"Kirby,
Love the blog; long time reader/lurker. Any chance you'll do a little bit more WHFB in the future?
I'm looking to add a very small, very cheap tertiary army to my collection. My local area is overrun by Imperial Space Marines, and as someone who has been involved in the hobby since Rogue Trader, I feel that somebody has to represent the other older armies. No one around here plays Eldar. NO ONE.
I want to build a moderatly inexpensive, but characterful, list of 1,000 points.Here's my idea:
Not until I start playing some WHFB myself I'm afraid. That being said TKE, Chumby and Archnomad all have pretty extensive WHFB experience so punching them in the gut might get something otherwise Archnomads very basic articles he posted here on it are quite good...though basic. There really is a lot of dislike for 8th due to a heavy reliance on magic and some very unusual terrain and mission choices. Add in the lackluster (or so I heard) Orc & Goblin book and 8th really hasn't generated a huge amount of interest. That being said once I get around to playing with my High Elves I will post about them!
To the Eldar...
HQ:
Farseer [ 148 Points ]
w/ Runes of Warding, Witnessing, Spirit Stones
w/ Singing Spear; Doom, Guide
TROOPS:
Dire Avengers (10x) [ 152 Points ]
w/ Exarch, John Woo catapults; Bladestorm
Dire Avengers (10x) [ 152 Points ]
w/ Exarch, John Woo catapults; Bladestorm
TRANSPORTS:
Wave Serpent [ 125 Points ]
w/ TL Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon
Wave Serpent [ 125 Points ]
w/ TL Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon
FAST:
Vyper [ 80 Points ]
w/ Star Cannon, Shuriken Cannon
HEAVY:
Dark Reapers (5x) [ 217 Points ]
w/ Exarch, Eldar Missile Launcher; Fast Shot
Farseer is fine. Wave Serpents are fine. Let's discuss the issues with the Reapers and then Avengers. Reapers scythe down MEQs like no tomorrow. When they're in the open and not in a tank. Cover and tanks just make Reaper units, particularly decked out units, really inefficient. If you had a bunch of tanks where you could tank shock people into the open or a power like lash...ya maybe. As it is though this unit isn't that hard to kill and only does significant damage on units in the open.
The Avengers are like Fire Warriors. They jump out. Dakka something and then generally die. If you wanted to take larger squads than just the bare minimum DAVU take 10 and leave it at that. For 120 points 20 S4 shots is a nice way to clear units off objectives or simply finish units off but 152 is pretty steep and there are better places to spend your points. If you were honestly looking for a unit as a finishing crew I'd rather go with Storm Guardians as you can get some decent anti-infantry and anti-tank in that unit for roughly the same cost due to the Warlock and special weapons.
Oh and starcannons are a no go in the newest Eldar book and so is one Vyper. If you want Vypers get multiples (i.e. 4). They aren't Marine Speeders where you can drop and pop but rather torrenting units which put out a bunch of S6.
My thinking here is simple, but I hope, effective. The Dark Reapers get into a good firing perch and do their thing. The Farseer joins one of the two Dire Avengers squads, who both rush to a flank; the Vyper hangs out between or behind the Wave Serpents for cover. I'm no Sun Tzu, but this seems tactically sound.
The Dark Reapers offer eight BS4/S5/AP3 and two BS5/S8/AP3 shots each turn. That's my main source of "counter battery" fire for Longfangs, Devastators, and should do well against small Assault Squads. In a pinch, they can hope to glance-lock a transport or pin infantry hordes.
The Wave Serpents and Vyper bring eight twin-linked BS3/S6/AP6, nine BS3/S6/AP5 shots, and two BS3/S6/AP2 shots. Most of which should be on a Doomed target. This is my primary firepower, hopefully cracking open transports and thinning down infantry before I deploy my Dire Avengers.
My main concern is that, apart from the non-scoring Dark Reapers, I am commiting everything to the forward push... with no units to hold objectives on my side of the table.
--
- Ian (aka "Ajax")"
With Eldar you don't need to worry about a back or mid-field. You move 24" so the whole board is your oyster unless your tanks get shot down en masse. If that happens, well you're screwed anyways. The biggest issue this list has IMO is no true anti-tank. Reapers aren't reliably even with the 2 BS5 missile shots and S6 gets you so far. I'd look at dropping the Reapers for a Dragon+Serpent combination and perhaps changing the Avengers to Storm Guardians. Any left-over points and simply spam double cannon Vypers (or laser+cannon) to saturate the field with a bunch of tanks, mobility and S6 firepower. This is what should be scaring the MSU ranged units like Fanngs/Devs/etc anyway. They don't like lots of wounds and masses of S6 firepower can cause that.
Logging you in...
soylent · 731 weeks ago
as for orcs and goblins, its only the orc parts that are lackluster. goblins are great fun. they play sort of like skaven but with faster units (wolf/spider riders) and can still get some deadly stuff (fanatics, mangler squigs, a billion spear chukkas)
soylent · 731 weeks ago
Thatguyoverthere · 731 weeks ago
For 1000 points with most of the models listed above:
Farseer w/ doom, both sets of runes and doom
5 Fire Dragons
Wave Serpent w/ TL SCan, SCan and stones
5 Dire Avengers
Wave Serpent w/ TL SCan, SCan
5 Dire Avengers
Wave Serpent w/ TL SCan, SCan
Vyper w/ SCan, SCan
Vyper w/ SCan, SCan
4 Dark Reapers
1 Exarch w/ EML, Crack Shot, Fast Shot
What this gives you is 1) an opportunity to kill AV14, 2) a nasty long range unit that will put Long Fangs/Lootas back in their place, 3) 30 str 6/ ap 5 shots at 24" 4) some psyker defense in the farseer and 5) some min scorers for objective grabs.
Thatguyoverthere · 731 weeks ago
I know this probably isn't as cheap as you were looking for what with 3 wave serpents and 2 vypers... Look on Ebay, there are a lot of good deals up.
Ajax · 731 weeks ago
P.S. Kirby: Any chance you could edit the original post to remove my last name from the email? Thanks in advance.
Kirby 118p · 731 weeks ago
I certainly can understand the whole dislike for what are essentially scoring Serpents but unfortunately it is one of the most efficient ways to run Eldar as they currently stand. That being said, Storm Guardians are workable if you really want a squad which can get out and do something but you need to know when to get them out (because if you get them out too aggressively, they die) and when to keep them inside. I've quite often used them at the 1750 point level as I end up wiht 60-70 points spare. Enough to upgrade some of my DAVUs but not enough to net me new units.
The Lieutenant · 731 weeks ago
Also, Kirby, 8th ed fantasy does tend to come down to whoever manages to snipe the opponents Lv4 will, if not insta-win, definitely have a far better chance.
High Elves are awesome however. A combination of excellent magic and (for my money) one of the best CC units in the game, White Lions. They have such a high attack to kill ratio it's unreal. Against anything T4 WS4 or lower, which is much of the game. I'm talking 15 attacks, maybe 12 dead models.