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Hey there, I'm starting a large Eldar army and could use some insight. I'm doing the Guardian Defenders Warhost, and also came into a bunch of Dire Avengers and was wondering what the preferred way of running them was. Is MSU in Wave Serpents good, or is it better to do 10 man squads in wave serpents? Is it preferred to add an exarch? What upgrades? Thanks for the help.

I had toyed with the idea of a Dire Avenger Shrine deploying in a squadron of 3 falcons. Obviously only 5-6 man strong, but the falcons get to deep strike if there's 3 of them. They don't scatter too. So then your avengers jump out, use their Assault 3 rule for that turn, and you get 3x6x3=54 BS5 rending catapult shots. not great, but it's a handy little gimmick.

Aside from that, you'd want the avengers, at least a squad or two - in serpents. As part of the battle-host, they get the 6'' run. So they've got a very good threat range (for infantry).

I've not used the Avenger shrine, but I think that's how it would work best. Transports move forward (bright lances or scatter lasers would be best). Avengers pop out and bladestorm something. Then they can actually be ok to eat a charge from something like tacticals or other non-specialist combat units. With BS2 overwatch + stubborn, or counter attack, they're not too shabby.

I think you should experiment. They're not a hugely popular unit, so reviews will be mixed. If you're just looking at some social/pick up games, you can't really go wrong.

I will add, that for a 'foot-dar' list. Loads of guardians + dire avengers on foot. The Avatar is a handy choice. Not for the power-gamer, but he gives everything with 12'' fearless, rage and furious charge. Not to mention being a beast in combat too.

Imagine your opponents face when you charge, and win combat with guardian defenders!

Dire Avenger shrine taking Wave Serpents is very good - your transports benefit from the +1 BS bonus.

I use the DAs with the shield Exarch. The invul save is quite nice, and is only 1 fewer gun.
It is a good place to put a Farseer, as the DAs are fairly tough, due to their deterrent range and special anti-assault rules.
Both the DA and Aspect shrines have their uses, depending what other squads you take.

I usually use a single DA squad and 2 other aspect squads, usually DRs, so +1BS.
If I take any other tanks or with jetbikes, I put the DAs and combat-Farseer in a WS. I like Star Cannons (but lots of people don't) or BLs on the WS.

I'd missed the +1BS for the WS, so will have to read up on that.

My friend always runs the DA shrine with 3 wave serpents TLSL and hull mount SL - The shrine requires 1 exarch who takes a diresword. The formation pumps out an insane amount of dakka. When combined with doom and bs5 something is gonna die.

When I take DA I run them in an aspect host on foot as 5 mans - simply as a cheap way to finish out an aspect host.

 Xenomancers wrote:
My friend always runs the DA shrine with 3 wave serpents TLSL and hull mount SL - The shrine requires 1 exarch who takes a diresword. The formation pumps out an insane amount of dakka. When combined with doom and bs5 something is gonna die.

When I take DA I run them in an aspect host on foot as 5 mans - simply as a cheap way to finish out an aspect host.

Just a slight correction, the shrine requires 0 exarch's and only allows 1 squad to have an exarch.

And for my two cents I like the formation and (mostly because i have 30 dire avengers and never used them all before this formation) always run full 10 man squads. The only thing you have to work out and that i dislike is that you have to use the extra shot on all the dire avengers at once so it requires more planing on getting all 3 squads into position to take advantage of the shooting.

Kaela_Mensha_Khaine wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:
My friend always runs the DA shrine with 3 wave serpents TLSL and hull mount SL - The shrine requires 1 exarch who takes a diresword. The formation pumps out an insane amount of dakka. When combined with doom and bs5 something is gonna die.

When I take DA I run them in an aspect host on foot as 5 mans - simply as a cheap way to finish out an aspect host.

Just a slight correction, the shrine requires 0 exarch's and only allows 1 squad to have an exarch.

And for my two cents I like the formation and (mostly because i have 30 dire avengers and never used them all before this formation) always run full 10 man squads. The only thing you have to work out and that i dislike is that you have to use the extra shot on all the dire avengers at once so it requires more planing on getting all 3 squads into position to take advantage of the shooting.

Thanks for the clarification. In that case I'd probably take 0 exarchs if I ran the formation myself.

Through purchases and random army trades I've found myself with almost 60 Dire Avengers lol. Seeing as this is my first time building/playing an Eldar army, and haven't played against them much, I really needed to see what the community thinks of them. The 5+ for the unit did sound pretty amazing, but I was debating on the price vs having the extra fire power. I think the 5+ wins though