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Our resident eldar player discovered the joy that is Fire Prisms a week ago. Me (playing as BT) and my friend (playing CSM) have since been beaten horribly time and again. What good counter to fire prisms, or mechdar in general, does BT and CSM have?

Stun them with whatever str 7-9 weapons and then move on.
If you 'have' to kill it, the melta gun is the best bet.

Even with holofields you are likely to penetrate it and apply AP1.
Basically you pen, you have to roll 2D6 and pick lowest result and then apply +1.

So a 1 is 2 (shaken)
a 2 is a 3 (weapon destroyed)
a 3 is a 4 (immobilized)
etc.

So anything but a 1 is a permanent damage result, not bad really.
Though if they are coming in from reserve on a quite flank then you are out of luck unless you have your own deepstrikers/outflankers to deliver the melta weaponry...and to a lesser extent jump packers, bikers, and rhino/razorback transported units.

So we're basically all out of luck.

The only reliable way of getting melta close to them is to either deepstrike something: In the case of BTs, either drop pod either a dreadnought or a tac squad with a meltagun and hope that you manage to not scatter too far. For CSM, it's either termies with combi-meltas or havocs deepstriking, which again is unreliable at best. He'll be able to see anything else coming and move away from it.

The problem (for me as BT atleast) is that he's got 3 Fire Prisms compared to my extremely limited ranged fire power. That, in combination with jetbikes screening the prisms, means that I'm lucky to even get a glancing. If I manage to shake him (stuns go to shaken because of Spirit Stones) he just flies the hell outta there, being a skimmer and all. Combine all this with holo-fields and you get a nightmare. I basically don't have enough long-ranged tank killing options to stop him from doing massive damage to my troops. Sure, I can kill a fire prism if I target everything at it, and if I'm lucky. Then it's his turn and his 2 remaining fire prisms shoot back and kill way more stuff.

AlmightyWalrus wrote:What good counter to fire prisms, or mechdar in general, does ...CSM have?

DPoT with Wings Warptime and Bolt of Tzeentch does wonders. But most anti tank works just fine (I have noticed)

The trick is to remember the golden rule

You have an equal chance of rolling a 6 as you do a 1 (if not using Chessex Dice)

This also means, you have an equal chance of rolling a 6 and a 1 on 2d6 as you do rolling 2 6s.

AlmightyWalrus wrote:So we're basically all out of luck.

No. Shaking is all you need; just take out the damage potential, and force them to tank shock with it.

The only reliable way of getting melta close to them is to either deepstrike something: In the case of BTs, either drop pod either a dreadnought or a tac squad with a meltagun and hope that you manage to not scatter too far. For CSM, it's either termies with combi-meltas or havocs deepstriking, which again is unreliable at best. He'll be able to see anything else coming and move away from it.

Getting within 6 inches will be next to impossible, unless you stun the FP before doing so. Multi-meltas are better, but any gun with a 24"+ range will do. You don't need the extra dice from a melta shot, but it makes a massive difference against AV12. MASSIVE.

The problem (for me as BT atleast) is that he's got 3 Fire Prisms compared to my extremely limited ranged fire power. That, in combination with jetbikes screening the prisms, means that I'm lucky to even get a glancing. If I manage to shake him (stuns go to shaken because of Spirit Stones) he just flies the hell outta there, being a skimmer and all. Combine all this with holo-fields and you get a nightmare. I basically don't have enough long-ranged tank killing options to stop him from doing massive damage to my troops. Sure, I can kill a fire prism if I target everything at it, and if I'm lucky. Then it's his turn and his 2 remaining fire prisms shoot back and kill way more stuff.

Shoot the bikes, forget the prisms if it is that difficult. All in all, FP do not bring a lot of damage to the table as it is. He can drop three S5 templates, or one S5, and one TL S6 AP3. With cover saves all over the place, even that AP3 bonus doesn't really help that much. FP cause more problems for Orks than anything else; they are not particularly great against MEQ armies.

I am not entirely sure how he can cause so many problems with his FP. It sounds like you are simply focusing too much on them, when you could just as easily do twice the damage to another part of his army. Also, jetbikes don't provide great cover for tanks, so make sure you are actually using vehicle cover rules (50% of the perceived surface area, for a cover save).

Aim high, shoot low.

Hydra, but since you are IG try to surround him so he can't zoom away, my friend does that with star engines and it doesn't half annoy me.