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Hi, Dakka. So, I have been wondering what you all like better, Farseers or Autarchs?

Farseer: I play Ulthwe, so I make great use of Farseers. I tend to put each Farseer with a squad of Warlocks and such. They all have access to good psychic powers, and such. I run a good 1000 point Seer council mostly in Apocalypse, and love to go Monstrous Creature hunting. Seer councils on jetbikes are always effective.

Warlocks: I normally run three Warlocks per Farseer I have. They make a nice little bodyguard for my Farseer or others.


Autarchs: The thing I like about Autarchs is that you can do so much with them. They have access to a large variety of equipment that can deal devastating damage to the opponent. I run Autarchs in these “forms”:

Warp Spiders: I run an Autarch with 5 Warp Spiders, Exarch with Deathspinner, and Powerblades. I equip him with a Warp Spider Jump Generator and Power Sword. He seems to do well with taking out enemy HQs, and jumping back.

Striking Scorpions: My favorite way. I run an Autarch equipped with a Mandiblaster, and a Power sword with a five man squad of Striking Scorpions. The Exarch has a Biting Blade. I normally rush these against infantry units, and plunder all my attacks. I normally use this against Guardsmen.

Swooping Hawks: Autarch with Swooping Hawk wings in a squad of five. Makes a nice little distraction unit.

So Dakka, which do you like better?

I think this belongs under the Tactics section...

Farseers. Most of the time...

The psychic defence and powerful psychic abilities make them a great purchase, great force multiplier and the go-to HQ choice IMHO.

megabambam wrote:I think this belongs under the Tactics section...

- moving

While Autarchs are much can be custom made for any situation, I fell like Farseers are the better all around selection. If your looking at a tournament for instance the runes of warding for your farseer often pays for themselves by completely shutting down your opponents psychic powers. I also feel fluff wise that Autarchs are more of a large army leader, where a farseer might be dispatched with a relatively small force.

In my opinion, Eldar have a seriously hard time competing in the current meta without the support of some kind of Farseer.

The buffs and debuffs that a Farseer can throw out are vital to making the Eldar army work:

1. BS 3 is a pain. Guide is usually needed to help hit things. Even BS4 Dragons and such improve twofold with a Farseer.

2. Our army is super fragile, besides the tanks, a timely Fortune can make or brake a game.

3. Doom is key for killing good-armour/ high toughness units. Eldar usually struggle with 2+ saves or T6+

Autarchs on the other hand don't really add much to the army unless running a reserve army. They're easy to punk with Power fists or S6 weapons/people.

Just my thoughts, I'm sure many shall disagree...

Iranna.

I actually went with an autarch. A Fusion Gun and Scorpion Chainsword+Mandiblasters makes for a cheap and effective HQ that shoots very well and fights decently. The biggest thing the autarch brings to the table is the reserve modification, making all reserve lists or strategies not only possible, but reliable.

I tend to run both, but from my experience the Autarch is better and improves my army far more than a Seer.

The Farseer is the best support character that Eldar has. The runes and powers are all useful. The Autarch on the other end can bolster the unit of Aspect Warriors she is with and she can bolster reserve rolls. So her role is quite limited.

wuestenfux wrote:The Farseer is the best support character in the game.

fixed that for you.

Iranna.

Farseer all the way, though an autarch and a farseer can work well, but as eldar, if you don't take at least one you're asking to lose.

Yeah, I agree. The autarch is really good, but it just doesn't hold a candle compared to the pure awesomeness of a farseer.

If I had the opportunity to field an autarch-like model in any other army, I might, but given the opportunity to take a farseer-like HQ choice, I'd never take any other option in any other codex...

I like running both. It's amazing to have RoWard protect against Psykers from anywhere on the board. I find my Farseer powers don't do enough unless I really spend a lot of points though. Preferably on Eldrad. I tend to want more than on me guide/fortune and a doom each turn.

The Autarch on the other hand relieves me of the need for first turn. With enough mobility and long-range shooting I can reserve everything and deny alpha strikes which is very important against my IG and DE opponents. Oh yeah and the Autarch is useful with almost any unit. Great with Warp Spiders, the JetCouncil, Shining Spears, DAs, Dragons. Maybe others too, but this is my experience.

A Farseer should pretty much always be your primary HQ choice. Guide/Doom/Fortune are powers that are all key to the army, the first two probably moreso, and Runes of Warding can feth with enemy psykers to no end, giving you a bit of breathing space against enemies which rely on psychic abilities to support their army.

Autarchs are more secondary commanders; yes they're quite versatile and can be equipped with just about any combination of items, but they don't bring what the Farseer can. The only army-wide buff granted by an Autarch is the +1 to reserve rolls, which is awesome if your army relies on several units coming into reserve together, or coming on quickly, but overshadowed by the Farseers psychic and anti-psyker abilities.

In most cases, a Farseer should be your only HQ up until around 1.5k or so, as an Autarch won't add a whole lot until then, but running a Farseer/Eldrad and an Autarch should pretty much be your HQ for larger games. Dual Seers generally aren't worth it in games where you can't afford to have your army arriving in bits, and whilst the RoWa FAQ makes dual Wardseers powerful against psyker armies, they're not something you should really build an army around.

To re-cap:
Farseer to start with
Autarch added when your army absolutely needs to have units arriving on time.

Eldrad is amazing. I hobby-wrecked a guy's Tourney list t'day with him.

Avatar 720 wrote:A Farseer should pretty much always be your primary HQ choice. Guide/Doom/Fortune are powers that are all key to the army, the first two probably moreso, and Runes of Warding can feth with enemy psykers to no end, giving you a bit of breathing space against enemies which rely on psychic abilities to support their army.

Autarchs are more secondary commanders; yes they're quite versatile and can be equipped with just about any combination of items, but they don't bring what the Farseer can. The only army-wide buff granted by an Autarch is the +1 to reserve rolls, which is awesome if your army relies on several units coming into reserve together, or coming on quickly, but overshadowed by the Farseers psychic and anti-psyker abilities.

In most cases, a Farseer should be your only HQ up until around 1.5k or so, as an Autarch won't add a whole lot until then, but running a Farseer/Eldrad and an Autarch should pretty much be your HQ for larger games. Dual Seers generally aren't worth it in games where you can't afford to have your army arriving in bits, and whilst the RoWa FAQ makes dual Wardseers powerful against psyker armies, they're not something you should really build an army around.

To re-cap:
Farseer to start with
Autarch added when your army absolutely needs to have units arriving on time.

Quoted for emphasis. This is how I like to build my armies, and this is what I recommend to other's.

I would also like to go back and outline a few builds. As far as I'm concerned Autarchs need to be extremely streamlined or they aren't worth it.

Foot (aka El Cheapo): The basic one you see is just an 80 point Autarch with a Fusion Gun. Cheap, and gets you the two main selling points- accurate melta gun, and Master Strategist.
There isn't really any purpose adding upgrades past the fusion gun. You can either get s4 regular attacks, or s3 power weapons, neither of which are very threatening, and the more upgrades you buy for him to try to make him passable in close combat the more you wish you had just paid the points for Yriel, who actually is a close combat beast.

Warp Jump Generator : Take the Generator,. Mandiblasters, Power Weapon, and Fusion gun. Costs a lot of points, but has almost passable close combat (s3 still sucks but 6 attacks on the charge is acceptable) Really its the Warp Spider body guard who are doing the work. Make use of your 10 power weapon attacks on the charge (4 from exarch, 6 from autarch) and hit and run to mess about in your opponent's back field. Pick on fire support, and use the warp spider's speed to get away from scary close combat enemies.

Jetbike: Take the Jetbike, mandiblasters and a laser lance. Fusion gun or Reaper Launcher depending on whether you want to shoot away with GJB or lend some power weapon attacks to a jetseer council or pump up a squad of Shining Spears. 6 s6 power weapon attacks on the charge is nothing to sneeze at. the most expensive build, and still not as powerful as Yriel in close combat. BUT you've got an 18 inch charge range.

The basic problem is that he sucks at close combat. Sure he gets a good number of attacks at good initiative and weapon skill but he is constantly plagued by his low strength, and inability to improve his armor past 3+. I like the warp spider version because it lets him act like a scalpel, WJG gives him the speed to get away from things he doesn't like, and to catch things that he does like. But if you are trying to kill enemy HQs with him... s3 power weapon attacks probably aren't going to do it. Especially if said enemy HQs also have an invulnerable save...