My last post compared the two destroyer lords and how they stack up. Today I want to explore the Skorpekh Destroyers vs Wraiths. Both of these units are melee focused heavy hitters so I think the comparison is valid.
Looking at the similarities they both have a weapon skill of 3+ and a ballistic skill of 3+, a toughness of 5, 3 wounds, and finally 3 attacks. Lets look at each's individual rules and then come back and compare.
Destroyers
The destroyers only come in sets of 3 with 2 weapons on two models and a heaver weapon on the other. The heavy weapon adds 2 base strength with an ap of -4 for 3 damage while the lighter one does not increase the user's strength, it does have an ap of -3 for 2 damage. A bonus for the lighter weapon is that it adds an additional attack when used in combat. With a strength value of 5, this makes the weapons S7 and S5. This doesn't make the sweet spot of strength 8 where you wound toughness 4 models on 2s. This is where the Plamacite come in. The Plasmacite is a model that costs a single power level point for a chance to give your destroyers +1 strength for a turn. The gamble is if you roll a 1 one of your Destroyers is removed from the game. While it is a 1 in 6 chance, from experience it will happen more often then you like and right when you need them to survive. Destroyers also get to reroll 1s to hit making their attacks more effective. The destroyer's movement value is 8. This is pretty fast for a foot soldier which will help them get into the fight quicker. Finally they have reanimation protocols so the chance of them standing back up is a big boost.
Wraiths
Wraiths have two different melee weapons. They both have the users strength of 6 and have an ap of -2 for 2 damage. Where they differ is one, the whip coils, allows the model to fight in the fight phase if it was killed before it was activated while the vicious claws don't have any special rules. In a game where you are using points, most players don't add the whip coils to save points to use on other things. As far as special rules, the wraiths have a rule called Wraith For, which gives a 3+ invulnerable save, can ignore models and terrain when moving, and can charge even after falling back. They also have a choice of 2 ranged weapons one is a pistol that is strength 6 ap 0 for 1 wound and the other is a heavy D3 shot strength 4 ap -3 1 damage gun that does a mortal wound on a wound roll of 6. I never equipped my wraiths with ranged weapons because I wanted to keep them low on points but maybe I should start looking at those heavy guns. The wraith are pretty fast with a movement value of 12.
After looking at each individually, we can see advantages for each. The wraiths move faster and have an nice invulnerable save to help keep them around. They have a higher base strength but lower ap values. Lastly, they can take ranged options to give them some extra punch if they don't want to advance each turn. The first advantage for the Destroyers is reanimation protocols. This allows you to bring models back. You can spend 2 command points to bring back wraiths but then you have spent 2 command point that you might need later on. The Destroyer melee weapons are better hands down. One might be a lower strength, but it is a higher AP and adds an extra attack to the mix. Also having the reroll of ones to hit is nice making each attack a little more reliable. They are a bit cheaper with 3 units costing as much as 2 wraith units in power level.
In the end I think the Wraiths will be a better tank unit especially if you push them out to a full squad. The Destroyers might be a quick distraction unit taking the pressure off some of your other units. They are strong enough that your opponent can't ignore them but not so expensive that losing them is a huge chunk of your army. It might help your Warriors, Immortal, or range Destroyers last a bit longer by giving the opponent more choices for target priority. Either way they are a decent melee addtion to a typically ranged army. I am going to have to see which I like better.
Queestions? Comments? Pew pew pews!!!!
