Playing Like Your Craftworld

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

How does this relate to the “toolbox”? Well, the Eldar Codex contains several units that fill each role in the 41st millennium. Some of these units are better at these jobs than others, but you can cut on one type of role to bolster another. In the list above each unit has a means of dealing with troops and vehicles. The Guardians in Wave Serpents can use their transports gun or the Warlocks singing spear to handle oncoming vehicles, while the Guardians use their shuriken catapults and scatter laser platform to handle footsloggers in range. The Wave Serpent ensuring that they do indeed get into range. The Storm Guardians on the other hand can thin hordes with their transports gun, dispatch tanks with the fusion guns and Warlock’s witchblade, and by way of Enhance can handle themselves decently in an assault. The “Seer Council” has mobility thanks to their Wave Serpent, and by the power of Witchblades, Singing Spears, and Psychic Powers handle just about any threat in the universe. This unit could be built thanks to points saved by choosing Guardians. There were even enough points left to put the whole army in Wave Serpents. As it is an Eldar force, finesse and clever tactics are required to win the day, but the list itself covers all the bases and if it is played right, will be a force to reckon with.

Army List Breakdown #1: War Walkers

The War Walker Squadron is one of my favorite parts about my new style of list. (See last post) They're like a sneaky left hook. Their biggest feature: A cheap unit with lots of Dakka. With other expensive choices in the Heavy Support slot it is nice to see that I can have 18 Str 6 Ap 5 shots for slightly more than the cost of a baseline Fire Prism. I've used them in my last five games now, lost a total of 9 War Walkers in all, and wrecked a fair amount of face. Some career Highlights:

Game #1 vs. Blood Angels - Outflanked behind an outflanking Baal Predator and immobilized it with shots to the rear. Tied up Assault Marines in close combat for two turns before succumbing to Power Fists.

Game #2 vs. Tyranids - Outflanked onto the table and mopped up some Winged Warriors and Gaunts, tied up warriors in close combat until turn 6 where they met their end.

Game #3 vs. Orks - Came onto the board normally and removed a 7 man squad of Ork Lootas, then survived a 30-man Ork mob assault and slowly but surely picked it apart in the remaining rounds of combat. Lost two walkers to power klaws

Game #4 vs. Daemons - Less than spectacular, Outflanked on the wrong side of the table and fired pot shots at plague bearers

Game #5 vs. Daemonhunters - Outflanked onto the table, obliterated an Inquisitor's retinue, cleaned up a massed squad of guardsmen in close combat. After losing one to a Vindicare Assassin, they continued to pour shuriken into the woods holding a heavy weapons crew.

That is a nice resume considering what my Falcons normally do. Mosts games my Falcons fly around all shaken and stuff.

Now before I said that they were like a sneaky left hook, I mean more than that then they outflank onto the table and destroy stuff. There's a meta-game psychology attached to them. They are unassuming Armor 10 vehicles with the cheapest guns Eldar money can buy. Less intimidating, than say, A fire prism or Wraithlord. In fact, my Harlequin get the most attention in my previously described list. This leaves the War Walkers plenty of time to move into position.

You might be asking, "Isn't the Scatter Laser a better option? It has better range and 1 more shot. Why not take 6 of those instead of Shuriken Cannons?" For me the answer was related to saving points, but really I feel it's a matter of opinion. Scatter Lasers cost three times more than Shuriken Cannons, multiply that 6 times and the cheapness of the unit goes out the window. The differences between AP 5 and AP 6 may be unworthy of mention, but consider how many more units you can flat out kill with an AP 5 weapon over an AP 6. Who has armor 6? Orks, Kroot?. Who has armor 5? Some Eldar, most Imperial Guard, several sub-species of Nid, and some Tau. Weapons are progressively more awesome the better an AP they have.

Let's get back to tactics with these guys. Ideally suited for hoard armies, you can use them a little differently and still get the same bang for your buck. The Str 6 shot is good enough for all but the thickest tank armor and you can use these guys to pop transports like Rhinos and Chimeras. Or get at the rear of most other thanks and pummel them with shots as I did against that Baal Predator (He thought he'd be fast like Eldar! Showed you buddy!) You'll wound the inhabitants of said Transports on a 2+ more often than not, so even if they have 3+ armor saves, you're still likely to down a few. The biggest hindrance to this firepower is the BS 3 these Walkers shoot at. Why the Eldar don't have a Path of the Vehicle Operations Specialist is beyond me! Counter this drawback with Guide and you essentially have 6 twin-linked shuriken cannons! Relatively slow compared to other vehicles and namely other Eldar vehicles, War Walkers can take some effort to get them into position. Outflanking is really a good option. You'll get to where you want to be 2/3 of the time. Generally when it comes to outflanking players will not consider outflankers or at least not deem them a big enough threat. If they are concerned they will keep their forces centralized. Find out which type of player you're facing and use it to your advantage. More often than not your opponent could care less that three goofy looking Eldar Walkers can coming in from the side of the table, if so, walk on and go to work. If they are concerned they will condense their forces in the center of the table. Use this to your advantage and let other units like swooping hawks have some fun dropping grenades on the clustered infantry or multi-assaulting some tanks with haywire grenades. May be a far fetched plan, but not impossible. As I said earlier, the War Walker Squadron is generally unassuming. In a sense it doesn't draw Aggro as much as other units. That reason alone is what makes it good.

My Eldar Army

Was planning on making this post a battle report, but I've hit a bit of a dry spell with my 40k games. At any rate I'd like to drop the army list I've been running these days to give you an idea of the type of Eldar I play. Later I'll talk about how I use it. Here's 1000pts worth. I have been using it since a team tourney I played in, a couple of weeks back and wrecked enough face to really consider it as a viable play style.

HQ
Autarch w/Swooping Hawk Wings, Mandiblasters, Power Weapon, and Avenger Shuriken Catapult

Elite
Harlequin Troupe w/4x Harlequin Kiss, 2x Fusion Pistol, Troupe Master w/Power Weapon, Shadowseer, Deathjester

Troops
Guardian Jetbike Squadron x8 w/2x Shuriken Cannons
Rangers x5 w/Pathfinder upgrade

Fast Attack
Swooping Hawks x6 w/Exarch carrying Sunrifle and Skyleap/Intercept

Heavy Support
War Walker Squadron x3 w/Shuriken Cannons x6

If you've played me before you may be wondering where my Farseer and Falcons are. The lack of a Farseer was an unwilling sacrifice to save on points and I would like to have Eldrad or a Jetbike Farseer in the list if possible. As far as the Falcons go, I've stopped using them for awhile. Probably won't see them until the 5th Edition Eldar codex comes out where I'm hoping Falcons are cheaper and (fingers crossed) dedicated transports for aspect warriors.