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The goal of this army is to combine the durability and firepower of wraithlords with the mobility of mounted biel tan.

The aspects will target specific enemy units and take them out early, while the firebase of wraithlords, guardians and avatar will advance slowly in time to support the aspects while in the meantime laying down some serious firepower.

I have about 20 points left to spend, any suggestions?


HQ – 245

1xAvatar – 155
1xAutarch w power weapon, mandiblasters – 90
[goes with banshees]

TROOPS - 302

10xDefenders w/ Starcannon platform- 105
1xspirit seer w/ conceal- 46

10xDefenders w/ Starcannon platform- 105
1xspirit seer w/ conceal- 46

ELITES - 929

10xFire Dragons; exarch w/ firepike - 180
-1xWaveserpent w/ Brightlances and spirit stones – 145

10xStriking Scorpions; exarch w/ biting blade – 177
-1xWaveserpent w/ Scatter lasers and spirit stones – 125

10xHowling Banshees; exarch w/ triskele - 177
-1xWaveserpent w/ Scatter lasers and spirit stones - 125

FAST ATTACK – 70

1xVyper w/ Scatter laser and shuriken cannon – 70

HEAVY SUPPORT - 435

1xWraithlord w/ Starcannon, Scatter laser – 140
1xWraithlord w/ Starcannon, Scatter laser – 140
1xWraithlord w/ EML, Brightlance - 155

TOTAL – 1981
Infantry: 53
Monsterous Creatures: 4
Vehicles: 4

Starcannons: 4
Scatter Lasers: 5
Brightlance: 2
EML: 1
Shuriken cannon: 1

I wonder about the usefulness of mounted assault troops that are not in a land raider or open topped vehicle. I think you would do better to use a combination of shooty (fire dragons and maybe dire avengers) and a fast assaulting unit like harlequins and shing spears instead of just a straight mounted assault unit.

Since this is a swordwind force i would recommend the follwing... drop the guardians fo rmin sized DA units.... that saves you about 180 points... drop the vyper (up to 250 savings)..... drop the exarch from your aspect warriors and make them all fire dragons (up to 304 in savings)....

Use the saved points to make a crazy HTH autarch on bike. Add a unit of shining spears to ride with him and add more BL to your wraithlords. Perhaps depending on the points costs switch some or all of the star cannons to the wave serpents.

Also, in this configuration ask if you need an avatar. The 155 would be well spent on a small group of 6 pathfinders. 

Just my two cents.

ender502

In response to Ender: IMHO the usefulness of Eldar assault troops mounted in wave serpents is that they assault enemy positions and kill enemy models while remaining safe against enemy counterfire. Unlike dragons, who tend to be a suicide unit that has to depend on catching their targets out of cover, banshees and scorpions can dig the enemy units out from wherever they may be and survive to assault again or grab an objective.

The army concept should work fine. The long-range shooting stuns and distracts enemy antitank weapons while the assault troops move in an gut the key units. Just a few tweaks suggested:

If you send the autarch with the banshees and they assault a unit in cover, the banshees will all be going at I10, while the autarch goes at I6. So the opponent just has to pull the model(s) in base with the autarch at the I10 step and he loses all his attacks. If the autarch will be fighting alongside banshees, he also needs a mask.

Because there are no falcons to soak up extra fire, the wave serpents will take a lot of shooting. So I strongly recommend both vectored and star engines. Without, a serpent that takes a glancing hit has a 1/3 chance of being destroyed, killing 37.5% of the banshees or 25% of the scorpions inside and automatically entangling them, breaking up your assault and stranding them for the follow-up shooting. Those are crappy odds.
For the minimal cost of vectored engines, that percentage on each glance is cut in half--only a glancing 6 will do the job, so it's like a permamntly-smoked rhino with AR12 and an energy field. Even if the serpent is immobilized (and assuming it's not penetrated or destroyed by subsequent shooting), the troops inside don't have to get out--they can disembark, move, fleet and assault next turn from the immobilized serpent.
The star engines are necessary for positioning the serpent in the spot where (1) the number of things shooting at it will be minimized and (2) the troops inside can still move-fleet-assault in the following turn even if it is immobilized. So that's within 14" of the back hatch for scorpions (the move through cover power is useful on the exarch for assaulting into cover) and 15" for banshees. Without star engines, your assault usually can't happen before turn 3 at the earliest. But with them, the assault can happen in turn 2, saving your transports from a whole turn of being shot at.
Finally, since the serpents won't be shooting very much, you can downgrade their weapons to pay for the survivability upgrades. Personally I find that a shuriken cannon is plenty for a wave serpent.
And even more finally, when your assault troops are countercharged by something with T5+--daemon princes, TMCs, bikes, etc--you will really really wish you had given your exarchs high strength power weapons like a scorpion claw or executioner.

Posted By Flavius Infernus on 12/20/2006 7:48 AM
In response to Ender: IMHO the usefulness of Eldar assault troops mounted in wave serpents is that they assault enemy positions and kill enemy models while remaining safe against enemy counterfire. Unlike dragons, who tend to be a suicide unit that has to depend on catching their targets out of cover, banshees and scorpions can dig the enemy units out from wherever they may be and survive to assault again or grab an objective.

Does this all happen before or after they pile out of the wave serpent and wait to get double tapped by bolter fire?

As you may have noticed I recommended the dragons inconjunction with spears or another foot slogging (if that term can ever apply to eldar) assault unit. The dragons hide behind the resulting CC.

ender502

Before, I guess. It goes like this:

Eldar turn 1: move serpents up to within a few inches of what you want to assault, but troops don't disembark.
Enemy turn 1: The serpent weathers one turn of enemy fire.
Eldar turn 2: Assuming the transport is still intact, the troops disembark from their transport (2" and move (6" . The serpent is now free to move off on its own. The troops then fleet, if applicable (d6" and then assault (6" .

So the guys with the bolters don't get to shoot at the assault troops because they're still inside the transport. They don't get out until they're ready to assault.

Ah, I see what you're getting at. Off the top of your head do you remember the length of a wave serpent? The reason I ask is that the average assault moves must be calculated less the length of the wave serpent. (Unless, that is you have presented the weaker rear armor in the first turn move. )

Given the length of the serpent the charge would be shorter and give an opportunity for your opponents to run and then double tap.

We aren't even going into a question of whether or not the opponent has set up in such a fashion that a 1st turn move wouldn't bring you nose to nose with the target squad.

I like the combined arms approach better myself.

ender502

 

A forge world wave serpent is 7" from hatch to nose (I don't have any of the GW ones to measure). But if you angle it you can cut the extra distance to as little as about 5". Using two serpents with their hatches angled toward each other lets you turn a bit further and protects the hatches from either being blocked by ground movement, since enemy models can't move through the gap that's less than 3" but your troops can still move out, and also keeps anybody from getting in position for a rear shot, since they have to go the long way around the serpent. You can protect the back hatches from being blocked by enemy flyers with some bikes, a vyper, or another grav tank.

If you don't get into position in turn one (with star engines), then just lurk up behind terrain and do it in turn two.

If enemy units move up to fire, they are even easier to assault. If they move away, you might have to chase after them for another turn, but eventually they'll get cornered against the table edge and you're cutting into their firepower by making them move.

This isn't a new tactic--I been doing this with falcons since the release of 4th ed. The difference is that vectored engines make it more feasible to do with wave serpents also.  And it is combined arms.  The only difference is that the assault troops are mounted in grav tanks instead of on bikes.

I see what you're going for. Though I intensely dislike having to stage an assault outa the wave serpents. I am sure it is workable but I prefer the shooty way. No waiting. Just barrel out, shoot and let the second unit deal with the remainders (versus 10 FD there are not likely to be many of those... a single HTH autarch could possibly be enough to handle the remanants)

or.... if you just need to hold the unit up pile a squad of swooping hawks into them.

Didn't know you were from Brooklyn. I was raised there. Though living in Steelers ville now.

ender502

 

Yeah, I'm for keeping the fire dragons in this list, but I think a single unit (maybe as small as 8 models) is ample for knocking out a big threat or shooting up a countercharge unit in conjunction with the other shooting and assault.

I'm from Texas actually, but enjoying living in Brooklyn. I play at Warmongers. Probably we played at a tournament or something before.

8 Dragons will generally do quite nicely. I think the rest is a matter of taste. Just wish spears weren't so butt ugly.

You are more likely to run into my brother. He's working on Tau right now. He used to play chaos at the 8th street GW and at the place up on ....23rd st. on the west side.