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I have been playing an Eldar player pretty consistently lately, and have actually beaten him every time so far. The record stands for me being 5-0, but every week he buys more unit and vehicles, and has made it his goal to beat me pretty bad. I can't spend nearly as much as he does, and I am trying to keep my tactics moving so as to keep him guessing. I am looking for suggestions as to how to keep up with his Aspect Warriors, Jet Council and now his Harlequins. I run SM and Orks, with my SM being a much bigger force then da boyz. Any and all suggestions are welcome, even suggested purchases and the like. Thanks in advance.

for marines, I can suggest the following -

mech up... its important. eldar anti-tank is fairly crappy. they tend to rely on bright lances, which are not very effective at killing rhinos / dreadnoughts reliably. for HQ's, i'd say use 2 librarians... both with null zone, and probably avenger. hopefully you can stop him from fortuning his jet council with that. if not, with 2 librarians, you can probably get a null zone off. if you can do that, terminators will eat the jet council alive.

dakka dreads are excellent weapons against eldar... 4 TL autocannons will rip their wave serpents out of the sky fairly quickly. sure, they pen on 6's, but glances can do damage too, and you just need to immobilize it. Harlequins aren't worth their cost really, the best way to deal with them is hit them with flamers, either from your tac squads (combi flamers on sarges help this), from an assault squad, or from librarians w/ avenger.

to recap, units I consider fairly important against eldar -

librarians
dakka dreds
terminators in a raider


as far as good heavy support, LC+AC predators are good and cheap, and are great at killing eldar vehicles. once the eldar are on foot, you can take them down with shooting if they are assaulty, and tac marines are more than a match for guardians/avengers in hand to hand.

So you've beaten him 5 times in a row and you're worried about losing a game? Marine players, honestly...

But seriously, if he had beaten YOU 5 times in a row I would understand you looking for tactics so that you can finally get a win on him. The fact that you're already stomping him every time makes me kinda want to give him some tactics against you! Obviously you don't want to let him win, but unless he's a huge jerk (and if he is, why play him?) maybe you could just run your regular list and see how that does against his new stuff?

Sometimes it's good to have a look at it from your opponent's perspective, especially if it's friendly gaming. Winning is great and all, but losing every time (I speak from experience...) can be a big downer.

Anyway, soap box over. I don't play either army so I can't give any advice either way, sorry!

DoW

Agree with the second post. Don't worry about this guy.

Yeah man I would just run whatever army you like more. Be it SM or Orks...(orks are better). Once you play his new stuff, depending on how that goes, you can then actually sit down and figure out a tactic for his new pieces. It sounds like your tactics for his old lists are pretty good considering you beat him 5 times. Just keep running the same stuff. Its more fun having a solid army list and never changing it then it is changing your army every single time you play a new opponent. Have fun man.

TBH guys, I always do try to have fun, and I really do every game. The problem is I know the way this guy plays and gets frustrated and upset when he loses, but every roll he makes a big scene about how awesome he is. I don't mind losing, I have lost plenty of times, but I hate unsportsmanlike players. Besides, I haven't taken my Orks against him yet, and I have no idea what to do against him with them...

Well that sounds like the next logical step. Play your Orks against him. Get out of your comfort zone and go for it. He might beat ya, and if so then maybe he will stop being on the annoying side.
I know it annoys me when Im playing against people, and they start getting bent out of shape and piss and moan about the game when they lose. Hell no one likes that. So maybe this would be your remedy?

Will do, but i have never played orks against eldar. Any suggestions? I still want it to be a good game, even though I almost laugh when I see 30 boyz get walloped in a single turn...

JEB_Stuart wrote:Will do, but i have never played orks against eldar. Any suggestions? I still want it to be a good game, even though I almost laugh when I see 30 boyz get walloped in a single turn...

My advice, as one Warboss to another, is to line up your boyz so they cover the entire table, then run them forward shouting and waving their arms. Let's see dem panzies stay out of assault then!

Because really, Orks vs. Eldar in close combat is no contest. When you get stuck in, you'll kick his ass all over the place. Just do whatever it takes to bring the game to close combat as fast as possible.

ACtually, y'know, that's what Orks should do against everyone. . . hmm.

JEB_Stuart wrote:TBH guys, I always do try to have fun, and I really do every game. The problem is I know the way this guy plays and gets frustrated and upset when he loses, but every roll he makes a big scene about how awesome he is. I don't mind losing, I have lost plenty of times, but I hate unsportsmanlike players. Besides, I haven't taken my Orks against him yet, and I have no idea what to do against him with them...

I hope I didn't come across as condescending or anything like that. I just read that someone was worried about the possibility of finally losing against an opponent they've beaten 5 times and wasn't quite sure what the fuss was about.

On poor sportsmanship, however, I have no sympathy for people who get bent out of shape when they lose to someone they can often tie or win against, but I know first hand how hard it is to keep a positive outlook when you consistently lose to someone, especially if it's never a close game. It sounds like you're being pretty cool about it (nothing worse than someone laughing in your face after their 6th straight win against you!) so that's another black mark against him and not you, but depending on who you're playing against (again, friend or acquaintance makes all the difference) it can sometimes be nice to not run a hardcore list that you've built specifically against his or her army.

I have a friend who plays SOB, loves the game, but has a hard time with tactics and has some of the worst luck with rolling I've ever seen. I beat him the first 3 or 4 times without much effort on my part and I think it really started to discourage him. The next time we played, I brought a list that wasn't my standard list (nor was it a strong MEQ list) and tried a few new things I hadn't experimented with before. The result ended up being a win-win since the game was much closer (I still squeaked by with a minor victory, but it was mostly luck), we both enjoyed the game a lot more, and I learned more about my army and what does and doesn't work well.

I'm not saying you should ever let someone win, but like others have already said, you know you can kick his ass with a high degree of certainty so I say use the opportunity to try either a new army, or a new tactic/unit you've never considered using before. Worst case scenario you lose and learn something!

DoW

Definately Mek up- it will force your opponent to rely more on Fire Dragons, and more dragons= less harlequins. Make sure your guys don't rely too heavily on being in a transport, however, as eldar are fast, and you don't want to let them strand your guys once the transports are gone.

Yeah Mech up is probably the best bet.

Played against a mech sisters army, he was laughing at my foot slogging eldar (iyanden) about how he hadn't lost a single unit yet whilst killing some of mine.
In one assault phase i destroyed all his vehicles and he had ~5 sisters left alive when the game ended at turn 6.
But didn't really manage to do much at all before I got rid of the transports, just proves that staying in the metal boxes is worth it.

However if you really haven't lost a single game, I wouldn't be worried until you start losing