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Hey dakka I"d like to incorporate some wl's into my eldar list. I will probably be doing a mechy list with serpents and maybe a falcon or prism, Supported by two wraithlords. Any suggestions on what load outs will give me the most bang for my buck? Or is this a bad idea.

Its a meh idea. Wraithlods fit best in foot list if used at all.

If you want to use them, a BL/EML combo gives you a decent number of shots.

The problem is 1/6 of the turns they can't do anything without a babysitting warlock.

Combined with mech wraithlord do not fit. I could only see myself using them in a foot list/ foot list with mech supporting elements. The reason being is this, they are slow, toughness 8 dont matter much vs lascannons, railguns, any type of poison (see dark eldar) and basically anything with a str of 8 and ap 3 or better.

They are very resilient and when used right a total nightmare for the enemy, but they do not fit in a mech list.

In a foot list however, Wraithlords are a must! They are exceptionally tough to kill, and very versatile. They pop tanks at range, tie up infantry in assault, pop tanks in assault, pester marines at range, flame hordes, and are very cost effective. I always run 3.

It takes finesse to really play WL effectively...

They're not seen competively much anymore since the mass poison weapons available to armies like DE or 'nids.

However, since they're NOT played that often... some armies aren't equiped to handle 3 WL on the tables being that they're T8 models. Throw in that Avatar and now you've got 4 MCs on table krumping the oppositions.

They are good, I usually run them with an EML and a scatter laser.

The problem is that if you play against dark eldar its an auto loss. Also anything really good in close combat will eat wraithlords, and any good IG list will also instant kill them.

There are a few armies that cant handle toughness 8.

One of the biggest problems is that they are very slow. The rest of your army is very mobile, but wraithlords just derp around. They are a decent shooting platorm , a decent assult unit, but they arnt more than decent.

Wraithlords are quite fluffy in an Iyanden army list based on Wraithguard as troops. Here Wraithlords (equipped with brightlance and eml) can give fire support and add some punch in a melee.

Tpiddy wrote:Hey dakka I"d like to incorporate some wl's into my eldar list. I will probably be doing a mechy list with serpents and maybe a falcon or prism, Supported by two wraithlords. Any suggestions on what load outs will give me the most bang for my buck? Or is this a bad idea.

Its not great. Wraith lords are slow and their lack of an invulnerable save means theyre not that hard to take out. I think you should concentrate on your strengths as an eldar player. Mobility, good transports, specialized troops.

In smaller games or foot lists they work, but never in mech. A single wraithlord is just cannon fodder for every lascannon, lance, missile, autocannon and railgun on the table. Triple wraiths at least cause a separation of fire.

Dr. Serling wrote:In smaller games or foot lists they work, but never in mech. A single wraithlord is just cannon fodder for every lascannon, lance, missile, autocannon and railgun on the table. Triple wraiths at least cause a separation of fire.

This seems to be the consensus, and forgive me I haven't played Eldar since I did so vicariuosly a handful of times with a bud of mines right after the current Dex came out but, can't Mech provide cover for the WLs? And wouldn't this some what mititgate their lack of invulnerable save? Furthermore, don't they share weapon clasification with Mech, effectively saturating the High Strength Low AP market?

Anyway, just my thoughts. Although their overall uses are certainly different, I seldom run a C'Tan without a Lith to block his LOS till he can be deadly. Certainly WLs can be deadly from turn one, but is it hard to run a serpent in front of them to double the amount of Missles/Las/lance and plas shots he can take before going down? (and maybe a warlocked unit behind the serpent as well to baby sit him?

With a few units of wraithguard nearby they are 100% effective. Being toughness 8 means that they cannot be hurt by str 4 weapons, meaning only anti-tank will be able to hurt them in theory.

In a non-mech eldar force they are amazing, in a transport spam list they are a pretty model.

I actually like wraitlord. Not as a shooting plaform, of course, as there are options which are both better and cheaper for shooting elsewhere in the codex.

What wraith units in general, but specifically wraithlord gives you something that the rest of the codex lacks - bullying power. Everything else you field is going to be super fragile and as such will be able to be responded to easily. Wraithlord, however, are practically always wounded on 5's and 6's (and are flat-out immune to small arms fire and chainswords), which means that you can just shove them up into your opponent's face, and once he gets into close combat, nothing but power fists are even capable of hurting him.

Like ogryn for a guard army, all you need to do is to be able to supress their hard counter (like longfangs) with the rest of your army, and you're going to be presenting a pretty serious diresworded threat to your opponent around turn 3.

Think of wraith units as the linebackers of the eldar codex. They're not there for the up-front damage or turn-over-turn speed. They're there to be the brick wall that your opponent gets charged into while all the rest of your stuff does its fancy work.

Wraithlords+Fun=YES
Wraithlords+Competitive=NO

i would say Wraithlords are competitive if you don't fight Orks
or Dark Eldar

Hey guys thanks for all the feedback! I haven't bought much of the army I'm planning on building, so I'm still super flexible. I think I may head in the footdar direction. ( I only play with a handful of friends in a non-competitive environment.) I love the fluff and the models surrounding a footdar army. Wraithlords + Avatar sounds like a whole lot of fun and the units provide some cool modelling opportunities.
I think i like the idea of the BL/EML loadout.

If you buy 2-3 and park them in cover they might last a good while - it really takes AT weapons to take them out, and in a mech list it'll spread the AT shooting around. With three wounds and cover they might well prove more survivable than another vehicle, don't lose weapons until they drop dead (unlike a tank), and they have the range to not need much movement with good positioning. You have a fairly durable backfield AT unit that draws fire off your transports.

That said, it's a pretty expensive way to get a two-shot weapon platform, DE will kill them fast, and they don't have the speed to get side or rear shots like the heavy skimmers. Plus they basically NEED cover.

Proxy them out and see if they work the way you want - I see a role for them, but there's a reason they are not all over the tournament scene.

I agree with most of the posts here. I would not use them in a mech list. I would take a falcon for that with a farseer and guide at least. I hope that in the next codex they get an invuln save or be immune to poison (which I think would be fair - I mean what the hell poisons wraith bone?). I started with Eldar back in RT and when war walkers and WL came out, that was the biggest thing we had, no transports for us. But now is mech heavy competitive games, it is hard. that being said, I have played some casual games with people with a foot mech list and done fairly well with them, just try to keep them in cover if possible. I usually use BL and EML. If I wan them to help my Avatar then usually Wraith Sword and Scatterlaser, but don't rely on them doing much in CC with only 2 attacks..... Now if you play IA stuff the Wraithseer is a real asset to WL and Wraithguard and with psychic powers designed to help Wraith, basically giving reanimation to Wraith, I think they are much more powerful.. just my opinion.