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| By Dan Moore 27, January, 2003 |
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| When the Dark Eldar codex was re-issued last year
Mandrakes were given the additional attribute of a +2 cover save modifier.
While this was a step in the right direction, it still left Mandrakes far
behind other units in terms of combat effectiveness versus points cost.
If you recall, the stated goal of Games Workshop (according to their game
designer's board) was to revise the Dark Eldar army list so that all successful
DE armies did not look the same (i.e. all skimmers all the time.) Along these
lines Wyches were completely reworked so that their points and combat abilities
were more in keeping with elite units in other armies. Unfortunately,
the other Dark Eldar elite units did not fare as well. A comparison shows that Wyches, an elite choice, at 12 points get 4+ invulnerable saves in CC, combat drugs, initiative 6, wyche weapons upgrades, succubi upgrades, ranged weapons upgrades, and raider transports. Mandrakes, another elite choice, at 15 points get a 5+ cover save, a +2 cover modifier, initiative 5, and special deployment as an elite choice. That's it. There seems to be an obvious problem here with consistency and playability as regards Mandrakes. They cost 25% more than Wyches and yet have no obvious close combat advantages. In a head to head fight Wyches will win every time by virtue of higher initiative and better armor save. It is hard to imagine that anyone would want to take Mandrakes instead of Wyches unless for their special deployment abilities. The question is whether or not these abilities warrant the higher cost for Mandrakes. I am inclined to say that special deployment in not worth the cost. It may allow the Mandrakes to strike in force where they want, but when they do strike they lack sufficient strength, toughness, and weapons to hurt many enemy units. This is why you will see far more Wyche squads fielded in tournaments than Mandrakes. Don't get me wrong. I personally have used Mandrakes in tournaments to good effect. But it was painfully obvious that their role in combat was very limited, especially against the two space marine armies that I faced. For the points, Wyches would have better served my needs. In a tournament setting most players will try to use a well-rounded force that can deal with any variety of opponents, terrain, and scenarios. Mandrakes are far too limited in their roles to be a popular tournament choice. They cannot deal with vehicles or high toughness creatures, and they struggle against anything in power armor, which are most armies at tournaments. Wyches, by contrast, can deal with almost any threat in the 40K universe because of their speed, high initiative, and upgrade flexibility. A final consideration is the effect of the new assault rules on the tactical role of Mandrakes. The new rules effectively reduced the number of Mandrakes attacks because they can now either shoot or get +1 attack for assaulting but not both. Worse still, the new rules eliminated crossfire, which in my opinion was a key use for mandrakes. By contrast, Wyches were made far more resilient in assaults by giving them a 4+ invulnerable save. This factors in well to the new assault rules, which favor units with large number and good staying power in close combat. No longer can you break an enemy unit and destroy them in a run-down as they flee. Now your units have to kill every enemy model in close combat to prevail. It is my contention that Mandrakes need a major rework to make them a more flexible unit in a tournament setting so that they will be used more often in Dark Eldar armies. First, let me state that I do not buy the fluff for why mandrakes are the way they are. A common belief about Mandrakes is that they are psychopathic killers that prey on their own kind. The argument is that Mandrakes are too anti-social and disorganized to have leaders or special weapons. If this is the case, then what are they doing in the dark eldar army in the first place? How and why do they go to the battlefield from the alleyways of Commorragh? And once they are on the battlefield would they not pose as much a threat to their fellow Dark Eldar as to the enemy? Mandrakes need some sort of organization and/or a powerful leader if they are to be a viable force on the battlefield. That being said, it is reasonable to assume that any DE leader would want to equip his best infiltration troops with weapons and gear to maximize their usefulness on the battlefield. This is why mandrakes should have squad and weapons upgrades available to them. In fact, I think it should be mandatory that all Mandrake squads have a sybarite/succubus leader to keep them focused on their objectives, similar to the way that the beastmaster leads warp beast squads. Obviously, the sybarite/succubus would have access to the same wargear as other DE independent characters or squad upgrades. The cost for the upgrade should be similar to that for Wyches. What weapons upgrades make sense? For starters, any weapons upgrades should be those that favor stealth in keeping with the mandrakes shadow-skinned ability. An obvious choice would be poisoned blades as they are quiet and lethal. I believe that the entire squad should be able to have them at a modest cost or no cost whatsoever. Poisoned blades are not as overpowering as you might think because the mandrakes lose an attack when using them. One benefit to the poisoned blades would be that they give the mandrakes a chance against high toughness creatures where they had none before. This expands their tactical capabilities and therefore makes them more likely to be included in tournament armies. If you still think that poisoned blades are overpowering, consider the Eldar Banshees and their weaponry. Like Mandrakes, they are an elite choice for the Eldar with a similar cost at 16 points (vs. 15) per model. Unlike Mandrakes, ALL Banshees wield power weapons that negate armor saves. Obviously the designers at Games Workshop did not think that giving power weapons to Banshees was overpowering for them at 16 points. Another obvious weapon/gear upgrade choice would be haywire grenades for dealing with vehicles. At present, mandrakes have NO ability to deal with vehicles. Wyches get agonizers, blasters, shredders and haywire grenades. Grotesques at least have S4 to attack rear armor on most tanks or vehicles. Mandrakes have NOTHING to deal with vehicles. This seriously hampers their tactical usefulness against vehicles in the tournament setting. If mandrakes are excellent infiltrators then they should at least be able to sabotage or disable enemy vehicles or have upgrades that would allow them to do such things. Haywire grenades would allow for this in a cost-effective manner. Finally, the biggest change of all for mandrakes should come in HTH combat. Their 5+ cover save for being shadow-skinned should carry over to close combat. Just as wyches get a 4+ invulnerable save for being acrobatic, mandrakes should be harder to hit because they are harder to see. What's more, the cover save should stack with terrain effects so they benefit from terrain cover as well as their +2 modifier to cover saves. Therefore mandrakes fighting in close combat in the woods would have a 3+ cover save because they are so hard to single out in the dense foliage (I am reminded of the alien in the movie Predator.) Their forte after all is striking unawares from the shadows so this should be represented in their close combat abilities. Some would argue that changes I propose would make Mandrakes too powerful for their points. Personally, I think these changes would put Mandrakes more in line with the revised Wyches for the points cost. These changes would also make Mandrakes more playable under the new assault rules where there is no longer crossfire and run-down of enemy units. The net result would be that more Dark Eldar players would field more Mandrakes in their tournament armies and these armies would begin to look less and less the same. |