Wych weapons 1: Shardnet and Impaler

Which weapon? (sorry)

Wych weapons have moved from being bulk to specialist equipment; so instead of upgrading all of the models in the squad to have some sharp hooks secreted about their person, a couple of select wyches may take their pick from three options.

On the bright side, all three are kinda neat. The downside for me is that I rather liked the look of all of the old wych weapons, and so my wyches had almost nothing but! Still, since we must adapt or die, the question now becomes: which should I take?

Shardnet and impaler

Two of the wych weapon options are purely offensive; the shardnet is the purely defensive upgrade. Every model adjacent to the wych fights with one less attack than normal. Incidentally, the wording suggests that models only ever lose one attack no matter how many shardnets they are in contact with; a pity, as it would otherwise be quite handy to gimp an enemy independent character completely.

There are two obvious drawbacks with the shardnet. Firstly, it is useless against models with only one attack. Secondly, since the wyches will almost always be striking first, casualties can be removed preferentially from those affected by the nets.

The second drawback can be ameliorated relatively simply, by engaging models that the enemy will not want to remove. This will often further our purposes directly, for example by impairing a veteran sergeant, we might reduce a power fist to one attack only, potentially losing fewer wyches without recourse to our new feel no pain capability.

A bonus of the shardnet, as compared to the old wych weapons, is that there is now no ceiling on whom it can affect. Carnifex? Tangle those claws. Wraithlord? Sorry, that sword won't be swinging through this. Every enemy model loses an attack, regardless of strength, whether they have additional close combat weapons, are a god given form, or just a grot with two pointy sticks.

So should I take one? Taking a shardnet will depend on the intended role of the wych squad in question. For tarpit wyches, it is the only choice. For slaughtering masses of basic troops, perhaps you want one of the others. If you want to limit the effectiveness of enemy upgrade characters, take one shardnet, and one of something else.

But which one? Stay tuned!