Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This was made as a meq killing list in which most of the games played are to the death. Not sure how balanced it is, but it seems like a fun list to play. None of my current armies require so much menuever.

HQ

1 Autarch - jetbike, mandiblasters, lance and fusion gun 140

1 Farseer - jetbike, spirit stones, runes of witnessing, guide, fortune and mind war 185

Elites

6 Harlequins - 6 kisses and 1 fusion pistol 142

Troops

6 Guardian jetbikes - 2 shuriken cannons 152

6 Guardian jetbikes - 2 shuriken cannons 152

Fast

3 Shining spears - exarch 117

Heavy

1 Falcon - starcannon, vectored engines, spirit stones and holo-fields 205

1 Falcon - starcannon, vectored engines, spirit stones and holo-fields 205

5 Dark reapers - exarch and fast shot 207

1505

I realize the model count is dangerously low, but I play on a large terrain heavy board with plenty of buildings. The guardian bikers play snipe and shoot using their speed to stay out of close combat. The falcons deliver the harlequins into combat while decimating any units that might pose a major threat to my bikers and generally thin out my foes units. Depending on available firelanes and deployment zone size the reapers either stand and shoot from turn one or take the second falcon to a better position. While the enemy units are weakened the spears led by the autarch and farseer will wipe out small and isolated units.

It certainly isn't perfect, but with some smart tactics it seems it would work well against a largely infantry meq army. I've played eldar in the past, but this is my first foray with the new dex. I've had it since its release I just haven't tryed it out. Is there any major flaws with my units or tactics? I realize I'm a bit short of antitank power, but if any of my mates go treadhead I can always lose a few points and give one falcon a bright lance.

Just off the top of my head, if the Dark Reapers are the only infantry squad on the board they are going to get smoked, altho 3+ and a cover save will make your opponent work for it.

What are you guiding? Reapers or Falcon? It seems to me you could be using your points better between two Falcons, Reapers and the Psychic powers. Maybe another squad of Harlies if your opponents don't mind some proxies.

I think you really need to decide what you want your Farseer to do. Right now he has 3 psi powers and that means that 1 is always going to go to waste every turn. If you want him running around with the jet bikes, then drop guide and just have him fortune them and use mind war to pop heavy/special weapons out of the squads they shoot at. If you want him to support your reapers, then drop the spirit stones, fortune, mind war, and the jet bike and just have him hang with them using guide. If you try to give him too many jobs to do all at once, you will just be dumping a lot of points into a really juicy target that's not really going to gain too much extra effectiveness from it. If you think you may be facing an enemy psiker, you may also want to pick up runes of warding.

As for the dark reapers, I would keep them. They pour out an incredible amount of anti infantry firepower. If you end up with an escalation game, just drop them down in the back of your deployment zone in cover. Its unlikely your opponent will have much if anything that can threaten them before your other units start showing up. If you are really worried about them, you can always deploy them behind cover, but then you waste a turn or two getting into position.

One area you are very weak on is anti tank. At the moment you don't have anything to deal with armor from outside of 12". Unfortunately, your theme doesn't really leave you room to put in anything to really help you out with this. If you have a vyper around, you might be able to shave off enough points from your farseer, drop a couple of falcon upgrades (vectored engines), and maybe lose the reaper exarch (or the shining spear exarch) in favor of just a regular aspect warrior and fit it in. Just a thought. But regardless of what you do, remember that tanks are going to cause you problems.
All in all, it looks like it should be a fun army to play. I wouldn't expect it to do extreamly well but it shouldn't do bad either.

I'd drop the Farseer. He's too expensive for what he can afford.
With the points saved, you could add a 5 men Pathfinder squad plus 2 Shining Spears.

I prefer my jetbike squads to be small, flexible and easy to hide. I would make them into four squads of 3. They will be easier to hide on a terrain heavy board.
If your board is terrain heavy, your Dark Reapers will be idle most of the time as they cannot both move and shoot. I would take three warwalkers with missile launchers and scatter lasers.
Three powers for a standard farseer is points wasted. If the harlequins don't do their stuff in the first assault they busted, so I would skip the fortune.

I think spreading the guardian bikers out is a good idea. I'll drop guide from the seer. I've considered dumping him completely, but the spear/autarch unit is tiny and even a small meq unit could wipe them out if lucky. With mind war I can kill a champion with power weapon before going into combat and fortune ensures only the most unlucky biker dies. I know its a lot of points in one unit, but it is my main assault unit. The harlies can be mean but draw a lot of attention (I'm hoping on it) and don't tend to survive in small numbers long. I'm a bit conflicted about the reapers. While our boards are terrain heaby there is always one or two decent firelanes. And any part of the board my oponnent refuses to use gives me more opportunities to snipe at him with bikers and falcons.

You mencheoned putting on Bright lances for your falcon for extra anti-tank but, DON"T PUT BRIGHT LANCES/EML ON YOUR FALCON, sorry for the caps but it's important since you cannot fire two str8 weapons from the vehicle if it moves over 6" which it always should.

In a terrain heavy board, to ensure that the reapers are a wee bit more useful, equip the Exarch with a Shuriken Cannon. With the FastShot power, he can at least fire off 4 shots while the squad moves to a better firing position.

. . . or you could just give him the Tempest launcher instead, a much better idea.

Seriously, when would you want Dark Reapers to move within 24" of the enemy?

Because the tempest is a heavy 'move or shoot' weapon and the cannon isn't?

With the shuriken cannon, if the unit has to move ( either due to lack of targets, or an incoming unit of enemies), then at least they can get off some shots while they are in motion.

Other armies with heavy weapons, like SM, have other weapons present in the squad so that when they move, at least some of the troops can fire, even if the heavy can't. With the Reapers, the cannon is the only weapon that allows them this tactical flexibilty.

Let's look at the two reasons why they'd need to move.

1) Lack of targets: Tempest launcher.

2) Incoming enemies: I'm not the biggest Reaper user now, but I played a number of games with them in 3rd ed., and never once did I end up having to move my Reapers. Either I had babysitters around to head off the attackers, allowing the Reapers to continue firing, or all the babysitters were dead and there was no way in hell 6" a turn would get the Reapers to safety. I'd rather have them get off one last good turn of shooting than have them spend 1-2 turns attempting a hopeless retreat, shuricannon plinking or no.

Besides, that "flexibility" costs you 67 points. For 5 more, you'd have a squad of jetbikes who can JSJ and fire their shuricannon every turn, not just turns where things go wrong.

Different combat philosophies I guess. reaper launchers are good, but I prefer to be able to throw rounds down range, even if on the move. Not saying I hop my reapers around like rabbits, but they do sometimes have to move ( even if it is just to get the cramps out of their legs lol ).

How are you figuring the 67 point cost?

Um, I took the cost of a Dark Reaper, added the cost for the Exarch upgrade, then added the cost of the Fast Shot power. Try it, it's easy.

Yes, being able to shoot even when moving is nice, but not when the cost of it could get you a whole other unit to shoot for you instead, and do it every turn. It could even be thrown in the path of the incoming unit as a speedbump, removing the immediate necessity for the Reapers to move in the first place.

OK, vs 87 for reaper with FS and tempest launcher.
or 67 without FS and with tempest.

c'est la. different strokes.

The difference is that your Reaper Exarch gives nothing that can't be gotten more efficiently elsewhere, where my (theoretical, as Reapers are no longer part of my list) Reaper Exarch gives something that cannot be gotten anywhere else in the list.

Truth be told, though, I'd rather not field an Exarch at all. He just isn't very efficient compared to normal Reapers. My point is that your attempted solution for the shots lost when Reapers have to move is horrendously inefficient.

Oh, and another point I forgot to mention: you've been talking up the 4 S6 shots you'll get as compared to the 0 you'd get otherwise while on the move, but have you considered the shots you're giving up almost every single turn due to range issues, or that have severely diminished effectiveness due to their poor AP?

Thank you for this discussion, though. I never thought anyone would ever make an argument for shuricannons on Exarchs. If anyone else had posted it, I would have thought it a joke. I guess I really have seen everything now. What next, TL weapons on Wraithlords?