Eldar Analysis: Aspect Warriors, the good & bad

  

Well this thread was given to me a while ago from Warseer (they do provide me with a lot of content! & thanks Thud for the PM about it). Whilst I won’t go on a rage or rant onto how bad some of their logic is, I’m going to do a typical Kirby analysis of the units they are touting as good. Specifically today we are going to look at all the Aspects (because this post by Tokugawa100 seems to understand none of them; quick summary Hawks > Dragons for anti-tank? What next? Fuegan!?) and Seer Councils.

We’ll start with Councils. Here’s pretty much the only way to run a Council list these days (obviously there are variations, the important bit is double Fortune & Dragons). You need double Fortune because of all the anti-psy out there. You need bikes because -/4++ is crap. What, Null Zone? Psycannons (who will make more of an appearance soon)? Runic Staffs? No these things don’t bother me. Yes, yes they do. This means squads like this from Perfect...

“Yriel
Eldrad
8 x Warlocks (Embolden, Enhance, 4 x Destructor, 2 x Spears on Destructor & Enhance 'Locks)
Wave Serpent (SS and Shuricannons)”

...are simply bad. Any torrent unit has a better chance of killing you than before because you’re sitting on a 4+ and no longer a 3+. That’s just silly. Add in the fact you can’t assault out of your Serpent and you suffer the same problems Scorpions/Banshees do (which will be covered later). And you’re spending how many points on this unit? Again, Bikes are the only viable way to take Councils these days and they are significantly less capable than they were even a year ago thanks to the increase in “we don’t like your psychic powers.” A pure mech list is regularly better but when you do take a Council, GIVE THEM BIKES.

So onto the Aspects. Every. Single. One. Let’s start off with this for all you fluffy bunnies. Eldar were my first major army thanks to their Aspects (Biel-Tann) like Warp Spiders and Striking Scorpions. I pant for the day I can use them again but as they stand now, most aspects plain suck. Whilst specialisation is the name of the game for Eldar, some of their specialists are just terrible at what they do. Whilst you generally get duality from your Mech aspect of Eldar, if they are carrying specialists about those specialists need to be really bloody good. Like Fire Dragons. In fact, let’s start with them. P.S. GW give Warp Spiders a new model and awesome PL.

Elites

In Elites in terms of Aspect Warriors we have Striking Scorpions, Howling Banshees and Fire Dragons. Whilst there are also Harlequins and Wraithguard they will only be touched on in relation to FoC choices. It becomes pretty simple in this case really.

Let’s see what Tokugawa100 has to say first on Fire Dragons...

“Excellent at taking out those annoying tanks, but for gods sake keep them porotected or in a tank of their own. I have found in my experience that Fire Dragons get picked off the fastest by the enemy so you want them to last.


Get them close and unleash hell."

Well that’s pretty much correct, let’s look at them in detail. Each Dragon contains a meltagun, BS4 and melta-bombs for a measly 16pts. Buy me a baker’s dozen thanks. These guys are the ultimate in anti-tank but require a transport. Taking these guys without a transport is just...well odd. Because of their high threat value they will be targeted early and often and if their transport makes it to their target, they are unlikely to survive the next turn unless the enemy is in a significantly weakened state or has other threats to deal with. This means it’s best to make Dragon transports as minimally threatening as possible w/o compromising their effectiveness and your enemy can generally predict what your Dragons are going to do. Unfortunately for Eldar, Fire Dragons are their only real answer to heavy mech. Whilst they can get excellent weight of fire and ping to death w/S6, they lack cheap anti-tank guns outside of Fire Dragons and it’s this that makes Dragons so invaluable, particularly in the Eldar army book.

Howling Banshees are next. Whilst there is a “raging debate” on most internet forums over the effectiveness of both Banshees and Scorpions, I’m here to tell you they both suck and we’ll start with overall reasons why. Banshees and Scorpions are both assault units that require some sort of outside assistance to be considered “good.” Whether it’s Fortune or Doom, without it they just don’t stand up to anything remotely decent in combat. Even with these support powers, any dedicated assault unit or army will laugh at them, take their loses and move on. Besides needing support, both units need a Transport (please footslog them, please). This is also the problem for a foot council. No Eldar transports have assault ramps and only have a rear hatch. This means you have to plan your assaults a turn beforehand through positioning of your Transport or hop out a turn early. This is either predictable (but can be used for threatening purposes) or opens your assault troops to a vicious volley of death, neither of which are good for you. The predictability allows your opponent to block your exit, focus fire on the transport (which can be good for the Eldar) or simply move away, a combination of all of the above being most likely and because the units don’t have much staying power (unless Fortuned but no invul) and need support as it is to damage in combat, they certainly don’t like opening themselves to a round of shooting.

Now that’s out of the way, here’s what Tokugawa100 has to say on Banshees...

“Excellent against troops with low leadership and low toughness, you want to kill as many as possible because the counter attack is going to hurt.”

Um...so basically shooting their primary targets works? Low ld and low T guys aren’t hard to get rid of, why are you taking a specialist assault unit for them? Onto the specifics. Banshees strike first which is nice but w/o re-rolls to hit or Doom for re-rolls to wound, they never do enough damage. Add in their defences are terrible and die in droves unless Fortuned and what are they really there for? They give you some combat ability against MEQs but you don’t really need it. Eldar armies have enough firepower to force 3+ saves to fail or in a pinch have Dragons running around.

Tokugawa100’s take on Scorpions...

“The beefier alternative to the Howling Banshees, these are best used against heavy armoured troops such as Space Marines and Necrons.


There infiltration also makes them exceedingly fun.”

Well fun is good, shame we are talking about competitiveness here. Infilrtating them when they don’t have fleet or a 12” assault move is a bad idea since they get left out to dry. No comment on either of these units in comparison to Dragons or how they need support from a Seer. We’re going to say he understands Dragons > Scoprions/Banshees! So, consider Scorpions like an Assault Squad but w/higher I and more A and less movement and less T. The lack of T is bad because they are more easily torrented down and they can’t pack enough specials to scare other decent combat units. Sure they low save models but can’t the Eldar do that anyway with shooting? Yes. Remember ASM are bad except in BA lists where they are Troops and can get FC/FNP. Furthermore, Scorpions and Banshees take up a slot for Fire Dragons. Remembering that without Fire Dragons Eldar have a really hard time against Mech, particularly higher AV and spam. Sacrificing this important anti-tank for mediocre assault units which suffer from 5th edition transport rules w/only one hatch? No.

Troops

We’ve only got one Aspect in Troops, Dire Avengers. So uh...they are great? Tokugawa100 thinks so...

“Ive found Dire Avengers to be an excellent compliment to a Guardian heavy army, they give a little more Oomph in the armies fire power.


All round good troop choice but not as the only troops choice, they are excellent with horde armies with low saves.”

What oomph? I’m going to assume you mean excellent against horde armies with low saves rather than with...irregardless, no. Horde armies chomp them up after they fire. And a Guardian heavy army...well ya they have more firepower than them I guess. Dire Avengers unfortunately suffer from 5th edition. As above, they don’t work well on Foot and since they score, jumping out of a Transport to shoot with them isn’t the best idea (leave that to a squad which can at least take special weapons). Most of their upgrades via Exarch are useless (sacrificing a turn of shooting is great when there are none left or when you’re about to die or in a last ditch attempt, etc. For 150+ pts...these problems are solved by staying in your tank) so it really becomes a MSU and an upgrade to make Serpents scoring. Yes, yes fluff bunnies cry out in pain at this but tough. It’s the way Eldar run atm. Their only other viable Troops are Storm Guardians in Serpents w/double flamer or fusion as last ditch attempts or Guardian Jetbikes supported by a Seer who don’t have a huge points cost to make Fortune not going off “the end of ze world.”

Fast Attack

I love all of these Aspects. Hawks for their old Web of Skulls (can you imagine Web of Skulls w/Doom!?!?!). Warp Spiders because warping...is awesome and Shining Spears because who doesn’t like jousting? Particularly in the 41st millennium. Each of these units though has a significant drawback and are simply not worth their points in their current iteration. There’s minimal competition in FA though (only Vypers) so if they were good...well they could be taken. Let that underline how inefficient or bad these units are. No competition provided by each other and they still aren’t even an option. Let’s look at what Tokugawa100 thinks first on Hawks, it’s stupefying...

“I must say, these guys are the kings of Anti Armour, I take these over Fire Dragons any day. The ability to pop up on the table with haywire grenades means doom for the enemy vehicles and their ability to get around quick is invaluable.”

You know glancing got nerfed right? And that meltaguns w/AP1 are better than a grenade that auto-pens on a 6. Right? Do I have to run the math? Ok good. Hawks are expensive jump infantry w/a 4+ save, a gun that is geared at taking out...nothing, a yo-yo ability that costs over 100pts for a S4 5” blast, and some mediocre anti-tank ability. Why on earth would you ever, ever take these guys? They were good in 4th as objective takers and anti-tank because glancing could do something. As they stand they get shot up by heavy bolters because they are allergic to hard cover.

To the Warp Spiders! Enter Tokugawa100’s comment...

“My favorite Aspect warrior, the Warp Spiders are fabulous, they are manouverable and their short range attacks are a nightmare for armour saves. Best used against low armoured troops.”

Again, Eldar have troubles with low armoured troops how? Warp Spiders would be much better if they had some sort of AP to make them decent against armour but Eldar live on S6 anyways from their tanks. Add in the shortrange and unreliability of their second jump and they are prime targets for assault. When hiding was a lot easier in previous editions they were somewhat more viable but currently they do nothing the rest of the Eldar army can’t do and are extremely vulnerable to assault. New mould too please GW!

And Shining Spears...how I want them to work! Tokugawa100 has this to say...

“I find these work well in a Saim Hann themed army where everything is fast and mobile, try to keep them protected and safe.


They pack quite a punch and withdraw is invaluable.”

Eldar are a fast and mobile army. If you have to “protect” something, it’s generally not a good investment. Unfortunately Spears are the epitome of glass cannon. Only being effective on the charge, expensive, Marine stat-line w/o invul just makes them a one hit wonder if they can hit combat. The lack of good assault support units (outside of Harlequins) doesn’t even make these guys viable as a hammer unit with little paper weights holding everything down around you.

Heavy Support

Finally the Dark Reapers. In a cover happy edition of 40k, these guys lose out. Let’s see what Tokugawa100 says...

“These guys are excellent , expensive and few in number but excellent. Just sit back at the very edge of the table or in some cover and just open fire on whatever you can reach.


With their excellent range and devestating fire power you will usually have a couple of choices.”

Another 4th edition comment or wishful thinking. Remember these guys also compete with Falcons & Fire Prisms which should be taking up all 3 of your HS slots. These guys will indeed massacre anything in the open but @ S5, cry against Mech. How common is mech these days? Add in cover for when they do versus against foot lists and they are nowhere near their points cost just as Starcannons didn’t deserve the massive point increase and nerf they got for their latest codex.

In summary we have 2 aspects which are worth taking. Dire Avengers for their cheap scoring ability inside vehicles and Fire Dragons for their ability to provide anti-heavy mech for Eldar. I’ll state this again, Eldar are not an assault based army, even with a Council on bikes. Their one-hatch non-assault ramp transports are anti-thesis to a mobile assault army and without that mobility or firepower, Eldar can’t deal with mech. As it is, Eldar mech has slipped down the ladder in terms of ‘power’ because of everyone else catching up. Whilst Eldar are still a viable army, they suffer from a bit of uni-dimensionality based around their Fire Dragons.

It astounds me that threads like this still pop up all the time. I’m not sure if Elfzilla (or Wraithzilla) is still touted about as viable on Warseer, I recall at one time Avatar led Guardians were the “thing” but really, in a competitive environment the Eldar has a very small pool of items from which to choose and I agree with Thud here, if someone wants advice on Eldar and this is the type of stuff they get? Well, it makes me sad.