The Phoenix Court of Khaine pt 3: Jain Zar

Howling Banshees are some of the most lethal close combat troops in the game. Their mistress even more so. Jain Zar is the matron of the Howling Banshee Aspect. The Storm of Silence as she is known is one of the most feared close combat specialists in the game and one of the best Phoenix Lords to take. Armed with an Executioner and a Triskle that is strength 5 Jain Zar can deal with most opponents in one round. One feature she has, which most people wish she gave to any squads she led, is Furious charge. This makes her strength 7 on the charge with 5 attacks hitting at initiative 10. Hitting on 3's with most opponents means she is going to kill at least 3 or 4 models in the first charge.

I like to use Jain Zar with a full squad of 10 howling banshees with an Exarch. Why add an Exarch you ask? Well given the high weapon skill of the Phoenix Lord and the decently high weapon skill of the Exarch you will hit on 3's most of the time. The Exarch adds a second executioner. This gives you 3 strength 5 attacks on the charge. So with a total of 8 attacks of strength 5 or higher combined with a doom will yield a squad severely reduced in number. This allows the nine regular Banshees to concentrate their attacks on a smaller number of models. Being only strength 3 you really need to concentrate the number of attacks on the smallest possible amount of enemy troops. This is so when you need 5's or 6's to wound you get the best results. Doom helps a lot and no banshee unit should assault a unit that is not doomed unless forced to do so. Basically Jain Zar and the Exarch do most of the work and the remaining Banshees do clean up. You really do not want your opponents to strike back. A small number of wounds can really takes it toll. Since the unit is fearless with Jain Zar in it you can't afford to loose a combat. Banshees are deceptively fragile and taking no retreat saves is no fun on a 4+. This also mires you in combat and Banshees are a unit that needs to hit hard on the first turn and destroy the unit. They are just to fragile for a prolonged engagement.

My typical tactic when going after a unit is first get into charge range. I really do like to send a volley of fire into a unit before I charge it but sometimes you have to run the unit to get into range. Jain Zars' triskele “The Silent Death” is strength 5 as previously stated. Triskeles are usually strength 3 AP2 Assault 3. So when The Silent Death is thrown you could potentially kill a couple models before an assault rather easily. Of course the whole trick to getting the perfect assault is position.

Clocking in at 190 points Jain Zar is the least expensive Phoenix Lord. Again this is to expensive in my opinion especially with the points cost of Lelith in the new Dark Eldar Codex being 175 pts. All in all though She is an excellent HQ choice and is rightly feared by most players. She turns a unit of Banshees into a very lethal close combat unit.

So my two cents on the first of the Asurya. Next time We will be talking about every Imperial tank commanders worst nightmare. The Burning Lance himself Fuegan. Also I may have a battle report this weekend. A very special game with The Judge using the new Dark Eldar.

Until then.................

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!