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

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Drukhari Raider Light Cruisers

The Drukhari Light Cruiser class of vessels offers one base underlying flavor with 4 variations of "toppings" so to speak. No matter what option, you start with 3 Scythe Missile turrets that are all on equal footing damage, range and firing arc wise, then add in either a lance, torpedo rack, launch bay or Impaler squadron on top and you have one of each of the four light cruisers available. While strategically beneficial in some way to have this kind of option for bringing the special weapons of choice (or none) it does make the category of ships a little boring.

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

Drukhari Raiders Guide Navigation

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• Light Cruiser <- You Are Here
  
  • Dark Mirror
  • Burning Scale
  • Baleful Gaze
  • Bladed Lotus
• Cruiser
  
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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 Light Cruiser Stats

The Light Cruisers get the typical boost to hull points and faster than normal engine speed, second only to Corsairs and Asuryani. Now that we have assault capabilities, we see the next point of specialization for the Dark Eldar, their assault actions' critical chances, which is the highest in the game. Compared to the Astartes faction, whom also specialize in their assault actions, the Dark Eldar do less troop damage but are more likely to take out subsystems.

Shield: 80
Armor: 50 (All Sides)
Identification Range: 9,000
Speed: 320
Rotation Speed: 32
Hull: 800
Defense Turrets: 9
Bravery: -25
Boarding Damage: 4
^{+ Causes 2 Assault Actions}
Lightning Strike Damage: 2
^{+ Causes 1 Assault Actions}
Critical Assault Chance: 70%
Defending Troops per Stage: 11

Drukhari Light Cruiser Attributes & Skills

The Drukhari Light Cruisers further demonstrate their very strong boarding actions through their abilities. Now compared to a faction like the Space Marines, the Dark Eldar do not do as much actual troop damage, though their numbers are decent, their strength lies in their top tier critical chances when assaulting, making them the fastest to knock out subsystems with assaults. Unfortunately as it currently stands, Slavetaking isn't really useful at all as that one troop is unlikely to make much of a difference.

• 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.

Dark Mirror

Drukhari Raider Light Cruiser - Dark Mirror - [Ynnari Sub-Faction]

1 / 8

Point Cost: 148
Raw Total Crit Output: 2.4 critical hits per minute
Raw Total DPS: 14*
*16 with Lock On/Tracking Sense
Armament:

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

The Dark Mirror is both the only ship in the Light Cruiser category with an armor-piercing lance weapon and a second main offensive weapon besides a trio of Scythe Missiles, making it the overall best on paper damage dealer without relying on special weaponry. Dps and crit number wise, the rest of the ships are all tied thanks to their cookie-cutter load outs.

Points wise the Light Cruisers all hover around 150-160 points with the exception of the Burning Scale light carrier, which makes the Dark Mirror a very reliable choice for filling up line ships.

Burning Scale

Drukhari Raider Light Cruiser - Burning Scale - [Dying Sun Sub-Faction]

1 / 8

Point Cost: 180
Raw Total Crit Output: 1.8* critical hits per minute
Raw Total DPS: 12*
^{*Does not include launch bay}
Armament:

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

Of the Launch Bay fielding Drukhari vessels, the Burning Scale is the least efficient points use for fielding squadrons. The Burning Scale costs 193 points for a single launch bay, while the Fiend Ascendant cruiser takes 2 for 293 points (146.5 points per) and the Iron Thorn Battleship costs 448 points for 3 bays (just a fraction above 149 points per). Because of this, the expensive cost of Drukhari ships and the general need to go "all in" with carrier fleets, bringing as many launch bays as possible for best effectiveness, the Burning Scale is going to be limited in it's usefulness in your typical 1,200 point fleet.

If you really need just the bare minimum carrier force to supplement your fleet's main strategy, a pair of Burning Scales gives you the option of deploying two different squadrons in pairs, though you are doing so at the cost of a third of your fleet point pool.

Baleful Gaze

Drukhari Raider Light Cruiser - Baleful Gaze - [Iron Thorn Sub-Faction]

1 / 8

Point Cost: 142
Raw Total Crit Output: 1.8* critical hits per minute
Raw Total DPS: 12*
^{*Does not include Impaler bay}
Armament:

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

The Impaler squadrons are an interesting feature of the Drukhari I am personally still trying to wrap my head around fully, but from gathering info through playtesting and background lore, they are essentially super sized, single craft wings of assault boats that deal more troop damage than normal, seem to travel faster and have a better chance of getting through defense turrets. Basically it's like having a guaranteed, super charged assault boat launch.

Considering the the sacrificing of a weapon mount to get them, it is really worth taking into consideration how you are going to make good use of them. Coupled with the powerful Dark Eldar assault actions and the cheap cost of Impaler equipped ships, one could stack these weapons in their fleet and use it to quickly gain an upper hand through devastating assaults on the enemies capital ships, right at the opening of the fight. This strategy has a lot of inherent risk and would take practice and timing to pull off, but could be very effective against factions that rely on fewer stronger ships.

If you are trying this strategy versus Necrons, make sure to bring something to bait their Starpulse Waves or stagger the Impalers to avoid a devastating loss of multiple squadrons. Honestly they have a pretty hard counter to this tactic so a smart Necron player will really mess with your plans here.

Bladed Lotus

Drukhari Raider Light Cruiser - Bladed Lotus - [Broken Sigil Sub-Faction]

1 / 8

Point Cost: 139
Raw Total Crit Output: 1.8* critical hits per minute
Raw Total DPS: 12*
^{*Does not include torpedoes.}
Armament:

• Torpedoes (4 Tubes)
  ^{Basic Torpedoes (2 Charges)}
• 3 x Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}

Of the three special weapon Light Cruisers, the Bladed Lotus is probably the most all around useful thanks to the standard sized quad torpedo tubes it carries. Working on its own at close range or with other torpedo carrying vessels the Bladed Lotus can dole out decent damage at a relatively good cost while having the benefit of being able to shut down engines with the optional Splinter Torpedo upgrade.

Even working solo, thanks to the speed of the Bladed Lotus and it's inherent stealth, it is more than capable of flanking otherwise preoccupied capital ships and swooping in for a torpedo run from a blind spot in the enemy ships firing arcs, then using it's Aeldari engine skills to dart away and re-stealth before the capital ship can fully turn to respond.

Changelog

7/13/2020 - Updated for patch 11218.

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