"Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II" - Drukhari Raider Cruisers (Dark Eldar) [Advanced Ship Guide]

"Travelling long forgotten Webways for a millennia to help you get better at games to impress your Craftworld."

Drukhari Raider Cruisers

The Drukhari Raider Cruisers follow the same theme established with the Light Cruisers, which mostly carries over to their Battleships as well. The pattern being having essentially a single hull with a set of Scythe Missile bays as a template for one of four secondary weapons to be attached to, each option being one of the Cruiser choices available to you.

Because of this lack of underlying variation, your choices are made much more simple. Your need of armor piercing lance weaponry, carrier launch bays, torpedoes or Impalers is what determines which line ship is going to be your preference here and elsewhere in the Drukhari fleet.

Patch Status: Updated for Current Patch (v.11218) - July 13th, 2020

Drukhari Raiders Guide Navigation

• Escorts
• Light Cruiser
• Cruiser <- You Are Here
  
  • Flayed Skull
  • Fiend Ascendant
  • Bleak Soul
  • Bloodied Claw
• Battleship
  

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Terms Used

This section briefly covers the advanced weapon data you will find for each ship. These values are calculated based off the base weapons stats and are explained as follows:

DPS - Damage Per Second - The total damage output per weapon type (all guns combined) per second, assuming 100% of shots land, before considering armor penalties.

Crits Pm - Critical Hits Per Minute - Assuming all shots land, this will be the average number of critical hit's the guns will cause every minute before modifiers. (all guns combined)

Salvos PM - Salvos Per Minute - The total number of combined waves of fire, not including multiple rounds fired from the same weapon.

Rounds PM - The actual number of shots or individual projectiles fired each minute from all guns combined.

Drukhari Cruiser Stats

The Drukhari Cruisers maintain engine speeds well above Imperial faction escort ships while adding the extra chunk of hit points over the light cruisers that comes with the tier up in size. Still keeping the highest in game base crit chance for assault actions, the Cruisers get troop damage numbers to back it up while also keeping a large number of defensive troops to absorb enemy boarders.

Shield: 80
Armor: 50 (All Sides)
Identification Range: 9,000
Speed: 280
Rotation Speed: 28
Hull: 1,200
Defense Turrets: 12
Bravery: -25
Boarding Damage: 8
^{+ Causes 4 Assault Actions}
Lightning Strike Damage: 4
^{+ Causes 2 Assault Actions}
Critical Assault Chance: 70%
Defending Troops per Stage: 14

Drukhari Cruiser Attributes & Skills

The Drukhari Cruisers have similar abilities to the rest of their fleet, getting a significant upgrade to troop damage over the light cruisers. Unfortunately slavetaking doesn't seem to change in stats any, so remains fairly "meh" as far as bonuses go.

• Aeldari Propulsion: Gives access to Wraithbone Shift, Vauls Manoeuvre and Burn Retros.
  
• Independent: -25 bonus to bravery.
  
• Shadowfield: Replaces regular shield with the Drukhari's special shield type. Provides stealth at full ship speed.
  
• Void Species: Immune to Plasma Storms and Solar Eruptions.
  
• Frenzy: While in no casualties troop state, receives +10% critical chance to assault actions.
  
• Mimic Engine: Extended deployment zone for this ship.
  
• Slavetaking: Replaces 1 lost troop each time the ship turns an enemy vessel into a drifting hulk. (Cannot go past casualty step)
  
• Good Troop Efficiency: Deals 2 troop damage per assault action.
  
• Surgical Strike: 60% chance to deal +1 troop damage per assault action.

Flayed Skull

Drukhari Raider Cruiser - Flayed Skull - [Ynnari Sub-Faction]

1 / 8

Point Cost: 205
Raw Total Crit Output: 4.8 critical hits per minute
Raw Total DPS: 28*
*32 with Lock On/Tracking Sense
Armament:

• 2 x Heavy Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 3 x Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 2 x Phantom Lance Artillery
  ^{100% Accuracy, Pierces Armor, +100% Dmg from Tracking Sense
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
  

A direct upgrade to the Dark Mirror thanks to the Drukhari's template design, for an additional 68 points, the Flayed Skull deals twice the amount of raw damage, both from it's macros and lances in equal measure.

Probably going to be a common pick in Drukhari fleets thanks to its cruiser hit points, high damage numbers and affordable price, not to mention being the only ship of its weight class to pack in the standard weaponry.

Fiend Ascendant

Drukhari Raider Cruiser - Fiend Ascendant - [Ynnari Sub-Faction]

1 / 8

Point Cost: 258
Raw Total Crit Output: 3.6* critical hits per minute
Raw Total DPS: 24*
^{*Does not count launch bays.}
Armament:

• 2 x Heavy Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 3 x Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 2 x Launch Bays
  ^{Raptor Interceptor (3 charges)
  Razorwing Bomber (3 charges)
  Slavebringer Assault (3 charges)}

At 129 points a launch bay, the Fiend Ascendant takes the spot for the most economical launch bay platform for the Drukhari fleet, compared to the Iron Thorn Battleship at 134 points per bay and the Burning Scale light cruiser at 180 points for the one bay. Since it is easier to fit a cruiser/s in a fleet than Battleships, you'll likely find the Fiend Ascendant heavily populating any carrier focused Dark Eldar fleets, since having the bays split between more craft also gives better flexibility in launching squadrons in pairs.

Bleak Soul

Drukhari Raider Cruiser - Bleak Soul - [Black Heart Sub-Faction]

1 / 8

Point Cost: 185
Raw Total Crit Output: 3.6* critical hits per minute
Raw Total DPS: 24*
^{*Does not count Impaler bays.}
Armament:

• 2 x Heavy Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 3 x Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 1 x Impaler Bays
  ^{Impaler Assault Craft (3 Charges)}

Prior to some of the later patch changes, the Impaler Bays were far less useful, being stuck at a single charge no matter the ship size. Now that the charges are set by ship class, the Bleak Soul gets to carry 3 of these babies into battle, as opposed to a single charge that could end up being wasted quite easily. The complimentary weaponry brought into battle, ensures that the Bleak Soul still has plenty of potent offensive capabilities when those charges run dry.

Bloodied Claw

Drukhari Raider Cruiser - Bloodied Claw - [Ynnari Sub-Faction]

1 / 7

Point Cost: 197
Raw Total Crit Output: 3.6* critical hits per minute
Raw Total DPS: 24*
^{*Does not count torpedoes.}
Armament:

• 2 x Heavy Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 3 x Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• Torpedoes (6 Tubes)
  ^{Basic Torpedoes (3 Charges)}

Since I've already gone through the effort of pointing out the same for the other Drukhari Cruisers, I can give an economical breakdown of point cost per torpedo tube compared to the other line ship options. With the Bloodied Claw, you are paying 207 points for 6 tubes (34.5 points per), the Bladed Lotus light cruiser gives you 4 for 152 points (38 points per) and the Falling Moon Battleship grants 8 tubes for 318 points (43.75 points per). This makes the Bloodied Claw the best price per torpedo tube for the Drukhari line ships.

Now that all being said, the torpedo carrying ships have a lot more to account for with regards to their hull's base stats than other vessels do, as your ability to successfully deploy your torpedoes relies heavily on the speed, maneuverability and survive-ability of the ship delivering them, not to mention whether or not you are utilizing the Splinter Torpedoes upgrade. Because of all of this, it's really worth taking those facts into consideration in how you want to field your torpedo boating vessels in accordance with your overall plan and fleet strategy.

Update (7/13/2020): While still somewhat relative points wise, the costs of most ships have changed to a significant degree, which will require me coming back to do further calculations to correct the values mentioned above. In addition, I have plans to better offer points comparisons in other sections of the guide. Expect this ships description to be re-written soon.

Changelog

7/13/2020 - Updated for patch 11218.

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