40k Throwback: Eldar Army Lists Part 2: The Evolved Jetbike List

A While back I made this post about the evolution of my Eldar Jetbike army as it's moved through the codex. Or at least in this case, the Eldar jetbike list I ran from the 4th Edition codex and how it would have looked from the 3rd Edition book. This time I bring you my 6th Edition Eldar Codex Jetbike Army List.

Consider this post an appetizer, An Eldar Aspect Warrior review Podcast is in the works and will be up sometime this week.

Gearing up for Eldar Part 3

Eldar pre-orders are live and I'm holding the June White Dwarf. I've spent the last few hours reading it from cover to cover trying to take as much from the information inside as possible. Based solely on this White Dwarf I was able to confirm and speculate a few things that I hadn't seen elsewhere. Most of it from reviewing the mini page inserts with a magnifying glass. Also, a few of the rumors I had previously reported may not be as truthful as previously thought, such is the fate of rumors I suppose. I left my salt at home when I read them. As with my usual format facts will remain in normal text, rumors and speculation will be red.

Tau Project Log: Part 1 Planning Phase

The Tau are an army I've always wanted to run since I began playing Warhammer 40k in 2003. As a big time Mecha Anime fan, the army has a solid appeal to me. Something about Giant Robots battling for justice just draws me in. Now I know the rumor mills are abuzz with a Tau Codex on the horizon, but I just couldn't help myself and bought the current Tau Codex.

With Codex in hand I quickly began to digest how the army works and what elements I'd like to bring forth. Ultimately this army is for the fun of it and it's been some years since I've been able to put a competitive army on the table so winning games is secondary to having a blast playing them. So with that in mind I decided to focus on Battlesuits. Again, my draw to Tau has always been my interest in Mecha anime, Battletech, Heavy Gear, etc. and so I've always found Battlesuits to be the most interesting part of the Tau army for me.

So piecing together my list with my penchant for Tau Battlesuits I decided to take two Crisis Suit Squads and two Broadside Squads. I have a strong interest in Stealth Suits as well, but I wanted to maximize the bigger suits first.

The second thing I wanted to bring about is the use of markerlights. I like the system and think it has more merit than a Farseer using Doom and Guide. Well, Guide. Markerlights I think bring about the same impact as Doom, but in a different way. The benefit of Doom is that any unit targeting an enemy unit under its effect can take advantage of the re-roll. Markerlights have that same advantage.

Wanting to take the upmost advantage of markerlights I decided to not only including them in several places throughout my army, but also took two pathfinder teams. In casual games I've seen Pathfinder teams dropped within Pulse carbine range and subsequently get smashed by enemy units. My plan involves keeping them at the fringes of Markerlight range to support my Firewarriors and Battlesuits. The Devilfish will also be useful in that I can use them to reroll scatter when my Crisis Suits Deepstrike onto the table. I've also included a few Rail Rifles in each squad to help with the final element of my army. Delaying Tactics.

At the end of the day I've created a gun-line list and the key to any gun-line list is getting to shoot the enemy. Therefore I've made sure that I can accomplish this as much as possible. To delay the assault I have two major elements working for me. The first is pinning tests: I've attempted to capitalize on weaponry that forces my opponent to make pinning tests. This combined with target priority and selection should help keep the enemy at bay, at least a little bit. The second element comes in the form of my Crisis Suits which should drop onto the table and give my opponent something to think about.

At any rate, these are my ideas for now. Are there any veteran Tau players have any insight on how I can improve on my proposed tactics? I'd much appreciate the input.

40k Throwback: Eldar Army Lists Part 1: Jetbikes

As I may have mentioned before I began playing Eldar in third edition. At the time my friends and I decided to get into this 40k game some people were playing and we each chose an army to get into. This was a regular habit for us, we get into a new game, it stays interesting for a little bit, then we moved on to something else leaving the old game in the dust. Knowing that was our habit and with the price of 40k models, I didn't really feel too interested in this game. It was expensive and I wasn't really interested in committing the money to something we'd be giving up in a month or two. To top it off one of my friends had already chosen the army that appealed to me the most, the Tau. (I was a big Gundam fan, but more on that later). My other friend started an Ork army and so I was left to choose my army. Most of the armies of the Imperium didn't appeal to me. I've never been a fan of the gothic style and cybernetic implant craziness that 3rd edition artwork threw at us. I also wasn't too much a fan of the Eldar as I was erroneously under the impression that they were a bunch of coneheads, like the Saturday Night Live skit/movie. Fortunately, my friend playing Orks, who was familiar with the game since 2nd edition, convinced me to try them out. I relented,  picking up a Falcon as my first model because if anything I could have this really cool tank on my shelves when this game didn't pan out. Now here we are nearly ten years later and I'm the only one of my friends that plays. In addition I've stayed with the Eldar, who after I learned about, I became totally enamored. As a big time D&D/Pathfinder player (D&D 3.0 at the time) I'm known for playing Elves who are generally roguish or wizardly. After learning more about Eldar I was sold on the notion that I could continue that same sort of style IN SPACE!

Smart Phones, Apps, and Aspect Warriors

Ghostwind Corsairs coming at you with my first smart phone post. If you have been checking the new twitter feed you'll already be aware that I finally made my way into the 21st century and got a smart phone. Nothing special just seeing how this blogger app works and typing with Swype, which takes far too much effort. It is however the subject of apps that brings this post to you today.

How 6th Edition Changed My Army

It has been awhile. With a severe lack of games I basically hung up the keys to the Wave Serpent and settled in with some other hobbies. Lack of games of course meant a lack of content and thus I had no reason to update.... until now! BAM! Look at it! It's a book with pictures and words and because of it I can continue updating this blog.

So what can I talk about? Well, you can go plenty of other places to get the skinny on how the rules have changed. Get the book, play some games! This is going to be an interesting edition for everyone! What I would like to talk about first are my thoughts on how this book will change the way I play the game. Let's breakdown the changes to each unit:

Guardian Jetbike Squads
This edition has made the Eldar jetbike a big deal. It is much faster, one of the fastest units in the game. With the ability to move 12", shoot, then move an additional 2d6" in the assault phase. This gives the squad a potential 24" move per turn, with an average of 19" Turbo-boost is where it's at though. The Eldar jetbikes can now move an additional 36" in the shooting phase for a total move of 48". Positioning will never be a problem, ever. The bikes got more durable too. The jink special rule granting them a 5+ cover save just for moving, which becomes 4+ if they move flat out. This on top of the 3+ armor save and jetbikes will be even more of  a pain to kill. It gets better though. There is no more 3(4) for toughness. The bike just flat out improves toughness by 1. This means little for the Guardians, but when the Farseer comes into play it's pretty awesome. Shooting for the jetbikes has gotten more deadly. Overwatch will give them an added volley of fire before being assaulted, but more importantly the Hull Point rules make shuriken cannons to the rear armor a lethal treat and far more reliable. Finally, in assault the jetbikes have Hammer of Wrath giving them an extra volley of attacks on the charge. Sure it's still Guardians, but it certainly helps. In all I see a lot of little tweaks to the rules that add up to a big power boost to these units. Biker armies are looking to be the big thing this edition and it's nice that I am already ahead of the curve.

Vyper Squadrons
The humble Vyper sees some improvements this edition as well. Though hull points will have a devastating effects on vehicles this edition, the Vyper has never been a vehicle known for durability. It got slightly vaster with an 18" flat-out move on top of it's normal 12" move. Though my Vypers sport brightlances the new shooting rules give you the opportunity to dakka them up with two shuriken cannons and fire both like the Dark Eldar Venoms do with their splinter cannons. This is something I'll likely explore as my lists evolve. Jink is also a boon shared by the Vyper which in some ways will assist the durability issue. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the Vyper is capable of.

Fire Prisms
My usual list runs two and I don't think the Fire Prism has lost much effectiveness. It's got 3 hull points, but no longer suffers the ill effects on a glancing hit as before. This has an additional side effect in that I no longer see the value of holo-fields. It's not that the holo-field isn't effective anymore, it is. The issue is with it's points cost. It's less needed when hull points are on the line and I can save up the points from two holo-fields to add another Vyper, or Warlock and goodies to the list. Spirit Stones on the other hand have become more useful in that a shaken vehicle may still fire snap-shots. This does nothing to help the prism cannon, but at least the shaken lets me still fire the catapults, or even better a shuriken cannon. Added in the ability jink and you've got a solid tank. I see linking shots as a less useful proposition as you can just as easily take down vehicles with volume fire as a single well placed shot.

Nightspinner
Always a favorite of mine, the Nightspinner is looking to shine this edition. It has a very similar set up to the Fire Prism. I see it shining in this edition simply because of an increased use of infantry, or at least what I expect to see an increase in the use of infantry. The lack of an ability to assault from most transports will hopefully see players compensate by bringing larger squads on foot. This will no doubt make them easy prey for the Nightspinner.

Seer Council
Benefiting from everything this edition gave to the Jetbike Guardian the Seer Council stands to gain the most from these improvements. The Witchblade is disappointing as the weapon is no longer Str 9 vs vehicles, however it is still just as potent against models with a toughness value. The Singing Spear however is under no such restriction though I don't see myself changing the number of spears I bring to the field. The changes to psychic powers I find most interesting. I enjoy the restrictions placed on the psychic hood, but am less exciting out any unit being able to stop psychic powers, fortunately only one of my powers targets enemy units. The new disciplines are very interesting and very appealing however I can discount the effect that fortune has in boosting this unit and as such will stick with my Eldar powers. I do look forward to writing up some other lists that take advantage of the new powers. The Telepathy discipline is greatly appealing. In all, this unit got much more dangerous and I greatly look forward to using it on the field of battle.

In all my list seems quite effective in this edition. Army wide use of the jink rule, extra speed, and an increase in the effectiveness of my firepower should give me quite the edge. I really look forward to seeing how my games will play out

Vlog #2: The Tournament Army

So here's my second vlog. In this video I show off my 1500pt Eldar army that I plan to take to tournaments. You get a good shot of how I paint up my units. As I state in the video I am still trying to come up with an idea on how to designate my two jetbike squads and I also need to decide what to do with the Dark Eldar jetbikes that I am using. I am open to feedback and strongly encourage everyone to comment below.

The Big Game

Between elaborate 6th edition hoaxes(?) and painting I have also found time to put together a list for the Big Game. I will be up at BC Comix in Fenton Michigan with over 10,000pts of Eldar. The list is essentially everything I own loaded up with all the goodies. The only problem is that I lack any super-heavy support or titans. Since I am bringing the rest of the Craftworld though it should be interesting. The list comes in four waves.

Imperial Armour 11: Part 2 New Eldar Units

With the Corsair List out of the way, let us take a look at the new Craftworld Eldar units. Overall I think Forgeworld did an amazing job here, both in rules and model design. They most certainly put some credence back in, "Their arrogance is only match by their firepower." With the things as they are I was starting to think the Eldar were not very arrogant at all. The major drawback is finding people that will let you use Imperial Armour though and tournaments that allow it are equally rare. That being said, how about we dive right in:

Imperial Armour 11: Doom of Mymeara has arrived! Part the First: Eldar Corsair's Army List

It finally arrived! I am pretty stoked. Overall it is a pretty nice book as all Imperial Armour books tend to be. Lots of detail, lengthy bits of fluff, and amazing artwork. So much is in this book that I thought I would break the review down into multiple pieces. Part 1 will deal with the Corsairs army list.

The list is pretty interesting. You have a number of options for play style, but I feel like all of them lend to a quick in and out raid style of play. As a whole the army draws significantly from the Craftworld Codex, but a few wargear options and entries use the Dark Eldar Codex. In addition there are a number of selections of their own. My only issue with the list is a number of errors in the writing which makes it unclear as to how things truly operate. I'll highlight those as I review each entry.

The Project Continues...

So here's the preliminary layout of my project. That is half my table, with my small collection of unfinished terrain pieces. I've kind of evolved it into a battle board type project similar to those brought to Adepticon. Got an 1850pt Army there, more posts on the army itself later. For now let's focus on the visual elements. The vast majority of the models don't even have a basecoat, which is disappointing, but I think I've chosen some of the more exciting models to paint so assuming I finish it, the board should look pretty awesome. Let's get into some close-ups.

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.

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.