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Trying to make Shining Spears work in an ITC environment. What do you think? Tournament winning Spears focussed list?

Eldar CAD

Autarch (Banshee Mask, Skyrunner, Laser Lance)

3 Windriders (Scatter Lasers)
3 Windriders (Scatter Lasers)
3 Windriders (Scatter Lasers)
3 Windriders (Scatter Lasers)
3 Windriders (Scatter Lasers)
3 Windriders (Scatter Lasers)

4 Shining Spears (Exarch)
6 Swooping Hawks (Exarch)
6 Swooping Hawks (Exarch)

Wraithknight (2 Heavy Wraithcannons, Scatter Laser)

Aspect Host
5 Warp Spiders (Exarch)
5 Warp Spiders (Exarch)
5 Warp Spiders (Exarch)

Aspect Host
5 Warp Spiders (Exarch)
5 Warp Spiders (Exarch)
5 Warp Spiders (Exarch)

1848

Torn between making the WK into some Dark Reapers or Wraithguard in a Serpent, just to help keep my most valuable unit down and avoid those extra points for killing a LOW, but I've kitbashed a cool one, so... yeah...

Does the exarch have a star lance? If not I think it's not worth the time. Also, just 4 of them? I would try to make them like a 'death-star' with 7-8 of them. I know it gets crazy expensive, but look out ignores cover ap3...and there goes your shining spears. Maybe with an invul save and fortune (divination 4+ maybe?) they could survive, but right now I think your opponent will take out your one combat threat besides the WK early and you'll just have to shoot-and-scoot your way to victory, which with they units you brought you might still be able to do.

Are you trying to keep the spears small to have your opponent make tough choices? Kinda makes some sense at the end of the day.

Sorry if I didn't help much just kind of speaking my mind. my 2 cents.

The thought was to keep the unit small enough to outflank and hide then pounce when they have been forgotten about, maybe. And to make it a little harder to kill the autarch, Autarch on his own can't usually get much stuff to be dead, so i thought this might be a good way to package him. Also, another jetbike unit to swoop at end of game maybe...

Mostly, to be honest, I kitbashed some warlocks for my seercouncil and i was trying to find a use for the models in this type of list... I could just make them be two warlocks, which MIGHT be more survivable, or bring a wee debuff. But I like having units that can outflank as well. and it means i can outflank my Autarch too. Its dead handy to have that in H&A games especially.

Got to ask, is this type of list even fun to play with?

Yes!!!!

Have to Second Castellan - make the squad larger with an exarch or it's not worth taking at all. I have a friend that runs a SS deathstar and it performs pretty well. Throw a biker warlock in there too for good measure.

Don't think you can put a warlock in there. They aren't independent characters.

Can imagine a deathstar with a couple of farseers in there doing well vs marines etc...

No to be a jerk, but if I saw this army I wouldn't think "Shining spears!" I'd think "This is a standard min-max powergaming list with a very small subpar unit added in so you can point to it and claim that you aren't powergaming because you included it."

If you want to play a list like this, I'd just cut the spears and go all in on min-maxing. Tournament players won't care about the min-maxing and casual players will hate it regardless of whether you include the spears or not.

If you want a shining spears themed list, I'd honestly revamp this one. The windriders work as troops so keep those if you want. I'd cut all the warp spider spam, then go from there.

The title was a bit of a joke TBH. It's absolutely a tournament list, I just thought the spears maybe had a place in it. Then was joking about having a filthy list that still had Shining Spears in it.

Is it a filthy list? Yep. Will the Shining spears be the weak spot? Probably. Should you give a flying feth? Up to you. Though if you wanted a 'shining spear themed' list, I'd go for like an aspect host of them, or two to get the point across. That's hella expensive I know, but it could be SICK.

Your list as is is pretty spot on, though I would say you don't have ANY psychic defense at all. This is one of the main draws to Eldar. Not saying at all that you're going about it all wrong dude, just offering up some perspective. I could see librarius conclaves giving you trouble throwing out invis, biomancy and the like on 2+ and you not being able to do ANYTHING about it but take it.

my 2 cents

 Castellan Alaric wrote:
Is it a filthy list? Yep. Will the Shining spears be the weak spot? Probably. Should you give a flying feth? Up to you. Though if you wanted a 'shining spear themed' list, I'd go for like an aspect host of them, or two to get the point across. That's hella expensive I know, but it could be SICK.

Your list as is is pretty spot on, though I would say you don't have ANY psychic defense at all. This is one of the main draws to Eldar. Not saying at all that you're going about it all wrong dude, just offering up some perspective. I could see librarius conclaves giving you trouble throwing out invis, biomancy and the like on 2+ and you not being able to do ANYTHING about it but take it.

my 2 cents

Yeah. While I have played the Spider Spam thing a bit, my fave list to play is based around Seercouncil. But I figure that the ITC format is quite anti deathstar. So I thought going strong for MSU and playing hard for the missions was the sensible game.

Probably a good call boss. Whenever we can get to a balance between MSU and deathstars I'll probably enjoy the game more. ITC and 7th ed isn't really geared towards the 'take all comers' style list I usually like to field.

I've always been in favor of keeping the WK in despite the negatives in the ITC. He soaks tremendous firepower that'll save your bikes another day. That being said I've given up on the Double Wraithcannon variety, as 6s are nerfed and a foot in cover is no longer sufficient under ITC.

My local meta plays a great deal of highlander, I've had some mixed results with Spears. Periodically they come in as a supreme last minute score (as they're ignored being scatter-less), as well as made vicious melee counter attacks. On the other end of the spectrum though, they die just as easily as Windriders.

I don't see a huge downside for taking them but I'd be surprised if you came back with a success story either.