Dread Elves part 2.a: Dread Legionnaires!

With my unit of Reaper Auxiliaries assembled I can turn my attention to the next unit: the Corsairs.  If you're familiar with the Dark Elves you are probably familiar with this unit as well.  First I wanted to go over the Dread Legionnaires for a bit.

Since I've had them assembled I wanted to go over the unit as a whole and briefly touch on what I would use them for and why I kitted them out the way I did.  In 9th Age I have the option of either keeping the sword and board (hand weapon + shields) or trade in the hand weapon for spears.  Naturally I chose spears (which cost me 0 extra points!).

The thing about spears in 9th Age is that they came with some extra perks compared with hand weapons.  Now don't get me wrong the sword and board option isn't bad.  With it your opponent cannot get more than a +4 to hit if they are striking from the front.  With spears you get Armor Piercing (1), Fight in Extra Ranks, and Lethal Blows against Cavalry, Monstrous Cavalry, and Chariots.  Granted that is only to models in the front but if I angle myself correctly I might have an advantage.

Not mine but I love the paint job

So with my horde of 50 Dread Legionnaires, presuming no casualties, against a unit to the front I will be rolling about 41 attacks with Armor Piercing (1).  I think that's better than the sword and board option for sure I believe.

Stat-wise the Legionnaires are solid core infantry.  Speed and Initiative of 5, WS and BS of 4, average S and T, and a Leadership of 8.  A bit faster in movement and combat than your average Joe but that's a typical Elf statline.  They get to re-roll natural '1's to-wound in close combat and  +1 to hit in close combat.  So against a non-sword and board unit with a WS of 3 I should be hitting on +2 and re-rolling 1's to wound, which is more likely before average units.  Ouch.

So these are my go to "block" unit in most lists I've written.  In 9th Age I have the option of giving them Heavy Armor, but for 2 pts/model.  The cost of that for my whole unit would jump it up by an extra 100 pts.  Ouch.  The unit is already 430 pts for 50 models base, adding an extra 100 points for a +1 to their save is pretty rough.  I can see the use in larger games where I have an extra 100 points but at the 2000-2500 level I have to take a pass.

What a horde looks like, courtesy of Brother-Maynard @ Deviantart

I have the option of taking a Veteran Standard bearer in the unit, making it One of a Kind but I can take a banner up to 25 points.  That only leaves the Core rulebook options:

1. Banner of Leadership: +1 to the unit's leadership raises from 8 to 9.  Not too bad but could be mitigated by the presence of the general.
2. Banner of Speed: +1 to movement.  Also not too bad, could be really useful for keeping up with faster units.
3. Flaming Standard: Gives the unit flaming attacks.  Too niche to be taken often, great versus Undead Dynasties and Sylvan Elves I'd say.
4. War Standard: +1 to combat resolution score.  I could see this being a good option if I had a character attached that could help add the wounds on to the total score.  
5. Icon of the Relentless Company: Triple march movement once per game.  So a 15" move could be useful if I did something wrong or they got caught and stuck in a bad position and needed to get somewhere quick mid-late game.
6. Standard of Alternate Realities: Weapons with the Magical Attack rule in the unit lose the rule and vice versa.  Also a niche pick, great against Ethereal units but otherwise useless.
7. Gleaming Icon: Once per game you can re-roll a failed Leadership test.  This could be useful since it doesn't specify which Leadership test you can re-roll, just any of them.  
8. Banner of Courage: Auto pass Terror test and immune to fear.  Also not a bad choice being immune to some aspects of psychology.  I wouldn't want my core block running away from a dragon because my dice rolling sucked.

So  I would more than likely take 1, 4, 7, or 8 if I had to pick options.  The others are too niche to plan for but if I had the foreknowledge of my opponent I might consider the others.  My friend Sam is looking into Undead Dynasties and the Flaming Standard would be a great pick but if I didn't know who I was up against I would plan for the the "safe" picks.

Overall I think it's a solid choice for a core unit clocking in at 8/pts per model (10 with heavy armor), it makes for a good solid unit of 10x5.  Next up I will go over my Corsairs (they took more time to assemble than I thought).  Until then happy gaming!