Razorwing Flock

CA-CAW MOTHERFUCKERS!

The Razorwing or Raptor rigidium is a large avian creature native to many worlds of the Koronus Expanse and used mostly by the Beastmasters of the Dark Eldar. In fact they are so useful for the DEldar that they have an entire aircraft named after them. It is the size of a ancient Terran hawk or eagle and is known to be a particularly effective and vicious aerial predator. The creature is known to be an incredibly fast flyer and their feathers are as sharp as a mono blade, hence their name. While the creatures have tremendous speed, they rarely use it except for the initial dive, as otherwise they would overshoot their target.

The claws and beak of the Razorwing are strong enough to cleave through the mass of its prey to get to the bones inside and as mentioned, their feathers are razor sharp meaning that they can do the usual decapitation strike if they want to. Imperial scholars think this may be due to the excessive amounts of calcium in the Razorwing's diet, as the beasts are known to especially delight in crushing and eating the bones of its victims as well as the flesh. Although how calcium is able to make feathers as sharp as scalpels is never really explained in detail. Then again, real-world Earth has shrimps that can produce shock waves from its pincers that are powerful enough to shatter glass, so it's not completely unrealistic. Maybe it hardens the feathers into what are basically highly serrated knives?

The Dark Eldar uses the Razorwings as flocks to tear apart lighter GEQ and annoy the living hell out of MEQ and the like.

On the Tabletop

On 7th Edition tabletop, the Razorwing Flock is arguably the real MVP of the Beast Pack formation - 5 rending attacks and 3 wounds are amazing when taken in large numbers, even if they're WS2. Try to use them like extremely terrifying versions of the Tyranid Gargoyle. Yes. More terrifying than the flying space locusts.

8th Edition

In 8th Edition, these birds from hell have horrible Strength and Toughness of 2, but with Instant Death being a thing of the past, all you can see are the 4 wounds per flock and no longer have the insane attacks from the codex, but a fluffy -1 AP with 4 attacks each. For best results, throw them at big stuff like Wraithknights. You'll wound most things on 6+ anyway so might as well make those 6s count. 48 wounds for a maxed out unit and 48 attacks for 144 points (if I'm mathing right and not totally retarded) is great for a throwaway unit. These will either be ignored or shots will be dedicated to stopping them. Plus how badass would you feel if your Archon could just summon murders of murder birds to the field? Be sure to use these things like a tau shield drones, let your bird bois soak those lascannon shots so your raiders can go in nice and close. Then charge the birds in to soak the flamers in overwatch. Saves your Raider the trouble from losing out on his juicy dark lance by charging in.