honest with you . I Have never tried bowshabti.
I was not convinced on the paper..
I always play them equipped with Great Weapon .
proxy them.try.
you will like it.
Against the right enemy - Great Bow Ushabti are KILLER. More importantly, fun.
Bowshtabi. I've run them dozens of times.
By "the right enemy" I mean {1} Armored Knights, or {2} high toughness monsters with no ward save.
Think, Giants, etc. Really good at sniping opposing War Machines, especially those that are
NOT T7. Maybe there are other uses?
A unit of 8 with Great Bows is my typical choice. Some light MathHammer if you'll indulge me.
I love to LIVE THE DREAM and use
Ptra's Incantation of Righteous Smiting (Augment) on the Bowshtabi.
--You get 16 dice, 1/3rd of which will hit (5+) against anything, regardless of modifiers. Arrows of the Asaph
--You can move, you can double-tap, you can shoot at super long range, you can shoot at folks in cover... The modifiers don't matter.
--Against most knights (T3, T4) your Bow S6 will wound on 2+; You should cause 4 or 5 wounds.
--S6 will give a -3 to saves, so even Chaos Knights with a 1+ go a 50/50; 4+ Armor.
Against super elite knights, 2 or 3 models dead can hobble the unit to the point of uselessness.
Also, 2 or 3 dead models in a unit might turn off LOOK OUT SIR --->>>
Letting other shooting you have later in the phase pick up single Characters.
^This actually seems to happy somewhat regularly.
One other cool thing: once you turn on Great Bow Double Taps on your turn, your Bowshtabi still have double taps for a stand and shoot reaction.
(I think that might be non-canonical... our group errata'ed this rule to make Skeleton Archers slightly less bad)