Swooping Hawks are one of the least used units in current Eldar armies today. Occasionally you will see some brave individual attempt to field a squad of them, only to have them under perform or get shot to pieces before they can do anything. This is not a problem unique to Swooping Hawks - a lot of deep striking assault troops tend to be cut down easily.
I tend to change this in the games I play. I have decided to build an army around using Swooping Hawks again. To add further insult to my opponents I will play "Attack of the Hawkmen" from Flash Gordon when they attack somewhere.
Fear me and my space elf hawkmen!
Swooping Hawks have some good things going for them. For one they come with Haywire Grenades that if hit will penetrate vehicle armor, no matter how high. Most likely they are going to just glance the vehicle. This is perfectly fine as well, since the worst result on the glance table is "cannot shoot". A vehicle that is not shooting is not achieving its points back and is neutralized for a turn.
Secondly, a Swooping Hawk squad with the Exarch upgrade has the option to buy the ability "Intercept" for 5 points! This ability is gold since it makes the maximum to hit roll 4+ on all vehicles. Those pesky Dark Eldar skimmers just got a whole lot easier to hit.
Swooping Hawk shooting is not impressive. They best they can do is harass light infantry. The leader can be equipped with a sun rifle that not only shoot six times, but has a chance to pin an enemy unit. I have never been successful at pinning an enemy unit with laser fire, so I stopped taking the Sunrifle upgrade. What I do take is the Hawk's Talon. The weapon is is STR 5, Assault 3. Outfitted with a Hawk's Talon the squad has a good chance of being able to penetrate the rear armor of a tank if they deep strike in.
How will I use the mighty Swooping Hawks?
My new tactic is to field two to three large squads of them and have them deployed on the table at the start of the game. They will be sent after primary vehicle targets that can threaten my vehicles - such as Razor Backs, Land Raiders, Storm Ravens or Dark Eldar Ravagers. Additionally, any vehicle that has some sort of cover save would be targeted if it is in an opportunistic range.
The Hawks will hit and run with the goal to keep them alive until the end of the game. Their mobility should allow them to take advantage of cover or line of sight blocking terrain features. Near the end of the game, they will be used to contest objectives or just overwhelm straggling foot troops.
Another option that I am currently exploring is adding an Autarch to the mix with wings and a fusion gun. That would add some extra ranged tank busting abilities to the squad for the turn they deep strike in.
