"So tournament coming up. Wasn't going to participate cause I've already gotten really bored of playing marines, but then someone pointed out the small selection of Eldar models in the very bottom of my portable cooler... cough, cough, carrying case. I bought, assembled and painted them over 6-8 months ago and played them for about a month. There after I bubble wrapped them and put them at the bottom of my case, laid under a foam cover. Since then I refused to believe that I had bought them or played them.
Reason why I hate Eldar so much, well... There just not marines. They don't have durability, got past that by making use of there mobility and upping my game play. They don't have duality, made up for it by using a pairing strategy for each units. Most of there units can't deal with tough tanks and/or MC's, used Fire Dragon saturation to make up for that.
I think I managed to get past most of the hurdles dealing with Eldar. Now the problem. Every solution that I took involved spamming one unit or another, making it extremely boring and predictable, and in terms of tactics I have to two for one against most of my opponents units. Meaning I have to dedicate two or more units just to take out high priority or threat target. To be honest, the whole concept of Dire/Dragon/Serpent spam makes my eyes roll, and what makes me sick is that its practically one of the very few competitive builds available to Eldar. Hence I still refuse the fact I own and played an Eldar army. I know I'm going to cave in an join the tournament but I really don't want to play marines and I don't want to buy a new army.
Can I diversify this list? I want to field something other than Fire Dragons for anti-T11+, and please don't suggest EML/BL Wraithlords... There just so horrible. Anything better than Dire Avengers, doubt there is but worth asking... The list I played with is below, though the point totals maybe off by a long way.
Army:
[1] Farseer - Doom, Singing Spear - 83pts
[2] Fire Dragons (6) - Wave Serpents - Shuriken Cannon, Spirit Stones
- - 206pts each
[2] Dire Avengers (9) - Exarch, Dual Catapults, Blade Storm, Wave
Serpents - Shuriken Cannon, Spirit Stones - - 250pts each
Total: 995 pts
- Navitude"
Well the easiest way to fix your problem of duality and using the same units as everyone else is to run Storm Guardians! These guys aren't as bad as made out to be but have the minor issue of being really easy to kill once outside of their Wave Serpent. This should be mitigated somewhat at 1000 points but they just don't like seeing any sort of template with an AP value (that isn't 6). You've already got the Dire Avengers at max points anyway so they were hopping out to shoot, you're just replacing this with Storm Guardians with Fusion guns + Warlcok w/Destructor. This gives you both anti-tank and anti-infantry. You'll keep the Dragons as well but add in the DBF Exarch for the same scenario there.
Running 2x6x Dragons w/Exarch w/DBF in Serpent w/2x Cannons and 2x10x SG w/2x fusion guns w/Warlock w/Destructor, Singing Spear in Serpent w/2x Cannons + Doomseer w/Spear costs 999 points if I can remember my Warlock points correctly so fits nicely. The cannons on the Serpents is a bit disappointing (EMLs would be nice for further duality roles but don't have the points) but you're still generating 24 S6 shots from 4 different targets which is pretty good.
Eldar have issues with the current codex which you outlined pretty well and it's just part of their lot atm. I haven't used my Eldar in yonks and they are sitting in the bottom of my drawers waiting to be re-painted (i.e. next edition) but are a great change of pace from playing MEQ or Tyranids a bunch. Yes they are predictable and their armies aren't exactly varried but they do lend to fun games I find as the opponent has to deal with quite survivable AV12 if they rely on melta of any sort whilst having a lot of mobility and firepower across the board.
Logging you in...
Kuolema · 749 weeks ago
I believe stormies work much better the anti-infantry path with flamers, low BS doesn't matter and you have an answer to units in cover.
neverXmoor · 749 weeks ago
Kirby 118p · 749 weeks ago
tzeentchling 76p · 749 weeks ago
Kirby 118p · 749 weeks ago
Having the SG be capable of popping tanks reliably means the Dragons can be much more aggressive much like they are in a normal 2k list. If they died early or sacced themselves, the rest of the army still has capable anti-tank.
Cyklown 51p · 749 weeks ago
That being said, Kirbs is right about the suicide Stormie flamer squads. They're a bit different, as disposable as fire dragons and can surprise people. Just don't think of them as being a scoring unit. Don't ever give them fusion guns, you pay waaaay too many points for those two fusion guns. Eldar do well by avoiding their weaknesses and focusing on their strengths, not by being so innovative that we walk away from the Codex's strengths. to get the guns on the scoring Waveserpents up to standoff level rather than "get in their face" level would make some sense.
That being said, I'm a big fan of Brightlances and underslung shuriken cannons on Waveserpents. I'm rather vehemently against spiritstones on anything that isn't a Falcon. Granted, at this points level avoiding the oh-so-overpriced BLs and getting EMLs or Scatters is a better deal, but you really want to switch the Spirit Stones out for Shuriken cannons. We thrive on S6 firepower, and you've got the same 1/6 chance of caring about a weapon destroyed as you have of ever using the spiritstones. With an extra gun you're protecting yourself from a bigger deal *and* giving your tank more flexibility/dakka in the meantime.
Other than that... Singing Spears are *bad* unless you're utterly terrified of vehicles. With our bastions of S6 dakka you should only worry about higher AVs/tanks that don't have side and rear armor of weakness, and two squads of Dragons plus a pair of TL EMLs would likely deal with that just fine.
I'd personally try to squeeze a pair of Fireprisms in there, but at 1k points that's probably shoehorning that wouldn't work. Dropping down to 5 Firedragons (less reliability, but still a very nasty unit)
But hey, Eldar are, imo a monobuild, and I'm content with that. If that bugs you I can understand trying to innovate, but innovating with Eldar to me means walking away from our strengths. There are plenty of modern codices that give your options, but we're not one of them. In all honesty we'd damn well better hope that Eldar DON'T get a new codex anytime soon, being the second or third 6ed book to come out would probably be in our best interest.
David · 747 weeks ago
"We thrive on S6 firepower, and you've got the same 1/6 chance of caring about a weapon destroyed as you have of ever using the spiritstones."
And you don't care if you are immobile for a turn?
Spirit stones on everything!
Kirby 118p · 747 weeks ago
One or two tanks can't move? Good, I've got 8 more. Next!
David · 747 weeks ago
I dug a little and found your vehicle upgrade stones/cannon article and you make some good points. It has made me rethink stones as "mandatory" and while I already agree that the chin cannon is a bargain for 10pts I don't see it as an either-or situation.
In the list you suggest upgrading both Dragon squads to have an exarch with flamer and I could still see both these units benefitting from stones.