Eldar vs Astra Militarum/Imperial Guard Tactics

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.

**Korlandril**

I have not been able to find any threads on Eldar Tactics to use against Guard, curious if anyone has any good counters to specific units/tactics a typical guard player might employ?

Also my only opponent plays guard and is thinking of getting some Space Wolves so what Eldar tactics/units would work well against both guard and SW. Not that I am struggling against him, my tactics and list have worked well up to this point, just wondering what other experiences people have.

**ultimentra**

Just take plenty of brightlances and bikes and you'll be fine. The only thing you really have to worry about as an Eldar player are Commanders issuing ignores cover to heavy weapons, which you can easily kill, Wyvern which you can easily kill, and AV14 spam. Really the only list that should have you sweating is AV14 spam, and even then your brightlances ignore it.

Bikes and Waveserpents dance around IG all game, IG can't punch through rerolled cover and invuln saves, etc, etc, etc.

**portugus**

As a IG player, pretty much everything in your codex will destroy anything but AV14. For SW, not too sure but thunder wolf cav or drop pods you might watch for. I think you have the advantage of just going into the game and seeing what he has and counter it.

Anything more and we would have to know what you and the other guy have.

**Otto Weston**

As a Guard player with experience against Eldar, I would suggest that you line up your infantry out in the open, 12 inches or less from his infantry and then sit there for at least 2 turns. I would also recommend that you park your vehicles behind your infantry with their fronts pointed towards your own deployment zone. You get bonus points if you clump everything together.

**Korlandril**

As a Guard player with experience against Eldar, I would suggest that you line up your infantry out in the open, 12 inches or less from his infantry and then sit there for at least 2 turns. I would also recommend that you park your vehicles behind your infantry with their fronts pointed towards your own deployment zone. You get bonus points if you clump everything together.

I think this tactic is very stronk

As a IG player, pretty much everything in your codex will destroy anything but AV14. For SW, not too sure but thunder wolf cav or drop pods you might watch for. I think you have the advantage of just going into the game and seeing what he has and counter it.

Anything more and we would have to know what you and the other guy have.

So IG main tactics seem to be AV14 spam, Blob lists and specifically for against Eldar Wyvern Spam? Are there any other popular IG builds, do they have anything in comparison to the much hyped Wave Serpent Spam? (I personally don't have any and don't really want any)

As I said I don't need tactics against his specific list I'm just curious as to the main tactics employed by IG and counters to them, but they do not seem to really have much chance against Eldar.

He currently does have a Baneblade and a Macharius Vanquisher, which seem to add a lot more durability and firepower to his force, are these efficient pointwise for him?

**Zsolt**

IG has Chimera vets with 3 special weapons (plasma, melta, sometimes with 1 flamer). Wyvern spam is against everything infantry, it's dirt cheap, re-rolls everything, and can snipe from behind LOS blocking terrain.

Against wave serpent spam Heavy weapons with ignore cover order is fun and effective.

**Bonachinonin**

I play AM and my friend plays Eldar. We play sometimes twice a week. My most played match up lately. That said, we are quite proficient at killing each other. From my experience, he has problems with my mixed lists. Guys on foot and decent showing of tanks. If I go all out on tanks he seems to perform better.

I do very well with ignores cover order onto a big blob unit, with support from some long range tanks. He does not have the firepower to blow away an entire unit of guard infantry with cover. Even with focus fire. However, he is really good at taking out prize units. I don't even bring pask any more as it is almost always dead turn two. Although if he lives beyond turn two, I tend to win the game. I have to be very protective of my knights, playing more defensively than I would like with such a model. I do not recommend bright lances actually. Yea they can touch armor 14, but they are such a terrible weapon. Resorting to a 50/50 roll to penetrate every time. You will disappointed more often then not.

The eldar tactic I have a hard time with is his beta strike. He loves to reserve, sometimes half his army. It all deepstrikes, or outflanks and knocks out key units. I also think runes of fate are a little better for him then telepathy or divination. Doom, fortune and guide being the big three (shout out to executioner though, man that can get annoying on 5+ guardsmen). If he deploys more on the table and tries to do the shooting war, I tend to get the upper hand. Jinking serpents don't cause that much damage, and the wraithknight has to be very careful on it's approach (beast hunter vanquisher from ABG for luls). Just things I've noticed. I can handle a shooting attrition war, he can't.

**Korlandril**

Spoiler:

My opponent has a single Wyvern which is quite effective but he really needs more, which is a problem for him as an AM player because of the low point cost compared to the model cost, whereas for me playing Eldar its the opposite and I had an existing collection whereas his is starting new.

Spoiler:

Same here, tanks get eaten relatively easily by Wraithlords, Fire Prisms and what not, his Infantry are not really a problem unless they are charging up in Chimeras, and if they are doing that they are easily countered by DA, but I would not be able to cope if his infantry are advancing and I need to split fire between them and his tanks. I do not have any bright lances only on one weapon platform, but I do not use guardians, only if we were to play around 5000 points, but he only has around 3000 points at the moment.

His biggest problems are my Wraithlord's and Avatar and my soon to be built Wraithknight, what are AM counters to high toughness MC's ?

**Ignatius**

Korlandril wrote:
His biggest problems are my Wraithlord's and Avatar and my soon to be built Wraithknight, what are AM counters to high toughness MC's ?

Fearless blobs of 30-50 guardsmen and a priest. If it can get into combat with them then you won't be using the MC for the rest of the game. They won't kill the MC, but they will make it so it can't be used.

**Bonachinonin**

What Ignatius said. The wraithknight will not want to get close or risk getting charged by fearless masses of guardsmen/conscripts. And if it is a blob squad, they may even have melta bombs and win eventually. Otherwise, it's lascannons and meltas.

I run a detachment from the armoured battle group. Vanquisher command tanks can make you reroll cover with a str8 instant death blast that can be twin linked depending on range. They also get the old hydra's that ignore jink (not that they are good against wraith units, but it's worth mentioning).

**Korlandril**

Fearless blobs of 30-50 guardsmen and a priest. If it can get into combat with them then you won't be using the MC for the rest of the game. They won't kill the MC, but they will make it so it can't be used.

That sounds cool, what is the typical points cost for 30-50 guardsmen with a priest, I'm guessing that can be a combined infantry squad?

I run a detachment from the armoured battle group. Vanquisher command tanks can make you reroll cover with a str8 instant death blast that can be twin linked depending on range. They also get the old hydra's that ignore jink (not that they are good against wraith units, but it's worth mentioning).

I don't usually ever jink, I tend to keep my grav tanks partly concealed with holo-fields for the 3+ cover save.

On another note are there anyways guard can take tanks as troops? As in entire armies of just tanks?

**NuggzTheNinja**

ultimentra wrote:
Just take plenty of brightlances and bikes and you'll be fine. The only thing you really have to worry about as an Eldar player are Commanders issuing ignores cover to heavy weapons, which you can easily kill, Wyvern which you can easily kill, and AV14 spam. Really the only list that should have you sweating is AV14 spam, and even then your brightlances ignore it.

Bikes and Waveserpents dance around IG all game, IG can't punch through rerolled cover and invuln saves, etc, etc, etc.

Exactly. As an IG player I can say that you're pretty much guaranteed to win using Eldar. You have better armor (through jink and rerollable saves), better mobility, better offensive damage output, etc. The only things an IG player can do better is tie up your hard hitting units, but the more important ones have H&R anyway, and kill infantry in the backfield using Wyverns which, if you're a competent player, shouldn't last past Turn 2 anyway.