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Something a friend and I were tossing around all the way back in 3rd edition was how silly the fleet of foot rule was for eldar.

"so if they put their guns down and leg it they can go faster? Surely every unit in the game should be able to do that"

"yeah every unit should be able to do that. Eldar are so agile that they should be able to shoot and still do it."

Well lo and behold 5th edition created the run rule which allows every unit in the game to lower their weapons and go hell for leather and made Eldar look slow by comparison. This got me thinking about my old idea and the more I thought about it the more I liked it.

What do you think?

Agile: all eldar units with the ability "agile" may make a run move in the assault phase even if they fired their weapons this turn. All other rules and restrictions for running movement apply.

I feel this would go a long way towards rescuing some of the lesser used units in the eldar army, particularly guardians and storm guardians. Guardians could move into firing range, loose a volley and then leg it backwards out of assault range or shuffle behind some cover. Since all units can run now the guardians would not be able to stay out of assault range forever (although DA might be able to if the enemy is all footsloggers with 0 mobility whatsoever) but it might save them from an assault for 1 or 2 turns and make the catapult a more viable weapon.

Swooping Hawks could loose a volley at long range and then use their agile move to hide behind cover in a similar way to bikes and warp spiders (just less reliably).

Since the move happens in the assault phase it provides no stacked bonuses with fleet I can see. You could run in the shooting phase and charge for more movement than running and running again. I suppose it lets you cross the field much faster (move, run and run again) but this doesn't seem to powerful to me (although it would make guardians amazing objective grabbers). Maybe some wording that you may only run once per turn per unit is in order?

As for units that would get it. Guardians, Storm guardians, DA, Banshees, Swooping Hawks, Fire Dragons, Harlequins, Warlocks and Farseers.

Dark Reapers would not (their armour is too bulky). I am on the fence about scorps but they probably should. Bikes and Spiders have their own method of doing much the same thing so they don't get it. Wraithguard and lords are not agile for obvious reasons.

What about weapons platforms? I'm inclined to say no but then we're back to guardians being pretty useless as the way up of added ticksiness and added firepower will usually go to firepower. Maybe re-write the rule to say

Agile: all eldar units with the ability "agile" may make a run move in the assault phase even if they fired Assault or Pistol weapons this turn. All other rules and restrictions for running movement apply.

Since weapon platforms may move and fire buttechnically are not assault this would give the guardian unit the option of using their extra movement of firing their big gun but allow for the squad to be constructed to make use of either option i.e.

turn 1-2 move forward, fire scary gun, turn 3-4 fire shuricats use agile to back up from enemy, turn 5-6 use extra movement to leg it for objective grabs.



Thoughts? I think it fits the eldar playstyle quite well, would be interesting to face on the tabletop and goes a long way to improving mediocre units. I don't think it is too abusive but maybe I have missed something.

meh dire avengers would destroy they would back up while shooting and being out fo range the whole time 7-12inch movement and blasting you would destroy any foot slogging list. maby hit and run would work? or a jump back sort of thing

Well it would only be 7-12" of movement in a straight line.

Basically the DA would be in range at 18" fire off their shots and then back up 1-6" away meaning at a maximum they are 24" away. That's within range of bolters, gauss weaponry, lasguns, shoota boyz (after they move up) pulse rifles, splinter rifles, etc if you decide to stand still. That isn't a shooting bBAattle you're likely to win (2 shots vs 1 shot) but with other heavy and special weapons it would help swing the balance.

Alternatively you could move up, they are now 18" away again, you can't shoot so you run and (worse case scenario) they are 17" away. They fire in their turn and worse case scenario manage to run back the full 6". You gained an inch. With good run rolls you would eventually catch them if not in assault then eventually in rapid fire range.

So yes individually they can outrun 1 unit for a long time and outshoot it as they do so. Provided that unit is a footslogger that only moves 6".

But honestly there is no army in the game that consists entirely of footslogging forces that move 6" a turn and has no kind of long range shooting. If you run that you deserve to lose every game. Nobody doesn't have some way of either catching the DA at range or catching them in assault. Looking at likely footsloggers

Marines - outrange them with guns and shoot the DA.
BT - Move faster than 6" a turn due to fall forwards rule plus usually bring a load of fast assault transports as support.
Orks - waaagh move, shoota boyz with a grot screen will actually outshoot this DA unit and match it for range for less pts
Nids - everything fleets and many things have a 12" charge, also use flying units.
Chaos - flyers, outrange them with guns, lash
Necrons - outrange them with guns, veil, monolith
IG - outrange them with guns
Eldar - fleeting units, plenty of fast moving units available, many guns available to footslogging choices outrange them (weapon platforms) and other DA could catch them.
GK - guns have superior range on every model anyway.

So whilst it does make DA much nicer, especially at slowly whittling down 1 unit all it would take would be some really basic tactics to deal with them. DA wouldn't be an auto-win.

I did neglect to mention that DA should not be able to make an agile move in the same turn that they bladestorm.

This new run rule isn't really necessary: almost every Eldar unit has Fleet anyway.

lol striking skorpions don't have fleet which I find funny, and DA's would not shoot 18" away, only 1 guy could shoot then

Like the idea, but it probably wont happen, its just to good to be true but i can see where you're coming from. But i think all eldar units should have fleet, well infantry anyway. Perhaps eldar get +1 to thier run rolls, just a thought??

Valkyrie wrote:This new run rule isn't really necessary: almost every Eldar unit has Fleet anyway.

Did you even read my post?

Fleet = may charge after running

Agile = may run in the assault phase after shooting

Ye gods the reading comprehension on this forum is atrocious.


and Krubb correct me if I'm wrong but the range on a DA shuricat is 18". What the hell do you mean only one guy could shoot?

Well, the avenger squad would have to be in range and at almost 18" not everyone is going to shoot, unless you are lined up horizontally and your enemy is too, the chances of this likely?

I think that the assault move is a good idea, but it makes eldar jetbikes lose there ability as they can already do this. I admit feet is a bit wrong. I think all eldar infantry should just have an extra long movement like a 8" or 9" move to give them move manuverabilty.

Just to clarify, I'm not suggesting that this replaces fleet but rather that it stacks with it.

So a guardian squad has the option of moving, running and charging

or

moving, shooting and using their "agile" run to hop back

or

moving, shooting, charging


And Acolyte, yes bikes were the inspiration. It seems to me now that everyone takes bikes and DA's to be their troop choices and basic guardians and storm guardians have been left out in the cold somewhat. This is basically because shuricats suck. But rather than up their range the agile move is a nice tricksy option that fits eldar fluff, opens up new tactics and improves the basic shuricat.

If you feel that this is cutting into Bike territory too much I'd like to remind you that bikers get +1 toughness, 3+ save, 12" move and a 6" in the assault phase rather than a D6", turbo-boost option and the ability to add a shuricannon. I think those are all significant boosts that would mean guardians aren't no brainers.

Can anyone think of any scenarios where this might possibly be too abusive? I don't think the DA backing up issue is much of a problem. Perhaps it makes Fire Dragons too good? They could pop a tank at their max range and then back up away from enemy assaulters? I don't think they'd be able to escape enemy retaliation too often though.

That's funny, I had posted a thread like this. This was a really long time ago so don't feel bad:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/234435.page

Agile looks good. It makes the Eldar a little faster but doesn't stack in an abusive way. I'd let you play test it against me to see how powerful it really is.