Sybarites can now take a splinter rifle AND a power sword?

[The Sovereign]

According to the digital copy of the new Dark Eldar codex, kabalite sybarites now A) come with a splinter rifle and CCW stock, and B) can replace their melee weapon with a power sword, with no mention of any effect on them carrying the rifle. Am I reading that correctly? If so, that would be brilliant!

[John Bower]

According to the digital copy of the new Dark Eldar codex, kabalite sybarites now A) come with a splinter rifle and CCW stock, and B) can replace their melee weapon with a power sword, with no mention of any effect on them carrying the rifle. Am I reading that correctly? If so, that would be brilliant!

why shouldn't they be able to? Marine sergeants can carry a bolter and PS.

[Charon]

Yes they can. Still dont see the use for an expensive power weapon in a shooty unit when you dont even plan on maxing out his A ?

[Mr Mystery]

Dissuasion of small unit assaults.

Warriors, whilst reasonably fighty for a shooty unit lack the toughness and armour to put up a protracted fight, so jumping them in combat makes sense.

Putting in even a single power weapon adds a lot of risk to small units trying to take them out. Bit of bad luck, combined with their high Initiative could see the small unit lose enough models in the fight to be rendered useless.

[Charon]

Yeah. Small combat expert units are gonna fear that 2 S3 power weapon attacks that could have been 2 more Kabalites (4 more shots, 2 more wounds, 1 more attack) instead. And if you leave the sybarite at home too (as you should) make that even 3 additional kabalites.

[Mr Mystery]

Fear? No.

Food for thought? Possibly.

But by all means, continue believing you are the tactical master. Can't possibly be other schools of thought.

[Charon]

Keep sitting on your high horse and try to sell As for Bs.
Srsly. Stop it. I dont even think you played only one competitive game in your live by the amount of nonsense you keep typing here.

IF you cant stop getting an expensive weapon on a crappy unit, at LEAST make sure to maximise your attacks with that expensive weapon. So no Rifle, but a pistol to get 3 instead of 2 attacks.
Thats not a difficult concept at all. No rocket science here.
And if you want to go even more effective, get 3 additional models with good weapons who provide a hell lot more support than a single model. Also not a very difficult concept (for some it seems).

Sure there can be different shools of thought. If the result is the same (or unknown), the way does not matter.
Sadly you provide no "schools of thought". You provide a crappy way to waste points.

[Mr Mystery]

So, so crappy, standing a chance of doing decent damage to small sized assault units which might otherwise come through unscathed. Definitely absolutely no point whatsoever in doing it. None. Killing models is utterly pointless in the game. Everyone knows you win by stamping your feet and shrieking.

And at no point have I made a statement that it's compulsory or advisable. You asked what the point would be, I provided one, and you decided I must be mentally feeble for considering something you hadn't.

[Charon]

decent damage

Wasting points on doing no damage at all ist not doing "decent damage".

Everyone knows you win by stamping your feet and shrieking.

You win by taking objectives and not by "lolz i was lucky and killed 1 assault marine this turn for the cost of 2 assault marines!"
I know. This is incredible hard to understand.

How about you back off your claims by providing some math and/or some of examples of these mysterious "small close combat squads" that this "tactic" would be viable against?
The List cant be long as most CC units are either not small (orcs, nids,..), outclass the DE by a huge margin (every single space marine unit), do strike at thesame or higher initative (Eldar) or are no combat units at all (Tau, AM)

So far I have seen not a single line of reasoning behind your claims.

[Mr Mystery]

Maths? We're not rolling anywhere near enough dice in a gaming career, let alone a single game for statistics to make their mark.

Without that power weapon, the unit is easy prey. Threat to the Assault Marines is pretty low, and they stand a decent chance of coming through the combat with no losses.

But, add in the power weapon, and all it takes is some flukey rolling, and there goes two Assault Marines just to the Sybarite.

Tactically speaking, those are two very, very different scenarios, particularly as the Assault Marines will be striking after the Warriors in many cases, and the loss of a couple before they get to swing makes the combat that much dicier.

As I said in my first post - it's about dissuasion, not power gaming. It's about making your opponents choices as unpleasant as you possibly can. The cost of a power weapon is well worth it if it means you stave off an assault which might otherwise remove your entire unit from the board. Even if it just keeps them in that fight for another turn. It also opens up other options. If the unit has been thoroughly shot up, that power weapon can be used for spite, such as capitalising on the sloppy positioning of a lone Crisis Suit. Flex, flex and flex again. That's how I do my lists, and it's served me pretty well so far (in the few tournaments I've been too, I've never lost a game, or drawn one. Everyone's a winner baby, that's no lie.)

But of course, you live in a wonderful world where apparently competitive gaming is everything, and nobody ever fields anything except what is perceived to be the 'optimal' list, usually based on interwebular gibberish., and every combat is worked out not through dice but by breaking out the calculators and working out the exact statistical outcome.....

Risk management dude. You should give it a try.