Flying cavaly units are pretty rare in Warhammer: The Old World, and the Warhawk Riders are definitely the fastest and most mobile. But even in army that’s all about mobility, do they have what it takes to make them effective?
Continuing my series on Wood Elf units, in this article I take a look at the Warhawk Riders and try to answer that question.
Stats and Special Rules
Warhawk Riders are the only Monstrous Cavalry rank and file unit in the army, and come on a 50x50mm base (which is bumped from previous editions when they ran on 40x40mm), the same size base as their larger cousins, the Great Eagles. Also like the Eagles, they have T4 but sadly only 2 Wounds (compared to the Eagle’s 3). Other than that, the Rider statline is the same as for a Glade Rider, and like the Glade Rider comes equipped with both Asrai Longbow and Cavalry Spear. The hawk itself gets 2 attacks at WS3 and S4 AP -2, which is not bad.
For Special Rules, the Warhawks come with everything you’d expect from flying Elven cavalry: Elven Reflexes (which only applies to riders), Fly (10), Skirmishers and Swiftstride. There’s also a few extra rules that start to flesh out what their intended role in the army is meant to be. Oddly, like the Glade Riders, they don’t get Move Through Cover.
Feigned Flight, Fire & Flee and Evasive combined with their ability to take enchanted arrows for their Asrai Longbows all lean toward this unit being a ranged threat (although the 8pt champion upgrade gets both +1 BS and +1 A–more on this later). However, at 44pts per model, plus 2 points for e.g. Hagbane tips, you’re paying 138 points for a minimum unit size of 3 which has just 6 wounds total. Having Evasive helps protect the unit from missile fire, because even though they have T4, they have no saves whatsoever, which makes them a prime target for your opponent’s ranged attacks.
The unit can’t have a banner or a musician, but with Feigned Flight giving an automatic rally when you Fire & Flee, this isn’t such a big deal. The champion can take a magic item up to 25 points, which might potentially be an Obsidian Lodestone, but I suspect the fewer points invested in the unit the better, given their likelihood to die.
The final special rule is Fear, which I’ll cover next as we discuss their role on the battlefield.
Battlefield Role
With only 3 shots in the unit, the ranged damage output on this unit is minimal. Compared to 138 points of Deepwood Scouts (9 models with Hagbane tips), you’re getting one third of the shooting power. So, how would I use Warhawks?
I think their potential use is to help huntdown War Machines and solo Wizards in the backfield. Getting into combat on T2 after a 20″ march down the extreme flank is pretty essential if you want to avoid them getting shot or magic missiled to death. Causing Fear means that they’ll ignore the Fear caused by e.g. Liche Priests and potentially even get the drop on some cowardly war machine crew. Against a lone wizard, you’ll get two models into base contact, both doing 3 S4 attacks, likely hitting 3 times and maybe getting one wound in, which might be enough to win the combat. If you’re able to cause Fear, the odds of surviving go up.
However, it’s hard to recommend them for this role, because of their lack of survivability. It’s just as likely that the wizard or war machine will shoot them off before they get into combat, and most assailment spells will likely do more wounds than the Warhawks will in close combat – the hawk being only WS3 makes hitting a lot less consistent than I would like. Deepwood Scouts are both a Core choice and are definitely better at war machine hunting. But maybe there’s something to this Wizard hunting thing, particularly as I see more and more players deploying their wizards beside the bunker rather than in it …
Wizard Hunting
What if I put a combat character on a Warhawk into a unit with them? That would certainly make them more likely to kill Wizards, and it would give some shooting protection to the character in the form of warm bodies to soak up the damage. This is maybe a niche use for them, but you’d be then committing somewhere between 250 and 350 points into that unit … increasing the likelihood that they become a primary target for your opponent which is not great when they have no saves. A Glade Captain on a Warhawk is 100 points base, or 104 if you give her a Great Weapon, and that could potentially do a decent amount of damage in hunting an enemy Wizard. Taking a BSB with the War Banner, you could now get 2 base combat res, cancelling out some static res of your opponent’s. Give the BSB a Giant Blade for some extra oomph …
I’ve considered them also as a bunker for a Warhawk riding Spellweaver, but my ‘Weaver ends up being great at dodging enemy fire anyways, and you’d need a unit of at least 5 Warhawks to actually give the benefit of a Look Out, Sir! roll … spending 132 points for a meat shield seems like it would be better spent on a Glade Riders unit with Reserve Move (110 points for 5 with Hagbane Tips). But let’s explore it a bit further. If the Wizard has High Magic, he could at least make them Ethereal from Walk Between Worlds, which would protect the unit for a lot longer, and Drain Magic would make them harder to nuke off the board with a Ruby Ring. Shield of Saphery could offer a further 5+ Ward Save if the enemy had a lot of magical attacks that would cancel out Ethereal, and Fury of Khaine would give each model 2 more attacks (one each for rider and mount) in close combat. So now you have a unit that can pump out 20 attacks from 4 models and take zero damage back, assuming the enemy has no magical attacks. They can get way in the backfield and harrass whatever they like, from pretty much any angle because Skirmisher gives them a 360° charge arc. The wizard build might be: L4, High Magic, Warhawk, Lore Familiar, Talismanic Tattoos, Ruby Ring of Ruin and optionally Spealleater Axe for an extra MR -2, coming in at 325. Add 4 Warhawks in at 176, and you have a 500 point unit that is very difficult to kill, can easily hunt down enemy wizards or war machines and protects your L4. It’s not optimal, but it is at least viable.
You could put both the BSB and the Wizard into the unit, and now you have a 700+ point unit that will be really hard to kill and that can dish out some decent combat damage, be in combat virtually anywhere on the battlefield by T2, and can likely win any non magical combat, and most likely kill a wizard before they have a chance to strike back. But that’s the rub: a lot of armies have access to magical attacks (e.g. most of Warriors of Chaos, Chaos Dwarfs, Daemons, heck even our own Forest Spirits) and of course all the magic missiles. So this is definitely risky tactic to use. Fun though!
Conclusions
When comparing Warhak Riders points-wise with other units, it’s hard to justify them on the battlefield at all. Sisters of the Thorn cost the same for a minimum unit plus champion and standard, and will put out more shooting potential, more battlefield threat (with their bound spell) and survive longer having only 1 wound less (5) but protected with a 4+ ward. And the Great Eagle does a lot of the same job but for half the points, while also doubling as chaff.
So sadly, Warhawk Riders are really only likely fielded in a general purpose “take on all-comers” list for one reason: because you like the models and want to play with them (aka The Rule of Cool). Any role they have on the tabletop is probably better filled by a different unit: Deepwood Scouts or Great Eagles for War Machine hunting, or Glade Riders as a Wizard Bunker. The one niche might be for hunting wizards with the help of High Magic Spellweaver, but unless I’m taking two L4s, I prefer my Spellweaver on her own Warhawk, with the brOaken Stave, Talisman of Protection wielding Battle Magic.
Maybe the Arcane Journal will gift us something to make the Warhawk Riders a bit more appealing. Or maybe I’m missing something that you’ve found? Let me know your thoughts in the comments, or on our Discord!
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