Often times the Eldar army is referred to as a toolbox. By that it is meant that, if there is a problem in the 40k universe, the Eldar have the solution. Enemy Space Marines brought a pesky Land Raider? Try some Fire Dragons. Need that objective, send in the Guardian Jetbikes. No hoard can withstand a Dire Avenger Bladestorm followed by a Striking Scorpion assault. Why then is the Eldar codex not number one? Well, like everything about this army, it takes finesse to balance everything. The points are just too high to take every awesome unit. This is why you do not see any army lists that have Wraithguard as troops, Aspect Warriors in wave serpents, and the list led by a Farseer and Warlocks on jetbikes. The point costs for all of that would have you playing Apocalypse where you have that and your opponent is rocking multiple Baneblades. How do you balance it all? A good place to start would be to build your army in the shadow of a particular Craftworld.
Read the fluff. The Eldar Craftworlds are not just a color scheme, but a style of play. Each Craftworld has its own war doctrine. Each Craftworld has a specialty: Saim-hann has jetbikes, Ulthwe has powerful psykers, and Alaitoc is ranger heavy. Not only does each have a specialty, but they make a concession in order to fit in the type of units they specialize in. Let us look at Ulthwe again. Craftworld Ulthwe is famous for two things, its Warlocks and Farseers, and also it’s Black Guardians. Why Guardians and not Dire Avengers? The answer to that question comes down to points, at least when the transition to the table top is made. Compare a Dire Avenger to a Guardian, by all accounts you have a superior unit and as such you pay extra points for it. Now consider that you get three Guardians for every two Dire Avengers and things begin to come clearer. The Dire Avenger is still the better unit and worth the points, however when you need to put models on the table while conserving points for better units, the Guardian becomes a better buy. Ulthwe has “Black Guardians” so that their military high command can bring as many Warlocks as possible. Here is a list made using the ascribed method.
- In Wave Serpent (w/Spirit Stones, Star Engines, and TL-Eldar Missile Launcher
- Eldrad
- Farseer w/Runes of Witnessing, Spirit Stones, Doom, Mind War, Eldtrich Storm, Singing Spear
- Warlocks x10 w/Enhance, Embolden, Destructor x8, Singing Spear x4
- In Wave Serpent (w/Spirit Stones, Star Engines, and TL-Brightlance
- Guardians x10 w/Scatter Laser
- Warlock w/Singing Spear, Destructor
- In Wave Serpent (w/Spirit Stones, Star Engines, and TL-Scatter Laser)
- Storm Guardians x10 w/Fusion Gun x2
- Warlock w/Enhance
- In Wave Serpent (w/Spirit Stones, Star Engines, and TL-Brightlance
- Guardians x10 w/Scatter Laser
- Warlock w/Singing Spear, Destructor
- In Wave Serpent (w/Spirit Stones, Star Engines, and TL-Scatter Laser)
- Storm Guardians x10 w/Fusion Gun x2
- Warlock w/Enhance
What sucks about Guardians is BS3, if real black guardians still existed they would actually be a valid choice.
ReplyDeleteI mean apart from the absolute joke that a BS lower than 4 is on Eldar, a highly advanced, and nimble race, it truly is one of the major issues with our codex.
Also shouldn't the fusion gun storm guard with warlock have a spear on the warlock? 3 points for an extra vehicle popping shot.
Also why Eldrad and the Farseer?
Remember though, that the Guardians are citizen soldiers of the Craftworld. Both Tau and Imp. Guard have BS 3 and they are trained soldiers.
ReplyDeleteThe idea with the list is to have each unit have both anti-tank and anti-infantry capability, so the spear with the Guardians instead of the Storm Guardians is to give those units anti-tank. The Warlock keeps his witchblade also, because he will have an extra Enhanced attack each round. Ulthwe is a Craftworld renown for having powerful psykers so this list is really about putting Farseers and Warlocks on the table. Outside of theme, there are a few good reasons for this. First, spam. With Runic Staffs and Psychic Hoods it's nice to get your powers off, since you're dropping five a turn your bound to succeed. Secondly, makes for a sweet Deathstar unit. Eldrad Fortunes, The Other Farseer Dooms, Eldrad may then doom another enemy unit, or guide this unit. In the shooting phase left over powers can be used to pick troublesome models out of the enemy unit with mind war. Next the spears volley destructors destruct, follow that up by a charge from a unit with WS5/6 and 31 wounding on a 2+ attacks. The power weapon attacks from Eldrad adds a nice bonus, but in the end you've got a pretty tough unit there. Wave Serpent should get them close to the action and by using cover, fortune, and their 4+ invuln saves you'll have a unit that is there to stay.
I tend to prefer jetseer councils although obviously they don't gel with eldrad.
ReplyDeleteAlso BS3 just doesn't gel with eldar at all, they are meant to be far more agile and skilled than any human, and their technology puts everyone in the dust. BS4 on everything that is currently BS3 and we would suddenly see the codex being far less out of date than it currently is. This is just a design gripe I have had for a long while with this codex.
BS3 means every single unit in our codex with it that shoots is overpriced. Particularly all the special weapons.
Also the reason I question the guardian loadouts is because they aren't exactly good at anything except the flamer/destructor combo, and trying to use them as a unit that can do both anti infantry and anti tank just means they do both, badly.
I do understand the fluff behind the list, but all your eggs are in your council, on the bright side two farseers one being eldrad means the chance of keeping fortune up is extremely good.
The downside is that your killing power is relatively contained within your council. They also lose fleet thanks to Eldrad which is kind of sad since they are on foot :(
Any reason you don't run two councils.
While I feel the list has merit, you do have some good points. However, it was not my intention to produce a tournament winning list here, but instead to simply highlight that a good way to start building your army list is to look to a Craftworld as a style of play. The list above has a number of options, foremost being that the number of guardians can almost be doubled by dropping the wave serpents. It could also handle running two 5 man warlock squads one led by Elrad and the other the Farseer. I also consider a Farseer on a jetbike better in most cases than Eldrad himself and I haven't toyed with the points, but it'd probably be comparable to run a jetbike council as opposed to the above council in a Wave Serpent. The true trade-off here is balancing toys vs. boots on the field and that was the point of the article.
ReplyDelete