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I can’t see guardians being very useful really. War walkers are good. The more invuln saves the better. Let them waste a lot of shooting on stuff with high toughness. Multiple wounds. And invuln. Use psychic buffs on your wraith guard like protect and fortune. And get them into hand to hand fast and you could really grind them down with ghost ax hits. They are brutal. Maybe webway strike them turn 2.

Anything that can shut down overwatch and can fly will prove invaluable against 2 IH levs I'd say. Be aware that that unit is the most durable in the game right now,.

Yeah I've dropped the guardians but kept the WW. I'll be having many buffs by the end hopefully.
I'm thinking of a farseer with fortune and doom, spiritseer with jinx/protect and a warlock with quicken/restrain. All focusing on getting the WB into assault as the basis of my psychic support.

My current thinking is:
Alaitoc:
Snipertarch(WL),
doomseer,
quicklock,
3x5 rangers,
2 WW,
CHE with 2 Star cannons,
Iyanden:
PsytroJinxseer,
5 Wraithblades with axe + shield,
WS with Twin Starcannon, Shuricannon, CTM, SS, VE,
5Wraithguard with D-cannons,
WS with Twin Starcannon, Shuricannon, CTM, SS, VE,
5Wraithguard with D-cannons,
WS with Twin Starcannon, Shuricannon, CTM, SS, VE,
That's 98PL or 1828pts.

I love my storm guardians, but they're only good for screening really. Two of the players I play most use thousand sons, being able to drop in squads to eat mortals may not be very fluffy but it's very effective!

Die! Die for your Farseer! Yeah, that's what they do for me too generally. But that's a significant tool for pure CWE imo.

I keep thinking about that new +1A if within 3" of an objective, stacked with storm of blades, enhance and disdain. That averages out at 94 attacks hitting on 2+, with 32 of them coming in at -1AP.

I know, I know, it's a fool's dream, but let a fool dream...

Within 3" is problematic imo due to how enemy can position themselves. If it was at least within 6" maybe.

Totally agree. It's not really feasible to build around it, but that game when it went off and your storm guardians blendered a Redemptor would be a pleasure

Are Swooping Hawks with the 5+ Grenade ability worth building around? I can see 3 uses per turn (1 for normal movement, 1 for Quicken, 1 for Fire and Fade).

Also I enjoy the theme behind Children of Morei-heg and Dire Avengers with Avenging Strikes, even if the bonuses overlap a bit.

The grenade pack says 'during the movement' phase if I remember correctly. So both, quick and fire and fade shouldn't work as they grant additional movement in the wrong phase.

They work, stated as much in the FAQ.

My apologies, I stand corrected. Indeed an interesting idea then.

 Orodhen wrote:
Are Swooping Hawks with the 5+ Grenade ability worth building around? I can see 3 uses per turn (1 for normal movement, 1 for Quicken, 1 for Fire and Fade).

Dont know if its necessarily worth building around, but MSU teams are cheap as hell, and tossing one or two in for harassing MW output could do serious work in more casual environments.

Wait, they do? It does? Can you just confirm that please, as that's a really powerful interaction if it's true!

It's Craftworlds FAQ.

Thanks, I'll take a look. Hawks just got juicy.

That is interesting. Roughly speaking, you would get one mortal wound for every three Swooping Hawks in the squad per jump.

I have never benefited from their current Exarch ability, Herald of Victory. Utilize Advance with their move of 14" and that is a pretty decent threat range.

Thanks for bringing this to light.

Yeah under ideal circumstances you'd get an average of 10 MW across the three jumps, with a full squad and full target units.

Although you pretty much kiss your squad goodbye after that, the last jump with Fire and Fade leaves you invariably pretty close to the enemy, Hawks don't survive long that close because you can't also charge stuff to tie it up.

Whats the best video/webpage people have found for detailing all of the exarch powers? I'm interested to keep digging through for combinations.
EDIT: The r/Eldar page has a topic with all of them written out.

After reading through it I'm definately keen to try out a Warlock conclave jetbike deathball. Needs a few powers to go off but has some serious punch, easily topples a Knight with Witch Blade + a few other buffs based on some fast maths.

My current favourite is the salamanders hand me down trait.
Im Going to try for a back line of msu reapers, vypers & ww armed with 1 bl and 6 or more vibro canons(maybe a couple d cannons). All of these would be single units so re-rolling all those hits and wounds.

Troops: 3 min storm guardian units with a fusion buried in each squad.

And 3 wraiths lords with swords running up firld backed up by a blob of wraith blades out of ds, banshees in WS, and scorpions lurking around.

I guess the second trait should be the charge distance, but not sure if better to go for cover at 12" and rely on the 2" power alone to make that key charge.

At min max level with different detatchements some interesting builds come to mind but struggling for ideas for an army wide synergy.

+4" shuriken and ignore cover is obvious and would work against most enemies, make it harder to screen from shuriken catapults and works for every gun in the army, especially nice on Tempest launcher.

For me, Hawks have now become a premier screening/anti-deepstrike charge unit. It’s not going to help vs Raven Guard, but reducing the charge distance by 2” is super strong.

With the new traits, I keep looking at Wraithlords. It’s just a shame that nothing ignores the move and shoot penalty for heavy weapons.

105 points with Bright lance and Fists with Salamander trait looks neat.

I am also looking at possibility to going as far as spending CP on Auxiliary to take Bike Warlock with 1s becoming 2s, maybe +2 to advance for Fly and Impair Senses.

I'm entering a Highlander 1500 ITC tournament in two weeks time with the objective of being fluffy. I'm running my exodites so that side is covered, but with the release of this book, is it worth making a custom craftworld or sticking with the tried and true Alaitoc? (Highlander being units except for troops are limited to 0-1)

I was very impressed with 5 man Dire Avenger units with AP-3 on the Exarchs in a game last night. I took the Salamander trait and ignore cover, both of which were very helpful for mowing down genestealer cult infantry. 5+ overwatch was great too.

 Shadenuat wrote:
+4" shuriken and ignore cover is obvious and would work against most enemies, make it harder to screen from shuriken catapults and works for every gun in the army, especially nice on Tempest launcher.

Wouldint the flat -1 be better if you going to invest into full shuriken centric build with the first trait? Ignore cover seems bit situational in comparison..

Regarding WL, the heavy weapon movement penalty hurts even with re-roll. I think going msu WW or vyper in the backfield seems better platform for BL with salamanders as they are cheaper.

I find the WL with sword (and 1xSC if spare points) to be quite effective. Hes drawing fire as nobody wants him charging tanks/dreads and can bring the pain.

He wants to be going forward to threaten bigger things distraction carnifex style. From memory I think he degrades after 3/4 wounds down to bs 4 so if you move you be hitting on 5s. Not sure its wortj 20 points sticking a BL on those fellas if you ask me.

I think having the WL always in cover sounds more appealing. A T8 2+ defence feels right for a WL. Always in cover applies to tanks as well I take it?

Ignoring cover is a pretty broken mechanic so it's a good bit better than a flat -1 for shuriken as your other weapons benefit from it.

The game revolves about maxing your saves and most people deploy in cover, and removing that avenue makes it very difficult for your opponent and very good for you giving you some excellent board control. 10 hellblasters in cover? Yes it's the same for shuriken weapons but let's say you shoot dark reapers at them, that 4+ save is now a 5+ because you removed cover. The new Raven Guard and similar having cover outside of 12 inches? Gone.

Yes, and while some enemies don't care for cover, neither do they care for -1 AP as well then (like those with natural invul).

Of course, -1 AP is better against anything that can't claim cover, from not-infantry to any vehicle which is not T8 (or with T8 if you have loads of Shuriken cannons). Personally I of course like it because it is about agressive play (being within that 12", the thrill!) but I admit for safe play, Avengers sniping from 22" into enemies sitting in ruin without cover for them is just more simple.

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
Ignoring cover is a pretty broken mechanic so it's a good bit better than a flat -1 for shuriken as your other weapons benefit from it.

The game revolves about maxing your saves and most people deploy in cover, and removing that avenue makes it very difficult for your opponent and very good for you giving you some excellent board control. 10 hellblasters in cover? Yes it's the same for shuriken weapons but let's say you shoot dark reapers at them, that 4+ save is now a 5+ because you removed cover. The new Raven Guard and similar having cover outside of 12 inches? Gone.

Ah I see. With the 4" shuri range id assume you are maxing out SC and guardian bombs/DA/twin cat bikes so the flat -1 seems the better choice.

It's not flat -1, it's -1 within 12".

I have a feeling that chapter masters are going to make alaitoc much less useful against marines, obviously -1 is always good but rerolling all misses makes it less effective.
But a lot of marine firepower is 24-30 inch range so I'm wondering if reapers, hornet pulse lasers, fire prisms and other stuff with 48+ inch range might be good to field against them since they tend to be slow moving too so you may get a turn or two to soften them up.
I'm also wondering if the auto cover trait to give vehicles a 2+ might be useful since avoiding getting hit is more difficult now.
Thoughts?

kingheff wrote:
I'm also wondering if the auto cover trait to give vehicles a 2+ might be useful since avoiding getting hit is more difficult now.
Thoughts?

The more I look at it the more I like the salamander trait + either auto cover or vehicles heal 1 wound per turn in a Spearhead detachment of 3 Fire Prisms and some Vibro Support Batteries.