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.

I have a buddy that got himself a mess o' Eldar, and among the pile he has a Wraithlord. The most recent tactics thread I found on them was from 2010... not promising. I know like many MC's, poison and mass amounts of S8+ firepower has made them pretty vulnerable (being a Nid player I feel the pain), but I want to help him make the big guy work. Let's face it, it's still one of the coolest models in the game, and he might as well use him while he's building his army.

With that said, what's a proper way to kit this guy out? My gut reaction was to recommend a bright lance and missile launcher on him and use him as fire support.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

The Wraith Daddy is the ultimate mash-up unit for the Foot'dar. In melee you must have
a minium str of 5 to even touch him, making the Daddy nigh invincible in that aspect. Most
MC's have str6 which still need 6's! And the catch-all counter the Power fist? Needs 4's.
On top of that pile of awesomeness, you have a unit that is fearless. It may work against
you on occasion, but let's the Big Guy stick in longer than anyone wants him around. He's a
fantastic counter to any armor and is an absolute horror to hordes/mobs due to thier limited
amount of access to the powerfist/claw.

The issues with the Wraithlord;

Pays a premium on the heavy weapons, and the same weapon twice is merely twin-linked
for a abysmal amount. He is relentless, but as he closes in you're forced to choose between
two heavy weapons and the sidearms (flamers most likely).

A sword makes his two clumsy attacks more accurate and is pretty much mandated
for a Daddy that wants to be effective in melee. And yet despite his awesome capability
to stagger a horde and stick around in melee, he suffers Wraithsight which means
you're spending additional resources babysitting him.

The main weapons that can wound the Wraithlord also negate his armor save, making rather
pointless in all but the poison weapon cases.

He's damn slow if he is firing the optional heavy weapons and leaves the Daddy exposed to
ranged fire.

Like anything else in the Eldar army, there's a time and place for everything. Meaning
that if you take one, better at least take two. Three is usually for the best however; it forces
the opponent to pick and focus fire instead of denying you any opportunities.It also ensures
that you have enough available resources/punch to butcher your target and deny the opponent, his.

Additionally, if you want the most of your Wraithlords, play hyper-aggressive. They are the only Eldar
Line Breaker/Siege unit. Anything shy of a dedicated counter/assault unit will tremble at the presence
of even a naked Wraithlord (one just using just a sword!) and will often over-compensate firepower/units
to get rid of one charging down thier lines!

However, the most effective use of a Wraithlord? To field all three with one heavy weapon, sword
and flamethrowers while still closing in on the enemy lines. The key use regardless of configuration is pressure,
make the other guy sweat and force a mistake. Sitting in the backfield is better suited for Reapers or Field guns.
Remember that a Wraithlord has the most accurate shooting for heavy weapons and the Eldar typically lack that in
Anti-tank.


And this coming from a guy who loaded his newer model with a EML/scatter laser and whose old models
had just the EML!

A side note; the Warwalkers make better advantage of the mixed heavy weapons due to volume of fire, and the
many ways they can deploy; plus they don't suffer from the need to get to grips with the foe to survive!


And yes, the model is sweet-modeled mine with the clothie bits him to look like Boba Fett, hence the Fett-lord!

I would go for at least 2 of those as Bloody Adair already said, and playing them aggressively is indeed necessary to be successful, because you want them in assault. If you want firepower, take Warwalkers.

If the Wraithlord is open to enemy shooting for too long, he will fall quickly to lascannonfire or meltaguns. Stick them together so the second will receive cover behind the first and you will only need one wraithsight-denying model to take care of both of them.

If terrain permits it, you can also choose to hide them and use them as interceptors in midfield to halt enemy offensives against your defensive position.

To suit this role perfectly I would not take any heavy weapons, just a sword and 2 flamers. It is cheap and you want him to run in the shooting phase.

What he said ^^^

Only thing I could add is that they are big target magnets. Use that to your advantage as much as you can.

When it comes to Craftworld, I've so far only got one list-type that functions for me, and that is a Wraithlord-heavy foot list. Tragically I can't really work with Eldar troop choices of any kind, but the tripple or quad MCs usually perform well - as long as they don't shoot at vehicles. I have this quirk, you see, in failing my vehicle damage rolls, it's all 1s for some reason. 3 EML/BL Lords shooting at a Venom? 4 penetrating rolls later and it's still able to move next turn (this happened two turns in a row, and then a unit of Harlequins walk up and wreck it many times over).

Personally I run my lords with Bright Lance and Missile Launchers. When you load Heavy Support up with 3 lords, you sort of need the ranged anti-tank, unless you've got the standard Eldar Suicide Dragons (queue Discworld reference)

If you can, try to use Avatar (preferably Forgeworld Avatar since he's bigger and more obvious) and Eldrad. If you don't have an Avatar or don't want one, then several Fortuneseers can't go wrong. Preferably Eldrad, of course.
The Avatar is a lot meaner in melee, and moving him into an intimidating position will draw fire on his 4++ re-rollable.

A tip is to paint the base with magnetic paint or to attach small magnets to it. Using the extras on the various Eldar sprue can make for easy to use wound counters that magnetize to the base.