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Alright I have an interesting challenge for all of you Eldar players. I am taking part in a campaign that has several rule limitations on what will be a 1000pt army build. Most of these limitations tend to really put the hurt on my current Eldar build, so what I need is a new tactic that doesn't involve me replacing my entire army.
rules:
- 200pt max into vehicles (includes the vehicle and all up grades)
- 50pt max on wargear for each HQ (includes psychic powers, excludes warlock retinues)
- 3 monstrous creatures max
- no special characters
- All missions are land grabbers

This sucks for a few reasons. 1) a fitted eldar vehicle costs 150+ so I will only get one max (unless I go with vipers/walkers), 2) farseer's cannot be on jetbikes or take spirit stones if they are to have powers, 3) my army relies heavily on both of these as it is a saim hann force

Long story short, Iv'e got alot of jetbikes (25+ including spears, council, & autarch), lots-o-tanks, 2 vipers, buckets of guardians and avengers, 1 ten man squad of every aspect (minus spiders, & wraiths),
I don't have any walkers, wraithlords, or weapon platforms, or the avatar.

Remember, ALL missions will be some form of land grab (at least at the beginning).

I don't mind buying another squad of something but I don't want to exceed $60 (american). walkers, vipers, & most aspect boxes are about $30 a piece.
THX for any help you can offer.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
I should probably tell you what I have in mind for the army a bit to give you all my current ideas.

HQ:
Autarch = fusion blaster, warp generator, madiblasters, chainsword (120)
-joined with warp spiders

FAST ATTACK:
warp spiders x5 w/ exarch = powerblades, additional spinner, withdraw (152)

TROOPS:
Jetbikes x6 w/ 2 cannons, and x1 warlock w/ spear and conceal (215)

??? another jetbike squad, avenders in a serpent, or 2 guardian squads???

Need anti tank and quick units to contest objectives late in the game.

Obviously you want to have a very fast army. With only 200 points on vehicles, you could take 2 bare-bones shuricannon wave serpents. I use mine that way, and they work just fine. I also think you should include at least one assault unit (this would be a prime candidate for a wave serpent) Bring Fire Dragons if your opponents use land raiders. Bring Dire Avengers if you face lots of light infantry.

Consider using a farseer with one power and one set of runes, instead of an autarch. I use autarchs, but I have to say they're not great value for points, 120 is a lot at this size of game, and a T3 combat character is easy to kill. The warp spiders aren't really for tank hunting or combat, so is the tag-team really that good a fit?

So, one unit of scorpions/banshees, one unit of fire dragons/dire avengers in wave serpents are my recommendations. Wave serpents are terrific at contesting objectives. Then a small jetbike unit? That would fill up the points pretty well. If you go for lighter vehicles, war walkers are better than vypers IMHO.

I would definately go for the Autarch as an HQ. He can be very good at a small amount of points. I would give him Mandiblaster, a Power Weapon, and a Jetbike. That's 50 points.

I would then put the Autarch with the jetbikes. Have squads of 6 bikes, each with two Shuriken Cannons. I would then create a stable Fireline with guardians, using Support platforms and Conceal.

I would recommend using Warp Spiders and Vipers, because they are both fast, but Vypers are very delicate. You'll have to think hard about taking them.

Another thing that would be good to take is a Wraithlord with a Brightlance. It's the only thing with a BL that has a BS higher than 3.

One last tip. In 100 points, your opponent will have trouble taking out the Avatar. This guy is resilient, and your opponent can't pour too much firepower into him without ignoring your other, potentially more dangerous units.

So that's what I've got.

Tough campaign ....

I know you don't want to spend much but the following would be greatly useful to you.

Wrath Lord. Tool him out with a Bright lance and 2 flamers 130pts each and you want at least 2. At T8 nothing bellow Strength 5 hurts him. Use a squad of Jetbikes to give him a cover save as people will be shooting every anti tank weapon they've got at him.

Tri wrote:Tough campaign ....

I know you don't want to spend much but the following would be greatly useful to you.

Wrath Lord. Tool him out with a Bright lance and 2 flamers 130pts each and you want at least 2. At T8 nothing bellow Strength 5 hurts him. Use a squad of Jetbikes to give him a cover save as people will be shooting every anti tank weapon they've got at him.

I was thinking of doing this exact tactic (and given the point limitations the wraithlord would be stupid powerful). However, 2 of the other players had made the sly remarks planning to field 2-3 wraithlords each. I'm not a fan of repetitiveness between armies, and to be honest, I feel this unit option is broken for this campaign . I would personally like to kick his butt without the lords and shame his reliance on the unit.
I agree your strategy is very sound. But I want to steer from the wraiths for a bit. Given that, I may take a unit of dragons.

If I were playing that campaign I would play orks and have a easy time. a battelwagon and some trucks tons of boyz and beefed up warboss would dominate that campaign. with the ristrictions you posted it sounds like orks would have the best go at it.

next to the new IG they have the best codex for low points games.

If I had to draw up an eldar army i'd do Farseer doom/fortune with stones,runes of warding. Avatar, 3 WL's and dire avengers for troops.

mrdabba wrote:

If I had to draw up an eldar army i'd do Farseer doom/fortune with stones,runes of warding. Avatar, 3 WL's and dire avengers for troops.

Remember that my HQ's can only pick 50pts of equipment each. fortune is 30pts and stones are 20pt, so a farseer can only have one power, and he cannot take a jetbike. This is why I began to look into autarch's. If i do run a farseer he will have one power, runes, and a retinue or warlocks

Fire_hive wrote:

Tri wrote:Tough campaign ....

I know you don't want to spend much but the following would be greatly useful to you.

Wrath Lord. Tool him out with a Bright lance and 2 flamers 130pts each and you want at least 2. At T8 nothing bellow Strength 5 hurts him. Use a squad of Jetbikes to give him a cover save as people will be shooting every anti tank weapon they've got at him.

I was thinking of doing this exact tactic (and given the point limitations the wraithlord would be stupid powerful). However, 2 of the other players had made the sly remarks planning to field 2-3 wraithlords each. I'm not a fan of repetitiveness between armies, and to be honest, I feel this unit option is broken for this campaign . I would personally like to kick his butt without the lords and shame his reliance on the unit.
I agree your strategy is very sound. But I want to steer from the wraiths for a bit. Given that, I may take a unit of dragons.

Well if you had the money i'd tell you to do my trick and field two 10 man wraith guard untis and watch every one cry. (note cost in dollars is $25 each wraith guard +$19 warlock or $269 per unit or $538 for my plan ...)

.... Other (realistic) options ....

Support Weapon Batteries with Vibro-Cannons: Take a single pair or if you can 2 pairs. These can be little gems. Roll to hit if ether one hits draw a single line from one of the guns 36" long in any direction. Any units which the line pass through takes D6 hits at Strength 5 (bonus vehicles take a single glancing hit).

Support Weapon Batteries with Shadow Weaver: Take as many as you can and then spam Strength 6 blasts.

Dark Reapers: Take maximum squad size and an exact with Crack shot and an Tempest launcher.

War Warlkers: Pair of Shurican Cannons 40pts each ... take 5 and out flank.

Pathfinders: These guys are a must, take at least 5. If you go up against any MC, Terminators, ect these guys will pay for them selves easily. It's also amazing how often people wast there fire power trying to kill these guys.

Jetbike Seer Council: Still do able there are 2 versions that can fit with the rules you've got

A) Farseer walks (if you have a transport then shove him in that and he can cast from there) Fortune + runes of warding. Warlocks as normal ... you may also wish to take an Autarch on a jetbike with a power weapon and mandiblasters to help them out.

B)You strip the farseer down to the bone give him a bike and mindwar (or guide) and give one of the warlocks embolden so he can reroll his test.

Swooping hawks: This Kamikaze unit that I've had some success with. Basically 5 SH in reserves they deep-strike in drop their bomb and run for cover. Next turn they charge any enemy tanks (note these guys can fleet that's a whopping 19-24" range) and cripple it. If theres no tanks they've got 24" assault weapons try thinning out any one close by.

The wraithlords are a great choice, but 2 other eldar players are using the 3 wraith build. The strategy seems broken for this campaign and I would rather find a way to combat it over copy it. No offense (it is a good idea).

Fire_hive wrote:The wraithlords are a great choice, but 2 other eldar players are using the 3 wraith build. The strategy seems broken for this campaign and I would rather find a way to combat it over copy it. No offense (it is a good idea).

... I can see how you'd think i was talking about the Wraith-Lord still ... I wasn't i was joking about you going out and buying 20 Wraith-Guard .....

(Wraith-Guard =$25.00 per model)
(Wraith-Lord = $69.00 per model)

oh I was responding to mrdabba. To be honest, a third eldar player is doing iyanden w/ 20 wraithguard so... we'll see how he does?

Fire_hive wrote:oh I was responding to mrdabba. To be honest, a third eldar player is doing iyanden w/ 20 wraithguard so... we'll see how he does?

If he knows what he's doing and hugs cover, it should be a hard army to crack. If you do field a seer concil on jet bikes do take mind war you can pop the warlocks brains out and start them testing for wraith sight.

Alright second attempt

HQ:
Autarch = fusion blaster, warp generator, mandiblasters, chainsword (120)
-joined with warp spiders

FAST ATTACK:
warp spiders x7 w/ exarch = powerblades, additional spinner, withdraw (152)

TROOPS:
Jetbikes x6 w/ 2 cannons, and x1 warlock w/ spear and conceal (215)

Dire Avernger’s x10 w/ exarch =bladestorm, duel catapults
-wave serpent = twin cannons, (252)

ELITE:
Fire Dragons x7
- wave sepent = twin cannons (196)

total 995

I could also swap out the Elite dragon unit with 5 spears w/a star lance exarch and upgrade the one serpent w/ twin-EML and stones.

Remember, I need a unit that can take out those wraithlords or terminators quickly as this force is not very combat heavy. If I keep the spears they are more fragile, but both them and the spiders can jump out of combat together. Still 2 serpents can take some of the pressure away from one being pounded and adds another unit for contesting.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
THX for all the input so far

List looks good

Changes that I personally would make ...

Dire Avengers don't need an Exarch. Blade Storm is nice but with an 18" range you should be able to get several turns of shooting before you get forced to charge. (Save 32pts so add 2 fire dragons)

Autarch if he's with the Warp spiders would be better of having a power weapon then the mandiblasters. One less attack but they'll not be getting armour saves. If you want him as a CC power house then swap the fusion gun for a death spinner (so you can take a power weapon and mandiblasters).

awewome. I will try the army this way in a practice game, and again with the spears.

Since one of the limitations is three MCs, and you know at least two players will be doing that, I would be very tempted to take some pathfinders.

I know warp spiders can work well in the right situations, but a small point game usually isnt where they tend to shine. So I would be very tempted to swap in a farseer for the autarch and pathfinders for the spiders.

And on the jetbike warlock you might want to go with embolden instead of conceal. Granted the cover save may help a bit, but letting them reroll leadership tests is likely to be more important in the long run.


Sliggoth