Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Alright guys. This will be my final post for my Mech Eldar. I do apologize because I have been posting a lot of questions ect about the Mech Eldar. So I ask you guys to do me a solid and vote. I will more than likely play test them all, but I don't have the luxury of playing every day, so play testing can get a little lengthy. So with that said...here we go. Building up my 2000 points to 2500 points.


LIST #1 - Maxing out DAVU units.
HQ:
Autarch
-Fusion Gun

Autarch
-Fusion Gun

Troops:
5x Dire Avengers
*Serpent
-TL Missile Launchers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Dire Avengers
*Serpent
-TL Missile Launchers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Dire Avengers
*Serpent
-TL Missile Launchers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Dire Avengers
*Serpent
-TL Missile Launchers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Dire Avengers
*Serpent
-TL Missile Launchers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Dire Avengers
*Serpent
-TL Missile Launchers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

Elite:
5x Fire Dragons
*Serpent
-TL Scatter Lasers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Fire Dragons
*Serpent
-TL Scatter Lasers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Fire Dragons
*Serpent
-TL Scatter Lasers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

Heavy:
Fire Prism
-Holo Fields

Fire Prism
-Holo Fields

Fire Prism
-Holo Fields

Total: 2500


LIST #2 - Maxing out Fire Dragons with a little Storm Guardian action

HQ:
Autarch
-Fusion Gun

Autarch
-Fusion Gun

Troops:
5x Dire Avengers
*Serpent
-TL Missile Launchers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Dire Avengers
*Serpent
-TL Missile Launchers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Dire Avengers
*Serpent
-TL Missile Launchers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Dire Avengers
*Serpent
-TL Missile Launchers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

10x Storm Guardians
-2x Flamers
-Warlock w/ Destructor
*Serpent
-TL Scatter Lasers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

Elite:
10x Fire Dragons
*Serpent
-TL Scatter Lasers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

10x Fire Dragons
*Serpent
-TL Scatter Lasers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

10x Fire Dragons
*Serpent
-TL Scatter Lasers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

Heavy:
Fire Prism

Fire Prism

Fire Prism

Total: 2492


LIST #3 - More Storm Guardians! Less Dragons!

HQ:
Autarch
-Fusion Gun

Autarch
-Fusion Gun

Troops:
5x Dire Avengers
*Serpent
-TL Missile Launchers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Dire Avengers
*Serpent
-TL Missile Launchers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Dire Avengers
*Serpent
-TL Missile Launchers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Dire Avengers
*Serpent
-TL Missile Launchers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

10x Storm Guardians
-2x Flamers
-Warlock w/ Destructor
*Serpent
-TL Scatter Lasers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

10x Storm Guardians
-2x Flamers
-Warlock w/ Destructor
*Serpent
-TL Scatter Lasers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

Elite:
5x Fire Dragons
*Serpent
-TL Scatter Lasers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Fire Dragons
*Serpent
-TL Scatter Lasers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

5x Fire Dragons
*Serpent
-TL Scatter Lasers
-Spirit Stones
-Star Engines

Heavy:
Fire Prism

Fire Prism

Fire Prism

Total: 2519 (have to shave 19 points)

I don't really like the whole double Autarch deal. By not taking a Farseer you lose Runes of Warding, and board wide psychic defense is really nice. The other issue is that, especially if you are running storm guardians, you want to be able to toss doom down. Doom does wonders for increasing the fire damage from those Storm Guardians.

On the other side of the spectrum, 1 Autarch and 2 Autarchs have identical effect by turn 3, and if you deploy first turn they don't do anything.

You are spending 135 points in Star Engines... Is the extra movement worth that many points to you? 225 points when you add spirit stones to the mix.

I do love Storm Guardians, but at 2500 points I feel like holo-fields are more important if its one or the other. Also if you are really opposed to a Doomseer, Eldar small arms probably aren't worth dabbling into.

I don't really like maxing out Fire Dragon squads. Way too many points in whats probably going to be a suicide squad. Killing a 200 + point land raider is great with an 80 point dragon squad, its less awesome with a 160 point dragon squad. The Terminators / Nobs are still just as angry when they get out :x.

I do see every point your making, and you make great points. I'm not really against farseers at all and they really are amazing. I was just designing the list for the reserve capabilities.

I am using a ton of points in star engines, but they are they for when I come in from reserve. 24 inches from my table edge isn't nearly enough, but 36 is.

The Autarchs have also worked wonders with their meltas in a lot of games for me. While it prob doesn't add up to what a farseer can do for me, I'm still happy.

The idea behind the Fire Dragons would be to run them all together. This way, 1 unit pops the brick and the other 2 units Melt whatever was inside. If i went this route, I can see where 2 Farseers or a Farseer and Eldrad would be a must. This way I can fortune the 3 FD tanks to re roll their cover saves which almost ensures that all 3 of them get to their target.

Agreeing with Akaen on this one, piles of point in wasted upgrades and at 2500 your reserve alpha strike means little to vs the need for a farseer.

At 2500 points players start bringing out their Deathstar units of which without Doom or RoW this list will flounder against. You are denying yourself the synergy of Guide + that group of dragons or Fortune and those Fire Dragons Serpents or Guide or Doom with the Prisms etc etc etc etc. All for the sake of +1 to reserves on the 2nd turn and 2nd turn only?

Star engines for a 36" move from reserves? where the hell are you trying to get to on a 48" board? The only point of all reserves to come in and alpha strike fire those key targets while denying you opponent knowing where you are coming from.

Take list 3, drop all the Stones and Engines to save 225, drop an autauch for another 80. Take Eldrad and Holos on 2 of your prisms. After a few matches (to get use to using powers and preplanning your movement) you will see a HUGE boost in your performance.

At 2500 points, Runes of Warding should be considered an auto-include IMHO.
At that point level, nearly every army will start having psyhic powers, and being able to shut down power units such as Mephison, JotW, and Fortitude are really critical.

I agree with the others.

In all 3 lists, take three simple steps
1) Lose all star engines (9x15pts) + lose 1 autarch (80), saving 215pts
2) Buy Eldrad for 210
3) Profit....



That aside i prefer list 1 or 3 in general. Especially 3.

I don't really like list 1 as its completely relying on vehicles to do damage, you have no real anti infantry burst (just a reasonable number of S6 shots every turn) and your troops just sit in their vehicles all game. Its not terrible just boring and probably lacks the damage output you need at 2500pts.

The second list is ok. Large units of Dragons can work, but the problem is that you actually need to increase the amount of anti tank firepower you have if you want to field them. As has been already mentioned you don't want to be exchanging 160pt squads for 250pt vehicles (let alone 35pt vehicles), you have to squeeze in a few Bright Lances to give yourself some options against heavy vehicles to balance out the fact that your Dragons are now mostly anti infantry.

List 3 is by far the best out of these, 6 troops (2 of which can actually do some damage) and 3 units of Dragons. Star Engines are the obvious thing which needs changing, 24" is already more than enough movement and apart from the Dragons and maybe the Guardians you aren't in a rush to get in close. For DAVU Serpents they are a complete waste, you should be hovering around 24"-36" away as getting in closer is pointless (more dangerous for no gain). Assuming you come on from reserves (which you won't always be), 24" then 12" + a 2.5" disembark has you 9.5" from his board edge, well inside his deployment zone. Considering most vehicles are at least 3" long you can quite viably get into melta range, your opponent would have to be hard up against his board edge with his ENTIRE army to avoid it and will never be able to avoid shots from long range. Any list which is still camped against their board edge at the end of turn 2 has already lost any objective game against Mechdar, you now control the entire board and have him pinned in his deployment zones with a wall of AV12 vehicles. Moving 36" turn 1 actually makes you easier to destroy as it gets you even closer to him (absolutely everything will have range) and makes both rear shots and having the rear hatch blocked a possibility. The only units which need the extra movement are assault units (which rules out all the Eldar uses for it straight away), Dark Eldar coming from reserves have some use for it, particularly on transports carrying units without Fleet.

Other than that I'm going to have to echo everyone else and suggest dropping an Autarch and taking Eldrad. Even a standard Seer with Warding would be better than nothing, but Eldrad gives you more benefits at this level. Dual Autarchs with a full reserve list is nice, but I really think its viability tapers off above 2000pts. If you showed me the list without its HQ selections nothing about it suggests that its designed to be a full reserve list (beyond the fact that its Eldar and they like to do that anyway).

Once you get Eldrad in there its a very solid list, personally I would prefer a Falcon to a third Prism but you would have to tweak the list a bit to make that work and Vypers would be nice if you had points spare. Otherwise you have enough S8 shooting to be able to compete with Necrons and Psyriflemen, a decent amount of S6 shooting for long range, Dragons and Guardians for close range burst and 6 scoring units (which is a pretty rare thing for Mechdar).

Hey thank you guys so much for all of your comments. I'm going to really give Eldrad and the Farseer a few games to see how I like them. I do agree that shutting down Psychers is a HUGE must. I'm anxious to see how I do since I am so used to running my duel Autarchs.

How well do the Storm Guardians really do in games? I haven't played them at all and am excited to see how well they do.

I agree with the majority in that more DAVU units are a waste. I am seriously considering dropping 1 prism and adding in a Falcon. My prisms haven't been laying a beat down as of late, and I think 2 might be enough.

I'll be posting some more battle reports soon and I'll be sure to take your guys advice and show you how Im doing.

Good luck and keep ur anti psyker away! lol look forward to see how it goes.