The second troop choice Dark Eldar have are the Wyches. They are the stabby option of the two troop choices. They were once elite and semi-expensive for Dark Eldar. Now they are core and only a mere point higher than Kabalite Warriors. Let us have a look at them shall we?
They run the same weapon skill, ballistic skill, strength, toughness and leadership as the warriors. They come with a better initiative 6 and a save that is better and worse, 6+ and 4+ invulnerable in combat. They are also armed with a splinter pistol and close combat weapon, giving them really a base of two attacks. They also have plasma grenades so cover won’t pull the teeth out of their assaults either. To think, all this for one point more than warriors! Not to bad, unless they are out side of combat and cover. They also have fleet, night vision, power through pain and combat drugs. The last two are the truly important rules. One pain token on Wyches is great, but get them two and they shine even brighter! There is nothing better than furious charge on an assault unit no is there. Plus strength 3 for assaults is awful, just for the record how many close combat guard and Eldar armies do you see? Proof enough?
Now back to combat drugs. These can make Wyches so much better or just make them better, even the blah result. These are rolled for pre-game. Yes rolled for as they are random. Yes random is bad, but the other option is paying points per squad for them, which would make sense but we aren’t here to make sense. They did write in nice fluff for why they are random, but that still doesn’t make it any better. So roll a D6 and see what we get……”rolling noise”
- Hypex- roll 3D6 and take highest on run/ fleet rolls.
- Serpentin- +1 weapon skill
- Grave Lotus- +1 strength
- Pain Bringer- re-roll wounds in close combat
- Adrenalight- +1 attack
- Splintermind- start with a pain token
As we can see, a roll of one is just a big old cup of fail. Well unless you are running squads on foot or out of a webway. It doesn’t really doesn’t make that a better roll. One is really the worst result here. All the other options are really descent for an assault unit. This is also a whole army roll, not unit to unit. That will make tracking of and playing drugged units easier.
So now let’s look at the squad. It can ran 5-15 in number, one in every five Wyches can take a special close combat weapon, and one can be upgraded to a Hekatrix (typical unit upgrade +1 attack +1 leadership). They seem pretty standard so far, but what are these super fun weapons they can take?
The Razorflails are two weapons that allow re-rolls to hit and wound. These are nice because any re-roll is a good re-roll. Plus it is hits and wounds so look for some damage out put from these.
The Impaler and Shardnet take away an attack for every model in base contact (to a minimum of one). This adds a nice level of protection to the squad. Get these next to multi-attack models or help out a bit if you happen to get charged. Not a bad weapon swap there.
Hydra Gauntlets replace your +1 attack with +D6 attacks. It seems like a watered down Mark of the Wulfen here. These seem cool, but getting random D6 strength 3 attacks isn’t cool. If you hope to roll Grave Lotus for your combat drug these look much better, but random chance is random chance. They also compete with the other two which look to be better options.
The squad can take haywire grenades per guy or girl. This gives them some help if they hit armor or are hit by a walker (the bane of most of this army’s non vehicles). I would not spend the extra points and hope other aspects of my force would deal or help remove walkers/ vehicles prior to the Wyches getting there.
The Hekatrix is the unit upgrade for this unit. It gives the standard +1 to leadership and +1 attack. They can also take the standard blast pistol, venom blade, power weapon and agonizer. The options are all descent again, especially if the combat drugs fall the right way. A 3+ to hit agonizer is much more likely to do damage. A venom blade is always nice at 2+ to wound. It is also better at 3+ to hit or strength 4, giving that nice re-roll on wounds that miss (if your strength is equal or more than the opponent’s toughness).
The blast pistol in this squad seems a better fit than with warriors. Wyches need to get close and open transports. They want to get into combat. So, a blast pistol can really help with this. I would spend the extra points to get this on the Hekatrix.
Last they can take a phantasm grenade launcher. It costs ½ as much as the warrior version and benefits the Wyches much, much better. Why not give the squad offensive and defensive grenades? This added with impaler/ net would make receiving a charge not that bad and infuriate your attacker. Oh all those missed extra charge attacks!
They can also take the obligatory Raider. This is both good and bad for the squad. They will be more maneuverable, but will fall victim to losses if the Raider blows up. It also gets them a dark lance to help crack armor prior to charging. Once again the Raider is a personal or play style choice.
I was never a user of Wyches. I didn’t like the cost, use and models. Now the models look pretty damn good. They also weapon options I like, razorflails. So, how would I use a Wych squad? Like them out of a webway. Why? The main reason is safety. If they aren’t on the board they aren’t dying. Second is the first turn or two I’m trying to get armor open and soften up targets with shooting. Then the Wyches come through the webway to mop up. Yes this is theory, but it is how I would run them.
Squad size for me would be 12-15. I would add the Hekatrix with phantasm launcher and venom blade. Two would be armed with razorflails or three if I was running the full 15. Hopefully get a pain token or two and watch the assault potential grow.
A second squad would be 12-15 with a Hekatrix, agonizer and 2-3 impaler/shard nets. This squad could hit and hopefully tar pit units with the occasional 4+ power weapon wound and loss of attacks. Look for them to hit multi-attack squads as impaler/ nets have no real use on one attack units. Also with a single pain token they could do a good job tar pitting a unit (unless it is brimming over with power weapons).
So the Wyches are not a multipurpose unit, but they aren’t made to be. They are made to assault and depending on drug rolls and pain tokens, look to be pretty damn good at it.
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