"Hi Kirby,
First of all I must say I'm a big fan of 3++, it's a nice change to see some intelligent discussion on 40k instead of the usual mindless forum dribble.
I'm taking Mechdar to a tournament in mid-April so if you can get back to me before then it would be great. I'm happy with the core of my list (at 1850) but I'd like some advice on the finishing touches to take it up to 2000.
This is my 1850 list:
Eldrad (210)
2x 8x Fire Dragons inc Exarch with DBF and Crack Shot in Wave Serpent with TL shuricannon, shuricannon, stones (2x 265)
3x 5x Dire Avengers in Wave Serpent with TL bright lance, shuricannon (3x 205)
5x Dire Avengers (60)
Falcon with pulse laser, scatter laser, shuricannon, holo-fields, spirit stones (185)
2x Fire Prism with shuricannon (2x 125)
Fairly conventional except that I favour big Dragon squads as I find them better at threatening/killing MCs and deathstars than min-size squads. The TL heavy flamer has been useful on occasions too.
To scale this list up to 2000 I've considered either swapping one big Dragon squad for two min-size squads, or swapping both big Dragon squads for three min-size squads plus an Autarch. Either way I end up with 16 melta across three or four units respectively. The key difference is that the former option lets me keep a TL heavy flamer for clearing stealth campers off objectives while the latter option lets me reliably alpha strike from reserve. Which option would you recommend?
PS: a third option I'm considering is downgrading Eldrad to a regular Doom/Guide Farseer which allows me to keep one big Dragon squad and include an Autarch. Do you think the loss of Divination and double Fortune on zooming Dragon Serpents is worth it?
PPS: before you recommend including Storm Guardians and Vypers - yes I have read your Mechdar 2000 list ;) - I don't have the models nor will I be able to acquire/assemble/paint them in time.
Thanks for your time,
Charlie"
Thanks Charlie and it's good to see a good list with some good upgrade options. I honestly like all three options and would preferrably try to keep Eldrad, add in a cheap Autarch and go down to the 3x smaller Dragon squads whilst maintaining dragon breath flamers for utility. From memory you should be able to do this with at least two of the Dragon squads, particularly if you don't take Stones on the Dragon Serpents. If you do however, not sure you can fit them in. Otherwise you could drop Eldrad down to a normal Farseer and pump up the Fire Dragon numbers. Personally, I'd stick with Eldrad as being able to double cast Fortune + Doom or the other powers whilst also being able to poke things in combat is nice to have. The Autarch can really help with the Eldar playstyle in making the list very hard to kill though as usual, you'll have trouble killing them, too.
Overall though as long as you end up with three Dragon squads, the list you've got is about as good as Eldar get.
