I never take the Cobra any more for a combination of many interacting reasons, inevitably culminating in the decision that it is never worth taking them compared to other choices:
1. It has high damage capability, but only against very specific targets
2. Its high damage is crippled by very low to hit rolls, making it a gamble
3. It can be made less of a gamble by taking 2, but 500 points is a lot for an incredibly specialised unit (see 1)
4. Its poor range means you need to be risky with its positioning, but it has poor survivability
To work, you need activation advantage, to be facing a large titan with no shields, to win strategy, and a full moon. If all of these things happen, you *might* kill more points than you lose with them, but even then you have a significant chance of doing very little damage. It's just not worth it.
Ginger wrote:
In principle, when a Cobra sustains it has a 1/3 chance of hitting per 2xDC of titan, and each hit causes ~3 damage. Consequently each Cobra can usually cause 50% damage on the titan, hence the need for at least two in the attack when there is a reasonable chance of taking out a full strength Titan provided it has no shields left.
That said, there are a lot of "Ifs" in trying to achieve this; positioning, manoeuver and available cover being among the key ones (apart from winning the strategy roll of course).
Indeed, it's incredibly rare for a Cobra to ever sustain, due to its fire arc, range, SR and (for Eldar) less than stellar speed. Not once have I ever been able to pull it off. Also, you make it sound like the damage is a sure thing: "usually causes 50% damage". In actuality the damage is highly variable, with only a 5+ to hit on sustain vs WEs (the best targets). Only very high DC titans generate enough dice to mitigate the risk of a poor result. In fact it has nearly a 1/3 chance of doing zero damage whatsoever to a reaver, phantom etc. After everything you have to do to get to be able to even make this attack, you still need to be lucky.
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Making the vehicle 3BP would allow it to double forward into range from under 80cm, and if centrally placed it would be almost certain to hit and destroy the target anywhere on the battlefield - basically it would be too easy to use. For this reason, I do not think there is any need to change the number of BPs to 'improve' the firepower.
I think "almost certain to hit and destroy the target anywhere on the battlefield" is a bit strong for a unit that will get four dice at 6+ to hit the best kind of target it is likely to get (a Warlord). What it does do however is make an advance action feasible, and eliminates the requirement to take what is an expensive and extremely specialised unit in pairs. This last bit could make a real difference in seeing more Cobras appear on the battlefield - you can just about take a punt on a niche unit at 250.
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However increasing the range to 45cm would provide a smaller boost which is probably appropriate given the difficulties in using it appropriately. So that is why I suggest giving this a go.
Meh, if there's a problem I think it is the to hit value. I'd rather see a boost that significantly boosts a single Cobra compared to pairs. Sure 45cm is a help, but I don't it will materially affect your decision to take Cobras or not: you still need two, and they're still 500 points.
One thing I will say though: the variability in potential hits is not purely a bad thing. Opponents can be very wary of them, because even though the chances of the Cobra doing lots of damage are not great, its
potential for high damage can cause opponents to keep BTS titans away from it. So it probably affects the game by its presence and position more often than the damage it does. The same however is true of Scorpions (long range MW) and Void Spinners (need to spread out).
So for me, it is probably worth upping the BP to 3 because:
a) it's probably still a bit underpowered
b) we might see more appear on the battlefield if singles are viable