A closer look at Raiding Force and aircraft engagement

Let the list building begin!

Dark Eldar got previewed today and there's some good stuff here. Raiding Force rules got shown and this is pretty good because it allows us to mix detachments without taking a hit in CP. You get a +4 CP bonus when taking 3 Patrols in the army, so if each Patrol costs 2 and you get a +2 CP bonus from having your Warlord in one of the Patrols, this means you'll still get 12 CP if you're playing a 2K game. Sure, you have to take 3 HQs in total, but look at how much flexibility you get in terms of unit choices. I can for sure see an army with 2 Kabal:1 Coven Patrol ratio.

Our first look at Patrol.

In my article yesterday, I talked about how the DE book is actually 3 armies in one. When it comes to the 9th Ed. meta, I seriously think that DE armies with Meat Mountains will be really impactful for the metagame. There's not a lot of things in the game that can deal with tons of Grots and Talos, both of which are expected to be really good in the new edition. If you can easily take a large unit of Grots, some Talos with Haywires and fill the rest with vehicles/Ravagers. The Meat Mountain can act as your mid-field control and literal meat-shield for your Ravagers in the back.

Get ready for shenanigans.

Another good rule for us is confirmation that you'll be able to disrupt enemy movement with your flyers still. The line to pay attention to is: ".. but it cannot end the move on top of another model (or its base), and it cannot end the movement within Engagement Range (1") of any enemy aircraft." Imagine this for a second: Let's say that you're fighting against Genestealers who can Advance and Charge and moves 8" on average. This is an average of 12" of move, so you measure 12" out from the lead gene and then plop your plane down sideways in front of them. Check out this awful Paint drawing, but you will get the point easily.

Check. Your move.

In this diagram, you plop your plane down around where the opponent's units' max distance will be. The larger the unit, the more you can disrupt them because they are forced to go around the base since they cannot end their movement on top of your base. This means that the larger the unit, the less chances they have to go directly through your base with all their models and end up completely clearing the 1" engagement bubble around the aircraft. Congrats, you basically extended your opponent's charge range substantially. This will make them auto-fail most, if not all of their charges as long as you execute correctly. Needless to say, Eldar aircraft with Wings of Khaine makes this much easier.

Cool, today was a good day overall. Raiding Parties increases our list building capabilities and makes splashing Meat with vehicles quite easy. The aircraft shenanigans means that with good execution, you can make charges a nightmare for the opponent, thus making all-vehicle lists all the more powerful. GG.