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Hi All,

After playing a few test games and considering the (very helpful) feedback I got on my last post here, I've revised my Mech Eldar setup. Your comments and criticism (both list design and tactical advice) appreciated. I particularly need help with a possible unit swap- see just below the list, please. Thanks for your help Dakkaites!



Eldrad 210
8 Warlocks, 1 enhance, 1 embolden, 2 Destructor 240
Wave Serpent, stones, VE, TL BL 165

Yriel 155
10 DAs incl Exarch with PW/SS, Bladestorm, Defend 177
Wave Serpent, stones, VE, TL BL 165

10 DAs incl Exarch with PW/SS, Bladestorm, Defend 177
Wave Serpent, stones, TL BL 145

10 DAs 120
Wave Serpent, stones, TL EML, shuricannon 145

11 Storm Guard incl 2x flamers, Warlock with Destructor 135
Wave Serpent, stones, TL shuricannon 110

6 Pathfinders 144


Fire Prism, stones, holo 160
Fire Prism, stones, 125
Fire Prism, stones 125


2491 points, 5 Troops choices, 17 KP under 'Ard Boyz KP rules. 2 countercharge units (Eldrad with the Council, Yriel with one of the PW/SS Avenger units). CC units, Avengers with PW/SS and Storm Guardians go after heavily-contested objectives. Prisms with holos close in a bit, shooting. Prism without holos stays at extreme range. Transports make a nuisance of themselves after the drop-off.


One thing I am not totally sold on is the Pathfinders, a very static unit, in the mobile list. Even with the 2+ save, if I start the rest of the army off the battlefield the 'Finders are going to be a big target for heavy bolters, etc. They might be well-covered enough for this not to matter, but it makes me nervous. I was considering scrapping the Pathfinders and the Prism without holos in favor of:

10 DAs 120
Wave Serpent, stones, TL BL 145



What do you all think?

It's actually 20 KPs--the warlock unit counts as another HQ unit for 3 more KPs on the total. But 20 is not bad.

Pathfinders can be good for camping your own objective while the rest of your army drives off to get others. Problem is nearly everybody's army has some kind of fast/outflanking unit designed to go root out things like pathfinders with assaults or flamer templates. But your results may vary depending on opponents.

Alternately pathfinders can also outflank to grab a remote objective in cover as long as there's nothing nearby or you're facing a static shooting army.

Finally, an idea I've toyed with but not tried, is if you're willing to trade in a prism for a falcon, putting the pathfinders into it makes it a scoring unit. The falcon and pathfinders can spend the first couple of turns sitting at the back firing off volleys, then when the pathfinder-killer unit turns up or gets close, they mount up and fly off to claim objectives.

Wave Serpent, stones, TL EML 110

Is this points cost right? I estimate this to be roughly 130 points rather than 110.

Daba wrote:

Wave Serpent, stones, TL EML 110

Is this points cost right? I estimate this to be roughly 130 points rather than 110.

D'oh- right you are. I'll fix that- thanks. Guess I'd better double-check everything, but I think that's the only math error. I wish there was a Mac version of Armybuilder.

Flavius Infernus wrote:It's actually 20 KPs--the warlock unit counts as another HQ unit for 3 more KPs on the total. But 20 is not bad.

I thought it had been FAQ'ed that retinues and character were a single unit for KP, with the specific example of Farseer and Warlocks? I'll look that up.

Finally, an idea I've toyed with but not tried, is if you're willing to trade in a prism for a falcon, putting the pathfinders into it makes it a scoring unit. The falcon and pathfinders can spend the first couple of turns sitting at the back firing off volleys, then when the pathfinder-killer unit turns up or gets close, they mount up and fly off to claim objectives.

Hmm- I might try that in a friendly, but it seems a bit points-intensive for 'Ard Boyz. Thanks for the idea, though.

I think you should drop the Holofields off the Prisms, and get more Rangers.

I'd also swap every single serpent over to BL. No Fire Dragons seems a critical mistake when you realize just how many LR (and Black Templar Blessed Hull) armies are liable to show up.

I stand corrected on my KP correction. I hadn't seen the FAC until just a minute ago.

Stelek wrote:I think you should drop the Holofields off the Prisms, and get more Rangers.

I'd also swap every single serpent over to BL. No Fire Dragons seems a critical mistake when you realize just how many LR (and Black Templar Blessed Hull) armies are liable to show up.

Good ideas. My original list was like that, and I will probably return to it for regionals. I'm playing at a 10-person qualifier where I anticipate facing at least 2 other Mech Eldar armies, double-Lith 'Crons, and 1-2 Land Raider armies (Nurgle for sure, possibly one Imperial). I'll be playtesting against the Plague Marine Land Raider army tonight, and if it's a problem I will indeed up the BLs, probably at the expense of the holos.

Just got the day off work. Looks like this list will get more testing than I thought!

First off, the pathfinders are fine. Leave them in your deployment zone on an objective and the'll be there for a while. It takes ~64 heavy bolter shots (21 rounds of shooting 1, or about 3 rounds of shooting 7 different heavy bolters) to kill them on average, or about 81 regualr bolter shot. That's an insane ammount of fire power to kill off one unit of troops. If the enemy wastes that kind of effort on them, then the enemy deservest to kill them off. In either case you're scouts will never be alone because there will be 3 fire prisms hanging around in your back field for most if not all of the game. The only thing the pathfinders have to worry about is drop units with flamers (and outflankers with flamers I guess if you put them too close to a board edge). Other than that, you'll see everything else comming and have pleanty of opurtunity to prism it to death long before it becomes an issue for your pathfinders.

I'm not personally sold on the effectiveness of Yuriel in a non-hand to hand squad. Yes he adds some much needed punch, but I can't help but think you could get a better deal by just buying another hand to hand squad. Maybe squeeze in some banshees and ditch the storm guardians. Something like that. In general though you'll need to keep in mind that dire avengers are not good in hand to hand. With the upgrades you've given them, they can stick around in hand to hand, but they still don't do any damage and the only things you got that do damage in hand to hand are Yuriel (sort of) and your seer council.

All in all, I think this list will do great against orcs and horde nids, draw (more or less) against another mech eldar list, struggle against MEQ armies, and die horibly to lance spam dark eldar.

Thanks for the commentary, Pheonix. I'll consider the Banshees, but I've been going knee-jerk for tons of Troops choices lately. Maybe Banshees sans Exarch will be more effective. Hmm. Perhaps that many DA squads have diminishing returns, too. I might actually scrub the naked DAs and the holo on the Prism instead of the Stormies, and trade them in for 8+ Banshees.

I'll be testing at least twice against MEQ before tomorrow, I hope. It's Necrons that I'm particularly in the dark about- I'll just have to go for phase-out and try to catch and kill any Res Orb lords with Yriel. I've got no hope whatsoever against Monoliths, short of catching them with the Council.

As for lance spam DE, I guess that'll be the rock to my scissors. I'll just minimize damage and kill all Troops should I face that, then try to tie.

Well neutralizing Pathfinders doesn't require a ton of shooting. You can dislodge them by killing 2 and making them take a morale test. They aren't LD10 after all.

Armies that are facing Mech Eldar and can't hurt your Mech, will indeed fire on your pathfinders.

So increase the squad size. That's good enough to keep them around, and that's the real goal.

Making them unkillable isn't. Ensuring your scoring unit is scoring at the end of the game, is.

Savnock wrote:I might actually scrub the naked DAs and the holo on the Prism instead of the Stormies, and trade them in for 8+ Banshees.

In general, I'm fond of holofields on prisms. If you look at the mathhammer:

BS4 S9 AP2 weapon (marine las cannon) = 18% chance to get a destroyed, explodes or weapon destroyed result on a prisim
BS4 S8 AP3 weapon (marine missile launcher) = 13% chance to get a destroyed, explodes or weapon destroyed result on a prisim
BS3 S7 heavy 2 weapon (IG autocannon) = ~11% chance to get a destroyed, explodes or weapon destroyed result on a prisim

now if you run the numbers again witha holofield

BS4 S9 AP2 weapon (marine las cannon) = 11% chance to get a destroyed, explodes or weapon destroyed result on a prisim
BS4 S8 AP3 weapon (marine missile launcher) = 7% chance to get a destroyed, explodes or weapon destroyed result on a prisim
BS3 S7 heavy 2 weapon (IG autocannon) = ~7% chance to get a destroyed, explodes or weapon destroyed result on a prisim

So they just about double your survivability (and this is considering a weapon destroyed result as being efficivly killed). Of course cover doubles your survivability so its better than a holofield if you can get it. Of course, they are not mutialy exclusive either so you could go for both. Just my 2 cents on things.

I dont like them because thats 105 points you could spend on your army. 345 points is a steal for 3 prisms, considering what you get.

I absolutely like this army. The Uber Council rocks. Let Yriel go with the Council. They can take on two enemy squads simultaneously: Yriel goes solo after disembarking and charges a doomed unit, while the Council takes on another squad nearby. Yriel's wrath should kill the squad and he could consolidate so that he's with 2'' of the Council annihilating their enemy. In this way, Yriel is safe counting as being joined.

You can only join during movement, not any other time.

Guess you are right. But still, killing two squads at a time with one squad disembarking from the same transport is a nice prospect.