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.

I'm reading alot of lists with the Autarach on bike with a laser lance and a Reaper launcher...It just doesn't seem like that good of a combo to me. 

Either you're shooting the reaper at something at long range, or you're in assault.  When you charge with the lance, you get 6 strength 6 power weapon attacks, but if you don't break the enemy, you're stuck with strength 3 non-power weapon attacks.

I can see the use of the lance when the Autarach is joined to a shining spears unit where he has hit and run...But not as a normal guy.  I'd rather save the 10 points and just have a power weapon on my shooty jetbike Autarach.

Eh, you're probably right. My thinking was that with a VP denial list and/or escalation, you may have a few turns of positioning before you are set up for the charge. The autarch wouldn't be totally wasted. Additionally, killing 2-3 marines in say, an assault squad before you charge them with autarch/shining spear combo could be the difference between the Vet Sergeant surviving or not. I guess you could replace it with a fusion gun for the or even just drop it entirely.

I'd say something like this would be good: Autarch w/ bike, laser lance, fusion gun, mandiblaster, banshee mask. Have him ride with some Shining Spears and you have quite a good assault group.
Or alone he'd be good at hunting ICs.

Its either Mask or Mandiblaster. And its either Lance or Power Weapon.

IMO best combo is:
Bike, Mandiblaster, Lance, Fusion Gun.

Wipe out the opponenent on the charge and consolidate into another unit or hide behind IC status. And wipe out isnt all that hard after all if you soften up the target sufficiently with other units. With 6 Powerweapon attacks plus a BS 5 Fusion Gun attack, he should reliable kill 3 MEqs.

If he's joined to a unit of shining spears, then it's lance no worries. Dunno if I'd worry about a shooting weapon then though.

It just comes to specializing...If you are shooty, the points you spent on assaulting is wasted. Vice versa if you're assaulty.

Plus without hit and run, lances aren't that useful.

I'm painting a Lance Autarch now. After theoryhammering him, I came to the conclusion he will just be tricky to use and can't handle assaults on his own (and I don't have Spears). However, he's just too cool to not do. He reminds me a lot of 2nd edition Exarchs, I just had to do him. 6 Attacks at S6!!! When was the last time I've seen this from a single Eldar model. Heck, I don't think the Avatar gets that.

I like both the reaper and the fusion gun combos. The thing is, fusion is nice to add antitank so if your list is not running fire dragons, then you can really use it.

Another thing the reaper is good for is making your counterassault force useful while you're waiting to counter-assault. Stand-and-shoot Eldar armies are very vulnerable to being assaulted, so having a small squad of shining spears and an Autarch is going to be very very common (just watch

So you give your Autarch a reaper launcher and he sits in the back with your shootie guys and shoots for free all game until the enemy gets there, then he assaults the crap out of them.

IC protection with a BS5 gun is fantastic.

The real application I see for this is this type of army:

Autarch with reaper/bike/lance/mandiblasters
Maugan Ra

3 x 6 fire dragons

bunch of pathfinders

3 falcons kitted

The Autarch and Maugan will put a serious hurt on marine squads, and are untargetable for shooting because they have 2+/3+ cover save Pathfinders in front of them. The fire dragons get suicided on vehicles/big squads. Falcons sit around and don't give up VPs.

And yes it's gay to take Maugan ra and none of his aspect, but man he rules. When your assault elements finally get to the rangers, you're eating 11 S6 power weapon attacks from Maugan/Autarch

The laser lance + fusion Autarch is good against weak and expensive units like Tau Crisis suits, single ICs, etc as with the fusion gun he has a good chance of insta-killing them and 6 S6 pw attacks will do the rest.

Longshot: I like your idea on the list. This is showing just how much versatility we are now getting with the new codex.

Very interesting indeed...

Two more things to consider:

- Weapons that fire before charging are essentially initiative 11 close combat attacks. Theres no contradiction between shooting and close combat in this case, especially when the unit (Spears) is designed to charge every turn.

- The Fusion Gun is 15 pts cheaper then the Reaper Launcher