Reavers WS4 BS4 S3 T3(4) W1 I6 A1 Ld8 Sv5+. The come with the special rules; night vision, power from pain, and skilled riders. Unit size is a nice 3-10 and they come with the following wargear; wychsuit, splinter pistol, close combat weapon, combat drugs, reaver jetbike, and bladevanes.
The Reaver Jetbike comes with an inbuilt splinter rifle, and allows turbo boosting up to 36". Remember that they must end up at least 18" away from where they started in order to turbo boost, you get a 3+ cover save, cannot go to ground, and cannot be pinned. They are jetbikes and as such are able to move 6" in the assault phase assuming you didn't turbo boost. You are also relentless, so move 12" rapid fire 12".
Reavers come with bladevanes. Bladevanes are used with turbo boosters. Mark the starting location and ending location of the move and trace an imaginary line between the two. Choose one non-vehicle, unengaged unit under that line and inflict D3 S4 AP- hits per Reaver. Resolve these hits immediately, and cover saves can be take as normal.
One model per three reavers may take either Grav-Talons, or Cluster Caltrops. Cluster Caltrops inflict D6 S6 AP- hits, and Grav-Talons inflict D3 S4 AP- hits that cause pinning.
In addition for every 3 models in the squad, one reaver can replace it's splinter rifle with a heat lance or a blaster.
You can also upgrade one model to an Arena Champion, who has +1A and +1 Ld. The Arena Champion can replace his close combat weapon with a venom blade, power weapon, or agonizer. I don't prefer my reavers in close combat, so if you upgrade your close combat weapon, it should be for defensive purposes. Better yet, your mobile, stay out of close combat unless your playing clean up.
As you can see, Reavers almost always should be fielded in multiples of 3 to maximize their effectiveness on the field. While the blaster in my opinion is a better all around weapon, I like the heat lances on reavers. Mostly because I have plenty of blasters and dark lances elsewhere in my lists. So the weapon choice here, is mostly preference. Remember that it takes 2 penetrating hits for an AP1 weapon to blow up a vehicle, and 3 penetrating hits for everything else (averages).
One of the things I like about Reavers is their effectiveness against armor and infantry. Their very flexible on the field with their assault phase 6" movement, and being able to deliver such a large number of hits to the enemy. I like that you are not rolling to hit, just the number of attacks and then to wound. Logic would also have it, that unless in area terrain, cover saves are going to be hard to get. Simply hiding behind something will not be enough.
Fielding Reavers in a group of 3 seem like suicide units (although I kind of like 3 units of 3), while 6 seems like a nice round number to run reavers at for most instances. One of the strong points of reavers is their point costs. They start at 22pts each, making them extremely cheap for what they can bring to the field. That's 66 points without upgrades for a squad of 3 and it's very easy to get the entire unit upgraded for less than 100 pts, while my upgraded units of 6 are less than 200.
Starting a haemonculi in your Reaver squad gives them that protection from flamers as they race around the tabletop with their 3+ cover save. Reavers are a threat that your opponent will need to eliminate, so making this as hard for them as possible is extremely gratifying. Your reavers should almost never be without a cover save. Make sure that you strike near cover, so that your assault phase move takes you back into area terrain. Otherwise you should be turbo boosting.
With the possibility of Feel No Pain at the start of the game, along with 3+ cover saves while turbo boosting, and the skilled rider special rule (moving 6" back into area terrain after shooting). Reavers are very durable and mobile units, able to cause massive numbers of wounds to infantry during the movement phase and deliver great firepower to the tabletop for a very reasonable cost.
Tonight I plan on posting a Dark Eldar Tactics session of some of the crazy things I have found with my Dark Eldar. Reavers are included in this, so check back if you want to read up on a few of the nasty tricks of the Dark Eldar.
