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Hi all, long time reader, first time poster. I have a quick question. My friend and local gaming shop seem to disagree with me over warwalkers. They all believe they're awfully bad and one of the worst units in the Eldar codex. In fact one person is building the "worst" possibly Eldar list he can conceive of and opted to put them in.

When I tried to inform a friend of then how good they were, I was rebuked saying I didn't know anything about 40k. So I was just wondering what you all felt about the warwalkers?

Also note, I realize this could be solved by me buying and using some, but as I'm a bit strapped for cash that's not exactly an option. Also I'm still a bit new to the game and not sure I could represent them as good as they could be even if I did play them, so thought I'd get other people's opinions on them, since I'm sure most of you have either played against them or with them. Either way thanks.

Also not 100% sure if this belongs here or in tactics, but seemed to fit better here. Again thanks.

War walkers are AWESOME. They're pretty darn cheap if you fit'em with scatter lasers, all that STR6 can seriously lay down the hurt on monstrous creatures and light armour. The fact that they can outflank is another plus. They're a great unit.

Agreed. Warwalkers can kick ass if used correctly. Ya cam kit em out good and proper!
And the models are pretty sweet too....

I made a thread asking about the worst list possible...
Eldar had a strong contender which IIRC didn't have war walkers so they can't be the worst unit...
AFAIK they are pretty good

At first glance they don't seem great with 10 armour all around, but I've heard scatter lasers make them a cheap, deadly unit that can outflank also.

a single WW with two scatterlasers 8 S6 shoots when it comes on board in outflanking. Take a squadron of 3 and you have 24. For 180pts. With a BS of 3 (4+) we are talking 12 hits. Against 10 armour (4+) its 4 penetrating and 2 glancing. It will easily stop dreads, speeders, and rhinos.

Slap on 6 emls add a farseer with guide to reroll hits or scatters and watch as things turn to slag or groups of guys turn into dust... Def worth it!

Anyone that tells you War Walkers are garbage has never run against them played properly.

Here's how it's done.

1) Take Eldrad (honestly, there is no reason not to take him other than fluff for certain craftworlds)

2) Take 3 war walkers in a squadron

3) arm them with Scatter Lasers

4) when the battle starts, put them in cover

5) place Eldrad next to them or within 6 inches

6) Have Eldrad cast guide on them and fortune on them. Now they get a 4+ re-rollable cover save and are pumping out 24 STR 6 shots at BS 3 that get to re-roll to hit if they miss, and wound almost everything on 2+. In my experience they only have trouble with Feel No Pain marines. Don't bother trying to kill Sanguinary guard with them, it probably won't work. They also aren't so great vs anything with a save of 2+.

7) be aware that they aren't that tough once out in the open and will be nullified really quick by even bolter fire.

8) use their range to your advantage. Don't close with them by using their scout move.

9) Sometimes it's better to outflank with them so you can get rear shots on vehicles with an Armor 10 in the rear, or to get to the troops you just blew out of their vehicles with your Fire Prism's

10) Their biggest advantage is volume of fire. It doesn't matter if your target is in cover or not because the AP of the Scatter Lasers isn't that high. You should be relying more on how many shots you get, not how much their AP is. For the most part they should be used on troops, not vehicles though. And with Scatter Lasers you aren't going to be hurting any armor above 11 reliably. You can get lucky and glance armor 12...but I feel you have better options for that.

Well, I hope you build a list and use them. It's always fun to see the shock on someone's face when you bust them out and blow away their prize unit/units.

If they still think they're terrible, take two squads of three and terrify them!

Warwalkers are one of the best units in 40K.

'They only have AV 10'? What do they want for less than a Terminator? Boltguns do hardly anything to them. And they're NOT open-topped. Any they can take Spirit Stones.

Yeah, Warwalkers get expensive when you take the two heavy weapons... but unlike everyone else, they can get 2 of the same weaponrather than twin linked, doubling your fun. Think about how that works with Guide and Doom.

People like Long Fangs? You can outfit the whole squad with EMLs, 6 total, and they can move and shoot or sit in cover. Too expensive for you? Scatter Lasers as people have said are the poster children for 'torrent of fire'. Want cheap anti-infantry? Shuriken Cannon. Starcannons don't get used so much because of expense vs. effect, Scatter Lasers put out enough shots to compensate for lacking AP2. The bright lance is a whole 5pts more expensive on War Walkers than Dark Lances on DE Trueborn... my heart bleeds.

Your Scatter Laser is still S6. Sure, this means you're only penetrating AV11 on a 6 but with that many shots, with re-rolls to hit, you can make Guard envious.

Ok, say you want to mess with tanks. You have War Walkers with EMLs. Your Farseer has Eldrich Storm. You throw Guide on the War Walkers, then Eldrich Storm a Leman Russ, turning it so that the back faces the War Walkers...

CWE works in combinations, not alone. If you're used to the way other armies work by brute forcing their way though things, pretty much every unit in the codex looks horrible.

And I've gotta say, anyone who says different knows nothing about 40K.