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So for the next installment in my barrage of questions, I have an inquiry about war walkers. More specifically, how to use them. Do people run them in squadrons or run them solo? What guns, bright lances? Etc, etc. Thanks for the tips.

Not solo, never solo. Too many good choices in HS to waste a selection.

I like to take mine as BL/BL, and cast guide/prescience on them

But really, pretty much anything paired with a Scatter Laser is a good choice.

Agreed. Never take only 1.

BL/BL or Scatter Laser/Scatter Laser are generally considered to be the best.

I'll go ahead and be the first to disagree; taking only 1 is a viable option. Running solo the SL is nice as the squad won't ever warrant a guide from a farseer. I run mine as SL/BL and outlfank him. At 70 points it's a cheap and effective tool that you can use to harry an opponent's flank and pop transports from behind. Park it behind LOS blocking terrain and move shoot run out of cover and back again. With only one model, it's much easier to hide.

If your opponent chooses to go after it, it's going to take heavy weapons or a lot of small arms to bring it down, which means diverting attention away from other key components of your army. Its also likely, due to it's fragile nature, that any sizable unit that decides to put it down will have just wasted a lot of excess fire power doing so.

Yeah, but why not take a unit of Hawks for that same role, only more deadly? And this way, you didn't waste a precious HS slot on a tactical gimmick.

I prefere either scatter laser & brightlance combo or scatter laser & star cannon combo in this codex. I do prefere squads however not all points lists allow me to do so at 1000 points I'll run only one is if I have to.

 Araenion wrote:
Yeah, but why not take a unit of Hawks for that same role, only more deadly? And this way, you didn't waste a precious HS slot on a tactical gimmick.

More deadly to what? Hordes and LRs? If you want to do more than spray str3 shots then you're getting up close and personal - not at all what I was talking about for the lone WW. Plus, in most of my lists FA is more contested than HS.

If you have full Fast Attack Slots the Walkers can certainly provide versatile STR 6 spam. Otherwise, I'd suggest Warp Spiders for the same role with more survivability.

If you are needing cheap ways to field some additional anti AV13+, the dual BL option Outflanking can be VERY handy.

For whatever reason, I have found success running a trip squad with one loaded out with BL/BL, and 2 loaded star cannon/star cannon. At S6 the star cannon is still good for rear armor hunting and 8 S6 AP2 shots clears quite a few heavy infantry and the bright lances are intimidating enough against almost all backfield vehicles. That being said the armies I tend to face are usually pretty MEQ heavy with the occasional land raider or monolith. That being said they are very fragile and they should never be put in a position to take fire from bolters.

Hoenstly the War Walkers are the unsung heroes of the Eldar Warhost.

It's expensive... really expensive, but in a squad of 3 you should almost always go SL/SL or (sometimes if your enemy list demands) SL/BL. With all SL that squad can and likely will engage and enemy unit in turn one with 24 SL shots at S6 AP6. If you target an enemy vehicle with AV 12 or less, it often goes down in one volley to glances. That volume of shots (coupled with half of them being twin-linked) can also shred infantry of all types.

While the weapon profile is nice and the volume of fire is nice.. the real value of that unit lies in it's versatility. They are walkers that are hard to tarpit (being i5 with good S they can kill most of the infantry that would be used to tarpit them or kill enough of them to force morall checks and make them flee). They also come with a 5+ inv and scout movement. They can be deployed at the fron line, move, and blast away.

Tactically there is nothing as valuable as the ability to strike hard and fast, which is what the Eldar do best. After deployment, study your enemy's formation.. see what he has deployed and where. Try to identify the hgih and low points of his strategy and which units he will most heavilly really on for the execution of his plans... then run right up to it blast it with a hailstorm of laser fire. In so doing you force him to react. REact... you force your enemy to take a defensive posture and react to your moves, taking away his ability to execute his own agenda.

per Go Rin No Sho... you've already won.

But don't take my word for it... use them as in this example and see the results for yourself.

enjoy

 En Excelsis wrote:
That volume of shots (coupled with half of them being twin-linked) can also shred infantry of all types.

This portion is incorrect. Laser lock requires scatter lasers to fire before other weapons. If you have 2 scatter lasers, it's not possible to laser lock yourself.

That aside, 24 str6 shots at bs4 is fine without twin linking, guide/prescience is fine if you don't need it elsewhere. I use the 24 shot unit every time and have never had need or desire to change it. Bladestorm weapons provide enough ap2 against infantry. Wraithknights/wraithguard provide enough str10 to not worry about needing lances.

Isn't SL/SC viable as well?

Martel732 wrote:
Isn't SL/SC viable as well?

If the lower range of the SC is not a factor than yes, the SC (made twin-linked by the SL) will be more effective in volume than the SL. Bladestorm is a killer