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Well then, it?s me, so prepare?.
Most players will find that there are aspects of 'their' fleet or commonly faced fleets have balance issues. Some of these claims will be unjustified due to player inexperience or unimaginative tactics. But who thinks the Eldar Corsairs are balanced? And is this due to player inexperience or unimaginative tactics?
All right-y?.
Obvious aspects of the Corsair rules make it hard to balance them, such as the Move-Shoot-Move style of play leading to an unparalleled reliance on asteroid fields, or holofields making bog standard batteries your enemies? favourite weapon!
Indeed, I for one, would find it better if balanced fleets stood a better chance against Eldar. That means no tailoring?
I?m not suggesting that holofields or the MSM playing style be changed, even though it might make a whole lot of sense. I?m suggesting a series of ?slight? tweaks to help balance them but leave the nightmare that is at the core of Corsair fleet list intact![quote]
Ho-hum, holofields do not to be changed that much, even when they have standard shields. Kinda pleased to hear you think it might make a whole lot of sense to change MSM! (Let me know what you think of the latest MMS?)
[quote]Reliance on Asteroid fields
This unbalancing aspect can be calmed by reducing the speed of the 2 highest speed bands by 5cm when in Outer Reaches and Deep Space as there is a higher density of asteroids, and increasing them by 5cm when in the Flare Region and Mercurial Zone as you have solar flares and far less overall terrain.
This is the largest tweak I?m suggesting and only having played with these rules a few times I can?t guarantee they ensure fairer games. But please try them out and tell us what you think.
I do like that approach, would even fit (slightly modificated) with MMS. I guess not many will like it?..
Cruisers
Cruisers are sadly a deficient addition to any corsair fleet, escorts are just far better for points cost and tactical use:
Escorts are harder to hit by weapons batteries, the bane of the Eldar Fleet (shooting at escorts means a right shift on the gunnery table).
Escorts are faster, able to make better use of the MSM style of play.
Escorts may re-roll their leadership test to pass through asteroid fields, a vital advantage.
Escorts don?t suffer from critical hits, even more important when you suffer them on a 4+!
The only bad thing about escorts is that they are all separate ships and so could in theory be wiped out by Blast Markers.
Should cruisers suddenly get all the advantages of escorts? Of course not, but compared to everybody else?s cruisers Eldar get no obvious advantages. Usually a cruiser will have more shields, more turrets and far more resilience, Eldar cruisers have none of the above (considering they have 2 hits less than a conventional cruiser of that type, the worst armour value and half the hits suffered will cause critical hits!)
I?m not really sure as I like the Escort>Cruisers for the Corsairs. But, yeah, they could use a slight nod.
Eclipse
The exclusive potential for attack craft is a major selling point, but Eldar aren?t desperate to defend against ordnance as they have holofields, also the shear cost of the Eclipse is too restricting to use it in this role (unless your holofields have been destroyed by a critical hit).
The Eclipse would benefit so greatly from 45cm range Pulsars, this alone would balance it in my opinion as it wouldn?t have to get in close. This may require a price increase, what do you think?
My mind says: ?Mini-Void Stalker?. Good.
Shadow
There is nothing good to be said about the Shadow! It just doesn?t have enough offensive capability! Strength 4 Torpedoes does not feel like enough to be worthwhile; this should be increased to strength 6! This might be enough to give the Shadow enough bite. As with the Eclipse it might be worth increasing the range of the direct fire weaponry (weapons batteries) to 45cm range, these would suffer a range shift over 30cm however.
Batteries at 45cm is fine, 6 torps could prove unbalancing.
Light Cruisers
Obviously these have all the same disadvantages as the Cruisers but they have ?fast? escort speed. This bothers me simply because they are faster than the Aconite and Hellebore. They should be reduced to the Hellebore?s speed bands.
Agreed on the speed! Make that official.
Solaris
What a dreadful little cruiser! The Aurora is a fine ship with a nice weapons load out, the Solaris on the other hand is so horribly under-gunned that 2 escorts of the same cost have more firepower! As it is a light cruiser that is fast it should have the opportunity to get in close to unleash those weapons batteries within 15cm and be guaranteed a kill (or at least cause substantial damage). Also the weaponry should be spread about meaning weapons batteries in the Hull and Keel! In addition to the 8 WB?s in the Prow it should also have at least 4 WB?s in the Keel (perhaps 6).
Nice, like the hull/keel approach.
Other idea: 45cm batteries (at strength  without column shift.
Escorts
As mentioned above Corsair escorts are vastly superior to their larger cousins in many ways, however the two larger escorts are just too expensive or have serious design flaws to be viable choices. As such the Hemlock and Nightshade seem to be the only real choice for an Eldar player.
?but the Aconite is my ?killer? and my Hemlocks always die first and never re-pay there value!
Hellebore
What a massive escort, what a conflicted design, what role does it fill? In reverse order: the Hellebore fills no role except as a fitting ?leader? for a squadron of nightshades (with an attendant Aconite), simply because it is horribly expensive, and it has torpedoes which restricts its role and how it is used.
It also has a good direct weapon load out, being a Pulsar and single weapons battery. To use this effectively you need to fire at a different target than with the torpedoes, as they maybe destroyed by blast markers against shields, sometimes you have to be risky though!
It is a massive escort and should be represented as such in the traditional manner for escorts, by increasing its armour value!
Having 5+ armour would greatly improve the Hellebores lot making it far more appealing. As well as 5+ armour it should be made 5pts cheaper!
Or the launch bay variant?.
Aconite
This is just a little bit too expensive and oddly as slow as a Hellebore. This should be dropped to 60pts and given the same speed bands as the Hemlock and Nightshade.[quote]
YEAH! Very good.
[quote]Nightshade
What an amazing little guy! Eldar Torpedoes (or Devil Torps) are one of the most powerful weapons in BFG and this little guy has 2! Devil Torps ignore shields and almost completely ignore turrets. They re-roll to hit, effectively (meaning roughly) turning 6+ armour into 5+, 5+ into 4+ and 4+ into almost 2+ armour! So against armour 5+ you?ve got 2 lances that go through shields! Not only this, but the ones that didn?t hit could hit another target behind! Of course fighters are a bit of a problem but at least that means you won?t have bombers messing up your table with blast markers. And of course you do have to reload to use them again but with Eldar leadership it shouldn?t be too much of a problem!
Basically these guys are the best escort in the game for their points, they?re too cheap! They should be increased to 45pts.
Agreed.
Hemlock
I only have one thing to say about the Hemlock, it has weapons batteries on the model and it doesn?t on its stats! Give it 1 weapons battery, like the Nightshade. This also means that the Aconite would be a nice addition to a Hemlock squadron, and the hemlock would actually have a reason to be in a large escort squadron! No price increase needed, is there?
Hmmm, with an extra battery I think it should be 45 points.
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http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=19176
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