Eldar Swooping Hawks

[HarlekissofDeath]

Hello everyone,

I am new to the 40k universe and am looking for some tips and advice on my Eldar army. I don't hear much about the Swooping Hawks, and from reading the Codex they look like they could be useful against a number of armies and against armor and infantry alike.

Any thoughts about them, and any success or failure stories; some pros and cons?

Thanks,

[fuzzbuket]

pros grenade pack/sunrifle works well against footsloging hordes, fails against marines. If you have the models putty over the heads and swap the wings for capes, finally remove the barrel till the coils and ........ a WRaithgguard !

[scadugenga]

Hawks have been steadily downgrading in performance/usefullness since 2nd ed. The second to last codex at least gave the exarch a spiffy weapon (web of skulls) that could generate a shload of hits.

Now, they tend to be overly fragile and not hard hitting, and frequently will not get a chance to use their haywire grenades before being singled out and turned into kibble.

Pro's: ping pong pie plates (skyleap power on the exarch) You won't do a hellova lot of damage, but you will annoy, and possibly survive to contest last minute objectives.

Only unit in the new eldar dex that has haywire grenades.

Sunrifle is assault 6 pinning. Unfortunately, it's little more effective than a lasgun.

Cons:

Fragile

Lack of firepower. Really not a threat to anything T4 or Save 4+ or better.

Pricey. 105 pts for a min squad w/no exarch.

[Baconfat]

Aren't the Haywire grenades great against all the mech lists?

[Son_of_Osiris]

Haywires are useful against mech armies... Though paying 21pts a dude for something that gets shot up by small arms fire is pretty questionable. I would consider warpspiders instead, they tend to be more popular for a reason.

Its a shame about hawks right now. I really like the models..

[HarlekissofDeath]

Yeah I guess I didn't really look at how expensive they are compared to their fragility. I like the warp spiders, and they have the ability to take out armor too, with their ability to move behind armor, and their s6 weapons.

[DarkLink]

Yeah I guess I didn't really look at how expensive they are compared to their fragility. I like the warp spiders, and they have the ability to take out armor too, with their ability to move behind armor, and their s6 weapons.

Except their AP - neuters their effectiveness against vehicles

[eldargal]

Sorry for the threadomancy.

I just took a squad of Swooping Hawks in a list along with two Fire Prisms. The Prisms and my Wave Serpents all drew most of the mech IG firepower, but my Swooping Hawks managed to wreck three LRBTs (I forget what variants) and immobilise a Hellhound before they get shot to pieces. The prisms did well too, I might add, being much more menacing on the surface is just a bonus.

I've decided they are an unfairly maligned FA choice. With three slots on a FOC and the only competition really being Warp Spiders I can see myself taking these more often now.

[Denzark]

I seem to remember some utility in attacking Flyers - this might just be an apocalypse thing, but either an Apoc formation rule or the SH rules seemed to allow one to hit easier no matter what the speed, swamp something nasty with haywire and glance even the most nasty AV14 to death?

Doom on Thunderhawks, anyone?

[eldargal]

Would that be the exarch ability Intercept, hitting vehicles on a 4+ no matter what?

Oh wait, there is the Apoc formation Baharroth's Tempest and that pass-an-initiative-test and attach Hayqire grenades to any flyer within 48" (I think).