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Hey guys, first time posting on Dakka, so apologies if anything about this article is wrong, placement, etc.

I haven't been gaming very long, less then a year, and have an escalation game coming up in a month. Was wondering if I could get some contributions as to a list. 4 players, 1'500pts each, 6'000 total. Eldar and Dark Eldar players on one team, both Ork players on the other. One of the Ork guys is taking a Stompa, with that being the only Lord of War included. Double FoC if wished. Apologies for rambling.

Here is the list I am intending to run, not quite happy with it. Criticism and advice please.

Farseer, bike, spear
Farseer
5 rangers
5 rangers
5 dire avengers
5 dire avengers
-Wave Serpent, HF, Scatter Laser
-Wave Serpent, HF, Scatter Laser
1x Wraithlord, SL, GG
1x Fire Prism, HF
1x Fire Prism, HF
1x 8 Dark Reapers, Ex, SS missiles, NV, FS
1'496

Thanks in advance.

I'm more of a dark eldar player, but I do ally in eldar often, so here are some thoughts on the list.

Farseer on bike - looks fine, but I'd recommend putting him in a squad of bikes.
Foot farseer - where does he go/what's his role? feels out of place.
Rangers - you probably don't need 2 squads of them
Dire avengers w/ wave serpents - gold.
Wraithlord - ok
Fire prisms - I'd recommend against them, or at least drop down to 1.
Dark reapers - the exarch isn't really needed.

As for what to change/add, I'd switch the foot farseer for a spiritseer and then with extra points from dropping a ranger squad, fire prism, and exarch, add in a squad of wraithguard with wave serpent.

Of note, what all do you have available? That would help putting things together.

Thanks Griff.

So, revising along the lines you suggested the list would look a little more like this.

Farseer, bike, spear
Spiritseer
5 rangers
3 Guardian Jetbikes
5 dire avengers
5 dire avengers
-Wave Serpent, HF, Scatter Laser
5 Wraithguard, D-scythes
-Wave Serpent, HF, Scatter Laser
Wraithlord, SL, GG
Fire Prism, HF
8 Dark Reapers, SS missiles
1'500 exactly.

As to what I have available, 2 falcons, crimson hunter, (12x) banshees, scorpions and hawks, 20 guardians, another 10 rangers and DA, 5 more wraith,7 fire dragons, autarch and half a dozen warlocks. Again, thanks.

You really want as many small units as possible rather than large expensive ones as they will die just as quick as your other units.

In line with that thinking was my not including wraithguard. They are tough, but far too short ranged, and the sheer volume of dice are going to kill them. Dire Avengers at least can duck behind cover via battlefocus, and rangers are too small a threat to bother with. The problem is the need to deal with both the hordes and the Stompa, which is why there were 2 Fire Prisms in the first list.

Those bikes won't make a very good escprt for the Farseer, go big or go home. Or better yet, get MotlG and rock a 2+ re-rollable cover save. I don't believe the stompa has any access to strength D weapons and Orks have no long range ignore cover so unless you are stupid and get her caught in combat she is in no danger at all. Your playing a massive game, the list you are playing should be nothing like the list you would normally use. You don't need troops really, so take the killiest troops you can for cheap. That means 10 guardians in a wave serpent. Using what you have this is what I would do.

Jetseer with MotlG and Spear

Spiritseer

2x10 Guardians in a Wave Serpent (you all know the build).

Crimson Hunter, 2 brightlances/ Nightwing Interceptor with 2 lances.

6x Swooping Hawks with Exarch w/ Sunrifle

6x Dark Reapers with SS missiles and an Exarch with night vision, EML and fast shot.

2x Fire Prism with HF.

1498. I assure you that between you all you have enough fire power to deal with slow ork hordes, what you are worried about is the big things. The biker stars and Loota hordes and of course the stompa. Spiritseer goes with DR who start in area terrain to get a nifty 2+ cover save from conceal. Farseer rolls 2 on Div and 1 on Fate to get guide, prescience and something fancy from divination. His job is to gives re-rolls out like a creepy old man with ice lollies. Swooping Hawks look weird, but I can assure you that their will be at least 1 massive unit of lootas that are puttingout enough shots to REALLY mess up anything eldar have. Notice they also have a tiny I of 2, then notice the Exarch's blind causing weapon. You get where I am going, not to mention they also have haywire grenades and that large blast. Fire Prisms blast stuff, not tactics there really and Crimson Hunter will one shot any ork-y thing flying. Ask if you can use your crimson hunter as a nightwing, while they loose a hull point they gain the agile rule, giving them a 2+ cover save when they jink. Guardians pack quite a bit more punch then DA and that's the kind of punch you want. The DA extra range won't help because they should only be on the outside when the have to, and then the extra shots really count.

Good Luck and hope the DE brought a LOAD of lances.

Thanks Alex, some of the imagery there was... Amazing? Creepy? Anyway.

Thanks for the advice, and yes the Dark Eldar guy is packing lances out the window, 12 or so. No flyers are going to be present on the ork side, as neither of them own any, for which I'm thankful. Nor do they have any issue with me using the Crimson as a Nightwing.

No platform with the guardians? Just jump, dakka and pray?

Revising again, something like this.

Jetseer with MotlG and Spear
Spiritseer
5 Guardian Defenders
5 Guardian Defenders
-Wave Serpent, HF, BL
-Wave Serpent, HF, BL
Nightwing Interceptor
6x Swooping Hawks, Exarch, Sunrifle
2x Fire Prism with HF

Now things get tricky. While Reapers throw out long range fire in abundance, I think that the Wraithlord will act as a good distraction and tarpit unit, S4 cannot hurt him, and 5/6 needs 6's. If I were to take the Lord It'd be with flamers, Glaive and Scatterlaser, plus probably a unit of Hawks, same kit, and cannons on the Serpents. Reapers'd just be 7 with SS and one without. Reapers come to 1'502, with our agreed spill over being 1'505, so all good, and Lord build is 1'492. Does any hold a significant advantage over the other?

Personally I would take the reapers over the wraithlord.

S5-6 might not trouble the lord, but massed S7 from lootas will. A big unit of them can and will drop the lord pretty quick.

On the other hand, a unit of reapers could do significant damage to that loota unit as I believe they have longer range (could be wrong on that).

Or just the let the hawk exarch blind them as you said.

Shingen wrote:
You really want as many small units as possible rather than large expensive ones as they will die just as quick as your other units.

Against a Stompa MSU is not really that important, as its sole D weapon is only effective in close combat. At range, with an unreliable gattling gun and a cannon that tends to scatter wildly, the Stompa is nothing to be too afraid of.

If your DE ally is bringing plenty of lances to deal with the superheavy, perhaps you should bring the tools to deal with the inevitable horde of boyz.

Thanks guys.

Reapers and lootas have same range, so they will be trading fire. Also worth nothing is that an 8 man squad of Reapers has the same survivability as a Lord, with 40 shots average being required to wipe them off the board. However, the Lord can take that punishment and not lose effectiveness, while any wounds the Reapers take dramatically decrease their efficiency. I also feel a counter attack unit may be helpful. One thing I've learnt from this so far is to target the lootas, so thats helpful. Alternatively, I could drop a Fire Prism and take both, with six Reapers taking SS missiles.

Never, Never drop a prism for a wraithlord Counter assault units are for whimps, in 6k games the battle is almost always decided by who can put the most bullets into each others asses. Your army doesn't have to cover all the stops, you are 1/4 of your teams army, focus on one thing and do it well. Let them handle all that close combat shizzle with things that can do it well, like a beastly beast pack of doom, Vect's Harlequin pimp mobile or a Jetlock council.

Lol, Alex the Harlequin pimp mobile? I would say take te reapers over the lord because if he takes bikers or deffkopters or anything is can jink due to ignoring jink on the reapers( I know ork bikers get a 4+ cover without jink).

Vect and his entourage of Harlequins with all the trimmings in his pimp mobile (Dias of Destruction) of cousre, was that not obvious?

Again, nice imagery.

Reapers do strike me as the better choice, as there are 15+ Deffkoptas in the running to make their lists. No Jink will be nice, and a squad of 8 Reapers will kill ~6 Deffkoptas in a shot, assuming no psychic interference on my behalf, in which case it skyrockets .

Another revision.

Jetseer with MotlG and Spear
Spiritseer
5 Guardian Defenders
5 Guardian Defenders
-Wave Serpent, HF, BL
-Wave Serpent, HF, BL
Nightwing Interceptor
6x Swooping Hawks, Exarch, Sunrifle
2x Fire Prism
8x Reapers, SS missiles.

Well unless you already know what your opponent is bringing i would be cautious how you write your list. An Ork player can pretty much ensure you dont blow up his stompa if he really wants to. as for the other one You have to worry about Lootas and battle wagons. If i was you i would take:

Farseer 100
5 dire avengers -Wave Serpent, HF, Scatter Laser 200
5 dire avengers -Wave Serpent, HF, Scatter Laser 200
5 dire avengers -Wave Serpent, HF, Scatter Laser 200
5 dire avengers -Wave Serpent, Scatter Laser 185 (or swap for 2 more squads of swooping hawks x 6)
Swooping Hawks x 6 96
Warwalkers x 3, Brightlance x 6 210 or 3 Brightlance 3 Scatter lasers
Warwalkers x 3, Brightlance x 6 210 or 3 Brightlance 3 Scatter lasers
Vaul Support Battery x 3 90

Real simple, precience guide the warwalkers(why its 6 brightlances) use the rest to snipe out troops