Today we are going to take a look at Drukhari Transports in 10th edition, and discuss which ones are worth their points, and which ones need some love! I will have a video on my Youtube Channel, if you’d rather hear my melodious voice, though the tone and flavor of the video will be a bit different than my written word.
A Different Boat for a Different Occasion
The Drukhari Index (Including Forgeworld) has a grand total of 3 Transports, each one serving a different role, or niche, or at least that is the idea. The structure of the index makes it hard of each transport to have its own identity, and the lack of sub faction (Wych, Kabal, Coven) make them feel a little less compelling. I understand that this is the index, but come on! If CSM can get dark pact rules based on what disgusting chaos god their units follow, I don’t think having actual sub-army rules is too great of an ask.
The Raider
This was a staple throughout 9th. I didn’t start my Drukhari journey until 9th, well after points hikes and nerfs, so I can’t speak about 8th and before. I know that splinter racks, grisly trophies, and chain snares were all very viable and good upgrades, and gave the raider a versatility depending on what you wanted it to do. The Shock Prow, which should arguably just be baked in (as it required points AND a strat to use), was situational, and the phantasm Grenade was okay, but not amazing. Still, in the points structure of 9th, those were solid upgrades when you found yourself 10-15 points under.
Enter 10th ed and the free wargear experiment. Its failing. It sucks. The all or nothing structure of 10th is not how 40k was designed, and not having a single upgrade on my raiders means they are the most flaccid boring transports in the index. Got Kabalites? Well there are no splinter racks, so have fun there. Wyches? Well, the solid melee profile is gone and replaced with the standard vehicle melee profile that Rhinos get. Your army needs failed Battle-Shock tests to get Pain tokens? Well the grisly trophies are gone too, and here’s a little more sand to pound up your ass, while you’re at it!
Overall the Raider just feels like a side-grade from the ork trukk. It has same toughness than the trukk, slightly higher movement, and with the way fly works in 10th, I’m paying points for an ability that largely doesn’t do much. The single dark lance can be useful, and it DOES auto-advance 6″. But like I said. Its just a weaker ork trukk with fly. And it is insanely expensive. At a meaty 90 points, it just feels like its barely worth taking. Most of my lists still run a single Raider, though I’m trying to figure out the best way to dump it. With their profile, and the nerfs to fly, this sweet baby needs to be about 60-70 points max, and hopefully when we start seeing actual readjustments from ol’ James, that’s about where they sit.
Ultimately, I still run 1 per list, and usually it is just playing Party Bus for Big Dick Drazhar and his entourage of handsome incubi, or for carting Lelith and Co around. If you feel like running mostly kabalites you’d do well to bring 2 venoms, slap all of your splinter rifles in the venoms, then put all of your special weapons teams in the raider. 1 Raider with 2 Kabalite special weapons teams can become a formidable gun-boat, but ultimately you’re investing almost 400 points in your army just to get to that point, so its up to you!
Venoms
The bread and butter of Drukhari right now. Hands-down the best transport we have. The venom allows you to “combat-squad” a unit of kabalites or wyches and put half in the venom. This allows you to break your units up into smaller units to let you cover more ground with the same model count. Venoms with kabalites gain sticky objectives, and units can hop into a venom in the fight phase. There’s a lot of slick utility here and currently I run 2 in my list. I’ve not been disappointed yet.
80 points seems a little spicy for what they bring to the table, but not by much, they could arguably go down 5-10 points and be very good, but where they are now is still solid. Where they suffer is lacking any real upgrades. No real melee, and no leadership debuff means they are just a fast transport that is open-topped. Once again, flavor has been stripped away for simplicity.
Free wargear means you’ll almost ALWAYS run 2 Splinter Cannons, as there isn’t really a reason to run the rifle. Another reason free wargear is a dumb idea. (No. I won’t stop bitching about it, so don’t ask)
I like to load mine up with the special weapons teams from kabalites, and just have mobile shooting platforms that can chew through infantry and chip damage on vehicles. Sticky objectives means they don’t have to stay stationary, they can be like Dory and just keep swimming!
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The Tantalus
Finally we hit the ol’ Tantalussy. It was a staple for me in late 9th, mostly because I like to meme. It wasn’t bad, though arguably it wasn’t especially good, either, but I made it work.
10th has it actually looking pretty solid. I have yet to get it on the table, but its time is coming. Retaining open-topped (Firing deck 16), and Deep Strike means you can keep it off the table if you want. Its guns arguably got better, throwing 12 dice at S10 -2 2 damage with assault. Its melee actually doesn’t completely suck either, largely keeping its profile from 9th (its s8 -1 2 damage with 6 attacks). Scything Charge gives the the change do do anywhere from d3 to d3+3 mortals on the charge (providing you don’t roll a 1), and can couple that with tank shock if you’re a real piece of shit to try and just do massive mortal wound damage on the charge.
16″ movement and Fly means it can ACTUALLY make use of its Fly keyword, though the massive size of it means it will struggle to actually get places. It is t10, so as tough as an ork trukk, and 18 wounds, so it may not die INSTANTLY, but probably still pretty close. Gone is the 18 wound cap for obscuring, so you can at least hide it if you can fit its thicc ass behind anything.
at 230 points, I think this is a solid choice. You can load it with 3 kabalite special weapons teams (if you bring 3 kabalite squads and 3 venoms), which would be a disgusting amount of dice. Or 3 5-man wrack squads could get you 3 Hex Rifles, 3 Ossefactors, and 3 Liquifiers coming out also. Overall I think there is potential here, I just need to get it on the table.
The companion Video should be up today or tomorrow. Keep your eyes peeled!
Chris