I'm still giving the old brain box some over time about the wraithknight. I just can't make my mind up about it.
In further news I've reached the rank of 30 years old today!
Big bad ass?
The wraithknight is a beefy big ass costing 240 points with an impressive profile; s10, t8, w6 along with a 3+ armour save.
It's also a jump monstrous creature so it's pretty mobile.
As standard it's armed with two heavy wraith cannons, these have a threat range of 48", which isn't too be snuffed at.
The wraithcannons can be switched for a suncannon, giant sword and a scatter shield. The shield is pretty important as it gives the wraithknight a 5+ inv, which as standard it lacks. Additional weaponry can be added such as scatter lasers, which are expensive, but combo with the suncannon nicely.
Going down to china town
As the wraithknight is a big ass it means it's going to attract some serious fire power. Anything which is s4 or below can't touch the wraithknight while s5 and s6 need a 6+ to wound while popular s7 weaponry needs 5+ to wound.
As mentioned, the wraithknight doesn't have an invulnerable save as standard and you can only get this by losing the wraithcannons. For shooting wise you can get around this by using cover well. A good board should have a variety of terrain the wraithknight can stand in and kick some dust up to get a nice cover save and other scenery just needs 25%, which a two storey ruin should easily provide.
It's worth mentioning that on average it will take 30 krak missile shots at bs4 to take down a wraithknight, that's presuming in cover btw. Krak missiles aren't as popular as they was back in 5th and now s7 rules, which it would take about 30 shots also to bring down the wraithknight. Now I ask which army has 30 missile launcher or 30 plasma cannon shots a turn?
The only thing wraithknight fears is shooty poison and only dark eldar have that in large quantity.
The only vulnerability is close combat, but the real only scary things are thunder hammers, power fists, warscythes and poison weaponry. It's worth pointing out that the wraithknight is i5 so will be mashing up models with those type of weaponry. Keep in mind the wraithknight is a character so can issue challenges which can keep it alive a bit longer.
Speaking of combat, the wraithknight isn't going to stomp infantry flat as unfortunately it is only ws4 so on average will only hit with about half of it's attacks. This can lead to the wraithknight getting stuck in a tarpit if it charges the wrong size enemy unit etc. I believe though enemy units cannot charge a enemy unit if they cannot score a wound. On a good note thanks to s10 the wraithknight can instagib t5 multi wound models.
The wraithknight however is going to mash up vehicles pretty easily thanks to the s10. A three hull point vehicle with rear armour 10 is going to get auto penned. I guess if you're desperate against av14 you can smash which will allow rerolls.
Even though it's only a minor close combat boost, the wraithknight does add close combat ability and that's something eldar lack, they only have striking scorpions.
Worth the loss?
My eldar list is made up of six wave serpents, 6 x warp spiders, and 3 x 2 war walkers. I'll have to sacrifice the latter units to gain two wraithknights. The wraithknights wraithcannons make up the lances and with reminder of points I'll get underslung shuri cannons on the serpents, this balances out the fire power from a unit of scatter walkers I'm losing. However, I am still giving up the fire power from another scatter walker unit and the warp spiders which is a total of 28 x s6 shots!
I also deep strike the spiders for rear armour shots and linebreaker, though the speed of the wraithknight makes this a moot point.
I guess it boils down to if the wraithknights are worth the loss. I love the models though I have tried the wraithknights a few times and I've found them underwhelming.
What are your thoughts on the wraithknight?