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So with 5th ed, and looking at the many unused falcon hulls lying around my bits box from excessive ebay ordering, I have thrown my mind to what I like to call the "serpent storm". It would be the swordwind, but I don't play biel tan..

HQ
210 Eldrad
90 Autarch w/ power weapon/mandiblasters [lol]
225 [8] Warlocks - 2xEmbolden, 1xEnhance
125 Serpent#1 - SC, SS, SE

Elite
150 [8] Banshees - Exarch: Mirrorswords [coupled with Doom of course]
125 Serpent#2 - SC, SS, SE

97 [5] Dragons - Exarch: Crack Shot, fusion gun/flamer [can't decide]
120 Serpent#3 - EML

Troop
120 [10] DAs
120 Serpent#4 - EML

120 [10] DAs
120 Serpent#5 - EML

60 [5] DAs
120 Serpent#6 - EML

TOTAL - 1802

With 3 bikes [no cannon] comes to 1868...

Otherwise, this list packs a huge punch CC-wise, as well as large amounts of firepower. For the Serpent armaments I cant quite decide what is most efficient, or what mixture of what is best. As far as unit choices I see room for improvement, but am happy with the basic idea. I would almost like to drop Eldrad for a normal farseer, especially considering he doesn't have fleet. But Eldrad is so awesome. Someone please convince me otherwise

Looking at the points, downgrading Eldrad to a fortune/doomseer with runes would let me buy 3 war walkers with SC..worth it? Playing an aggressive council, banshees and dragons, shooting at the walkers could be fairly low priority..

All comments and suggestions welcome!!

There is NO way that any farseer is worth buying instead of Eldrad. The only lists that should have a farseer instead od Eldrad are Eldar jetbike lists. Due to "run" in 5th, Eldrad is just as fast as a farseer and his "divination" ability is even more important to your build in 5th. If you win the roll to set up first and divine 2-5 units after your opponent is set then go first, you have a HUGE advantage.

I would agree on dropping Eldrad. Apart from the fluff reasons, you're not going to get to use his start-of-turn powers when he hops out of his serpent, and that's where much of his strength comes from.

To that end drop the warlocks too. They won't be fortuned when they hop out and that means they'll be cut to pieces (4+ isn't that great by itself). And though they wound easily, their relatively low number of attacks and lack of power weapons means they'll suck in CC. Really, there are only a few units that are tough to wound yet have a crappy save that makes it worth it to cause wounds that don't break armor. They're a good anti-tank unit, but get more dragons if that's what you need. This is a 600+ pt unit that will never carry its weight.

I think you are both right in saying Eldrad's divination is key, but the fact that for many missions I hope to deploy this whole army in reserve...it doesn't really help. Not to mention that aside from Doom and Fortune, his other powers won't help me all that much, they just add some nice perks.

As for the warlocks being only 4+, its true, but it would only be for one turn, after that they would be eternally fortuned [you can cast psychic powers inside serpents now, remember]. Which makes them a lot harder.
Combat wise, 8 warlocks plus a farseer is 18 WS5 attacks that always wound on 2s, or 27 on the charge - that is nothing to sniff at, especially when more troops and more hordes are expected. Add to that the autarchs 5-6 power weapon attacks and that is a very nasty unit! With doom on their foe, literally all hits will wound, and the autarch will likely get 2-3 wounds in as well. Nothing to sniff at if you ask me, but I guess I could get a squad of banshees instead....

I think it has been ruled that models in transports are on the table, but do not have line of sight to anything but the transport and their own unit if there are no fire points. As such, Eldrad can fortune himself inside the serpent, and then hop out with his 3++ re-rollable save.

To quote someone from dakka, in 5th edition Eldrad can fly around in a serpent punching out Doom like movie tickets. There is absolutely no way this is illegal, and is a very viable tactic.
But bringing this up doesn't really contribute to the thread, sorry.

Anyone have any experience playing with or against an army like this at all?

deadlygopher wrote:I
To that end drop the warlocks too. They won't be fortuned when they hop out and that means they'll be cut to pieces (4+ isn't that great by itself).

They can be fortuned inside the transport; here you are talking about 4th ed.
The army generally looks fine. Some details should be changed: Take each Warlock power twice, due to wound allocation in 5th ed.
The Banshee Exarch should have an executioner. The Dragons don't need an Exarch when they go tank hunting. I'd give all Serpents stones and dual shuricannons or scatterlasers.