Now that the Twin Rifle is free but the second Cannon runs you another 15 points, it may not be too bad an idea to keep the Twin rifle. Just ask yourself, is the difference between 24" Rapid Fire 2 and 36" Rapid Fire 3 worth 15 points? Either way, it transports a single 5-elf squad of Reavers. It's also now 2" faster than the Raider, so zip around and crap out a massive amount of poison.
**'''Alternative Take''': One thing people have missed out about the Twin Linked Splinter Rifles is that closing in to Rapid Fire the thing results in either 1) The Venom dying to Lasguns, Bolters, Melta Guns or a random Krak Grenade following a round of Rapid Firing Bolters, 2) The Venom just getting charged (6" move plus 6" Charge ain't hard to make) which loses you a turn of shooting for the passengers, assuming the Venom survived combat, 3) You not quite getting into Rapid Fire Range Turn 1 resulting in you losing the unit 4) A combination of the above. Remember that while Venoms can be spammed, they are not exactly expendable. You take the additional cannon for extra firepower at range while skirting just outside the range of weapons that can reliably threaten it.

'''Fast Attack'''
*'''Corsair Cloud Dancer Band:''' Corsairs with Jetbikes. While they have nearly the same statline (worse leadership unless you pay 5 extra points for the Felarch to bring it back up) as Windriders, they have a few extra options they can take, like Dark Lances, Splinter Cannons and Dissonance Cannons (of which, only the Splinter Cannon and Shuriken Cannon aren't Heavy Weapons). All in all, they are a pretty decent and relatively durable unit that is very flexible, though their lack of any rules to alleviate the penalty for moving with heavy weapons does hurt their effectiveness as a vector for heavy firepower.
**'''Chapter Approved''':  Their cost was dropped down to 27 points per model, making them considerably more cost effective than they used to be.
**'''Note on Modelling''': With the Corsair Jetbike bits from Forge World moving to the "Last chance to buy" category, it looks like future players looking to field Corsair Cloud Dancers will either need to get lucky on ebay or kitbash some miscellaneous Aeldari jetbike bits if they don't want to rely on "counts as" rules. Fortunately, since Corsairs are all about stealing their kin's rides, there are plenty of opportunities to get creative with [[your dudes | your dudes]] pimped out bikes.
**''Pay No Attention to the rules behind the curtain'': "The Felarch may replace its lasblaster with [...]", but doesn't have a lasblaster.

'''Heavy Support'''
*'''Corsair Falcon:''' Functionally, the Corsair Falcon is the exact same as the Falcons Craftworlders have, and has access to all the bells and whistles that come with theirs. While the Corsair Falcon does have some transport capacity, being able to tote up to 6 Corsair Reavers along with it, its main use is as a fast, fairly durable heavy weapons platform (given that it is your only Heavy Support choice). A Falcon equipped with two Starcannons and a Shuriken Cannon will be quite versatile, and better able to deal with MEQ and TEQ targets that your Shard Carbine Corsairs may struggle with. If you want to give the Falcon some extra support, you can spice up a Corsair Reaver squad with Shard Carbines and take either a Splinter Cannon for anti-infantry, or a Dark Lance for anti-tank, and have the Reavers hang out in the Falcon until they're needed.
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