7 steps to win with Corsairs in 7th Ed.

I have always loved the idea of Corsairs.  As I often run Dark Eldar & Eldar together their piratical streak seems to encapsulate perfectly the vicious opportunism of different Xenos factions coming together for personal gain.  This fits perfectly with the approach of the Somalian Space Pirates my DE/E strike force.

The corsair rules are a little old now (IA 11) but they translate wonderfully to a 7th edition environment.  Below are some thoughts on a basic battle plan with them; see my next post for a battle report from where I tried the list out.  Any thoughts or criticism are welcome.

Corsairs: Eldar weaponry - Dark Eldar fashion sense.

Preamble

The following assumes you are familiar with the Corsair rules

So a few things struck me about 7th edition.  The first was the improved jink save, the second was the removal of the reserves limit and the third was the improvements to deep strike.

With this in mind I want to build an army around a Corsair Prince's ability to force night fighting for a turn, with an autarch and the Duke for reserves and deep strike manipulation.

Battle Plan

Here's the battleplan in 7 easy steps.

1.  Start with min units on the board (preferably hidden) enough to make sure I'm not tabled (include the Corsair Prince.

2.  Turn two, deep strike EVERYTHING possible into the enemy ranks. This is done via duke S's rule and also the 3x deep strike the Prince confers.

"Holy shit Sarge, that's no Scourge!"

3.  Possible units to do this with: Kabalites in Raiders with SR, Corsair Guardians with 2x SC and 2x Melta, Scourges with Heatlances (+ ablatives), Talos (benefiting from the Prince's ability?), and then some meaty assault units on raiders - 9x wyches plus Autarch (or something similar)

4.  Hopefully get a DE flier or two on - if current rumours are true, the Void Raven might be quite tasty for this.

5.  Shooting phase the Kabbies let rip into anything soft, Corsairs/Scourges blast vehicles and Corsair Prince brings down nightfight.  This grants the Raiders all a nice 3+ jink for the turn 

(NB if the rumours to the change to night-shields are true, this may be skippable).

Alternate take: use the s9 AP 2 pie plate the Prince can drop to soften up some charge targets for next turn / cream some terminators / pop a parking lot.

Surprise!

6.  The fliers who have arrived missile spam (with the pinning missiles) into as many units as possible.  This combined with torture launchers (can't recall their name) on the Raiders should hopefully leave at least some units pinned ready for a charge next turn - no overwatch.  

Again if the rumours about the new DE armour which grants fear to all enemies within 6" and -2 Leadership is true this would be a great combo.  Use a WWP to DS an Archon behind enemy lines (farewell Duke) & within 6" of as many units as possible.  Shooting the animus vitae to try and get the Wyches all 5+ FnP for a turn 3 onslaught might also be wise.  If you really wanted to start messing with the opponent, throw in some of the terrify available in the Eldar codex. 

7.  Opponent faces target saturation in his own lines.  Do you shoot the Kabbies in Raiders or the assault units who will be charging next turn?  Hopefully some of his units are snap firing due to GtG and any nasty vehicles have been haywire/fusion gunned to death (a Corsair squad puts out 2 melta and 6 s6 shots... YMMV)

This seems relatively fluffy (I love the idea of the lights going down just as DE launch their strike) and would bother most armies. 

Your main danger is the risk of tabling on turn 1.  Hide the Corsair Prince well and maybe sprinkle some wracks in cover?

See my next post for a battle report using this strategy