Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Ynnari and the BeastPack

I'm always looking for ways to make units work better than they appear to on paper.  The mad scientist in me enjoys the work.

Gathering Storm: Fracture of Biel-Tan is a supplement that just came out, which allows you to combine the Harlequins, Eldar and Dark Eldar into a Detachment that uses the same force requirements as a Combined Arms Detachment does.  They collectively become Ynarri.  You give up battle Focus and also Power From Pain in order to gain a couple of abilities, one of which is that if you are within 7" of your fellow Ynarri unit, then you unit does not have to take morale tests for taking 25% casualties.

The truth is, the Beastpack in the Codex: Dark Eldar has always had an achilles heel.  It pretty much requires you to take a BeastMaster to bolster the Leadership of the group because Psychic Shriek is a thing but also because the leadership of the BeastPack is abysmal without him there to steady them.

This is all good and fine if the enemy does not have precision shot.  Precision shot can not only pop the 5+ armor of the BeastMaster, but with just three casualties it can send the whole thing fleeing off the board in round one before you mov a muscle.  I know because it has happened to me.

There is no Duke Sliscus to protect the unit like there once was in the old codex.  Yet if you take the Dark eldar portion of the force as Ynarri you will now be able by proximity to keep the unit from failing this way.  

I was very excited to learn this.  I think giving up Battle Focus actually does matter to some units like Warp Spiders, who make excellent use of the ability but for Dark Eldar, one can easily argue that the Dark Eldar Power From Pain chart is just not fruitful enough to care if you lose it.  It's best abilities come much later than one would like it to.  Unless you field Urien Rakarth in your force, there's no economical way to wind that clock forward much faster.  There are only two HQ slots in a Ynarri formation, so you'd need to pay a fairly high tax to get more Haemonculous in the force to wind the clock forward on  enough units for the Dark Eldar Power From Pain to help you more.

Your downside is that any Troops choices you take will not be Objective Secured as they might have been otherwise.  That is a real downside but from the perspective of making the Beastpack itself a potent and persistent force in the army, there's no doubt in how useful this is on the approach and against precision shots.  The Beastpack itself does not normally benefit from Power From Pain except for the BeastMaster in the unit anyways, so it hardly matters to them if they lose Power From Pain in exchange for becoming Ynarri.

If you want beastpacks to do some work for you, definitely look at this possibility,

2 comments:

  1. joseph you cannot take haemonculus nor urien in a ynnari list

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    1. We know. Why are you pointing it out? i was pointing out that if you aspire to use the Dark Eldar Power From Pain chart to good effect it requires a larger number of haemonculous or Urien to fuel, which isn't worth the point expenditure, making the Ynarri trade off a bit worthwhile.

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