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I have 5 of these beautiful models but dont quiet know how to use them, does anyone have any experience with this less popular aspect?

Well, Shining Spears (incl. Exarch with skilled rider) can be made more durable if an Autarch on jetbike with laserlance and a Jetseer with fortune accompany them.

Their honestly not that great; I love them , I love the models, I like the idea behind them. The thing is at 35 points a model. No invulnerable and small squad size their a support unit.


You have to keep them behind other squads unless you turboboost ,but they cant receive a charge with 1 attack.

Lovely Concept squad fantastic model, but ultimately their to expensive, dont do enough damage, and their minimum squad size harms them greatly.


The best way is above; Autarch w/ Jetbike , Jetseer w/ Fortune and maybe doom.

Theyre a little bit less than Warlocks on bikes and make a decent enough body guard that looks great on the field.

Use them cautiously. They can assault 18", but so can a lot of other models, who will mince the shining spears if they can get the charge. I'm trying to keep them behind wave serpents, so the enemy can't even try to assault them without jump infantry/jetbikes. Unfortunately I usually get overaggressive and get them killed. Keeping them in reserve until the enemy has been thinned out might be the way to go, but I haven't tried it yet.

Like all 35 pt models that are only as tough as marines, shining spears are ultimately glass hammer.

They are more of an assault support unit, Banshees need extra help.....zip on over, Scorpions starting to bog.....zip on over...with speed like that they can go to support anything with in a turn or two. Not a major assault unit, unless you know you can crush something and or you have a juicy target.

Thank you for the advice, though i really like anarchy's idea for their use. With a highly mobile force certain CC units can be left unsupported, the shining spears speed could be used to supplement other squads.

Has anyone had outstanding success with them, or are we all too stubborn to just let them sit on the shelves?

I agree with wuestenfux, except perhaps about the Autarch. The Autarch will add extra punch, but he's an expensive addition to an expensive unit, and it already has some punch. In particular, take a Farseer that can cast Doom and Fortune. Fortune on the Shining Spears, Doom on its target, because those Laser Lances can be nasty.

Some things to remember when using them: They don't handle shooting well, and don't handle casualties well, but their weapons are Lances (reducing enemy armour to AV12), they've S6 Power Weapons on the charge, S8 for a Star Lance. And the Exarch can take Withdraw, for Hit and Run.

Back in the day you could stick a Bright Lance on the Exarch, and it gave you a BS5 Bright Lance to crack armour before driving the charge home. But these days you have to close with vehicles to destroy them, which is actually easier now that you have those extra Laser Lance shots. This makes them great for winkling units out of transports: destroy the transport and assault the goons that come spilling out.

Keep them out of line of sight and in cover, using the Exarch's Skilled Rider and the Farseer's Fortune. Heck, use Wave Serpents and Falcons to block line of sight if necessary.

Although small units like Terminators and Nobs (3xWS5 S8 I6 Power Weapon attacks? Instant Death!) are their ideal prey, don't be afraid to hammer into units that might survive the assault. Fortune will minimize casualties, and Hit and Run will allow you to move further during your opponent's assault phase!

Although Hit and Run is no longer automatic, Spears have the Initiative to make it work. Shining Spears can use this power to depart from combat in the enemy's assault phase, lining up their next charge: giving you the ability to hammer a unit, and then allow a slower close combat Aspect like Striking Scorpions mop the unit up.

The problems with this are two-fold, but not insurmountable.

The first problem is that lingering in close combat, particularly against hordes like Orks and Imperial Guard, is that it exposes you to enemy attacks, particularly in the opponent's assault phase. This can be overcome by assaulting in tandem with another unit, using Shining Spears as the mop-up unit to engage enemy units already locked in combat.

The second problem is that, as mentioned, they're a bit of a glass hammer, and that they're very much a "kill them before they kill you" unit. Aside from the obvious defensive tactics like using cover and Fortune, you can occupy your opponent's attention by over-whelming their ability to engage threats, by lining up multiple close combat units for an assault, particularly in combination with such ludicrously dangerous Aspects as Striking Scorpions, engaging shooting units with cheap units Storm Guardians, and using units like Vibro Cannons, Pathfinders, and Prism Cannons to suppress multiple small units, which can be the bane of Shining Spears with their masses of fire. Basically hold the rest of his army in place with threats from other units, and roll him up using Shining Spears.

Essentially what I'm saying is that Shining Spears shouldn't be your first-wave assault unit, despite their mobility. Their mobility and hitting power makes them a great 'fire-man' unit that can move around the field smashing threats to the rest of your forces. Use them as support, and you will support them.

I don't have my Eldar book with me at the moment ; but I am pretty sure the Exarch Star Lance is STR8 Assault 1 Lance which means its decent at busting Transports.


ALso, they do have a base attack of 1 but what you need to remember and this is important is that the Lances are a Assault 1 STR6.

Hollismason:

You are correct: The Exarch can be upgraded with the Star Lance for S8 I6 A3 Power Weapon on the charge, with a Bright Lance shot at 6" prior. Similarly the Shining Spears themselves get S6 I5 A2 Power weapon on the charge, with a S6 Lance shot at 6" prior. Rather an improvement on the situation back in the previous codex where you had the choice of either a Bright Lance or a Power Weapon, and Laser Lances weren't Power Weapons, or got the shot.

They can be a great unit against certain units. For example they can make mincemeat out of a squad of tactical Marines. On the other hand they are useless against a large mob of boyz. So it comes down to whether or not they can get the right matchups. I think overall they are a great unit but then again you must realize they are a scalpel not a sledgehammer even though the exarch can carry a star lance. I think using their lances to shoot vehicles is very risky since they have to close with the target and that exposes them to shooting and counter assaults. Even with jetseer fortuning them they will still crumble quickly if charged. So really they are only good for a swift charge. I was use them to destroy fairly small veteran units late in the game but as I first said they can cut right through a tactical squad of Marines with no problem if your rolls to hit and wound are at least average. I do think these points might be better invested in a mounted seer council. This is because the council is far more resilient and can fulfill more roles.

G

I've used them with a proxied Eldar force and I fell in love. Between the shooting and charge, they dice any squad squad that isn't an Ork mob. They also hunt tanks. I mean really, really hunt tanks. Because of their Eldar Jet Bike nature, they can jump 30" across the map, regardless of terrain. I found it almost too easy to set up great charges.

I'm not encouraging people to hunt all vehicles, just transports so that the unit can crack a transport and attack the unit within: transported units tend to be bite-sized for Shining Spears.

Against hordes, they're a mop-up unit, they engage after another unit has locked the horde in combat, for a clean-sweep, or another unit comes in to lock the horde so the Shining Spears can move onto the next unit.

If you join a IC to them such as a Autarch or Fortune seer do they still get to withdraw?

Oh and if you want hilarity;

Autarch w/
Laser Lance , Shuriken Pistol, Scorpion Mask 130 points

He has 3 Attacks Base +1 for Pistol and Laser Lance, +1 for Scorpion Mask, +1 for charging

6 Attacks at Str6 weapon skill 6 ini 6.

Well, I found them great at overtaking and cutting up Hammerheads and what-not. If the enemy doesn't have any particularly juicy targets like Terminators, an important tank will suffice (except for rear armored AV14 stuff).

You'd have to take that to YMDC (though without Gwar I doubt you'll get an answer) but I'd say they'd leave the IC in the combat.

Armour Value doesnt Matter versus them as they are Lance Weapons. The armour always maxes out at 12. The Exarch can get a STR8 Lance.


edit:

Yeah the withdraw thing I have no idea.

Not in CC. They revert to being S6 or 8 power weapons. Unless the enemy is running flat out (in which case you are still accomplishing something) then you'll chop it up. You can try to take swings at it anyway, as they are faster than most tanks, but hitting on 6s hurts them something fierce.

Particularly on rear AV10, and even on AV11.

Hollismason wrote:If you join a IC to them such as a Autarch or Fortune seer do they still get to withdraw?

Oh and if you want hilarity;

Autarch w/
Laser Lance , Shuriken Pistol, Scorpion Mask 130 points

He has 3 Attacks Base +1 for Pistol and Laser Lance, +1 for Scorpion Mask, +1 for charging

6 Attacks at Str6 weapon skill 6 ini 6.

Autarch's benefit from Exarch powers so he'd get to withdraw. A farseer would not.

Autarch's benefit from Exarch powers so he'd get to withdraw. A farseer would not.

Yeah, that's right.
A Jetseer with fortune keeps the Shining Spears longer alive, but in cc she can become a liability as she cannot withdraw/hit and run and so the unit cannot.

wuestenfux wrote:

Autarch's benefit from Exarch powers so he'd get to withdraw. A farseer would not.

Yeah, that's right.
A Jetseer with fortune keeps the Shining Spears longer alive, but in cc she can become a liability as she cannot withdraw/hit and run and so the unit cannot.

How does that work? I seem to remember coming across something like that in the past, but last time I looked, I didnt see any special rules about autarchs and exarch powers.

Well, in the Eldar codex you find a paragraph that says that an Autarch benefits from Exarch powers if she joined said unit.
Sorry but I don't have the codex at hand.

Shining spears died when they changed the terrain rules and the grenade rules in 5th.

When you could hide them you could mange to get a charge off before they took any shooting damage. Plus you could take an autarch and the whole squad would benefit from the grenades.

Now they can;t charge anything in hth with out getting their ass handed to them.

That said, The exrach is worthless... he's expensive and doesn't add much. If you do take them just run them naked. By the time you withdraw they usually have taken too much damage to be viable again.

You can still hide them behind terrain. Just make sure your tables include terrain that actually blocks line of sight. Or use vehicles to block line of sight.

As for grenades, well, you know that units cannot benefit from cover if they're engaged in combat, or had gone to ground, right? That's why Shining Spears are a good mop-up unit, and mesh well with units like Pathfinders and Vibrocannons.

I just don't think they are worth it.
Great speed and cc killy, but it's balanced by a horrible cost, lacking durabiity, and the major loss of any offensive power on the second round.

They are reduced to counter-charge roles/clean up crew, but there are other squads that can do just that.

I think a single LanceTarch would be more preferable than the spears.

Say you charge and kill the enemy with the clean up role, now you are out in the open.
You then have MEQ status, and small squad size = easier to wipe out than a larger squad for kill pionts, less casualties needed to force a morale check.

______________

I've tried using them before, prob. used them poorly and prob. theoryhammering it wrong, but I just don't see the silver lining with them.

They have been taken out of my lists and replaced by a jetbike council, i've been happy with their performance eversince.
They fit better in my overall list than the Shining Spears.

It seems like they would be great additions to say a 'all jetbike themed' eldar army, but in my experience, it's a horrible thing, as it's not really a hammer and anvil list that the Spears prob. would do better in.

My 7 Cents.

deFl0 wrote:Shining spears died when they changed the terrain rules and the grenade rules in 5th.

When you could hide them you could mange to get a charge off before they took any shooting damage. Plus you could take an autarch and the whole squad would benefit from the grenades.

Now they can;t charge anything in hth with out getting their ass handed to them.

That said, The exrach is worthless... he's expensive and doesn't add much. If you do take them just run them naked. By the time you withdraw they usually have taken too much damage to be viable again.

Well, not true.

Shining Spears need no grenades as their charge is not slowed down and so they charge with their normal initiative.
Here the Exarch comes in, with skilled rider it keeps the Spears alive during the charge.