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Oh, I don't know why I thought Banshees can't hurt T6...

Anyway, if all else is equal, at least they have +1 attack ahead of Banshees.

Just how many Guards can a Swarmlord have anyway?

Why in the world would anyone ever charge the Swarmlord? That is suicide. You shoot his slow behind to death!

Well, there should be a Farseer around dooming the unit the Harlies + PL are charging.
This would make rending more effective.

All I'm sure is that now I know which WS i will wreck first

I have used Jain with a 5-squad before just for the veil and ran them on foot. its a 140 point 5 wound, multiple rending delivery system for a PL who is easy to gun down on the approach if anybody can actually see her. It's much safer than trying to run her up with Banshees too, and avoids the problems of having to disembark.

Nobody MEQ really wants to get close as you move them up, so its fun for herding stuff around with the charge threat and the slim chance of anyone seeing them through the veil.
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BUT: when it comes to Harlequins + Lords, this mean spirited donkey-cave of a combo is my favorite as far as I have discovered:

5 Harlequins, Death Jester, Shadowseer: 130
Maugan Ra: 195
Autarch, reaper launcher: 90
-----415 points.

What do you get? fun fun fun having 3 nasty weapons that say "nyah nyah I can feth you up and you can't even target me" It's IMO worth the price of the 3 extra meatshields needed to field a squad of harlies just for the veil. The range and firepower of the shrieker cannon in this combo makes the DJ worth it for once too since they will just be standing around firing for once.

I guess I could give the seer and the meatyquins kisses or fusion pistols too but when the squad is designed to hover around 24" whats the point? Besides they have Maugan with them and he is a monster in cc.

I suppose as a backup for just-in-case someone is getting too close, a max-out on points for a powersword and mandiblasters on the autarch, and 4 kisses plus 2 fuspistols for the harlies costs +56 more points and does give them a bite if someone gets close.

The idea is not to get close though.

Try it, it's so much fun frustrating the hell out of the badguy while plinking him to death with a reaper launcher, shrieker cannon, and Maugetaar none of which he can target to return fire, and all of which hit pretty reliably well at 24" while a veil usually can cover you up to 13" as an average.

Araenion wrote:Oh, I don't know why I thought Banshees can't hurt T6...

Anyway, if all else is equal, at least they have +1 attack ahead of Banshees.

Just how many Guards can a Swarmlord have anyway?

1-3 guard each with 2 wounds and a 3+ ... swarmlord can also give one unit within 18" acute sense, preferred enemy or furious charge

Reecius wrote:Why in the world would anyone ever charge the Swarmlord? That is suicide. You shoot his slow behind to death!

Araenion asked if there were any units not to charge ... swarmlord sticks out as a big one ^_^

Talking about Swarmlord vs Harlequins was just theoretical. In practice, War walkers armed with 24 S6 shots deal with any MCs quite reliably from a safe distance.

Reecius wrote:Why in the world would anyone ever charge the Swarmlord? That is suicide. You shoot his slow behind to death!

Dark Eldar: Nine Bloodbrides with three shardnets, optionally a Syren with agoniser, and an Archon with a clone field, huskblade, and optionally a soul trap. So long as it hasn't charged you, it has exactly one attack, the Archon can ignore d3 attacks outright, and the bloodbrides have their 4++ invuln in melee. If the Archon hasn't downed an IC or MC already, he has six S3 attacks that ignore armor, half his attacks hit against a broodlord (you're not dumb enough to leave him out where paroxysm can target him when you have those nice open topped fast skimmers, are you?) one sixth wound, and half those are ignored, let's see... He has something like a 23% chance of insta-gibbing the swarmlord. If he'd already downed one of the other monstrous creatures the Tyranid player had running around (carnifexes and mawlocs are the best, because of their low WS, he's got a 52% chance of downing one on the first round of melee, which doubles his S (and gives his unit a pain token)) then it's a 55% chance, and if he's downed two (unlikely, but for the sake of completeness...) it's 75%. And that's completely ignoring what the bloodbrides will be inflicting... Of course, it's still better just to shoot it apart statistically, but which is more awesome? Downing it from a safe distance, or getting up in its face and stealing its soul? And the unit is (slightly) cheaper than the Swarmlord, and the unit plus a raider is the same as the Swarmlord and a single tyrant guard.


On topic: I never really liked harlequins when I was playing eldar (or now, playing Dark Eldar, since I still have access to them). Awfully expensive for a relatively slow unit that only shines in close quarters (I feel the same way about the DE incubi; they're banshees, only they lack any ranged weapons (except one lackluster template for an extra 30 points), don't get the I10 on a charge, and cost six points more, for a measly +1WS (so, 16.7% more hits against WS4 opponents, in exchange for no pistols or a solution to enemies in cover, for 38% more points...)), since they can't take their own transport. But I know some people swear by them.

@Tri & Aranian
Exactly, haha, you shoot Swarmlord, don't even bother playing his game in HtH. I have never been assaulted by Swarmlord, I shoots his ass down every game as target priority number 1.

@Sir Pseudonymous
Of course it's possible to kill the SL in HtH, but why bother? With Tyrant Guard and lash whips (which he should have) he is a lot harder to kill and to get the shardnets on.

But again, why bother? DE have poisoned weapons, just shoot him to death and don't bother in HtH.

Reecius wrote:@Sir Pseudonymous
Of course it's possible to kill the SL in HtH, but why bother? With Tyrant Guard and lash whips (which he should have) he is a lot harder to kill and to get the shardnets on.

But again, why bother? DE have poisoned weapons, just shoot him to death and don't bother in HtH.

Maybe the anti-MC archon's already dealt with the other MCs he can reach. Maybe you just want to see the look on your opponents face when his swarmlord is brought down by an S3 unit. It doesn't make sense from a strategic perspective, but doesn't it make sense from an awesome perspective?

I wouldn't count on it winning the game, but sometimes doing something seemingly insane is worth the risk that it turns out to actually be insane. Like ramming everything with wave serpents just for the fun of it (to devastating effect...), or bringing down units that are designed to be monsters in CC with a relatively weak unit, in CC. (Besides, with the unit I described, the melee is stacked in your favor. Against one of the nastiest melee units in the game...)

Oh, you mean like that one time that my space marine killed Araenoin's avatar

He wasn't a PF sarge either.

Sir Pseudonymous wrote:

Reecius wrote:@Sir Pseudonymous
Of course it's possible to kill the SL in HtH, but why bother? With Tyrant Guard and lash whips (which he should have) he is a lot harder to kill and to get the shardnets on.

But again, why bother? DE have poisoned weapons, just shoot him to death and don't bother in HtH.

Maybe the anti-MC archon's already dealt with the other MCs he can reach. Maybe you just want to see the look on your opponents face when his swarmlord is brought down by an S3 unit. It doesn't make sense from a strategic perspective, but doesn't it make sense from an awesome perspective?

I wouldn't count on it winning the game, but sometimes doing something seemingly insane is worth the risk that it turns out to actually be insane. Like ramming everything with wave serpents just for the fun of it (to devastating effect...), or bringing down units that are designed to be monsters in CC with a relatively weak unit, in CC. (Besides, with the unit I described, the melee is stacked in your favor. Against one of the nastiest melee units in the game...)

Very true! You would certainly get style points for that one!