Eldar in 5th: A Tactica and Review by Xenith [UPDATED 01 Feb 10]

[Xenith]

So, Ive been thinking about doing a tactica for a while, and after a lot of work writing the following instead of coursework, I present to you:

Eldar in 5th: A Tactica and Review by Xenith

Introduction
The Eldar army is a swift and deadly force, with ease, able to wipe out all opposition before it, yet, for all their might, the Eldar are a dying race, and mismanagement on your behalf will result in terrible losses: The Eldar are a finesse army, and will greatly reward the player who can wield them correctly.

The best Autarchs will tell you that the key to success with the Eldar is synergy: The army must work together as one to achieve their goals. Unlike Space Marines, where every single unit can excel in any situation due to the high versatility and quality of the individual, Eldar are highly specialised; each unit will outperform their enemies in a particular style of warfare, and if caught off guard, the army will survive about as long as a fish out of water (and no, not one of those Stygian land fish).

To become a successful autarch: You must know the tools of destruction you can wield. You must know the quality of the troops you command. You must know the best tactics to use for any chosen army. With this in mind, this tactica will be broken down into several sections, each dealing with themes and understanding needed to become a successful general:

Know your weapons:
Discussion of the weaponry of the Eldar: Its strengths, limitations, and applications.

Know your Forces:
A detailed run down of Eldar unit types, what they should be used for, and what they are capable of achieving, along with tactics specific to that unit.

Know your strategy:
You may have some of the finest troops at your disposal, but they will achieve nothing if you have no plan of attack. This section covers strategies available to the Eldar, both in individual unit terms, and army wide terms, complete with sample army lists. This section assumes strong knowledge of the previous sections, so as to save space by cutting repetition.

Know Your Weapons

Bright Lance

Bright Lance (BL)– Seemingly the bright lance is an awesome weapon. A high strength, and the ability to count AV>12 as 12! Unfortunately, this comes at a cost – lance weaponry is the most expensive weapons available to the Eldar, and it may be worth it it the lance were as good as it should be.

Unfortunately, the Bright Lance is generally only available on BS3 platforms, which means that it needs 4+ to hit, then 5+ to stand a chance of destroying a tank, meaning a lance shot has a 1/6 chance of a penetrating hit. Is the single penetrating hit over the course of the game worth all those points? Id say not. Against AV13/14, you should be using the more effective fire dragons. Against AV12, the lance performs as well as the EML, but for an extortionate amount of points. Id say avoid the lances. The exception that proves the rule, however, is the Wraithlord - His BS4 means that the high lance cost is somewhat justified, and giving a wraithlord the EML/BL combo makes him argueably the best long range tank hunter [per force org selection] in the Eldar army.

D-Cannon

D-Cannon- (D) – Despite having an excellent profile, the D cannon is only available on expensive weapons platforms. Too short ranged to be of much use offensively, they can be a nice, if expensive deterrent to folk attacking your lines. But then again, so is a wraithlord.

Death Spinner

Deathspinner (DS) – The standard armament of the warp spider, generally effective at causing large amounts of wounds for that all important wound allocation, even if it will always allow armour saves. The DS is a utility weapon, able to damage most things in the game, when coupled with the speed of the warp spiders who wield them!

Eldar Missile Launcher

Eldar Missile Launcher (EML) – The Wunderkind of the Eldar armoury, the missile launchers is unusually flexible for an Eldar weapon, but is all the better for it! Krak missiles are your general anti tank round, but where the glory of this weapon is, is in the plasma missiles: S4, AP4, Pinning. Ridiculous.

This weapon will rip through fire warriors, hordes, SM scouts, other aspect warriors and more besides! What's more, the blast rule means that the BS3 of most EML platforms is largely negated, ensuring that youll still generally hit something!

Fusion Gun

Fusion Gun (FG) – Your basic melta weapon, wielded exclusively by disciples of the fire dragon aspect. Deadly effective at killing tanks, monstrous creatures, and 2+ saves, its short range is its only drawback.

Las Blaster

Las Blasters (LB) – The standard amrament of the Swooping Hawk. A moderate range, and decent rate of fire, unfortunately, doesnt make up for this weapons low strength. 10 hawks will get 20 S3 shots at 24”, but the same points cost of guard will get a hell of a lot more. Not amazing.

Scatter Laser

Scatter Laser (SL) – Another fantstic Eldar weapon, the SL has the bonuses of rapid rate of fire, and long range, making it good for low BS, fragile units (war walkers, vypers, guardians) The SL is cheap points-wise, and is capable of posing a threat to most units. Use them in multiples to force lots of armour saves on MEQ, or on vypers/outflanking warwalkers to threaten vehicle side armour.

Shuriken Catapult/Pistol

Shuriken Catapult/Pistol(SP) – The standard weapon of the Eldar, wielded by guardians, and as sidearms. A good basic weapon, but with the massive drawback of a very short range of 12”. If theres anywhere you dont want your guardians to be, its within 12” of a still breathing enemy unit.

Shuriken Cannon

Shuriken Cannon (SC) – The cheapest of the cheap, high strength, moderate range and AP. It has the same uses as the SL, but the shorter range means that unless you wipe out your target, youll generally be in firing range of their guns!

Spinnerette Rifle

Spinnerette Rifle – Seemingly awesome, this adds some much needed low AP weaponry to the warp spiders, helping them deal with 2+ saves, and maybe some tanks. Problem is, it still needs a 4+ to glance, meaning it isnt too great vs tanks, and a single pinning weapon isnt too helpful. Never mind what you gain with this weapon, consider what you lose. Namely, the potential 4S6, BS5 shots from dual death spinners for the same points cost.

Star Cannon

Star Cannon (StC) – Formerly seen by many as the best weapon in the game, combining good range, and exceptional strength and AP, this weapon has been near crippled in the latest incarnation of the codex and game. High points cost, a reduction in rate of fire, and the abundance of cover saves mean that while this weapon is still most effective vs MEQ out of cover, as soon as cover becomes involved, it becomes slightly less effective than the SL. I would only use this if you know that you are definitely facing marines, and know that your boards are sometimes lacking in cover...

VibroCannon

Vibrocannon (V) – The former dark horse of the list in 4th ed, and now hampered by 5th glancing rules, the Vibrocannon may still have a place in lists, if you interpret its rules to give a glancing hit per vibrocannon that hits (I believe that is correct, RAW, but some may disagree). Throwing the unit behind hard cover and being pretty much guaranteed a glancing hit or few per turn may appeal to some. Quite useful when facing vehicle heavy armies, where bottlenecks mean you can often zap

Know Your Forces

HQ

Farseers

Farseers
The exemplar of the Eldar armies synergy. While near useless on their own, the Farseer’s powers are capable of making one, or all, of your units better at what they do.

Guide

Guide – A very useful power, and essential for those times when you absolutely need to hit your target! Needless to say, guide ramps up the to hit chances of any unit, and thus works best with units that are possess destructive weaponry. Ideal targets to guide are: Warwalkers: guiding a unit of 3WW with 6SL or EML comes to 18S6 hits with the former (15 wounds vs MEQ!), and A scary 5krak missile hits, or and even scarier amount of Plasma missile hits on a unit (remember, its a pinning test per pinning weapon in a unit that causes a wound, so remember to work out the hits seperately! A pain, yes, but nothing like causing 6 pinning tests on a big unit of Boyz!

Doom

Doom – Essentially a power with the potential to make every unit in your army more effective, albeit against a single enemy unit. Cast it on the stuff you really want to die, TMC are prime targets, with doom turning even SC and SL into deadly weapons, forcing lots of saves, and making sure StC's get those kills! Consider the dominant weapon strength in your army before choosing doom. If the majority of your weapons are S6+, then you wont get too much mileage from it, and guide may be better. On the other hand, if you have a lot of S4 Scats in your army (DA, DA, DA) then doom in invaluable!

Fortune

Fortune – Designed to keep your valuable troops alive! Bear in mind that no matter how much your guardians are fortuned, theyre still dead when hit by AP5 weaponry, so make sure that you fortune the right unit! Aspect warriors and models with invulnerable saves are best. Everyone knows of the might of the fortuned seer council, a rerollable 4+ save is statistically better than a a 3+ (but not quite as good as a 2+...), so remember that you will lose at least some models, so take spares. General good use is to fortune an avatar, or wraithlord in cover, meaning all those nasty krak missiles fired at it will amount to nothing.

Eldritch Storm

Eldritch Storm – A power that splits decision like no other. Some love it, most dont bother with it. If you know that you will be facing a horde army, or an army with a lot of vehicles, this may be useful. Combine with doom to dish out the pain on lightly armoured models. Considering an average roll will glance AV10, and with a slight [1/12] chance of getting a glance or better vs a monolith, this can be used as anti tank in a pinch. Just dont pin your hopes on it. What is nice, however, is that any tank touched by the template is spun around, giving you a reasonable chance of having a tanks rear armour exposed to your S6 weapons of doom. Just remember to use this power first!

Mind War

Mind War – Another power that people will either use to death, or not at all, Mind War can truly be a pain for an opponent, especially with the farseers superior leadership. Use this to assassinate normally untargetable models, like the Ork nob with powerklaw thats about to get at your wraithlord (or even better, the painboy in a nobz mob...), or that marine with the melta

Spirit Stones

Spirit Stones – Useful for multi purpose farseers, allowing multiple casting of powers. Guide and fortune allow for a good defensive shooty firebase, while guide and doom combine well to target and neutralise a specific enemy unit. Warding An absolutely fantastic item, making psychic tests for your opponent much harder, and much much more riskier! Ive had Slaaneshi daemon princes refuse to cast lash of submission because of the effects of the runes. A must have for casual games, but they can be left at home if you know your opponent wont be using psykers.

Runes of Witnessing

Witnessing They seem great initially; much easier to pass the psychic test for powers. But bear in mind, the two lowest dice must be used – this item makes that snake eyes much more likely, and you'll suffer more PotW than usual. Id leave this at home, the Farseer’s Ld of 10 should be enough to pass pretty much every psychic test.

Warlocks

WarlocksNo longer the cheap meatshields for farseers, the compulsory equipment gives a high cost, meaning these warriors are not to be taken lightly. Theyre good statline is a trap. Even with a warlock, guardians are still rubbish in combat! Only take them when you absolutely need that unit to hold (6 man jetbike squads).. Critical if you want to run Wraithguard as troops, and useful if you ever want to use weapons platforms, as they can embolden them, and the warlock, as an upgrade character, is allowed to fire one of the weapons at his better BS of 4!

Powers:

Destructor

One of the best, a perfect compliment to a dual flamer storm guardian squad in a wave serpent. This also finds use in multiples in seer councils, where jumping out of a serpent/arriving via jetbike is accompanied by 2-6 heavy flamers into your opponents favourite unit. Quite messy.

Embolden

Possibly the best power for guardian warlocks, embolden keeps them in the game with rerollable Ld8. Dont forget, embolden allows farseers to reroll failed psychic tests too, so having an embolden 'lock or two in a seer council is useful indeed!

Enhance

pretty cool, adding to the base stats of the unit. Again, pointless on guardians, but can make wraithguard competitive in combat, and a seer council, +/- autarch, murderous!

Conceal

Used to be ok. Now is pointless. Paying for 5+ cover is pointless when theres so much free 4+ cover all over the place! Maybe useful if you play on cover sparse boards. Potentially useful for wraithguard, who may have to venture from cover.

Elites

Fire Dragons

Fire Dragons - Point for point, arguably the most effective tank hunting unit in the game. Turn them upon enemy armour, monstrous creatures or even 3+/2+ saves and they will show their worth! Generally, 5-6 dragons will score you multiple penetrating hits, and generally a kill, with the help of AP1 fusion guns! This awesome power comes at a price, though.

Fire dragons are extremely short ranged (6” of target to be effective), and will find that their attempts at walking into position will see them full of bullet holes. As a result, dragons need the support of a transport. This traditionally used to be the falcon, its smaller transport capacity, seeming most suited, but now with melta weapons now being the most cost effective anti tank weapon in the game, the falcon is pushed into redundancy with the wave serpents energy field rule protecting it from meltas at the close ranges it needs to obtain to deliver its cargo. With the prohibitively expensive cost of lance weapons, coupled with their substandard effectiveness, fire dragons should be used to take out targets of AV13 or higher, with AV14 being the priority.

Howling Banshees

Howling Banshees
Banshees are potentially one of the most destructive units in the eldar army, thanks to the sher volume of power weapon attacks they can dish out, making mincemeat of those races that like to think themselves impervious in their 3+ armoured might! The problem with Banshees, is that they are very fragile, and any kind of determined shooting will see them whittled to ineffective numbers very quickly. Banshees need a transport, whether being used offensively, or as a counter attacking unit: they need the protection until they are ready to strike.

With regards to weaponry, the executioner is the best choice by far: Running the numbers, the higher strength executioner outperforms the extra attacks granted by the mirrorswords in every possible circumstance, with the exception of an ongoing combat/being charged by T3 opponents. When charging, or vs T4 (or greater), the executioner outperforms the paired swords consistently in terms out causing wounds. The only real weakness of the banshees is their S3, which will see them needing 5+ to wound their most common enemies, T4. This is somewhat countered by the S5 of the exarch-ocutioner, who will kill a fair few MEQ on her own, but to truly get the most from your banshees, you should combine their charge with a doom wielding farseer, to get those almighty rerolls: Then, their S3 is pretty much negated, leaving each hit with a 75% chance of scoring a wound, or, in model terms, 2 banshees will kill 3 marines between them on the charge (6 attacks, 4 hit, 3 wound) which is damn impressive!

Troops

Guardian Defenders

Guardian Defenders
The citizen warriors of the Eldar should only be used as a last resort, poets and sculptors should not be on the battlefield. Short ranged weapons mean that they are at maximum effectiveness within bolter rapid fire range, which is exactly where they shouldn’t be. The saving grace is that they have access to the Eldar heavy weapon arsenal.

Take weapons that are either multi shot, or don’t rely greatly on BS to hit. Shuriken cannons, scatter lasers and the EML for plasma missiles are the order of the day. Don’t think that giving them a bright lance will make them effective tank hunters: they will hit 50% of the time, and 50% of the time, the shot will do nothing (vs AV12 or greater), giving an average of 0.056% chance to get a kill on a vehicle of AV12+. Vehicle of AV<12 should be targeted by scatterlasers, and AV>12 by fire dragons.

Warlocks do not add great amounts to this unit, almost making it cost almost 50% more for little return. If anything, take embolden to keep them in the fight. That said, a unit of 10 in cover makes for a decent objective holder, but are prone to assaults. They will need protection. Best suited for static armies, or armies that want a cheap unit to hold a home objective.

Storm Guardians

Storm Guardians
Storm guardians are a different kettle of fish. Their poor statline makes them roughly equivalent to basic troops from any other race in combat, their points cost seeing them usually outnumbered. What is nice, however, is that they have the option for two flamers. Combine this with a destructor warlock, put them in a wave serpent, and you have a unit that can dish out a lot of damage. Just watch out for return S4/AP5 fire. Most suited to Mechanised Eldar armies, that already have some combat ability.

Guardian Jetbikes

Eldar Guardian Jetbikes (EJB)- The star of the elder list: cheap, fast, relatively tough, and most importantly, scoring. The only negative point I can see to this unit is the low Ld value. There are different schools of thought regarding jetbikes. The first is to take the minimum unit of 3, often with the SC upgrade to add a little punch to the unit. this is for objective stealing and harassment only. This is quite vulnerable, and getting shot at by heavy weapons will most likely kill most of the unit, with the possibility of the rest running away due to lack of embolden warlock (who would see the unit almost double in cost...). Still, the unit costs under 80pts, and if you coordinate your army well, then your opponent will have scarier things to shoot at than 3 bikes, much to their grievance when that unit turboboosts onto an objective in the final turn. The second is to take a unit of 6, with 2 SC, and an Embolden warlock. This follows much the same role as the first, except that since there are more bodies and SC, it’s a bit more of a threat. A better objective contester than the 3EJB unit, however this comes at a high cost, and 7 EJB can be very hard to get behind cover. Still with the addition of a singing spear to the warlock, this unit can be quite a nice tank hunter, turboboosting to the other side of the board, then unloading with 6S6 shots and, 8S4, and 1S9 shot into the back of a tank. Well suited to any type of Eldar army.

Fast Attack

Shining Spears

Shining Spears:
Shining Spears have taken a big hit in 5th with the TLOS rules: whereas formerly you could nicely hide them behind a terrain piece, now they are pretty hard to hide due to their large unit footprint. The best you can really hope for is a cover save, or the 3+cover from turboboosting. Fortuning them right before a boost will see them live for slightly longer, but they are still T3(4), and an assault cannon or two will ruin their day. Now, at least, the skilled riders rule is worth taking to move through cover to get those nice saves with minimal risk of crashing.

With spears, you have to balance the number of models in the unit – you need enough to absorb wounds, but you need fewer to make for a smaller footprint. Ultimately, I would say that the amount of spears to have in the unit depends on whether you will be fielding an autarch with the unit. Having an autarch will dramatically ramp up the killing power of the unit (he will get almost as many attacks as the rest of the unit on the charge, and most likely more in the second round!) This leads to the problem that units without an autarch don’t kill enough models in combat, and those with an autarch kill too many!

With all this in mind, the spears deliver a hell of a punch, and can be guaranteed to kill off a few MEQ models in combat. While they will not win combat on their own, they can definitely tip the scales in your favour, if they charge at an opportune moment.

One thing that the spears do have to their immense advantage, is that they can hurt pretty much everything in the game: Dont forget that their shooting (and combat??) attacks have the lance rule, so they can glance that land raider on a 6, (or a 4, with a starlance!!), and absolutely murder tanks with lower rear armour values! Set up a charge on a doomed monstrous creature to see your white knights win the day – there shouldn’t be much standing after a few S6 AP4 shots, then a load of S6 power weapon attacks.

Treat the Shining Spears like a scalpel – they can hit hard, but likely only once or twice in a game. They have the speed and manoeuvrability to get to where they need to be, and send them after that unit you really, really need to cripple, like that railhead, or whirlwind lurking at the back!

Swooping Hawks

Swooping Hawks Swooping hawks, while not the most useful unit in the Eldar army, can still present a thorn in the side of an opponent, and can basically act as soldiers of fortune. You may hear of people whining about them, saying they're useless. Well. Maybe they are useless...in the role that these people are trying to force them into.

My most basic advice with hawks, is not to formulate your battle plan around them, and dont assume that they will be able to achieve objective x with ease (Im selling them well, arent I??) I put forward that the hawks work well alone, outside of other battleplans, and that they be one of those units that you add in when you have that weird 100 or so points left at the end of army list construction. Hawks may work best taking pot shots at weakened units at 24” range, getting nowhere near the opponent, then, maybe if a unwary tank strays too close, they pounce on it with their haywire grenades. A sunrifle and intercept abilites come in handy here, but obviously ramp up the cost.

Overall, Id say hawks are better anti infantry than anti tank, and that intercept's points could be spent elsewhere. Take an exarch and sunrifle to double the units firepower, then skyleap if you think that your opponent may catch them in combat (bad you), or you want to try with the 'rubberhawk' method (see next chapter). Id advise always deepstriking them initially, to get the most from their grenade packs. Grenade packing a unit, followed by the 14 shots that come from a 5man unit inc. sunrifle exarch, can cause a fair amount of damage, especially if the target marked for death has been appropriately doomed.

Heavy Support

Fire Prism

Fire Prisms
The new glory boy of the Eldar list, with the advent of 5th editions rules for blast weapons. Your prism cannon will now hit more often, and has 'stun' and 'kill' settings to eliminate even the toughest stains! Mobile and deadly, the fire prism can redeploy at a moments notice, and is one of the fastest moving heavy support choices in the game! Dont be fooled, though, yes the prism cannon may be a blast lascannon, but that doesnt make it the perfect anti tank weapon. Fire dragons are still waay, better.

The prism is, in its current form, an anti infantry beast. Use the type of beam that will ignore your opponents armour, as this will generally work out to cause the most casualties. Combining fire prisms: Here's the awesome part: A prism can sacrifice its shooting to boost the shooting of another unit, getting the foccussed beam up to a massive S10, AP1, enough to frazzle a monolith (take that, living metal!), and the dispersed beam to an MEQ slaying S6AP3. Pure gold.

Thing is, your opponent knows this as well, and will do everything they can to take that prism down, so keeping them alive is key for success. I would generally take prisms in pairs, as to not lose the anti infantry power, as one will generally be shaken at any one time, and to enable prism cannon combi shots. Holofields are a good, but expensive buy for the prism, and spirit stones will let it go flat out if its ever stunned in order for it to claim the 4+cover save. If you think two prisms is good, then three is even better, the sheer amount of large blasts that they can throw down is excellent, and even if your MEQ opponent stuns one, then the other two can still combine to get the AP3 template. A word to the wise: Combining all three prisms to make a large S7, AP2 shot may seem like the best and coolest idea ever, but its actually overrated. Vs terminators, three S9 AP2 small templates will actually work out to kill more models than a single large template. And also, the S9 shots will insta-kill any characters with the unit. See “Know your Strategy” for tips on how to keep Prisms alive.

Know Your Strategy

This section will cover basic gameplay tips and tricks of the Eldar, and will then incorporate several Eldar playstyles.

TiTTer

"TiTTer", or "Tips, Tricks, and Terminology":

This section is packed with small gameplay tips, play-aids, and terminology that you may hear being thrown about when in the world of the Eldar.

“ARTCUP” or “ALWAYS REMEMBER TO CAST UR POWERS”. Although it sounds stupifyingly, painstakingly obvious, this point is key when using farseers. Ive lost count of the number of times Ive got caught up in the heat of the moment, enacting of some amazing piece of tactical prowess when I move my vehicles...then remember I forgot to cast doom. Grr. Remember what powers you have that need to be cast at the start of the turn, then do everything you can do to remember this! I try and write it in a few places as a memory aid!

“Can I have a go?”: Remember, as an upgrade character, a warlock in a weapons platform unit can fire one of the platforms at their increased BS, allowing for greater accuracy. Still not the sole reason to take one in the unit, but a nice bonus!

'Doomseer': The second cheapest, but undoubtedly among the most effective HQ choices, simply a farseer with doom, and doom alone. Add Runes of warding to taste.

'Fragons': N. Lazy, for Fire Dragons.

'Jetlocks': Warlocks on jetbikes!

“Now You See Me...”: Note the position of the turrets of Eldar vehicles. At the back, right? Clever positioning of your vehicles, means you can put the hull behind LOS blocking cover, while leaving the rear and poking out, and still able to shoot at full effectiveness! You dont get to shoot the hull weapon...oh well.

“On second thoughts, I Think Ill Stay In Here...”: Remember, if a character and unit are both in a transport, they do not have to disembark at the same time. The avengers can get out and leave the farseer in the tank, or visa versa.

'Psychic Tanks': With the advent of 5th, it is now legal for farseers to cast their powers from the inside of a tank. This enables them to use all non LOS powers from their armchair in the back of the waveserpent, and, most of all, the benefit of that huge aggro range afforded by the tanks ~6” hull!

'Riposte': The gameplay tactic to deliberately deny your opponent a shooting phase by leaving your whole army in reserve. NB, that this only works [well] with dual autarch armies.

'Rubberhawks': This is the trick of the Swooping hawks, involving the exarch power skyleap. The hawks arrive from reserve, and deep strike in, using their grenade packs, then are removed from play at the end of the movement phase! The hawks are, effectively, never on the table, and it works and a very expensive template weapon, and lets the hawks avoid trouble, and then appear and finish off a unit through shooting/steal an objective late game. You need 2 autarchs for this to be fully effective, and I cannot see this tactic being used in a competitive army list.

“Seer Council”: An artefact of previous Eldar codices, you will hear many speak of 'seer councils' yet will not actually find them in the army list. A purely fluffy term, a seer council is a unit made up of one or more farseers, and accompanying warlocks. Plain as.

[B]To BS, or not to BS? [/B]

To BS, or not to BS?

Bladestorm (BS) on your DA may seem like a great idea, after all, pumping out 30 shots is always great, right? Consider that you have to spend a turn reloading, and miss out on he potential 20 shots lost there - you can get 30 shots every second turn, or 20 shots per turn.

Quickly running the stats shows that the best tactic against an opponent with rapid fire weapons is to BS, take the return fire, then move 6" directly away, then fleet away to putyourself more than 18" away from the enemy, to take you out of rapid fire range - this is the best way to keep your DA alive. the stats show that this is more effective than 40 shots per turn, as the casualties you receive from return fire (based on MEQ/bolters) means the diminished firepower of the DA is insufficient to finish the job.

Anyway, Ill leave the choice up to you, but always bear in mind how many models you have to kill to wipe out a unit, and apply firepower accordingly:

DA vs GEQ: BS = 13kills, no BS=9kills
DA vs MEQ: BS = 3kills, no BS=2kills
(Based on 10DA (no exarch) firing)

Lots more to come. The formatting is a pain, so Ill be updating a few things at a time. If you have any preferences as to what comes next, ie, unit types,weapons, sections, etc., shout it out!

As always, feedback is very welcome...

Xen.

[Karon]

Very nice.

I would like to hear your opinion on Shining Spears.

[Xenith]

Thanks Karon! Update for you:

Updated with:EML; Shining Spears; Fire Prims; some eldar terminology. Edited format.

Note that the shining spears is a first draft, and may be revised at a later date! This pretty much covered their battlefied usage, but Ill do a bit on wargear/powers, too!

Xen

[Avatar 720]

Are there going to be any entries on Swooping Hawks? Or are they really just the epitome of 'useless'? I've never seen or heard of them being used more effectively than potshotting stuff with grenade packs and Skyleaping, so i'm curious to see if anyone has any other uses for them.

Apart from that, I think it's a nice little tactica, clear, simple and precise, which is what a tactica should be.

[Xenith]

Thanks! And yup, Swooping Hawks are on their way

I make it clear that while they arent the most 'efficient' of units, you can still have fun with them, and how to do it!

[Evil-Termite]

I think the most important thing you can do is give us combinations of units that have synergy.

[godsvendtetta7]

...shining spears are T4, other than that it a great start!!! Very straight forward, I like it

[Xenith]

Thanks, GV, fixed to T3(4), although it doesnt affect the point I was making, as the AC still wounds on a 2+, accuracy is the aim!

More soon...

[Avatar 720]

The AC also still instagibs, as bikes don't confer the extra toughness when it comes to Insant Death via a hit with strength that is double your toughness.

[n0z3k1ll3r]

Just wanted to point out that 0.056% chance to kill an AV12 or up vehicle with a Guardian Brightlance is way, way, way off. It's closer to 6%, so I'm assuming you forgot to adjust for percentages.

[Eldanesh]

A great start. Thought I would point out though that you can get BS4 brightlances by putting them on Wraithlords.

[Xenith]

Ah, thanks for the mathhammer catch, Noz, I did forget to convert it to percentage, thats the raw probability! Point still stands, though, 5% to kill AV12 or greater for that points costs just isnt worth it, imo.

Also, thanks Eldanesh, Ill be getting round to the big guys soon, theyre one of the few places that I feel the lance is viable, Ill edit the BL section to factor this in.

[warchitect]

Ive been building an army of eldar too.

Im working on making 3 warwalkers. one with scatter lasers. One with Starcannons, and one with bright lances. I read what you wrote on the BL's but still im gonna field em.
Its that or all scatter lasers for the heavy 24 shots count, but still; 2 scatters for 8 shots plus 4 total shots of starcannon, then two shots from the Bl's for no save and armour penetration. thats still 14 total shots with power...

what do you think of em. I would love to hear.

[Xenith]

Warchitect, one rule with the eldar is that they specialise well, but if you try to generalise, you lose out (as with most specialist equipable units in 40k...)

Your combo of scatter lasers, starcannons and bright lances, is, no offence, pretty bad. Youre combining anti light infantry with anti heavy infantry with anti tank (expensive anti tank), guaranteeing youself only one thing. No matter what you shoot at, 2/3 of your warwalkers will be wasting their time. which is sucky.

Take this, for example.

Your unit shoots at a 5 man unit of assault termies. say, mixed, with 3th/ss, 2 with TLC, to give you a chance.

The unit you say, 2lances, 2cannon, 2scatters:
you get 4 scatter hits, one starcannon hit, and one lance hit. They all wound. Then with wound allocation, all the scatter hits go on lightening claw guys, who should save them all, and then the cannon and lance shots go on TH/SS guys, who will, generally, save both. Maybe...maybe...one will die, meaning your lotsofpoints unit is wasted.


Compare to 6x scatters. 24shots. 12 hits. 10 wounds. 1 kill. Exactly the same (if not better) result, for a fraction of the cost.

or 6 lances/starcannons: 3 hits. 3 wounds. 1 kill.

no matter how you slice it, equipping them all the same is the best.

Decide what you want your warwalkers to do. What kind of enemy can the rest of your army not deal with? got lots of anti infantry in avengers and banshees? no dragons? get some lances on there.

As ever, guide the warwalkers!

That changes scatters to: 6 scatter, 24 shots, 18 hits, 15 wounds, 2kills. 100% more kills.

I would say, imo, the best 'take all comers' loadouts for a warwalker are either all scatters, or all missile launchers. Both are capable of dealing with infantry and light vehicles. Then the EML can switch to krak to give most things a scare, 6 guided krak missiles is 4 hits, which is a reasonable chance to glance AV14.

Both will also be very good for dealing with the new nids, if MCs are limited to 3+ saves - 4 krak missile will ruin a MCs day, as will 18 scatter hits on a doomed carnie (13 wounds, 4failed saves.)

Hope that helps!

Xen

[warchitect]

Question before I reply. Whats a TH/SS? and how do they get a save from a lance AP2 and S-cannon also AP2? (i just can't figure out what a th/ss is lol) I mean if one can't score unsavable hits with a BL or SC, whats the use of em?

And for the most part I agree with what your saying about having all the team the same weaps. If I did that I would definitely use EML for the combo shot choice. I guess what I really want to do is have the ability to field ONE war walker, or three warwalkers and still not paint a million weapons to swap out all the time. having a little variety. M

[Brother Wolf]

Thunderhammer/Stormshield terminators. Current C: SM affords these bad boys a 3+ Invulnerable save, making them the most durable tarpit in the game. 66% change to save against anything you can dish out.

[Avatar 720]

TH/SS means the ThunderHammer and StormShield Terminators usually employed by the foolish Imperial forces as means of combatting hard targets. Thunderhammers are the in-between weapons of powerfists and chainfists, dealing heavy damage to MCs like powerfists but also causing larger amounts of damage than them to vehicles, but not as much as chainfists. What you really need to worry about, though, are the storm shields, that give them a 3+ invulnerable save. It means you're left facing a squad of 2+/3++ models.

[Imrix]

One thing I find works very well with Eldar is to build an army in chunks. Instead of piecing it together squad-by-squad, work out two or three units that will work together first, and add them to the army as a single addition.

Secondly, a point on Runes of Witnessing; yes, they do make Perils more likely, but bear in mind Farseers have both a Ghosthelm and an invulnerable save, meaning the overall chance of taking a wound is somewhere in the 20% range, assuming you actually roll snake eyes in the first place. Somewhat less than terrifying.

Also, a bit more on Shining Spears.

Shining Spears are, like most Eldar units, a niche choice. Their role of choice can best be described as "big-nasty-thing killer". They can apply a reasonable amount of high-strength power weapon attacks in a very small area. They should primarily be concerned with hunting monstrous creatures and enemy characters- particularly those without Eternal Warrior, if their Exarch has a Star Lance. I have a personal friend whose Shining Spear Exarch has racked up quite the tally of slain characters in this manner.

But more than that, Shining Spears are your premier option for annihilating Monstrous Creatures. An expensive option, to be sure, but certainly effective. They have the mobility to hit the necessary target, and the punch to knock out most monstrous creatures in a single turn, where similar competing options, such as Fire Dragons, can only really have one; a Wave Serpent will give you mobility, but for the cost will drastically limit the number of shots, making a confirmed kill iffy, while a large squad of footsloggers is vulnerable.

While you did mention it, I also feel I must stress the Shining Spears ability to kill tanks. While not necessarily reliable, the fact is they can; effective generalization is rare in this game, among the Eldar especially, and should be applauded where found.

Finally, as an excessively minor point, it should be noted that Shining Spears are easier to provide psychic support for than many competing options, most of whom are shooting units. When assaulting a monstrous creature, the best power to support them with is undoubtedly Doom (since Guide does not work in assault), which, with its much longer range, allows the Shining Spears to roam free across the battlefield, compared to many shooting units which, while not inefficient on their own, must stay very close to a Farseer if they desire effective aid, given that Guide is probably the most efficient option to support them due to the Eldar's prevailing BS of 3.

[warchitect]

Yes, thanks for the blurb on shinnin spears. They are cool. I don't own any, or tanks for that matter.....so my army is getting built peacemeal. Im still buying/aquiring and painting.

In fact my list (full painted, presentation level only) right now is.

Avatar,
dire avengers
howling banshees
warp spiders.
swooping hawks.

im painting my walkers now, so thats why im askin about em. But back to me! :-P

It seems to me that the terminator assault team, while freakishly powerful needs to get in range to even do damage. So if you deep strike the squad of war walkers and get em trapped in close combat, then you would rip a three team apart. but if you had to travel across the table, then the 36" ranges on the weapons, and enough hits with the BL and SC will still take you down before you bring the hammers to bear.

and I appreciate the statistical math. me likes workin the numbers too.

[Xenith]

Even traversing across a 36" table, with run, the termies will get into combat, on average, in turn 4, at which point, with your loadout, youll have killed 4 of them, if you went first. What you have to think about is the landraider that those termies will be in.

EDIT: Added:

Know Your Weapons:
Fusion Gun
Las Blaster
Scatter Laser
Shuriken Catapult/Pistol

Know Your Forces:
Guardian Jetbikes
Howling Banshees

Know Your Strategies:
"Now you see me"
"On second thought, Ill stay in here"
"Psychic Tanks"

[warchitect]

But thats kinda what I'm saying Xenith, With the BL's on board the land raider is still also gonna take punishment instead.

[Avatar 720]

Brightlances that aren't WL mounted aren't the best accuracy-wise. Needing 4s to hit anything, and then a further 5-6 to penetrate, followed by another 5-6 to wreck it/blow it if he hasn't obscured himself using terrain or smoke launchers... It isn't worth the trouble really. Let Fragons or Wraithlords take care of the heavy tanks whilst you use every EML in your arsenal to wreck the littleuns and pin what you can.

[Xenith]

But thats kinda what I'm saying Xenith, With the BL's on board the land raider is still also gonna take punishment instead.

Youre still missing my point, with only two BS3 lances in that unit, nothing much is happening to that land raider. you get 1 hit/turn, which does nothing 50% of the time, as Avatar describes above. Statistically, yes, your warwalker with 2 lances will destroy a land raider if it shoots the raider every turn for 6 turns (but with 1/3 of games ending on turn 5, you arent even guaranteed this) , but a squad of dragons will do it in one.

by swapping the loadout of your warwalkers (2BL, 2SC, 2SL - iirc, comes to ~240pts) for 6SL (~180pts), you save 60pts. find 20pts from somewhere, and you have a squad of fire dragons too. Now you can pop the land raider and mow down the occupants.

The point Im making is, that every eldar unit has a role, and trying to make them be able to do everything will see them doing nothing.

To shamelessly quote myself:

The army must work together as one to achieve their goals. Unlike Space Marines, where every single unit can excel in any situation due to the high versatility and quality of the individual, Eldar are highly specialised; each unit will outperform their enemies in a particular style of warfare, and if caught off guard, the army will survive about as long as a fish out of water (and no, not one of those Stygian land fish).

You can give each walker in a unit different weapons to be able to damage different targets, but remember that when shooting a target, only one in 3 walkers will have the right tools to actually do lasting damage, meaning 2/3 of your unit does nothing. You would not go into a game and do nothing with 2/3 of your units, would you?

[Xenith]

Added:

Know Your Weapons:
Shuriken Cannon
Spinnerette Rifle
Star Cannon
VibroCannon

Know Your Forces:
[I]Fire Dragons
Swooping Hawks[I]

Know Your Strategies:
"Riposte"
"Rubberhawks"
"Seercouncil"

[Karon]

Mhm, very nice.

I agree on the Vibro Cannon, its pretty much useless unless its a glance hit per thing.

[Xenith]

Yea, in 4th they were pretty good, a few pts for a guaranteed glance a turn was ok return, but with TLOS, they can be targetted easier...

[LastOption]

In my opinion, I think you are over-emphasising Fire Dragons and selling Bright Lances a little short in terms of ranged Anti-Tank.

A Bright Lance may only stand a 1 in 6 chance to pentrate heavy armour, but has an equal chance to glance. Against Ordinance tanks, shaking or stunning the crew or blowing out the main cannon is a decent result, and on a transport destroying its running gear makes it ineffectual in its main role.

Fire Dragons may stand a better chance of destroying a vehicle under optimal conditions, but setting up those conditions with 6" range guns is much harder than wheeling a bright lance within a couple of feet of tabletop of the target.

Also, at T3 with a 4+ save, they generally cannot complete the job alone if they get their transport chopped out from underneath them and when I see them used, they usually have a massive bullseye painted on them - particularly if they are the main Anti-Tank threat in the army or they are facing MEQ troops.

Another point in slight favour of Lances is that they are available to units from a variety of force allocation slots, whereas Fire Dragons are only available from Elite force choices. This is significant because it places your dedicated anti-tank troops in the same force category as your dedicated close-combat troops, a choice not forced by most army lists (most have melee troops in Elites or Fast Attack and Anti-Tank in Heavy Support).

I would argue that a mix of Lance weapons and Fire Dragons is a better combination than going all-out for Fire Dragons. With the lances capable of engaging from turn 1, it applies instant pressure on enemy armoured assets and removes the need to rush the deployment of the Fire Dragons to provide any threat. If the only AT threat is the Dragons, the enemy can concentrate on neutralizing them before they get a chance to come into range.

[Avatar 720]

Bearing in mind that 5 Fire Dragons plus a Wave Serpent with EMLs and Spirit stones comes in at 210pts (That's for 5 BS4 meltaguns plus a transport that can't get stunned, counts shots over S8 as S8 when fired at the front or side armours, and shots that hit the front or side armours can only ever get 1 D6 of penetration) and 1 unit guardians with a brightlance comes in at 110pts (that's for 10 BS3 models with worse armour saves, no transport whatsoever and a single brightlance) I would take the dragons every time.

I also doubt the lances are capable of engaging from turn 1 unless they're placed at the fore-front of your deployment zone, having only a 36" range puts them at an immediate disadvantage, as everything with a range of over that can hit you before you hit them. A classic example is a railgun, a submunition shot can strike you from double your range and do horrific amounts of damage, whereas a solid shot will be as effective as a krak missile against a wave serpent, needing 3s to hit and 4s to glance the front or side armours.

The lance has it's place, but so do fire dragons, and currently, fire dragons hold a more valued place than lances, for a lance to be as effective, you need multiple teams, and two lance teams already makes you more expensive than the fire dragon set-up I mentioned earlier, coming in at 220pts for two BS3 platforms that are hitting and glancing most things on 4s.

Doing the maths doesn't help, you have a 50% chance to miss and a 50% chance to do no damage whatsoever, whereas with fire dragons, you have a 44% chance of missing, a 50% chance of doing nothing to AV12 at 12", 66% chance to AV13 and an 82% chance against AV14... but at 6", those chances of doing nothing are dramatically decreased, with only 2 rolls capable of doing nothing to AV12 (snake eyes and 1 + 2), 4 against AV13 (the same as before along with 1 + 3 and 2+2) and only 5 rolls against AV14 (same as before along with 1 + 4 and 2+3).

The benefits of using FDs greatly outweigh the risks, whilst brightlance platofrms have a good chance of doing sod all for the whole game, FDs have a good chance of taking something out.

[LastOption]

I suggest you reread what I wrote - I am not arguing that Lances just need to be waved in the general direction of enemy armour to make it blow up or that they are superior to Fire Dragons overall. I am simply saying from my experience that they do have certain advantages and that a mix of the two will get better results than just maxing out Fire Dragon squads without a second thought.

I would also point out once again that Bright Lances come on a variety of mounts. You said stuff them in Guardian squads, not me - I would rate Guardians as a total waste of time as an AT unit. If I wanted purely Lances and had to buy a unit to hold them, for 210 points, I could take three Vipers. They can certainly engage targets more than 36" away on the first turn and don't need to be left dangling in the open before they are used. However, I could also just consider tacking Bright Lances to the roof of a Wave Serpent I expect to disgorge troops early instead of EMLs - that gives me an extra, ranged anti-tank threat without the need for an entire unit built around the lances.

Your mathematical analysis is skewed, as it entirely omits a band of effectiveness between 13" and 36" where the Bright Lance sits at around 25% chance to do something to exactly 0% for the Fire Dragons. Sure, the Dragons might be a dead cert to smash up a vehicle, but if that vehicle has moved to position and made its big shot or disgorged its troops, that becomes irrelevant. Sometimes, having a chance of throwing a spanner in the works early is better than wrecking the machine once it has finished doing its job.

[godsvendtetta7]

don't forget about warwalkers which can scout then move, and they can have 4 bright lances at less points then both of those squads. i believe that's a 66% chance of immobilizing a landraider or better, not counting glances. don't get me wrong, i field 2-3 of the firedragon combo that avatar pointed out and i think that's 10Xs better (combo this with star engines and 2 autarchs out of reserves and damn!!!!). but don't forget about ALL of the eldar's toys.

[Xenith]

Lastoption: Thanks for the input! Sorry if it seems like Im selling BLances short, but maybe thats just because I havent got around to writing stuff about the most common lance platforms? :P

I do agree that lances have a place in the army, but also that if you really need something killed, you need dragons to do it, as lances just dont cut the mustard. As I think Ive said before, vs av12, the lance is outperformed by the eml, and against av>12, its outperformed by dragons. Yes, I agree that dragons are vulnerable in the run up, but the dragons wave serpent has just as much chance of being blown up as another vehicle lance platform, right?

Originally posted by lastoption:
Your mathematical analysis is skewed, as it entirely omits a band of effectiveness between 13" and 36" where the Bright Lance sits at around 25% chance to do something to exactly 0% for the Fire Dragons.

I would have to disagree with this, as the serpent that the dragons are in extends their range to 18", or 24" sans melta.

Also dont forget that with lances, the opponent has an opportunity to hide from your long range guns. That just doesnt exist with a Fragon assault, as you are the one doing the agressive positioning.

I would also aregue that for 210pts, your unit of vypers is also a waste: youre mouting a gun that is almost the same price as the tank, making al hell of an expensive unit. Although I would like to try it a few times.

I do feel that the best option for long range anti tank is 6xBL warwalkers, but then you need a fardeer to guide them...and even then, a kills isnt guaranteed: 6 guided shots = 4 hits = less than two penetrating hits = less than one wrecked result.

Again, with warwalkers, if scouting, or outflanking, then youre more likely to be hitting side armour, in which case the lance rule is, again, wasted, making EML the superior choice.

Also regarding avatars choice of guardians as a platform: this is something that I wouldnt advocate: As I mention, guardians should not be toting expensive single shot weaponry.

Basically, with the lances, use dragons for what you need to be killed. Use lances on the less important stuff thats av13 (pretty much only preds and heads), or if the opponent is spamming AV14 (guard, raider rush). By al means, make sure that dragons are not your only source of anti tank.

Good Lance platforms are wraithlords and wave serpents.

[LastOption]

I agree with much of what you are saying. It's not that you haven't covered the Lance-toting units, it was this bit from the Bright Lance write-up that prompted me to post. It can infer Dragons over Lances at all costs.

Against AV13/14, you should be using the more effective fire dragons. Against AV12, the lance performs as well as the EML, but for an extortionate amount of points. Id say avoid the lances.

Your opponent can hide from Lances. You can play this to your advantage, and mitigate his tanks impact by making him unwilling to bring them into the open. Because the Dragons have a comparatively short range, if they are your main threat, your enemy can afford to sit his big guns in the wide open for optimum LoS as he knows he has a turn or two before the Dragons arrive.

Also, if you treat the Fire Dragons as having an 18"/24" range, then you equally have to factor in the common Bright Lance platforms also get to move before shooting, putting their range somewhere between 42 and 48".

The unit of Vypers was just to illustrate that Guardians are nowhere near the optimal choice for the points - as I said, "If I wanted purely Lances and had to buy a unit to hold them...". It's unlikely I would buy a unit purely for Lance firepower, I would be more likely to fit one or two in as a secondary weapon. I agree that the Wraithlord is
a good candidate, as he can shoot whilst moving into a threatening position and is fairly sturdy.

[Xenith]

Your opponent can hide from Lances. You can play this to your advantage, and mitigate his tanks impact by making him unwilling to bring them into the open. Because the Dragons have a comparatively short range, if they are your main threat, your enemy can afford to sit his big guns in the wide open for optimum LoS as he knows he has a turn or two before the Dragons arrive.

Good stuff, I like it.

As for the BL section, yea, maybe I went a bit over the top. I think it may be just the size of tables my GW play on, 4'x4', meaning it isnt really hard to send the dragon nuke at a tank. Usually a turn 2 kill.

Expect an edit at some point.