Five on the charge, which it will get. So one armor save from Hammer of Wrath, and another 2.8 from its attacks, is 3.5 dead on the charge. Your hits back won't do much (seriously, why do you think that 6's to wound with a maximum of one attack per model somehow makes guardsmen good in combat against the Wraithknight). I win combat, you take a morale check at about Ld, what, 5? 10 dead Guardsmen. Even if they don't break and run that turn, next turn I'll win combat again, with the added benefit of preventing you from shooting me.
Since you're not blobbing, and since the only thing that actually has decent odds of wounding the Wraithknight are your meltabombs, so I'll want to shoot those, the Wraithknight will walk through your army 10 Guardsmen at a time. It will keep doing that until you either do dedicate your entire ranged firepower to killing it, which is a big win for the Eldar player, or until you mass assault it, which still probably won't kill it because krak grenades are not very impressive, in which case the Eldar player also wins because it's the same scenario as the big blob squad, except you aren't Stubborn Ld 10 on everyone so I've got a much better chance of running you down.
Also, how many snipers do you have? 10? 20? Not sure if you're talking about command squads with sniper rifles or Ratlings or whatever. Assuming BS4, it takes a lot of sniper shots to kill a Wraithknight. 20 snipers can do it in a couple of turns, but 36" range isn't that great, so I'd probably just hold back a turn, let my Serpents mow down some snipers with Ignores Cover serpent shields, and then you've lost most of your threat against the Wraithknight.
In fact, the more I think about it, the more I'm thinking that having a Wraithknight to Sweeping Advance its way through your army is more and more important, for the precise reason that you pointed out that Guardsmen can swarm most other Eldar. So I hit the key units you have that can threaten the Wraithknight, the Wraithknight shrugs off everything else and kills a bunch of Guardsmen in assault. It'll either kill enough dudes or tie up enough dudes that the rest of my army can actually win. That right there isn't just useful, that's MVP status for the Wraithknight.
Will the Wraithknight die in the process of the game? Maybe. I wouldn't be too surprised, I would be using him pretty aggressively. But he would absolutely be worth taking over, say, a pair of Fire Prisms.
That would explain it. In hover mode they die much easier. But he would get jink if he moved, skimmers always get a jink save if they move. Flyers are the ones that have to dodge to get jink. Which seems kinda backwards to me. I think that Flyers shouldn't force you to Snap Shot to hit them, they should just get, say, a 3+ Jink save automatically, and a 2+ if they go fast/dodge. It would make more sense, and would be more balanced.
I am the Hammer. I am the right hand of my Emperor. I am the tip of His spear, I am the gauntlet about His fist. I am the woes of daemonkind. I am the Hammer.
I've been equipping a power lance on my Swooping Hawk Exarch lately and have been getting a ton of use out of it. It's not that I'm looking to assault as a primary option with Hawks but the fact that they can so precisely deep strike means they're often close to high-value shooty units that are vulnerable to even mildly effective assaults. And three I6 attacks at S4 AP3 plus hammer gives the option of challenging sergeant types. It's just one more tool in the toolbox for these guys and it can save you from having to skyleap when you'd otherwise not want to.
Last edited by cebalrai; 06-20-2013 at 02:55 PM.
I have only played two games with the new Codex so far...
I played about 12 games or so before the new Codex...
but after the 2nd game I like it, it makes it a bit more fun to play in my opinion... I like the Bladestorm the only thing I would change to it is give all the Phoenix Lord at least a 5++, E.W. to the Avatar, make it so Banshsee's don't drop to I 1...
anyway I am going to get a few more games in this weekend so I can a beter feel on it...
Oh! I don't thinks its a big deal....but GW put a Faq up....not sure if anone else posted it before me....
its funny tho... just one Errata.
Only in death does duty end...
Imperial Guard W-8 L-16 D-7 Grey Knights(DH) W-6(1) L-8(5) D-3(1) Eldar W-1 L-3 T-1
That errata has been up since literally before the codex was released.
I am the Hammer. I am the right hand of my Emperor. I am the tip of His spear, I am the gauntlet about His fist. I am the woes of daemonkind. I am the Hammer.
Does that guy even play guard. Plasma and Melta gunners galore and Vendettas come on.
Sure fire way to kill a wraithknight is with psychic battle squad and calldius assassian. If he happens to deny the witch you might have issues. However I call that squad it will be gone.
If a T8 model on the field it means strength 3-4 just bounces off the model. All the other anti weapons vs MC now wound on 3-5 instead of 2-3. He may no be a nightbringer, but it's still a pain in the butt.
With guard I could kill a nightbringer with a quarter of my army. Even so that forced me to spend all my high strength weapons into one model while the rest of the army slap me silly.
With Nightbringer I just flat out ignored it which was a viable tactic for that model.
However vs a Wraithknight you can't do that. You have to respond to something like that. If you can tie it in combat all game long than it's your best chance of victory. A Commissar lord is good to keep guardsmen from running away. If you throw about 20 guardsmen at the knight and they have stubborn at leadership 10 they probably can tie the knight for the entire game.
However seeing that a knight is not as much as a pain as a nightbringer it will take less fire power to kill a knight. Although spells that give out +4 invultnerable saves and invisibility can make the knight rather hard to deal with.
I am the Hammer. I am the right hand of my Emperor. I am the tip of His spear, I am the gauntlet about His fist. I am the woes of daemonkind. I am the Hammer.