Objective Secured

While thinking about writing this review I decided early on this would not be a “you get this option for X many points – you should do this!” type review. I want to focus on the feel each of the parts of the lists gives in context with the whole and while later parts will certainly be specific in suggestions, these first few won’t be.

Let’s start off with some of the core parts of the selection process and see how we go!

Detachments

First and foremost – Corsairs can build a more than acceptable army from a Combined Arms Detachment or an Allied Detachment. If you want to dip your toes into this force but only a little it’s easy to meet the minimum required parts and then add the cool models you want.

If you want to access the Corsair specific detachment – the Corsair Raiding Fleet – then you have a few limits in exchange for a few benefits.

Coteries

So with the raiding party you select a number of Coteries – these represent the various factions within the pirate fleet under the prince. The command coterie is where your prince (or princess!) is found. You must have one and only 1 per detachment. You get a couple of extra spaces for units (notably the Lord of War slot) here but for the most part it is meant to represent the Command structure of the fleet – The Prince and his most trusted advisers and warriors along with their most powerful weapon of war.

You must also include a Primary Coterie (and 1-3 more after that with the same unit spaces in each). These reflect the various ships in the fleet and their crew – each of which can be further specialised with unique upgrades to reflect their specialisations. These Coteries most closely resemble an Allied Detachment in terms of space you have access to so its easy to expand a small force to a full blown raiding party over time.

Like a CAD – the troops inside the raiding party all gain the Objective Secured rule – giving you more reason to use the raiding fleet since you don’t lose anything over the standard CAD. The Coteries (not the command one sadly) may each select a specialisation for free – but no two can have the same one in the same detachment. Regardless of if you choose to do this or not – each coterie counts the others as allies of convenience (the command crew again does not count) which means there is no mix and match between the coteries save the command options who can join what they want.

We get 6 options for the specialisations – Titan Breakers, Head takers, Vault Breachers, Sky Burners, Night Hunters and Hate Bringers. In a nut shell…

Titan Breakers gives preferred enemy to infantry and jetbikes against tanks and walkers

Head Takers gives units whose character is locked in a challenge reroll 1’s to wound for the whole unit.

Vault Breachers gives everyone dissonance breach charges for free (for assaulting buildings and stationary vehicles)

Sky Burners gives rerolls to failed reserves and only 1d6 scatter on deep strike

Night Hunters gives infantry and jetbikes night vision and preferred enemy (everything) while night fighting is in effect.

Hate Bringers gives hatred to all infantry and jet bikes against an enemy unit selected at the start of the game. Should this unit die, you gain +1 secondary VP.

As you can see, all of these are pretty solid and even better they are free. They mostly affect infantry and jet bikes (save Sky Burners) so it definitely tends to emphasise this style of play. Of those above – I think Hate Bringers is a stand out simply for the +1VP which can easily be the difference between a loss and draw or draw and victory. Sky Burners also has a very solid place as quite literally the entire army can deep strike if upgraded correctly!

Allies

A quick note on allies now – They treat Eldar, Dark Eldar and Harlequins as Battle Brothers in both directions. Necrons, Daemons and Tyranids may not be selected as an allied force nor may these forces use corsairs as allies – which may be a first for 40k as this is a step past come the apocalypse! Every other faction is both treated and treats corsairs as desperate allies. Note that this includes other Corsairs! Running multiple corsair detachments is fine but they must be desperate to do so! To be honest, given the way you build a raiding fleet and the cost of some of the units, this is not a factor most of the time. Some super cheese builds might run it to double (or triple!) up on a particular coterie specialisation but the desperate allies rules can be a harsh thing so do this at your peril!

Special Rules

Before I wrap up this post, let’s take a quick look at the special rules that most of the army sport that makes them so unique to face.

We start with Reckless Abandon. This rule is meant to represent the corsairs closing with the enemy rapidly and then darting away again. In game terms, it kicks in when you make a shooting attack within 12” of an enemy. Immediately after shooting, infantry get a free 6” move while jetpack or jet bikes get 6+d6” – both of which cannot be used to move into combat, to within 1” of an enemy unit or be used to move closer to any unit they shoot at.

I don’t think I have to state just how huge this rule is. Since it occurs after any shooting attack within 12” – this includes overwatch. Quite simply, you can be 1” away from a corsair jetpack or jetbike unit, declare a charge, they overwatch then you are face with a minimum 8” charge (on average 10”) after they bounce away from you – Even better if they can get this move to put them into terrain to add those extra couple of inches to the charge. Without the jet packs, infantry go from an easy charge to an average charge – anything that takes a guarantee and makes it sketchy is a huge bonus.

Dancing on the Blades Edge is the second army special rule. It represents the corsairs bravdo covering a fear of their own ways – fighting with bravery and flair but wanting to live to fight another day… Most corsairs have a modified LD profile (for example 10/6). The first number is used for all LD, morale and pinning tests with the exception of regrouping. This is where the second number comes in. The easiest way around this is to include a character (most of which have just a single LD stat) as the rule clarifies that you may use the characters higher LD stat to regroup.

That’s it for now – we will take a look at the HQ choices next along with some of their unique options and rules so you can start your raiding soon!