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Just started with Eldar, wanted to put together a larger list to see what I needed to buy. This is what I'm looking at at the moment, so feel free to critique away. The general plan was to use the Wraithguard unit with the farseer attached and the two Wraithlords to form a very hard 'center', while the rest of the army works around them either push the enemy into them, or pick them apart if they spread out to avoid the large durable force.

Maugan Ra is meant to join up with the Harelquins to combine fire with the Deathjester for a mobile, high rate of fire point that can easily handle itself in close combat as well. Kind of a back/mid field trouble shooting force.

I also planned to use the same general 'force' for smaller games by removing units to scale it down. 1500 points, removing the Warwalker, Ra, the Harlequins, and Pathfinders.

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1995 Points

HQ Farseer - 123 pts w/singing spear and spirit stones; Doom & Fortune Powers

HQ Maugan Ra - 195 pts

***

Elite Striking Scorpions - 148 pts
5 Striking Scorpions
1 Exarch w/Scorpion's Claw, Shadowstrike & Stalker Powers

Elite Harlequin Troupe - 146 pts
3 Harlequins w/ Kiss
1 Shadowseer w/Kiss
1 Deathjester

***

Troop Storm Guardians - 265 pts
9 Storm Guardians w/pistol and CCW
2 Storm Guardians w/Flamer
1 Warlock w/witchblade & destructor
Transport: Waveserpent, TL EML, TL shuriken catapults, spirit stones

Troop Dire Avengers - 282 pts
9 Dire Avengers
1 Exarch w/ dual catapults & Bladestorm power
Transport: Waveserpent, TL EML, TL shuriken catapults, spirit stones

Troop Rangers - 120 pts
5 Ranger Pathfinders

Troop Wraithguard - 396 pts
10 Wraithguard
1 Spiritseer w/conceal

***

Hvy Support Wraithlord - 140 pts
2 flamers, Brightlance, wraithsword

Hvy Support Wraithlord - 140 pts
2 flamers, Brightlance, wraithsword

Hvy Support War Walker - 40 pts
2 Shuriken Cannon

Thanks for not only posting up your list but also mentioning your basic game plan with it. That helps a lot in giving you direction and suggestions for the army.

That being said, I think the army needs a bit of work.

Having tried the combo of Maugan Ra and Quins, I must say that I’m unimpressed. Yes you have a neat little squad that has a fair amount of shooty power, but it also costs 350 points. Quite frankly, you’d be better off spending those points elsewhere. I would recommend dropping Maugan Ra and the death jester in favor of simply getting more quins with kisses.

Next up is your hand to hand squads. These units are going to be necessary to keep your wraithguard out of trouble. While the wraithguard are very tough, they suck in hand to hand so you’ll need a hand to hand unit to bail them out. Quins work great for this since they can just stay behind the wraithguard till they need to move up and engage. The key point with them is that the quins have the wraithguard as a buffer between them and anything that might try to zoom up and shoot while also being immune to long range shooting. Scorpions would also work by simply being tough to kill (probably requiring the fortune from the farseer in order to survive properly). In either case, I wouldn’t hit the field with less than 8 members in any kind of hand to hand unit and in most cases I would run 10.

The only other thing that really stands out as needing attention is your war walker. 1 bare bones war walker isn’t going to accomplish much other than being a minor distraction for your opponent (and giving up a kill point in missions that use them). To this end, I would recommend dropping it and using the points elsewhere (like on your hand to hand units). The only reason to keep it would be if you find that it is valuable enough of a distraction to warrant the 40 points.

Other than that, your army looks solid and it seems that you have a good plan for how you want to use it.

Thanks for the input

Yea I really was kinda at a loss for those last few points, hence the Walker.

As for Maugan and co, I was kind of concerned with the cost. But it did give 7 to 8 strength six pinning shots, half of those rending which was why I wasn't sure about whether or not it was worth it. Maugan Ra makes me side, definitely my favorite of the Phoenix Lords but I can't see where he fits in. His weapon being assault and his excellent str seem to make it rather a waste to stick him in a squad of his own Aspect.

Might remove him and use his points to add a member or two to the Scorpions/Quins and beef up the War Walker squad.

Wraithguard do not suck in close combat. Thier just so much more kick-ass shooting so you need that counter assault unit to help out.

As a note - the shuriken cannon upgrade to the serpents (after youve bought the TL-EML) are not twin-linked. They replace the TL-shuri cats as a single weapon.

The pathfinders are a little out of place.

The quins with mr.Ra are good as they can act independantly on a different flank - they dont nessicarily have to be used as a counter-charge unit for the wraithguard, the wraithlords do this well on thier own. Id suggest buying a kiss for the shadow-seer. Thier shooty, untargetable & thus extremely resilient and very strong in CC thanks to the harlies rules & a v.hard pheonix lord. You may want to concider detatching him from the squad the turn they charge in to make full use of the harlies powers & to allow him to remain fearless & make full use of no-retreat wounds & a 2+ save.

The scorpains could do with a 5man boost provide by 80pts from the pathfinders. The remaining 40pts can bag you another war-walker.. & these guys im sure are small enough to be granted a cover save from the tall wraithguard & are tall enough themselves to fire over the top. Not that it matters with AP5 weaponary but hey, gaunt attack!

Oh, as a side not - Yes Mr.Ra is expensive but being able to ignore cover & get a possible armor pen of 15 is never a bad thing, combined. Likewise an assault 5 36" rending pinning weapon with a BS of 7 is just awesome. More realistically getting a glance on a hammer-head ignoring those disruption pods will make any tau player scared... which if you think about it leaves them nothing to do except assault with kroot or try and move into anti shadow-seer range. << Purely as an example

Looks quite good.
Combining the shots of a DJ and Maugan Ra seems good on paper, but it isn't in practice.
I'd drop the Phoenix Lord and max-out the Harlies.

Scorpions can outflank the opponent, but a small unit doesn't cut it. Besides, they may emerge at the wrong board side ending up with doing nothing at all.

Finally, a single Warwalker asks for getting smoked. I'd take a squadron of 3, all with scatter lasers; eventually guided by a Farseer.

drop phoenix and max out harlies? that gives the unit a whole different game plan. This isnt really an assault army, Ra stays with the harlies to make a S6 shooty death unit thats near invincible beyond 24".

Razerous wrote:Wraithguard do not suck in close combat.

In my opinion, anything with just one attack that doesn't ignore armor saves sucks in hand to hand. Your opinion may vary. Regardless, in a straight up fight between tac marines and wraithguard, both units end up locked in hand to hand for the rest of the game and the marine squad was half the price of the wraithguard. I would define this as sucking. Again, your opinion may vary.

The pathfinders are a little out of place.

I think the pathfinders are perfect in this army. They play the vital role of holding rear objectives. In 2 out of 3 missions, there is going to be at least one objective in your deployment zone and you're going to need something to control it. Since your other troop units are all outfited to move forward, the pathfinders provide a long range unit that's fairly difficult to kill in your back field to "hold down the fort" so to speak. They can get into trouble if your opponent has deep strikers, but other than that, they should be fairly safe.

Oh, as a side not - Yes Mr.Ra is expensive but being able to ignore cover & get a possible armor pen of 15 is never a bad thing, combined. Likewise an assault 5 36" rending pinning weapon with a BS of 7 is just awesome. More realistically getting a glance on a hammer-head ignoring those disruption pods will make any tau player scared... which if you think about it leaves them nothing to do except assault with kroot or try and move into anti shadow-seer range. << Purely as an example

Lets look at some numbers.

Maugen Ra shooting at marines
5 shots, no cover => 1.6 kills
5 shots, 4+ cover => 1.3 kills
4 shots, ignore cover => 1.3 kills
Chance for a marine squd to fail a leadership (pinning) test, 16.7%.

Maugen Ra shooting at orcs.
5 shots, no cover => 3.5 kills
5 shots, 4+ cover => 1.7 kills
4 shots, ignore cover => 2.7 killls
Untill you get orc units below 10, they are immune to pinning.

All of this adds up to less than steller performance for Maugen Ra's shooting when compared to other options in a similar price range.

Hrm, is there a good unit to use Maugan Ra with? I was eyeing the QUin/Deathjester unit because it was take advantage of ranged firepower and melee ability.

For 195 points it seems like he'd not a bad investment with a Str 6, 4A power wpn in melee and what amounts to an assault cannon at range. But I can't find anyone to pair him with =/

Fair point about the pathfinders. Wraithguard dont suck in close-combat in that they wont die miserably but granted they wont do much either.

As for Mr.Ra.. I wanna believe man!

Madadh wrote:Hrm, is there a good unit to use Maugan Ra with? I was eyeing the QUin/Deathjester unit because it was take advantage of ranged firepower and melee ability.

With your current army setup, putting Maugan Ra with the quins and having them run up as support for the wraithguard would be the most effective way to make use of him. It will put you in a position to make use of his shooting ability, the fact that his weapons are move and fire, and his hand to hand power. It is my opinion, however, that you would be able to get more effective use of your points by spending them on something else. So in the end, if you are going to use him, have his unit cover the wraithguard and bail them out of hand to hand when they end up getting in it.

Razerous wrote: Wraithguard dont suck in close-combat in that they won’t die miserably but granted they won’t do much either.

I think we are splitting hairs over the definition of "suck" here. In either case, if the wraithguard end up in hand to hand, they are very unlikely to kill any but the most basic of units and anything with a 3+ save is going to keep them locked up forever. On the flip side, like you said, they are unlikely to take many casualties in the process.

As for Mr.Ra.. I wanna believe man!

I did too, but sooner or later disenchantment gets most of us.