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Eldar tactica updated on p. 318.

That moment when the Good and Mild section almost equal the amount of Bad changes and the Ugly section is yet to come up

Gaunts to tarpit will probably be my number one choice these days..

So what do you guys think of my Eldar tactica so far? Any changes you'd like to see. Any disagreements on rankings so far? Are you finding it helpful or at least informative? Do you have any questions? Feel free to let me know.

I may be able to finish Part I tonight. I only have 1 more section to go. Part I is more of a general overview of the changes in the new Eldar codex. To know how to play against the new Eldar, you must understand (or at least be aware of) the changes in the army. Part II will be where I really get into the meat of Tactics for Tyranids against the new Eldar. Stay tuned!

 Frozocrone wrote:
That moment when the Good and Mild section almost equal the amount of Bad changes and the Ugly section is yet to come up

Gaunts to tarpit will probably be my number one choice these days..

Yeah, the new Eldar codex is so good. I've never seen a codex where almost every single unit in the book got better. I'd estimate that about 70% of the codex got better and the rest stayed at least the same as before. NONE of the units got worse. Wait, no...only ONE of the units in the new codex got worst (I'd give you a hint, it was the unit that was complained about the most in the last Eldar codex).

I don't think tarpitting is a good solution. The new Eldar are so dang fast that they can easily get out of the way of any of our tarpit units....and then shoot the crap out of them while doing so.

Tactica looks good. Eldar is nuts. This Codex is what would happen if every fluff-bunny dreamer on the Proposed Rules forum had their wildest suggestions come true. Every unit viable and strong. If only it weren't for the poor external balance of this Codex when compared to the game as whole.

What are you predictions for top-level Eldar lists? And the Tyranid lists that can beat it?

rollawaythestone wrote:
Tactica looks good. Eldar is nuts. This Codex is what would happen if every fluff-bunny dreamer on the Proposed Rules forum had their wildest suggestions come true. Every unit viable and strong. If only it weren't for the poor external balance of this Codex when compared to the game as whole.

What are you predictions for top-level Eldar lists? And the Tyranid lists that can beat it?

Lol! Nice comparison to the Proposed Rules forum. That's a good one.

I'll jump ahead a little, as your questions will be covered in Part II of my tactica. Believe it or not, I don't think the best Eldar lists will be spam-lists. The only unit that will be spammed are the windrider jetbikes. The Eldar codex just has sooo many good units that you miss out if you spam the units. Rather, the strongest Eldar army will incorporate a combination of the following - CAD Eldar, Crimson Death formation, the Aspect Host formation, wraithknight and perhaps the Seer Council for deathstar builds. Most of these units I haven't covered yet, but I will in the Ugly section of Part I of my tactica.

As for Tyranid lists, lists similar to #Lictorshame may do well against the new Eldar. Flyrant-spam, cheap MSU Tyranid units and a plethora of 2+ cover units can potentially give the new Eldar problems. However, TMC-spam (other than FMC Tyranids) and slow Tyranid builds will die a thousand deaths against the new Eldar. You NEED mobility in order to play against them.



Eldar Tactica Part I completed (on p. 318).

I'm not seeing the internal balance in the Eldar codex. For instance, Scatbikes put out 1.4 times as much damage as War Walkers and are faster, and objective secured. I'm not entirely sure why War Walkers would be taken. Wraith Guard are scary because of the D. But the Wraith Knight is a better platform for it, and the most undercosted unit in the game (argument for buffmander)

Jetbikes set a new benchmark for Strength 6 shooting. There is nothing in the game that can compete on a point for point basis.

So I'm thinking most eldar list start like this:
Wraith Knight
36 Scat Bikes.
....

I would look at the Crimson Hunter formation, or some farseers to fill it out, but just like us, most people will argue about the last 150 points.

I don't think there will be much diversity in highly competitive Eldar lists, because just like last codex, they have an undercosted platform that is an answer to basically everything the game can throw at them. Sure any other codex would love to take most of the Eldar units because they are universally good and undercosted, but the Wraith Knight and Jetbikes are on a whole other level.

If Wraith Guard are taken expect them to be with an allied web way portal, but because the Eldar codex offers a points efficiency that the Dark Eldar Codex doesn't match, I expect this to be not as good.

I kinda think any predictions of how they will perform are premature. Because I expect some sort of community sanctions to be enacted that fix ranged D (-1 on the table), and Scatbikes (only 1 in 3 bikes). If those changes are enacted we might indeed seem some amount of list diversity coming out of Eldar. You know the sort of nerfs that will make Eldar the best codex, not the only codex.

Hey I had an idea while building me some Termagants for my army.

Has anyone done 5x Fleshborers and 5x Devourers? 60pts for 20 S4 shots seems like a pretty good trade off, if fragile.

Or would it be better to get more bodies in there (I do want to drop pod 20 DevilGants at some point in my gaming life, sheer volume of dice should demoralize any opponent).


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I've also not had a chance to have a good look through the Eldar Codex but I think our Psychic Powers are now going to be pretty good against them. Paroxysm in particular to mitigate the Wraithknights Shooting (I don't think he's a Psyker so 6's to deny)

tag8833 wrote:
I'm not seeing the internal balance in the Eldar codex. For instance, Scatbikes put out 1.4 times as much damage as War Walkers and are faster, and objective secured. I'm not entirely sure why War Walkers would be taken. Wraith Guard are scary because of the D. But the Wraith Knight is a better platform for it, and the most undercosted unit in the game (argument for buffmander)

Jetbikes set a new benchmark for Strength 6 shooting. There is nothing in the game that can compete on a point for point basis.

So I'm thinking most eldar list start like this:
Wraith Knight
36 Scat Bikes.
....

I would look at the Crimson Hunter formation, or some farseers to fill it out, but just like us, most people will argue about the last 150 points.

I don't think there will be much diversity in highly competitive Eldar lists, because just like last codex, they have an undercosted platform that is an answer to basically everything the game can throw at them. Sure any other codex would love to take most of the Eldar units because they are universally good and undercosted, but the Wraith Knight and Jetbikes are on a whole other level.

If Wraith Guard are taken expect them to be with an allied web way portal, but because the Eldar codex offers a points efficiency that the Dark Eldar Codex doesn't match, I expect this to be not as good.

I kinda think any predictions of how they will perform are premature. Because I expect some sort of community sanctions to be enacted that fix ranged D (-1 on the table), and Scatbikes (only 1 in 3 bikes). If those changes are enacted we might indeed seem some amount of list diversity coming out of Eldar. You know the sort of nerfs that will make Eldar the best codex, not the only codex.

If you only look at the codex mainly in terms of jetbikes and wraithknights, then you are truly missing out on how good the other units are as well. A true TAC Eldar list is more than just bikes and giant monsters, because taking mainly just those units will leave the army vulnerable to certain builds. Honestly, I don't see good TAC Eldar lists ever taking more than 30 scatbikes (6x5 bikes) plus 1 WK. As a matter of fact, I predict that many competitive Eldar builds will still run MSU and only up to 18 bikes (6x3). Consider the following:

Flyrant-spam - despite the volume-of-fire, scatbikes just isn't efficient against flyrant-spam. A unit of 10 bikes will only do 1W (or 2W if Prescienced). Meanwhile, a flyrant will kill 3 bikers a turn. Flyrants will win this war of attrition, especially if you run 4-5 of them. The best tool for the job would be the Crimson Death formation or even Dark Reapers.

Centurionstar - without Invisibility, 10 bikers will do 3 wounds a turn. With Invisibility, they will only do .74W a turn (or 2W for every 30 bikers). The centstar, on the other hand, will wipe out 1 unit a turn and potentially more (with splitfire). Against the centstar, the Hemlock Fighter, Vaul's Support Battery w/D-cannons or D-scythe Wraithguards work much more efficiently against them (assuming the ITC rules-change to Invisibility).

Necron Decurion - something like the Reclamation Legion, 2x20 Flayed Ones and the Destroyer Cult. It takes 20 bikers just to wipe out 1 unit of 3 Destroyers. But honestly, it will be more than that because destroyers will get the beta-strike against the bikers when they deepstrike in. Thus, they will force them to jink, making it much, much harder to shoot done Necrons with snapfire. Against crons, destroyer units like the WK, Vaul's Support Batteries, D-scythe wraithguards and even the Hemlock Wraithfighter works best.

Heavy Armor-spam (i.e. massed Leman Russes AM) - Scatbikes won't do anything to them, but units like fire dragons, Dual-brightlance war walkers, Destroyer units, the Crimson Death and other such units will shine.

Now I'm not saying biker-spam Eldar isn't effective. It is against the majority of the armies out there. However, taking too many bikers actually unbalances the army and does make the army into more of a rock-paper-scissors matchup than a more TAC Eldar list.

In terms of pure offensive output, scatbikes do out-perform Scatter walkers. However, there are reasons to take War Walkers in an Eldar army:

1. As specialized Weapons platforms. Give them 2x Brightlance each and they become great AT units. Give them 2x Starcannons and they become a very dangerous source of AP2 shooting, especially against MC's and other elite units. Give them 2x EML and they become an AA unit that also have the versatility to hurt MC's, tanks and horde armies.

2. Their ability to Outflank via Scout gives them a guaranteed alpha-strike to non-Intercept armies. It also gives the army better control of the Movement phase.

3. Armor makes them much more resilient to small-arms fire. They become more resilient towards these armies/units (i.e. blob squad AM, Necron warriors, bolter-fire, etc.).

Finally, as good as the WK is, he is still vulnerable to some units (i.e. grav centurions, faster MC's, certain deathstar units). Wraithguards are potential counters to some of these deathstars, especially if you can dangle a good bait for them (here's looking at you, WK ).




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Frozocrone wrote:
Hey I had an idea while building me some Termagants for my army.

Has anyone done 5x Fleshborers and 5x Devourers? 60pts for 20 S4 shots seems like a pretty good trade off, if fragile.

Or would it be better to get more bodies in there (I do want to drop pod 20 DevilGants at some point in my gaming life, sheer volume of dice should demoralize any opponent).


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I've also not had a chance to have a good look through the Eldar Codex but I think our Psychic Powers are now going to be pretty good against them. Paroxysm in particular to mitigate the Wraithknights Shooting (I don't think he's a Psyker so 6's to deny)

I prefer to mix devourers with borers on bigger units. 5-gants is just too small a cushion for those devourers. An opponent can wipe out both in just 1 turn of shooting. However, put 10 devourers into a unit of 30 termagants and then you are more likely to see a return-on-investment. I prefer to keep the min-sized gant squads as purely sacrificial, screening, throwaway units and instead, put the guns onto beefier units. That's just my preference.

Devilgants in a spore is a decent option. It's quite expensive, but it can put the hurt on certain units at least.

Tyranid psychic powers are decent, no matter what army you go up against. Paroxysm is always a good choice, though instead of putting it on the WK, I recommend you cast it on a large biker squad instead. Their damage output on average is much higher than that of the WK.

I think you vastly overestimate 5 flyrants vs Jetbikes (44.44 if we are comparing points). If the jetbikes get 1st turn, 2 flyrants are dying on the ground in 2+ cover. On 2nd turn they can kill 1 in the air statistically. On points Jetbikes come out better shooting at Flyrants in 2+ cover then the flyrants do shooting back. Once they are airborne the balance shifts, but not that much. Plus, Imagine people run Jetbikes like we run Devourer Gants. Put a few cheap ones out front as ablative wounds.

To discuss them as a hard counter is vastly overestimating their survivability, and underestimate the volume of fire.

Give them support in the form of farseers or the Crimson hunter formation (as I suggested), and now we are talking about an army that is a hard counter to 5 flyrants in a progressive objectives game, and a good counter in Eternal War.

The same is true for Centstar. It is usually 3 Cents and some ICs. 3 Wounds is 1/3 of your firepower down.

Decurion, specifically Destroyers are a pretty decent counter. We will give it a try locally at some point. Jetbikes vs Decurion Destroyers. My money is on the Destroyers killing more stuff and losing the game because jetbikes will just outscore them, or possibly tarpit them on top of objectives with objective secured.

In such a matchup - Eldar bikes vs flyrants - the army that goes first will always have the advantage. 44 bikers going first might kill 2 flyrants, but 5 flyrants going first will also kill 15 bikers. Moreover, they will be in the air and thus harder for the bikers to deal with. However, watch what happens if you don't take flyrants (or if you take fewer flyrants). Now you've lost (or nerfed) your ability to alpha-strike the bikers and now, they can just take their time to shoot your army to pieces and from a safe distance. While flyrant-spam isn't the only weapon we have against Eldar, unfortunately, it is one of our best weapons against them. The ability to hit the space elves hard the first time around is what will give our bugs a chance against them. With flyrant-spam, our chances of winning such an encounter is about a coin-flip. Without them, the odds of us beating THE BEST ARMY CURRENTLY goes down dramatically.

As for the centstar, well, let's just say I am confident my centstar list can handle the new space elves. But this thread isn't about marines so I won't elaborate on that here.

 Frozocrone wrote:
Hey I had an idea while building me some Termagants for my army.

Has anyone done 5x Fleshborers and 5x Devourers? 60pts for 20 S4 shots seems like a pretty good trade off, if fragile.

Or would it be better to get more bodies in there (I do want to drop pod 20 DevilGants at some point in my gaming life, sheer volume of dice should demoralize any opponent).

I've tried a couple of similar things as part of the Endless Swarm formation:

12x Termas with 8 Devourers
15x Termas with 10 Devourers

Both have worked pretty amazingly - they're the best part of the formation for sure. You can stick more devs in a unit because you don't mind too much if it dies, and it can pop out of Trygon holes to do some pretty nice damage. I guess if I was not running with respawning gaunts a lower ratio of devs:fleshborers would be the way forward though.

 jy2 wrote:
In such a matchup - Eldar bikes vs flyrants - the army that goes first will always have the advantage. 44 bikers going first might kill 2 flyrants, but 5 flyrants going first will also kill 15 bikers. Moreover, they will be in the air and thus harder for the bikers to deal with. However, watch what happens if you don't take flyrants (or if you take fewer flyrants). Now you've lost (or nerfed) your ability to alpha-strike the bikers and now, they can just take their time to shoot your army to pieces and from a safe distance. While flyrant-spam isn't the only weapon we have against Eldar, unfortunately, it is one of our best weapons against them. The ability to hit the space elves hard the first time around is what will give our bugs a chance against them. With flyrant-spam, our chances of winning such an encounter is about a coin-flip. Without them, the odds of us beating THE BEST ARMY CURRENTLY goes down dramatically.

As for the centstar, well, let's just say I am confident my centstar list can handle the new space elves. But this thread isn't about marines so I won't elaborate on that here.

Its like what I posted in my Daemon thread... whoever alpha strike first has the biggest advantage. Bringing a Aegis w com relay might be a good idea.

Because the new Eldar codex is so bonkers, I was theory crafting an update for my Eldar Ally. I've long considered Eldar to replace my Barbed Heirodule, because they can do the same things without putting all my Eggs in one basked that can get D'ed or Gravved.

Reviewing the new codex the answer seems that the Crimson Death formation makes an ideal ally for a Tyranid Flying Circus. They do everything that Flyarnts (or Crones and Harpies for that matter) struggle to do, and are vulnerable to the same things as flyrants, so it seems like a match made in heaven. It also frees up 125 points for more scoring units. Also because of vector dancer, and their excellent mobility avoiding one-eye-open tests is easy. The only problem is getting a reserve modifier in the list.

You could have a CAD instead and have the Flyers alongside Jetbikes and an Autarch on Bike (for reserves). Could even have one Hemlock for easy D-weapons on Super-Heavy's and Gargantuans. Maybe a Farseer too for additional Warp Charges.

Not that I condone it but it's there

tag8833 wrote:
Because the new Eldar codex is so bonkers, I was theory crafting an update for my Eldar Ally. I've long considered Eldar to replace my Barbed Heirodule, because they can do the same things without putting all my Eggs in one basked that can get D'ed or Gravved.

Reviewing the new codex the answer seems that the Crimson Death formation makes an ideal ally for a Tyranid Flying Circus. They do everything that Flyarnts (or Crones and Harpies for that matter) struggle to do, and are vulnerable to the same things as flyrants, so it seems like a match made in heaven. It also frees up 125 points for more scoring units. Also because of vector dancer, and their excellent mobility avoiding one-eye-open tests is easy. The only problem is getting a reserve modifier in the list.

The problem is that most tournaments nowadays do not allow for CtA allies. So in casual games, ok. But for competitive play, that is a no-no.

Also, another problem with TFC + Crimson Death is that you will struggle in Maelstrom missions (or Secondaries). Every air force armies still need a decent ground presence. With so many flyers, that would be hard to achieve.

While I don't like the idea of bugs teaming up with Eldar, if I were to do it, I'd go with a Farseer Skyrunner, 5 scatbikes and a wraithknight. Go for Telepathy for the Farseer for Invisiblity and/or Shrouding + Shriek + possibly Prescience. That is a strong basis for a ground force. It's main weakness? Grav-centurions, but otherwise, I think it's a good combo.

 SonsofVulkan wrote:

 jy2 wrote:
In such a matchup - Eldar bikes vs flyrants - the army that goes first will always have the advantage. 44 bikers going first might kill 2 flyrants, but 5 flyrants going first will also kill 15 bikers. Moreover, they will be in the air and thus harder for the bikers to deal with. However, watch what happens if you don't take flyrants (or if you take fewer flyrants). Now you've lost (or nerfed) your ability to alpha-strike the bikers and now, they can just take their time to shoot your army to pieces and from a safe distance. While flyrant-spam isn't the only weapon we have against Eldar, unfortunately, it is one of our best weapons against them. The ability to hit the space elves hard the first time around is what will give our bugs a chance against them. With flyrant-spam, our chances of winning such an encounter is about a coin-flip. Without them, the odds of us beating THE BEST ARMY CURRENTLY goes down dramatically.

As for the centstar, well, let's just say I am confident my centstar list can handle the new space elves. But this thread isn't about marines so I won't elaborate on that here.

Its like what I posted in my Daemon thread... whoever alpha strike first has the biggest advantage. Bringing a Aegis w com relay might be a good idea.

Wow. I didn't know Daemons have the ability to alpha-strike. I guess in the case of Daemons, they want to go first to get off their Psychic defenses and get into Swooping mode before the opponent has a chance to alpha-strike them while they are vulnerable.

 jy2 wrote:
The problem is that most tournaments nowadays do not allow for CtA allies. So in casual games, ok. But for competitive play, that is a no-no.

Every time I've been asked I've voted against CTA. Every tournament I've ever been to save the one's I've helped run had CTA. While regionally, it may be taboo, I think CTA is more common than a lack of it.

Hey guys... really struggling with taking my 1500 Lictorshame list to 1850... can I get some advice please.

How important is a 3rd Mawloc to the list?
How good would a 4th Flyrant be over the other stuff in the list?

Here are the 2 list I'm debating on.... (3 sources allowed)

3 Mawloc List
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Mucolid
Mucolid
Mucolid
Malanthrope
Spore Cluster
Spore Cluster
Spore Cluster
Mawloc
Mawloc
Mawloc

Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Mucolid
Ripper + Deep Strike

Deathleaper Assassin's Brood Formation (Deathleaper + 5x Lictors)


Quad Flyrant List
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Mucolid
Mucolid
Mucolid
Lictor
Lictor
Malanthrope
Mawloc
Mawloc

Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Lictor
Lictor
Lictor
Mucolid
Mucolid

Sporefield Formation (3x Mucolids + 3x Spores)

 syypher wrote:
Hey guys... really struggling with taking my 1500 Lictorshame list to 1850... can I get some advice please.

How important is a 3rd Mawloc to the list?
How good would a 4th Flyrant be over the other stuff in the list?

Here are the 2 list I'm debating on.... (3 sources allowed)

3 Mawloc List
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Mucolid
Mucolid
Mucolid
Malanthrope
Spore Cluster
Spore Cluster
Spore Cluster
Mawloc
Mawloc
Mawloc

Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Mucolid
Ripper + Deep Strike

Deathleaper Assassin's Brood Formation (Deathleaper + 5x Lictors)


Quad Flyrant List
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Mucolid
Mucolid
Mucolid
Lictor
Lictor
Malanthrope
Mawloc
Mawloc

Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Lictor
Lictor
Lictor
Mucolid
Mucolid

Sporefield Formation (3x Mucolids + 3x Spores)

I prefer the Quad-flyrant list. However, instead of the Sporemine Field, consider taking a bastion with Comms. I think that would benefit your list much more overall.

tag8833 wrote:

 jy2 wrote:
The problem is that most tournaments nowadays do not allow for CtA allies. So in casual games, ok. But for competitive play, that is a no-no.

Every time I've been asked I've voted against CTA. Every tournament I've ever been to save the one's I've helped run had CTA. While regionally, it may be taboo, I think CTA is more common than a lack of it.

Smaller tourneys are likely to do whatever the local meta wants, but larger tourneys, especially any of those that follow the ITC, Nova or Adepticon, are going to ban CtA allies. In any case, if it is ok in your meta, then go with it if that is what you would like to run.

BTW, massed flyrants plus 3 Eldar flyers is more than likely to overrun the casual player. I wouldn't recommend this type of list when going up against average gamers, unless you plan mainly to use it with a group of friends who are all more-or-less on the same competitive level.

 jy2 wrote:

 syypher wrote:
Hey guys... really struggling with taking my 1500 Lictorshame list to 1850... can I get some advice please.

How important is a 3rd Mawloc to the list?
How good would a 4th Flyrant be over the other stuff in the list?

Here are the 2 list I'm debating on.... (3 sources allowed)

3 Mawloc List
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Mucolid
Mucolid
Mucolid
Malanthrope
Spore Cluster
Spore Cluster
Spore Cluster
Mawloc
Mawloc
Mawloc

Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Mucolid
Ripper + Deep Strike

Deathleaper Assassin's Brood Formation (Deathleaper + 5x Lictors)


Quad Flyrant List
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Mucolid
Mucolid
Mucolid
Lictor
Lictor
Malanthrope
Mawloc
Mawloc

Flyrant (Dual TL Devourer, Wings, Egrubs)
Lictor
Lictor
Lictor
Mucolid
Mucolid

Sporefield Formation (3x Mucolids + 3x Spores)

I prefer the Quad-flyrant list. However, instead of the Sporemine Field, consider taking a bastion with Comms. I think that would benefit your list much more overall.

tag8833 wrote:

 jy2 wrote:
The problem is that most tournaments nowadays do not allow for CtA allies. So in casual games, ok. But for competitive play, that is a no-no.

Every time I've been asked I've voted against CTA. Every tournament I've ever been to save the one's I've helped run had CTA. While regionally, it may be taboo, I think CTA is more common than a lack of it.

Smaller tourneys are likely to do whatever the local meta wants, but larger tourneys, especially any of those that follow the ITC, Nova or Adepticon, are going to ban CtA allies. In any case, if it is ok in your meta, then go with it if that is what you would like to run.

BTW, massed flyrants plus 3 Eldar flyers is more than likely to overrun the casual player. I wouldn't recommend this type of list when going up against average gamers, unless you plan mainly to use it with a group of friends who are all more-or-less on the same competitive level.

Oops they both have a bastions with comms relay already >__<

Gud stuff on both lists. I like 4 Flyrants but I have terrible luck with Mawlocs :p

Has anyone else stopped taking Malanthropes or Venomthropes in their lists? I feel like he doesn't do a lot in my meta. Usual opponents are Tau (yeah), Necrons (starting to put Nebuloscopes on his Tomb Blades) Space Marines (Relic Whirlwind Scorpius w/ Battle of Keylek) and Chaos (Helldrakes).

I feel like those 45/85 points could be spent better..

 Frozocrone wrote:
Gud stuff on both lists. I like 4 Flyrants but I have terrible luck with Mawlocs :p

Has anyone else stopped taking Malanthropes or Venomthropes in their lists? I feel like he doesn't do a lot in my meta. Usual opponents are Tau (yeah), Necrons (starting to put Nebuloscopes on his Tomb Blades) Space Marines (Relic Whirlwind Scorpius w/ Battle of Keylek) and Chaos (Helldrakes).

I feel like those 45/85 points could be spent better..

I actually had that in my original post with my 2 army lists that you helped comment on. But I thought it would be too many questions in 1 thread and wanted to keep it on my armies.

Sort of feel the same way... It's usually there for T1 if I want to keep my Flyrants on the board and get a 2+ save if I'm in some Ruins or something. But after that it kind of just hangs around the back... feel like I could better use his spot for another Lictor or something...

Sean's LictorShame list didn't have Venoms IIRC. Another Lictor would be a good call

 jy2 wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

 jy2 wrote:
The problem is that most tournaments nowadays do not allow for CtA allies. So in casual games, ok. But for competitive play, that is a no-no.

Every time I've been asked I've voted against CTA. Every tournament I've ever been to save the one's I've helped run had CTA. While regionally, it may be taboo, I think CTA is more common than a lack of it.

Smaller tourneys are likely to do whatever the local meta wants, but larger tourneys, especially any of those that follow the ITC, Nova or Adepticon, are going to ban CtA allies. In any case, if it is ok in your meta, then go with it if that is what you would like to run.

Nova and Adepticon both allowed CtA last year. LVO the biggest Tourney I've ever attended had CtA, and lots of them. As far as I know every FLG event except last year's BAO has allowed CtA. Locally we crib from the big boys, so far the only format we've run that didn't allow it was Da Boyz. I know that ITC voted to not allow CtA, but so far that is only theoretical. I am excited to see this brave new world where CtA is no longer allowed at major events, and we are excited to run a "Wargames Con" format event, and chance are about 6 - 10 head to Austin, but until there is a track record any sort of restrictions are theoretical only just like restrictions to Ranged D.

 jy2 wrote:
BTW, massed flyrants plus 3 Eldar flyers is more than likely to overrun the casual player. I wouldn't recommend this type of list when going up against average gamers, unless you plan mainly to use it with a group of friends who are all more-or-less on the same competitive level.

Definitely agree. It feels a little less objectionable to me than running 5 flyrants. Only slightly, so its probably not something I'm likely to do. I only ever brought out my wave serpents twice, because playing 40k in easy mode isn't something that appeals to me very much.

Funny story. A friend asked me if he could keep bringing 3 Wraith Knights to "fun" games, even though they are now Lords of War, or if I felt like that might be too much.



On another topic, I was doing ATC practice tonight, and played a crazy Centstar. Draigo + 2 x Librarian (ML3) + Tiggy + Chapter Master on Bike (Shield Eternal) + 6 Cents (4 Grav, 2 Heavy Bolter) backed up by 2 Thunderfire Cannons. It was ATC mission #3. Progressive + Relic + Kill points. The deathstar spent the entire game invisible with 2+ invuls. I was able to eek it out with my Green tide. I had a Warboss + a single nob left holding the relic when the game ended on 5. I lost Kill points by 1, but won progressive and the Relic, and got 1st blood, so final score was 21 to 10.

I wonder how you would play a Tyranid list against such an opponent. I know with my 'nids I would have had a better chance of denying Invis, but still the Death star is pretty tough, and between the various other psychic powers it felt effectively unkillalble, and had lots of ability to kill TMCs. My Barbed Heirodule list would have lost to it pretty easily. Lictor shame type lists don't stand a chance in kill points or the relic, because you can't really get any kill points out of the deathstar, and there are only 5 other kill points on the table, so if the star kills one unit a turn they have tied you, and there is no reason the star wouldn't gate on to the relic and stay there until the end of the game. In this case the Relic was on the upper level or ruins, so Mawlocs do no good, and against the 2++ or 3++ saves, they wouldn't have done much anyways. Flyrant spam can't win on Kill points, and can't win on the Relic and would struggle to even get the progressive missions. I just don't even know how to list tailor to beat this list, and compete on the Relic or Kill points. Anyone got a thought?

Are there any other good Carnifex builds aside 2x Devourers? I know I wrote up the tactica for them but I've just become so used to Dakkafex these days that I've never used anything else. Got about 120 points left, 140 if I remove Egrubs on the Flyrants. Are Scything Talon Variants good?

 Frozocrone wrote:
Are there any other good Carnifex builds aside 2x Devourers? I know I wrote up the tactica for them but I've just become so used to Dakkafex these days that I've never used anything else. Got about 120 points left, 140 if I remove Egrubs on the Flyrants. Are Scything Talon Variants good?

STC + Devourers can work against certain matchups. Especially now that Eldar / Necron Mech is abating somewhat.
Running them naked or with Adrenal glands can work against matchups that aren't Tau, Necrons, or Eldar.

I took a couple of Carnifexes and added some bits to turn them into stone crushers. Stone Crushers can work a bit.

Honestly, if you are looking to fill 140 points I recommend a Mawloc. If you want to use a Carnifex in that slot, I recommend a ST + ST + AG Carnifex. The other thing I often do with 140 leftover points is run 20 Termagants (10 Devourers, 10 Fleshborers) and give Hive commander to a Flyrant so that I can outflank them. It is matchup dependent, as has been noted previously most of the meta changes since the dawn of 7th have been bad for Tyranid units not named flyrants. A dakkafex in a Tyrannocyte works fairly well, but is still only marginally competitive.

tag8833 wrote:
Nova and Adepticon both allowed CtA last year. LVO the biggest Tourney I've ever attended had CtA, and lots of them. As far as I know every FLG event except last year's BAO has allowed CtA. Locally we crib from the big boys, so far the only format we've run that didn't allow it was Da Boyz. I know that ITC voted to not allow CtA, but so far that is only theoretical. I am excited to see this brave new world where CtA is no longer allowed at major events, and we are excited to run a "Wargames Con" format event, and chance are about 6 - 10 head to Austin, but until there is a track record any sort of restrictions are theoretical only just like restrictions to Ranged D.

I apologize. It appears that I was partially mistaken. After reviewing the Nova and Adepticon rules, I don't see any mention of CtA being banned. I was under the assumption that Nova was going to follow the ITC rules, but it doesn't seem like that's the case.

As for the ITC, yes, they've already made the changes after this year's LVO. So any tournaments using the ITC rules should not be allowing CtA allies.

tag8833 wrote:
On another topic, I was doing ATC practice tonight, and played a crazy Centstar. Draigo + 2 x Librarian (ML3) + Tiggy + Chapter Master on Bike (Shield Eternal) + 6 Cents (4 Grav, 2 Heavy Bolter) backed up by 2 Thunderfire Cannons. It was ATC mission #3. Progressive + Relic + Kill points. The deathstar spent the entire game invisible with 2+ invuls. I was able to eek it out with my Green tide. I had a Warboss + a single nob left holding the relic when the game ended on 5. I lost Kill points by 1, but won progressive and the Relic, and got 1st blood, so final score was 21 to 10.

I wonder how you would play a Tyranid list against such an opponent. I know with my 'nids I would have had a better chance of denying Invis, but still the Death star is pretty tough, and between the various other psychic powers it felt effectively unkillalble, and had lots of ability to kill TMCs. My Barbed Heirodule list would have lost to it pretty easily. Lictor shame type lists don't stand a chance in kill points or the relic, because you can't really get any kill points out of the deathstar, and there are only 5 other kill points on the table, so if the star kills one unit a turn they have tied you, and there is no reason the star wouldn't gate on to the relic and stay there until the end of the game. In this case the Relic was on the upper level or ruins, so Mawlocs do no good, and against the 2++ or 3++ saves, they wouldn't have done much anyways. Flyrant spam can't win on Kill points, and can't win on the Relic and would struggle to even get the progressive missions. I just don't even know how to list tailor to beat this list, and compete on the Relic or Kill points. Anyone got a thought?

Ironically, you might see me at the ATC with my centstar as well. I haven't decided yet, but it's going to be either the centstar or Tyranids there.

My Centstar list is pretty rough. You won't kill it. The best you can do is to try to kill off the rest of the army and pray that the star doesn't get Perfect Timing. Also, opt to go 2nd in objectives-based scenarios and go for the T5 contest. As for KP's, it really depends on the list. I run centstar + MSU. Thus, besides my centstar, I have another 9KP's in the army that Tyranids can easily take. If it was anything other than the Relic + a low-unit-count deathstar army, I think bugs will do ok. But it appears that you just had a bad matchup with mission scenarios that favored your opponent, but despite that, you won anyways.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Frozocrone wrote:
Are there any other good Carnifex builds aside 2x Devourers? I know I wrote up the tactica for them but I've just become so used to Dakkafex these days that I've never used anything else. Got about 120 points left, 140 if I remove Egrubs on the Flyrants. Are Scything Talon Variants good?

Naked fexes are ok. Nothing spectacular, but they are cheap for a dangerous MC. Just make sure you have other threats to take the heat off of it. Otherwise, it'll die rather quickly.

Another option would be to put him in a mycetic spore. You might get more mileage out of him that way.

 jy2 wrote:
But it appears that you just had a bad matchup with mission scenarios that favored your opponent, but despite that, you won anyways.

For my Orks it wasn't a terrible matchup. My Green tide is nearly as scary of a deathstar as the Centstar, and I really only had 6 easy kill points. Unfortunately he sniped out the IC's from my Green Tide with the TFC's. Painboy died on turn 2 which is how he did so much damage to the Tide. Kill points ended 3-4 in his favor.

But it is an abysmal matchup for Tyranids. Your Centstar at least has a few more soft targets so Nids have a better chance in Kill points. I would like to run 'Nids much more than Orks, but my team needs me to face the other team's heavy hitters, and the missions are built for deathstars, and Tyranids just don't deathstar very well.

Tyrannofex with rapture cannon... I just obtained one for the cost of $0.00

Jy2's Tactica - Tyranids Vs the New Eldar Part II

So the new Eldar codex just came out and there is already a lot of fear among the gaming community with regards to their new release. Massed S6 shooting from fast, ObSec jetbike troops, cheap skyfire throughout the army, Lord of War wraithknights that you can now spam and the proliferation of Destroyer weaponry within the codex makes it sound even more frightening than the previous iteration of the codex, which many already considered to be the best army in the game. So, are they really that bad? Are Tyranids destined to be slaughtered by the mighty, mighty space elves? My initial thoughts....no. Not by a long shot. The new Eldar is a very strong army. However, they are not ridiculously over-powering, at least not to our bugs. We do have the tools to deal with them.

This tactica will be presented from the Tyranid perspective. How have Eldar changes affected Tyranids as an opponent and how can we combat them? I am going to break this tactica into 2 parts.


Part I - The Good, the Mild, the Bad and the Ugly

The first part will take a more in-depth look at the Eldar units and rules and how they will affect our Tyranids. I will be focusing more on the changes in the new codex and consequently, the effect that they will have on us.


Part II - Playing against Eldar

This part, I will go into detail with regards to the strengths and the weaknesses of Eldar in relation to Tyranids. I will also offer insight as to what you will typically see in a competitive, Take-All-Comer's Eldar army. Finally, I will explore how Tyranids can combat the new Eldar.


This tactica will be a WIP (work-in-progress) and will be updated on a daily basis until completed.



PART II - PLAYING AGAINST ELDAR


The Strengths of Eldar

From a Tyranid perspective, what makes Eldar so difficult to play against? Why will we, or basically any other army, have problems against the new Eldar? What can we as Tyranid players do about it? In order to develop a gameplan against your opponent, you have to understand his strengths and weaknesses. This chapter will focus on the strengths of the new Eldar in a general overview.

High Mobility: One of the biggest strengths of Eldar is its high mobility. The new Eldar is without question one of the fastest armies currently. However, not only are they super-fast, but they are a highly maneuverable army as well. They've got skimmers that can move up to 30" (or more with wargear) and jetbikes that can move 48". They've got jump infantry who can move 18" (Swooping Hawks) and jetpack infantry who can move 6"+2D6". They've got mobility in almost every Force Organization slot thanks to Wave Serpent dedicated transports. They've also got deepstrikers, infiltrators (Rangers, Striking Scorpions) and outflankers (War Walkers, any army with Eldrad). In terms of the Movement phase, they've got total flexibility, both with regards to Movement and Deployment. Their flexible mobility makes it a problem for assault Tyranids (and most assault armies in general) to deal with. It's just really hard to catch Eldar if the Eldar player doesn't want you to. All the while, he will be pelting your army with shots as you try to get close.

Now I have mentioned about the speed of Eldar. However, what sets them apart from the other fast armies is not just their speed, but their high maneuverability as well. In my opinion, Eldar is the most maneuverable army currently. What I mean by maneuverability is that they've got a lot of Movement shenanigans that they can do that very few other armies can. First of all, almost every infantry unit in the codex (including their walkers) have Battle Focus. Battle Focus allows a unit to run and then shoot or to shoot and then run. What it does is to allow the army to shoot and then move into a defensive position (i.e. into cover or behind Line-of-Sight blocking terrain) or to move and then shoot to get more range. This is a defensive boon as sometimes, it allows the Eldar unit to shoot and then get out of retalitorial fire, enemy charge range or into cover.

Secondly, a lot of Eldar units - Eldar jetbikes and Warp Spiders - have the ability to move again in the Assault phase, just like Tau Crisis Suits or Necron Destroyers. That means that they can move out of cover or BLOS (blocking-LOS) terrain, shoot and then jump back behind BLOS terrain. This also allows them to get within shooting range of enemy assault units and then move out of their assault threat range afterwards. Warp Spiders are especially nasty when it comes to Movement shenanigans. They can move 6"+2D6", then shoot and Battle Focus another D6" (re-rollable because they are Fleet) and on top of that, can move another 2D6" in the Assault phase for a maximum potential movement distance of 36" by just 1 infantry unit! And if you think that was bad, Warp Spiders can also move in the opponent's Shooting phase, potentially taking them out of range or LOS of the unit targeting them!

It is the maneuverability that will make it hard for even other shooting armies to deal with. You need mobile firepower to deal with the space elves. Static gunline armies will have a hard time shooting at them unless they have barrage firepower (assuming they aren't playing on a terrain-lite table with no BLOS terrain). Assault armies will have a tough time catching them due to their speed. If your army does not have mobility, you will be playing with an inherent disadvantage against the new Eldar.

High Firepower: Believe it or not, the Eldar have actually become a more shooty army than before. Windrider jetbikes with Scatter Lasers (otherwise know as scatbikes) have replaced the wave serpent as the main shooter in the Eldar army. While they don't have the intangibles of the wave serpent (twin-linked shots, the ability to ignore cover), scatbikes put out much more pure raw firepower than the wave serpents did. On average, the older wave serpents were able to pump out 4 S6 shots at 36", 4.5 S7 shots at 60" and another 3 S6 shots at 24", all for 130-pts. The cost per shot ratio of the older wave serpent is 11.3 pts/shot (the lower the number, the better). In comparison, a Necron Annihilation Barge shot, with 4 S7 shots and 2 S6 shots, costs 20 pts/shot. 3 Broadsides (210-pts) with High-Yield Missile Pods (12 S7 hosts) and SMS (12 S5 shots) costs 8.75 pts/shot and a flyrant with 2x Twin-linked Brainleech Devourers (230-pts) costs 19.2 pts/shot. In comparison, 5 scatbikes (only 135-pts) put out 20 S6 shots for only 6.75 pts/shot. In terms of raw output, the scatbike is the new King of Firepower.

Not only do Eldar have scatbikes, but there are many other units in the codex that shoot really well. Scatter Walkers (War Walkers with 2 Scatter Lasers each) put out 24 S6 shots at a cost of only 7.5 pts/shot. Swooping Hawks put out a high amount of small-arms firepower that could be a threat to horde armies. Warp spiders put up a good amount of S6 shots and their shots, unlike other Eldar shots, wound based on Initiative. That means the high toughness characteristic of Tyranid units won't protect them. MC's such as tervigons, mawlocs, exocrines, etc. are wounded on a 2+ by the Warp Spiders. Even flyrants will be wounded on a 3+ (as opposed to being wounded on a 4+ last edition). Finally, even the lowly Vyper, a tax unit that many Eldar builds will have to take, can put out 6 S6 shots at a cost of only 8.3 pts/shot! The codex is just littered with super-efficient shooters throughout and I am not just talking about small-arms fire (S4 or less). They are actually super-efficient high-strength shooting.

Strong Combined Arms Detachment: As great as the formation are in the codex, the detachment that most competitive Eldar players are going to use is just a normal Combined Arms Detachment, or CAD. This is for 3 reasons mainly:

1. Objective Secured troops. None of the Eldar Guardian Host formations offer Objective Secured. You can only obtain ObSec through CAD.

2. Firepower. Running CAD allows a player to spam what is potentially the best unit in the codex, the scatbikes. If you want raw firepower, going CAD will let you do so.

3. Cut through the "tax" units. Most of the formations include with certain "tax" units that you must take in order to run the formation. Going with CAD allows you to ignore these restrictions. For example, if you want to run wraithguards in a Guardian Host detachment, you must also take 1 Spiritseer, 1 Wraithlord and 1 Wraithknight (and then you must run 3 units of Wraithguards or Wraithblades). Running CAD will let you take 1-3 wraithguards without any pre-requisites or restrictions (other than having 1 HQ and 2 troops as is standard in any CAD army). Want to run 1 unit of Fire Dragons or Dire Avengers? With the Guardian Host detachments, you can't just run 1; you need to run 3 of those units.

Massed Destroyer Weaponry: I don't know if this is going to be a new trend or not (I sure hope not!), but with the new Eldar, you will see Destroyer weaponry on an unprecedented scale. Before, armies can only get Destroyer weaponry through Lord of War units, which is a 0-1 selection for each detachment. The 2 newer releases - Necrons and Daemonkin - started to allow Destroyer weaponry on normal units, but those units were either hard to come by (only 1 per Daemonkin detachment), really expensive (due to being a Lord of War) or randomized (Necron C'tans). With Eldar, it is unbelievable just how common Destroyer weapons are in the codex. A lot of the common units can carry it and they are spread throughout the Force Organization slots so that Destroyer weaponry can easily be spammed. In the Elite slot, you can take wraithguards with either D-shots or D-templates. In the Fast Attack, you can take the Hemlock Wraithfighter with 2 D-blasts. In the Heavy Support, you can take the Vaul's Wrath Support Batteries with D-artillery (barrages). And then, of course, there is the Lord of War Wraithknight with either D-shots or D-close-combat abilities. All it takes is a '6' on some of these Distort weapons and you can kiss your super-elite unit goodbye. D-weaponry will spell the death of Tyranid Monstrous Creature spam (TMC-spam) unless they are of the flying variety.

The King of Maelstrom: Without a doubt, the new Eldar is the king of Maelstrom missions. The combination of high mobility, high maneuverability and ObSec units makes them the best army at getting to the objectives. Then, high firepower gives them the ability to easily clear out enemy units for the "kill-a-unit" portion of the Maelstrom objectives. They have the pure, raw speed to get to any objective. But wait, great manueverability allows them to clear enemy units on an objective (by shooting them into oblivion) and then Battle Focus onto the objective or jump onto the objective in the Assault phase.

Great Psychic Army: Eldar is an excellent psychic army if you run the Seer Council. Being able to cast powers on a 3+ instead of a 4+ and being able to re-roll 1 failed attempt each turn (for each Farseer) means that they are super-reliable when it comes to getting their powers off. In addition, they have a wargear, the Spirit Stones of Anath'lan, that reduces the difficulty of casting any psychic power by 1 warp charge (to a minimum of 1), thus making even the more difficult powers quite easy to cast. Defensively, the amount of power dice they can have plus the ability to re-roll 1 failed Deny the Witch test per Farseer per turn means that they are good at shutting down enemy psykers as well. All it takes is for them to shut down 1 crucial power - perhaps Fortune on another seer council or Gate/Perfect Timing on a centurionstar - and they will have a major advantage against those types of armies.

The Best Lord of War in the Game: Eldar have what is arguably the best Lord of War Super-heavy/Gargantuan unit in the game currently. The wraithknight was already a very good unit even when it was not a Gargantuan Creature (GC) last edition. Now make him a GC and give him some Destroyer weaponry (either shooting or assault) - all for a measly 55-pts increase - and he becomes bonkers. There is no other GC in the game that can do what he does and for the cost that he costs. Expect to see every competitive Eldar army to have 1. Fortunately for the majority of the 40K gamers, most tournaments tend to limit the number of LoW units you can carry to 1. However, if you are playing normal 40K rules, a Guardian Host detachment can potentially take up to 12 Wraithknights!!! Tyranids just do not have a good answer for Wraithknights, other than to bring their own Gargantuan Creatures...which is still not a great answer to them.

The Strengths of Tyranids

High Mobility: Fortunately for Tyranids, they actually have the mobility to keep up with Eldar. Flying dakkarants (Hive tyrants with wings and 2 brainleech devourers) have the mobility and range to hit Eldar bikers almost anywhere on the table, so it will be hard for the bikers to hide from them. Hive crones and harpies can also get to the Eldar units, though there offensive output is no where near that of the dakka flyrant. Mawlocs can burrow up from underneath to hurt Eldar units as well, and if the Eldar choose to ignore them and move away, the mawloc can just go back into Ongoing Reserves to strike again the following turn. Tyrannocyte spores can bring in dakkafexes for 1 turn of shooting before the space elves move out of the way. After the FMC's, mawlocs and units in spores, however, Tyranids just do not have an easy answer to Eldar mobility.

2+ Shrouded Cover: Thanks to the changes to the Wave Serpent, cover is viable once again against Eldar. Fortunately for Tyranids, cover is one thing that they can do very well with venomthropes and malanthropes. A Tyranid unit with 2+ cover in ruins protected by a venom/malanthrope can present a problem to Eldar, especially if the venom/malanthrope can survive the initial volley of cover-ignoring firepower from any opposing Wave Serpents. Also, fortunately for our bugs, you won't see nearly as many wave serpents in a typical Eldar list as you used to. Nowadays, most Eldar lists will have 1 or 2 at most. A lot of Eldar armies won't even bring them. Now you don't necessarily need 2+ cover for the entire game. You just need it on Turn 1 for your FMC's to survive the enemy alpha-strike should your opponent go first. After that, your FMC's will take off into Swooping mode and cover won't be nearly as important as it was when your flyers were on the ground. Finally, going-to-ground whenever possible (i.e. lictors in ruins away from Synapse) is actually a viable tactic to survive incoming enemy fire.

Flying Monstrous Creatures: You need a lot of resiliency to fight against the new Eldar, otherwise, their shooting can literally blow you away. Fortunately for Tyranids, we have the answer with our flying monstrous creatures. Eldar actually has a lot of anti-air capability. The Crimson Death formation (3 Crimson Hunters), skyfiring Eldar Missile Launchers (EML's) readily available on a wide range of platforms, swooping hawks, dark reapers and just massed firepower powered with Guide/Prescience. As good as EML's are, I really don't see Eldar players spamming them. Moreover, they are only S7 AP4. Dark reapers are twin-linked against flyers, but they still only hit on 6's. So the 2 most common forms of AA that you will actually see in a typical Eldar army are the Crimson Death formation and just volume-of-fire from various Eldar ground units supported by psychic powers.

1 unit of 10 scatbikers shooting at a Tyrant (40 S6 shots) on the ground does 4.4W of damage, enough to kill the Tyrant. The same unit of bikers shooting at a Tyrant in the air only does 1.1W (or 2W with Guide/Prescience). Thus, the FMC Tyrant in the air (flyrant) is 4x more survivable than the Tyrant on the ground (walkrant). The only common unit(s) that will kill the flyrant equally as well as the walkrant is the Crimson Death flyers. So if you want to survive Eldar firepower, the best way for Tyranids to do so is to take to the air.

One thing to note is that FMC-spam is a double-edged sword. Having too many FMC's isn't necessarily a good thing (except in Victory Point missions). Tyranid FMC's must be supported by enough ground units. Otherwise, they will lose in Maelstrom missions or any mission with a Maelstrom component to it. My general rule-of-thumb is to have no more than 2/3 of your army invested in flying monstrous creatures. Save at least 1/3 to 1/2 of the points in the army for ground forces. Otherwise, Eldar might have problems killing the FMC's, but then they will win by picking up most of the Maelstrom points.

MSU Tyranids: Tyranids can actually do MSU quite well. MSU, or multiple-small-units, is basically an army that takes lots of small (and cheap), min-sized units. Besides the flyrants, they have a lot of cheap units that can actually be quite survivable in terrain. Deepstriking rippers, infiltrating/outflanking 5-man genestealer squads and lictors all complement flyrants very well, especially in Maelstrom objectives or missions with a Maelstrom component. So why do MSU work well against Eldar?

Take, for example, a dimachaeron and a lictor. A unit of 10 scatbikes fire at them (40 S6 shots). Against the dimachaeron, they do 4.4W of damage. Against the lictor, which goes-to-ground in ruins for 2+ cover, the bikers do 3.7W, thus killing it. Now you may ask, the dimachaeron survived and the lictor didn't so why bother taking the lictor at all? Here is why:

1. For the price of the dimachaeron, you can buy 4 lictors. So while Eldar has killed 1, the 3 other lictors survive to claim objectives elsewhere.

2. It takes 2 units of bikers to shoot down the dimachaeron. It takes 4 units of bikers to shoot down 4 lictors. Thus, the Eldar player needs to allocate double the resources just to kill the lictors. That means there will be less shooting against the actual damage-dealers in the army, the flyrants. Or if the Eldar player targets the flyrants, that means the lictors have a lot higher chance to survive and claim Maelstrom objectives each and every turn (or Eternal War objectives at the end of the game).

3. Overkill. 40 S6 shots going into a MC/large unit is good. No shots are wasted. 40 S6 shots going into 1 small unit is overkill. All the excess wounds are wasted. For example, 10 scatbikes shoot at 20 genestealers out in the open. They kill 15 models. The same 10 scatbikes shoot at 1 lictor out in the open as well. They also do 15W. However, they only kill 1 model. So which is better? Losing 1 50-pt model or losing 210-pts worth of models? The stronger the opposing unit, the more efficient MSU becomes because the amount of Overkill increases. That is why MSU works so well against Deathstar armies. Many deathstars can easily kill a 200-pt unit, but will waste a lot of their offense just to kill 1 50-pt unit. And then you've still got 3 other 50-pt unit left (for the same cost as the 200-pt unit).

Strong Psychic Army: Tyranids are actually a very strong psychic army. Not really a psychic heavyweight like Daemons, Grey Knights or Seer Council Eldar, but they are very strong against mid to non-psychic armies. Psychically, they may struggle against a psychic-heavy Eldar build (such as the Seer Council). However, they can and will dominate most of the other Eldar builds in the Psychic phase. Catalyst is always useful. Onslaught will help to increase the threat range of the flyrants. Horror is not as useful because 1) bikes cannot be pinned and 2) many of the other Eldar units are either Fearless or have Morale re-rolling mechanisms. Scream combined with Shadows in the Warp can surprise Eldar psychic units. Warp Blast can be useful. However, arguably one of the best powers against Eldar will be Paroxysm. An Eldar unit that gets Paroxysed will probably shoot at your flyrant, thus leaving fewer Eldar units to shoot at your more fragile ground units. Thus, Paroxysm can be used to help your ground units to survive longer.

Competitive Eldar Builds

So what might you see in a typical Take-All-Comers competitive Eldar army? What types of Eldar armies will you see in competitive play? Now there are 3 things that you will see in almost every competitive Eldar army:

1. CAD. Simply put, a standard Combined Arms Detachment, or CAD Eldar, is just better than any of the 3 core Eldar formations in their new codex (for the reasons listed under the Strengths of Eldar). Expect the majority of tournament Eldar players to be running a standard CAD.

2. Windrider jetbikes. This is simply one of the best units in the codex. Period. They are super-fast. They have ridiculous firepower. You can run them in large squads for massive carnage. You can run them in minimum 3-bike squads as MSU. They are spammable and last but not least, they can be ObSec.

3. Wraithknight. A very good unit in the previous edition has gotten even better in this edition, and at a cost that is simply too cheap to pass up. Expect to see him in almost every competitive Eldar list (as long as the tournament allows for Gargantuan Lord of Wars).

There are many good Eldar builds that you can potentially see in a tournament. The following builds (and lists) are just a few examples of what you may see in a competitive setting. I will include sample 1850 lists as that is the prevalent tournament standard for many of the larger tournaments.

Bike-Spam Eldar: This type of list relies on the sheer firepower of its Objective Secured troops, with the Crimson Death formation thrown in for anti-air and the Wraithknight as a counter-assault unit. You better be able to catch those bikes when going up against this type of list. Your army also needs to be able to weather a ridiculous amount of firepower to survive against this type of list.

CAD:
Farseer Skyrunner

7 Scatterbikes
6 Scatterbikes
6 Scatterbikes
6 Scatterbikes
6 Scatterbikes
6 Scatterbikes

Wraithknight

Crimson Death:
Crimson Hunter Exarch
Crimson Hunter
Crimson Hunter

The Seer Council: At the core of this list is the Seer Council. It is a psychic deathstar and it will dominate the Psychic phase against most armies. Other psychic-heavy armies like Daemons or the Centstar need to beware....the Seer Council is very good at shutting down critical powers. Fortunately for Tyranids, they don't have to rely too heavily on psychic powers. Also, in many seer council lists, you will see Baharroth as the CAD HQ of choice.

Seer Council:
Farseer Skyrunner - Shard of Anaris
Farseer Skyrunner - Spirit Stones of Anath'lan
5 Jetlocks

CAD:
Baharroth

3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes

8 Warp Spiders - Exarch

Wraithknight

Crimson Death:
Crimson Hunter Exarch
Crimson Hunter
Crimson Hunter

MSU Eldar: This type of list focuses on sheer efficiency of firepower in Multiple Small Units, or MSU. It is pure spam at its spammiest. It is also super redundant and a problem for many deathstar builds (or elite armies) to deal with. Its main drawback is that it tends to give off a lot of Victory Points.

CAD:
Farseer Skyrunner

3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes

Vyper - 2 Shuri-cannons
Vyper - 2 Shuri-cannons
Vyper - 2 Shuri-cannons

2 Scatter Walkers
2 Scatter Walkers
2 Scatter Walkers

Wraithknight

Crimson Death:
Crimson Hunter Exarch
Crimson Hunter
Crimson Hunter

D-Spam Eldar: This type of list tends to emphasize the use of Destroyer weaponry in its arsenal. I'm not exactly sure how great of a Take-All-Comer's list it is, but it's got the potential to be brutal against the right opponent.

CAD:
Spiritseer

5 Wraithguard - Wave Serpent
5 Wraithguard w/D-scythes - Wave Serpent
5 Wraithguard w/D-scythes - Wave Serpent

3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes

Crimson Hunter

2 Vaul's Wrath Batteries - D-cannons

WK

Footdar: Footdar is not as powerful as the lists with Scatterbikes. Its main shortcomings are that it lacks the mobility and the ranged firepower of some of the other lists. However, it is still a strong build that you may potentially see in a tournament. This is probably the only list where you may want to consider the Guardian Battlehost or Guardian Stormhost over a normal CAD. Also, expect to see a rare appearance by the Avatar in certain Footdar lists as well as the excellent Aspect Host formation in it.

Guardian Battlehost:
Eldrad

20 Guardian Defenders - 2 EML's (Eldar Missile Launchers)
10 Guardian Defenders - 1 EML
10 Guardian Defenders - 1 EML

Vyper

3 Scatter Walkers
2 Vaul's Wrath Batteries - D-cannons

Aspect Host:
6 Swooping Hawks - Exarch
6 Warp Spiders
5 Warp Spiders

Crimson Death:
Crimson Hunter Exarch
Crimson Hunter
Crimson Hunter

Eldar with Dark Eldar Allies: The main reason for combining Eldar with Dark Eldar is as a delivery system for Wraithguards with D-scythes. You will see the Webway Portal as well as D-scythe Wraithguards in this type of list. You may also see DE Fast Attack transports as a cheap delivery system for the Wraithguards.

CAD:
Farseer Skyrunner

5 Wraithguards - D-scythes
5 Wraithguards - D-scythes

3 Bikes - 2 Scatters
3 Bikes - 2 Scatters
3 Bikes - 2 Scatters
3 Bikes - 1 Scatter
3 Bikes - 1 Scatter

Wraithknight

Crimson Death:
Crimson Hunter Exarch
Crimson Hunter
Crimson Hunter

Dark Eldar Allies:
Succubus - Webway Portal, Glaive

5 Warriors

Raider (Note - this is a Fast Attack choice)

Eldar with Harlequin Allies: You will also see the new Eldar teaming up with the new Harlequins as a competitive build. This type of list usually revolves around 2 builds - the Eldar/Harlie LD-Bomb or the Eldar/Harlie Harlistar deathstar build. In either case, both types of lists will take advantage of stackable, Leadership-reducing abilities as part of their offensive repertoire.

CAD:
Farseer Skyrunner

3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes
3 Windrider Jetbikes (no Scatter Lasers)

Hemlock Wraithfighter
Hemlock Wraithfighter

Harlequin Masque Detachment :
3 Death Jesters
Shadowseer - Lvl Psyker, Mask of Secrets

3x5 Troupes - 3 Caress, 2 Embrace, Haywire Grenades, Neuro Disruptor, Starweaver

2 Starweavers
Voidreaver - Prismatic Cannon

Now you make one of your Troupe Masters and in maelstrom just try for the +2/-2 random game length. This alone can be game breaking. You have Windriders for ObSec. What are we doing here? Well, if you really want to attack LD the Death Jesters ‘Death Is Not Enough’ is darn capable. A lot of units will be taking that -2 LD morale test as Jesters will get some casualties. And the Jesters fit into the Starweavers ( capacity 6). When the Hemlocks come we stack their -2 LD 12” bubble with the Jesters and units will be running off the edges of the table. Finally we have a Lvl 2 Mask of Secrets psyker. This guy will do buffs and also reduce LD. Remember you get to pick the direction the effected units flee if they take Jester casualties. The Masque detachment does have ‘Rising Crescendo’ - run and charge. But really we will charge only after we weaken squads. Those that do not run off the table we can finish off. Did I mention this list has a slew of S6 shots - 80+ a turn. So even Flyrants can be hurt. -felixcat

The Eldar Airforce: With the tendency towards flyer-heavy armies at tournaments, you might just see something like this. It is also probably Eldar's best answer to our flyrant-spam.

CAD:
Autarch - Reaper Launcher w/Starswarm Missiles

3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes
3 Scatterbikes

Crimson Hunter
Crimson Hunter
Crimson Hunter

3 Dark Reapers - Starshot Missiles, Exarch

Wraithknight

Bunker - 1x Void Shield

Crimson Death:
Crimson Hunter Exarch
Crimson Hunter
Crimson Hunter

Mechdar: Lastly, with so many wave serpents in people's possession, you will still see mechdar in tournament play. It won't be quite as spammy as it used to be, but it just might be the most common build still in the early stages of the new codex.

CAD:
Spiritseer

5 Wraithguards - Wave Serpent w/TL-Scatters
5 Wraithguards w/D-Scythes - Wave Serpent w/TL-Scatters
5 Wraithguards w/D-Scythes - Wave Serpent w/TL-Scatters

5 Dire Avengers - Wave Serpent w/TL-EML
5 Dire Avengers - Wave Serpent w/TL-EML

5 Swooping Hawks - Exarch
5 Swooping Hawks - Exarch

Wraithknight

Tyranid Tactics Against Eldar

How can we kill those nimble Windrider jetbikes? How can we survive the tremendous firepower of the Eldar? What can we do against the mighty Wraithknight? What can we do to limit Eldar mobility? How do we deal with the Seer Council? How do we play against Eldar in Maelstrom missions? In short, how do Tyranids play against the new Eldar? In this chapter, I will analyze the various tactics that Tyranids can employ to deal with the new space elves.

First of all, before you even see an Eldar army across from you on the tabletop, your army needs to have the right tools in order to deal with them. Tactics against Eldar does not just begin when you first face them; it begins much earlier than that. That's right. Preparing for Eldar begins in the list-building phase, and I don't mean tailoring your list to beat Eldar. Rather, you need to build a balanced Take-All-Comer's (TAC) list that can address the concerns that are the new Eldar as well as most of the other competitive non-Eldar army builds as well. Fortunately for us Tyranid players, almost all the tools that you will need against Eldar are also tools that you will find in most balanced, Tyranid TAC lists as well.

Pre-game Strategy - Army Resiliency: The Eldar can put out an incredible amount of firepower. Windrider jetbikes, along with a lot of other Eldar units, are super-shooty. In order to play against them, your list needs to be tough. One of the inherent strengths of Tyranid armies, Toughness 6 MC's, just isn't enough. Eldar don't just put out an incredible amount of firepower, but they put out an incredible amount of high-strength firepower. Basically, there are 3 ways to survive Eldar firepower:

1. Go flyer-heavy, or Tyranid FMC-spam. Eldar actually have good anti-air firepower. However, they, like most armies, will still struggle when faced with too many flyers. Just be careful not to overdo it with the FMC's. You still need ground units to play to the objectives, especially in Maelstrom-type scenarios.

2. 2+ Shrouded cover. Consider running venomthropes/malanthropes in your list. You don't need to spam them, but just 1 or 2 will go a long ways to making your army that much more survivable against Eldar firepower. Also, cover is much more viable against the new Eldar now due to the nerf to wave serpents. While they can ignore cover with 2D6 S6 shots, they can only do so once per game and their range is only 24" now (or 36" if you include its movement). As long as you can protect your venom/malanthrope from the initial volley, then your army will have better long-term survivability from Eldar shooting.

Also, if you are running lictors, go-to-ground in ruins if you have to. As long as your lictor is out of Synapse range, go for the 2+ cover if it is being shot at by staggering Eldar firepower. Then, if you need it to get back up, just move a source of Synapse (i.e. flyrant) within range of the lictor and then it can act normally again.

3. Fortifications. Consider running a fortification for added protection. You can house your more vulnerable cover-giver - the venom/malanthrope - in a bunker or bastion. It also allows you to get the Comms Relay if you are running a mainly Reserves-based Tyranid army. With the bunker/bastion, however, you do need to beware of the Wraithknight or Wraithguards. They will take it out very easily. Another option to consider would be a Void Shield Generator (VSG). The VSG will give you initial protection from enemy alpha-strikes. You can also use it to give your units protection throughout the game by moving your FMC's into Void Shield range when they leave the table and come back in.

Pre-game Strategy - Mobility: The saying "you can't kill what you can't catch" is particularly true about Eldar. Simply put, you NEED mobility to deal with the new Eldar. If you don't have mobility in your Tyranid army, you simply won't win against a decent Eldar army. Superior firing range as well as Eldar movement shenanigans means that they can pick apart your army from a safe distance and then move out of range or LOS from your return-fire or slower assault units. Your army MUST have the mobility to threaten Eldar units.

Fortunately for Tyranids, we do have a lot of mobile units. Flyrants are our All-Stars. They will be our main weapon against Eldar. Hive crones and harpies can also help, though their effectiveness will vary greatly. For the ground units, we have gargoyles for ground control. As long as you trail them back into venom/malanthrope range, they will be our best tarpit option, especially against the likes of the Wraithknight. Tyranid units in Tyrannocyte spores give us a quick-hit-fix and area control, and mawlocs are really good in the mobility department due to their ability to re-position themselves as needed. Finally, while not very mobile, we have biovores who have the range and shooting to hit Eldar units no matter where they hide.

Pre-game Strategy - Tyranid Firepower: Just as you need mobility against Eldar, you also need some shooting against them as well. Tyranid assault units just aren't very optimal at all against Eldar. Most of their units have the mobility to just get away from the majority of our assault units. Otherwise, most good Eldar armies will have the firepower to easily shoot them down, especially if our assault units are not under the protection of Shroud from a venom/malanthrope. Finally, Eldar actually have a very good counter-assault unit in the Wraithknight. Our Tyranid monstrous creatures will learn to fear the WK as he will own most of our assault units in close-combat.

So make sure to include some shooting in your list. The best shooty unit for us will be the dakka Flyrant, or winged Flyrant with dual Brainleech devourers. Other units to consider would be dakkafexes, preferably in Tyrannocyte spores, devilgants (Termagants with devourers) in a Tyrannocyte spore, harpies, hive crones, exorcrines and biovores (or the Living Artillery Node formation).

Pre-game Strategy - The Flyrant: The Flyrant without a doubt is our best tool to use against the new Eldar. They satisfy all three of the requirements I listed above. They are resilient due to being a flyer. They've got mobility and can hit the Eldar units almost anywhere on the table. You really can't hide from the flyrants. They are also our most reliable and consistent source of firepower and offense, and they can do so safely without putting themselves at high risk by staying in the air. Moreover, they are our main source for both psychic powers and psychic defense as well as our best answer to enemy flyers. You NEED flyrants in our fight against the Eldar. That is without question. The only question is, how many? I would say run at least 2 but the more, the better. I think that 4 will be our sweet spot, but 3 can work as well.

Pre-game Strategy - MSU Tyranids: Another strategy I recommend is to take a look at multiple-small-units, or MSU Tyranids. Eldar excel in taking out elite or expensive units. Between their Destroyer weaponry (from Wraithknights to Wraithguards to D-cannon Vaul's Wrath Support Batteries) as well as their sheer firepower, Eldar will do very well against one of our more popular Tyranid builds - Nidzilla. Also, with the amount of firepower that they possess, they can do a number on our hordes of gribblies as well. However, if you run MSU (backed by Tyranid flyers), then the Eldar actually becomes less efficient because they will tend to overkill units. A lot of their offensive potential is wasted as they have to over-allocate resources just to deal with a unit that is a fraction of their cost. 10 Scatterbikes can potentially kill a 200-pt TMC in just 1 turn of shooting. However, split that 200-pt MC into 4 50-pt units and now it will take those same bikers 4 turns just to kill the same amount of points of units.

At the same time, running MSU makes us better in objectives games and in particular, Maelstrom scenarios. We just have more units to spread out onto more objectives, and it takes the enemy more resources to deal with our MSU units. Instead of taking 2 200-pt units that can only claim/contest 2 objectives, you could take 8 50-pts units that can claim/contest up to 8 objectives and that is actually harder to kill for the more elite armies/units. Now MSU does have an exploitable weakness and that is it gives off a lot of Victory Points in VP missions. However, VP missions are a minority nowadays - only 1 in 6 Eternal War missions. Even the Maelstrom missions are more objectives-dominated than they are kill-a-unit sub-missions.

Lastly, MSU complements Flyrant-spam very well. Flyrants are very expensive. If you throw in other TMC's or horde units into a Flyrant-spam build, the army becomes an elitist army very quickly. Unless you are running a super-deathstar, Eldar can very easily deal with elitist armies. MSU allows us to run more units to help balance out the relatively few units/bodies that a Flyrant-spam list normally entails. Basically, MSU helps to round out a Flyrant-spam list into a better, Take-All-Comer's list. Without them, a Flyrant-spam list will struggle in Progressive or Maelstrom missions.

Objective Placement: When going up against Eldar, tactics begin as early as the pre-game setup phase. How you setup the objectives is just as important as to how you play against Eldar. There are several key factors when placing objectives in a game against Eldar.

1. You want to place objectives in terrain and especially in ruins. You can take advantage of the cover better than Eldar can. Windrider bikes cannot go-to-ground. Non-Fearless Tyranid units outside of Synapse can. And even if they can't, ruins give better protection to Tyranid infantry units than their natural saves. On the other hand, Eldar units do not receive better protection from ruins, at least not from Tyranid shooting. Eldar just have a lot more AP2/1 shooting than Tyranids so our TMC's/FMC's will benefit more from ruins cover than Eldar will. Finally, ruins is a dangerous terrain test for their ObSec jetbike troops.

2. Spread out the objectives. So why do we want to spread out the objectives? After all, Eldar has even more mobility than Tyranids. The reason is that we don't want to make it easy for their "big" guy to defend various objectives. Also, this will prevent their more elite killing units - the Wraithguards - from covering multiple objectives as well. If you have the objectives close together, the Wraithknight can very easily go from objective to objective to clear out any Tyranid unit holding those objectives, and there really isn't very much that we can do to stop him. And then there are the Eldar deathstars like the Seer Council, the Harlequinstar or the Wraithstar. Putting the objectives close together just makes it easier for these Eldar deathstar builds to control the board.

3. Beware of Blocking Line-of-Sight (BLOS) terrain. While we can benefit from BLOS terrain, Eldar can benefit from them even more. That is because of their move shenanigans. They can move out in the open, shoot and then Battle Focus back behind BLOS terrain. Or if the troops are bikers, they can then jump back behind terrain in the Assault phase after shooting in the Shooting phase. Warp spiders and bikers in particular will abuse the heck out of BLOS terrain. When placing objectives, try to minimize, or maybe even avoid, putting them right next to or behind BLOS terrain.

Going 1st or 2nd: The existential dilemma for many armies - is it better to go 1st or to go 2nd? There are many advantages for going 1st for a Flyrant-spam army. First of all, you will get the alpha-strike on the opponent. Secondly, you can set up your defenses by taking to the air (for FMC's) and getting off your psychic powers. Usually, there are 3 cases where I would consider going 1st for my Tyranids.

1. Pure Victory Point missions. In a pure VP mission, you want the alpha-strike against your opponent.

2. Pure Maelstrom missions. In a pure Maelstrom mission, where Maelstrom objectives are scored at the end of every player turn, you want to go 1st, especially if you are running an alpha-strike list like Flyrant-spam.

3. You are going up against a very shooty army, especially one that can potentially cripple your army with their alpha-strike. This really depends on what type of list your opponent is running. Of the Eldar sample armies that I listed, only the Biker-spam build has an alpha-strike capability to be feared. The rest of the armies tend not to hit as hard until Turn 2...they are what we refer to as beta-strike armies.

Now with that said, in any game that involves Objectives or Secondaries with objectives, including Maelstrom Secondaries that score at the end of each Game Turn, going 2nd is usually more advantageous. Tyranids can actually be built to be highly resistant to enemy alpha-strike armies. With ample 2+ Shrouded cover available and perhaps even the protection of Void Shields, Tyranids are actually really resilient to most non-cover-ignoring armies. Thus, if you can take the initial hit, then opt to go 2nd for the final say on the objectives.

Target Prioritization: Target prioritization is always important no matter the army one goes up against. The question isn't whether you should prioritize your targets or not. It's how to prioritize them. Which should you focus on? Which should you ignore? In terms of target prioritization, I have 2 philosophies which I go by:

1. Kill the biggest threat that you reasonably can first. When I say threat, there are 3 main types - offensive, mobile and ObSec/scoring. The more of those traits the target possesses, the higher the priority it is. In this case, the Windrider jetbikes are usually one of the highest priority targets. They are an offensive threat with their tremendous firepower. They are highly mobile and they are also ObSec, which makes them always a threat to the objectives. However, certain threats - units like the Wraithknight and the Seer Council - I actually prioritize as low and I will explain why in my next target prioritizational point. Here are the threats and my assessment of their priority levels:

Highest Priority - Windrider Jetbikes, Wraithguards in a transport

High Priority - Warp Spiders, Scatter Walkers, Swooping Hawks, Vypers, Force-multiplier units (or FMU's, like the Avatar or isolated enemy psykers), CAD Eldar flyers, Transports for certain offensive units

Medium Priority - Crimson Death formation, Slower offensive units like Dark Reapers, Eldar foot infantry units, Eldar Heavy Support Tanks

Low Priority - Wraithlords, Vaul's Wrath Batteries, Wraithknight, Eldar deathstars like the Seer Council

2. Efficiency of Kill. Kill the threat that is easier to kill first. This is the main reason why I rate the Wraithknight and Eldar deathstars so low on the Priority scale. They are just so inefficient for Tyranids to try to kill. It takes 15 flyrants shooting just to kill 1 Wraithknight! That means that if you are running 3 flyrants, they would have to be shooting at him for 5 turns continuously just to kill him! Better to just ignore him. The Seer Council (or other Eldar deathstars) is potentially worse, especially if your opponent can get off psychic powers like Invisibility, Fortune and Conceal/Protect. DO NOT shoot at these types of units. Your best bet is to just ignore them and go after easier prey. If the psychic deathstar fails to get off its crucial powers (Fortune AND Invisibility), then you can go after it. Otherwise, forget about it.

Efficiency of Kill is also why I rate the lone Crimson Hunter as a higher priority than the Crimson Death formation. The solitary Crimson Hunter (from a CAD) and a Crimson Hunter from the Crimson Death formation both do the same amount of damage. However, the Crimson Death Crimson Hunter is twice as hard to kill, so between the 2, you kill the one that is easier to kill. That is why I set the regular hunter as a higher priority than one from the Crimson Hunter formation.

Also, between a biker squad and an Invisible biker squad, the normal biker squad would receive a higher priority on my kill list because it is much, much easier to kill. The Invisible unit of bikers drop down on my priority scale to perhaps a medium priority unit due to the sheer amount of effort it takes to kill the unit (of course you can always assault it to tie it up if you have a unit within assault range). Anytime you can buff up a unit with Invisibility or Fortune, that unit will drop on the priority scale unless there are no higher priority units for you to target.

Now there are always exceptions. Sometimes, you just need to kill a particular unit because he is claiming or contesting an objective. Sometimes, you need to kill a unit to deny your opponent a Tertiary objective (i.e. Linebreaker, Table Quarters). Sometimes, you want to kill a unit because it has the Warlord in it. Sometimes, you just can't get to those higher priority targets. Now extenuating circumstances aside, it is almost always better to go after the easier-to-kill high priority targets first and then work your way down the priority ladder after you've taken care of those threats.

Psychic Powers: Psychic powers can be useful against Eldar. However, if you are going up against the Seer Council, keep in mind that they are very good at shutting down psychic powers, thanks to the fact that they can re-roll 1 Deny attempt a turn per Farseer (there is some ambiguity here so make sure to discuss with your opponent beforehand) and the fact that a Seer Council usually start off with at least 11 Warp dice. Thus, do not overly rely on Psychic powers. Rather, look at it as a bonus if you get your power off. Also, if you can get a flyrant to within Shadows range of the Seer Council (and for some reason, they stay within Shadows range on their turn), then that could be useful. But again, do not overly rely on this tactic and only do it when there is not another more important task at hand (i.e. such as moving your flyrants into position to shoot up the rest of the army or to grab an objective).

Beware of BLOS Terrain. The new Eldar will be really good at using Blocking Line-of-Sight (BLOS) terrain to their advantage, just like the Tau. Do not let them hold such a terrain for long, especially if you have ground units or an objective within range of their shooting. If there are no higher-priority targets, then move a flyrant on top of the BLOS terrain where the Eldar are "hiding". This way, there will be no place for the Eldar unit to avoid your firepower. You will also force the Eldar opponent to deal with your flyrant as the more immediate threat as opposed to your more fragile ground units.

Plan Out the Flight Paths of your FMC's. When you move your flyers, you need to think about where you eventually want them to end up. You need to account for 1) enemy Reserves, 2) objectives, 3) ruins and cover and 4) what you think your opponent will do next.

1. Always be aware of what Reserves are left to come in for you opponent. Namely, you need to brace your flyers for Eldar units like Warp Spiders, outflanking Scatter Walkers and the Crimson Death/Eldar flyers coming in from Reserves if they haven't done so already. For example, if you are expecting enemy flyers to come in next turn, then try to move your flyrants into both ruins and Devourer range of enemy units. This way, when his flyers come in next turn, you are already in cover and do not need to jink. Another example would be to move your flyrants into your Void Shield Generator range if at all possible.

2. You must always be aware of where your objectives are when moving your flyers. This is especially true for Eternal War scenarios and on Turn 4. When you move your flyer on Turn 4, always keep him close to 1 or more objectives. This way, on Turn 5, he can just go into Gliding mode to take an objective. I can't state enough how many times I've seen a Tyranid player who gets so caught up in trying to kill his opponent's units (by chasing after them) that, by the time Turn 5 comes around, his flyrant is grossly out of position to grab an objective (or to get Linebreaker).

3. When going after the enemy, try to move your flyers into ruins if at all possible. This will save you from having to jink when your opponent shoots at your FMC on their turn.

4. Anticipate the movement of you opponent. The Eldar is super-fast. Many of their units have the ability and mobility to reposition themselves very quickly. As a Tyranid player, you need to anticipate how your Eldar opponent might react to your own movements. Most likely, the Eldar player is going to go directly behind you and force your FMC to either go into Glide mode to turn around or to fly off the table. Or they may turbo 36" to another BLOS terrain where there is another objective. In any case, give them space. For example, if you can move your flyrant such that you can stay about 18" from the enemy's entire unit (every enemy model is within 18" of your Devourers), then keep your distance. You don't need to move to within 1" of the enemy unless you plan to jump onto an objective that is behind them next turn. The more distance there is between your flyer and the enemy unit, the harder it will be for him to get behind your flyrant and the more time you will have to react to whatever your opponent does.

Play to the Objectives. I can't stress this enough. You need to be aware of your objectives at all times. In the game of 40K, as fun as it is to kill the enemy, in most cases you don't necessarily have to kill them to win the game. What you do need to do, however, is to accumulate points. Objectives are what will give you those points. At the beginning of every turn, you need to think about how you will achieve your objectives. This will determine how you will move your units and which enemy units you will need to take out. When you move your flyers, you need to take into consideration how they are going to take objectives when you plan out their flight paths (especially on Turn 4). Sometimes, killing enemy units will give you objective points, but more often than not, they won't. Do not get too caught up with trying to kill the enemy. Do so only if it furthers the goal to your objectives.

A good practice to do is, at the beginning of each of your turns, take a minute or 2 to review your objectives. Also, review your opponent's objectives as well to see what he needs to do - doing so will allow you to better anticipate his moves. Then take another minute or so to plan out what you need to do. Do not just jump headlong into your turn. Planning ahead will give you an advantage in the game if your opponent doesn't do the same.

Also, you need ground units to play most objective games, especially progressive objectives like Maelstrom objectives (progressive objectives are objectives that are scored at the end of every turn instead of at the end of the game). You really don't want to use your flyrants to land and grab objectives if you can avoid it. Against Eldar, a grounded flyrant in all likelihood is a dead flyrant. Better to let them kill you "chaff" units, the ground units, after you've scored the point already with them. Losing a 50-pt unit does not hurt your army nearly as much as losing a 230-pt flying unit.

Playing Against the Crimson Death Formation: The Crimson Death formation, which consists of 2 Crimson Hunters and 1 Crimson Exarch, will be the main source of anti-air for many competitive Eldar armies. It will also be the main threat against Tyranid flyers as each flyer can fire 4 S8 AP2 skyfire shots. Each Hunter can potentially take out 1 flyrant all by itself. As such, what can we as Tyranid players do against the formation? First of all, try to end your FMC's movement in ruins if at all possible. If not, then you can always jink but you will sacrifice the offense for that flyrant next turn. Secondly, psychic powers such as Catalyst or Paroxysm on the enemy flyer can help to mitigate the damage. Finally, consider flying off the table before the enemy flyers come in from Reserves. This way, you can come back in next turn to attempt to get the first strike against the Eldar flyers. Sometimes, you can even come back in within Void Shield or even venom/malanthrope protection range. This tactic will really depend on whether your FMC has another viable target on the ground first. If it doesn't, then the decision to fly off will be an easy one. If it does have a higher priority target to go after, then you've got a decision to make. If your flyrant is at full health, perhaps you can take the risk and leave him on the table, but if he is already wounded, then perhaps it may be better to live and fight another turn.

Now the question is, should you go after the Crimson Death flyers? If the Hunter jinks, it will take 27 twin-linked flyrant Devourer shots to take down a flyer (each flyrant will do 1.33HP of damage). That's a little over 2 flyrants just to shoot one down, meaning you need to have 3 flyrants shooting just to take out 1 Crimson Death flyer. Now, if the Hunter isn't from the Crimson Death formation, it only takes 1 flyrant (2.67HP) on average to take down the Eldar flyer. That is why I rank the Crimson Death flyers on a lower target priority level. It just isn't very efficient to go after them as it will take you double the firepower (triple if you count whole flyrants) just to take one down. The Efficiency of Kill is low. I would recommend you go after other units with a higher Efficiency of Kill (i.e. higher priority) factor if there are any.

Do Not Remind Your Opponent About Mysterious Objectives. Any time you play a flyer-heavy army, it is NOT in your best interest to play Mysterious Objectives, as that can give your opponent another tool to deal with your FMC's. However, in many cases, Mysterious Objectives are optional, even in competitive play. Also, in may cases, people oftentimes forget about Mysterious Objectives, just like they do sometimes about bringing in their Reserves or if they forget an entire phase (I've seen many people forget about their own Psychic phase, including myself). In any case, if your opponent forgets, then it is NOT your responsibility to remind him (just as if he forgets one of his own rules). Let him learn through his own mistakes.

Conclusion

Playing against Eldar for Tyranids begin as early as the list-building phase. Against the new Eldar, your Tyranid army needs resiliency. It needs to have mobility and it needs to incorporate some shooting. Fortunately for us, the Tyranid army has the tools to combat the space elves, and we can even do so with a balanced, Take-All-Comer's list. The two keys to our success against Eldar will be in our Flying Monstrous Creatures and in running Multiple-Small-Unit lists. The following is a sample of an 1850 Tyranid list that incorporates these characteristics, using both the Hive Fleet Leviathan Detachment and a standard Combined Arms Detachment. There are many others, of course.


CAD:
Dakka Flyrant - Egrubs
Dakka Flyrant - Egrubs

Malanthrope

3 Ripper Swarms - Deepstrike
3 Ripper Swarms - Deepstrike

Mawloc
Mawloc
Mawloc

Void Shield Generator - 3x Void Shields

Hive Fleet Leviathan:
Dakka Flyrant - Egrubs
Dakka Flyrant - Egrubs

Lictor
Lictor
Lictor

1 Mucolid
1 Mucolid
1 Mucolid


Building a good list is 1/3rd of the battle. The rest is 1/3rd dice and 1/3rd tactics. The dice, you really can't do anything about that. What you can control, however, is your in-game tactics, and the two most important tactics against Eldar are proper target prioritization and to never lose sight of your objectives. Building the right list gives you the tools to play to the objectives. However, you still must focus on the objectives and plan your moves and target prioritizations relative to your objectives. Kill off his fast, offensive threats to eliminate his capability to hurt your army or to play to his objectives, but do so with the units that are easier to kill off first. The more units you can quickly take out, the better it will be for your army. Why kill the Wraithknight with 15 flyrants shooting, when that amount of firepower can lay waste to 5-8 different units instead, as well as his capability to grab 5-8 objectives instead? Follow these tactics and you stand a decent chance to beat the new Eldar. Even if you don't beat them, I guarantee that you will give them a great fight for their money.

Going to the Alamo GT in a few weeks. Going to run nidzilla and just have fun, possibly annoy people with a win or two lol. Here is my list :

Dakka Flyrant
Dakka Flyrant
Rippers with deep strike
Rippers
Tyrannofex in a pod with flamer
Dakka Fex in a pod

Dakka Flyrant
Dakka Flyrant
Dakka Flyrant
3 Mucolids

I know this is not a good maelstrom army, but eh I'll have fun with it. Anyone here going?