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So I was looking at the Avatar today, and at about a buck-fifty, he doesn't seem too bad.  I think his biggest drawback seems to be movement, (I just wish he had fleet).

Has anyone used him for anything more than counter-charge?  His fearless ability seems useful, and with WS10, hard to get hits in HtH.

Mez

I'm running a fairly balanced list between mech/infantry and the Avatar is very, very necessary. Looking at some pics of Adepticon, it appears clear I wasn't the only one who found the Eldrad/Avatar combo useful.

His big benefit for my army is my opponents are now shooting a whole lot more at my Guardians than in the past. Before, I'm rolling morale tests nearly every turn which, in turn, had me moving Guardians away from the fight. And now I don't waste points on Warlocks or huge squads. All of my Guardian squads hover around 100 points depending on support weapon. Additionally, the Avatar is such a target and (with Fortune) can soak up a good amount of heavy firepower. So much so, it's like having another Falcon, errr, fire magnet.

He does very well in assault and counting as 10 models certainly helps in trying to break units. Additionally, as far as I can tell, you can cast Fortune on him while he's in assault, making him a true beast.

Used the avatar for the first time (this edition) last night and was very pleased with the results.

In conjunction with Eldrad and a wraithlord (and some harlequins behind), he can just walk up the middle and get in the face of pretty much anything, kill tanks, bog down terminators, pin things in place for the harlequins to come in and pop.

My problem for the last month or two while playing Eldar has been that every chaos player has a greater daemon and a buffed up daemon prince. But the Avatar/Eldrad/wraithlord combo can actually handle that. You just put a couple of wounds on them with shooting, then have your big boys walk up and finish them off.

It would also work, though not quite as well, with a doom/fortune farseer if you don't want Eldrad.

Minus the Harlequins, that's the middle of my army. Just add in some fearless Guardians on each side getting shot to pieces...

Sarigar - "And now I don't waste points on Warlocks or huge squads."

Neither are points wasted. Warlocks make you better in close combat, or give you a save against heavy weapons, and in both cases the Warlock power is more cost effective if the squad is bigger.

Assuming most guns are going to rip through your paper armour, a concealock saves 1:3, as you now have to shoot them all to rid yourself of the unit the warlock saves four in a mimimum man squad, and that is rounded down (three out of eleven saved, and one of those three saved again). That is 32 points saved at a cost of 40pts, so you get the functionality of the raw Warlock for 8pts, with witchblade rune armour etc. Same as a normal Guardian.

I see your point, but, I really am not worried about losing Guardians. Before the new codex, Conceal/Fortune was my best friend for my Guardian horde. I then started dabbling in Embolden as I roll way too many failed Morale tests. They were also the foundation of my army. Nowadays, for around 100 points each I've got a unit that my opponent will have to kill all 10 models before the main threat goes away. Use of cover and blocking LOS makes this even harder for my opponent.

My list has changed dramatically (I actually use Aspect Warriors now). The Guardians are easy targets for my opponents, but they underestimate how much they have to shoot to make a difference. If I power them up with a Warlock, they are A. becoming more expensive and B. a harder target that my opponent may decide to go after something else. Plus, I can make pretty good use of cover when available.

I see the validity of Conceal, but it just doesn't fit my current scheme. This is all do to the new Avatar rules which I've become a huge fan of.

I like having warlocks in a couple of my forward guardian squads for the spear. Since they're moving closer anyway, it's an extra, mobile lascannon shot (that hits on 3s).

But I'm also a fan of the 100 point EML squads too.

100 point EML? Explain? Do I need to start putting magnets on my weapon platforms?

Defender squad with Eldar Missile Launcher. Not very accurate, but very long ranged, and gives you another antitank shot in an army for which they have become a bit more limited and pricey.

I gotta say that the Avatar is pretty nasty. I faced an Eldar player last night with 5 squads of pathfinders, 1 striking scorpion squad, 1 banshee squad, 3 vypers, Avatar, and the Striking Scorpion Phoenix Lord in a City of Death game. I was running my Nidzilla list with 3 Dakka Fex, 3 VC Fex, 25 genestealers, 40 spinegaunts, 1 Winged HT and a broodlord.

The Avatar and the Phoenix Lord took out my HT, one carnifex, broodlord and 2 squads of genestealers. Luckily my last squad of genestealers was able to wipe out most of his pathfinders and the dakka fex shot up his scorpions and banshees. It took the combined weight of my remaining 5 carnifex to finish off the avatar.

Am I missing something, or did you have really bad luck. The Avatar and 8 stealers should be a pretty even fight. With them both being dead in about 4 rounds. 10 stealers should kill the avatar in about 2-3 rounds.
And I didn't even assume the stealers got the charge, otherwise it is really one sided. And I didn't include the Broodlord.


8 stealers should take out the P Lord within 2 rounds.

The forward elements of Guardians w/ Shining Spear make sense; something I may look into. I just get a little antsy spending more points on paperthin Guardians.

I've not had too much good luck with the EML. I would sit in the back with 2 squads, but they rarely were productive. The main element tended to move on w/o them, leaving them susceptable to shooting and taking Morale tests.

No, it was not bad luck... The HT was in HTH with the Phoenix Lord and Avatar along with some gaunts. I had no choice since prior combat he won and only had a few gaunts left and he was able to consolidate into the HT. HT didn't last too long... Then I charged in the broodlord and some stealers. I kept the broodlord in the back since there wasn't enough space. The phoenix lord hits at I 7 and took out some stealers. He was making good saves on his Avatar against my rending attacks. By next turn the stealers were mostly gone but they did drag down the Phoenix lord. The Avatar and Broodlord faced off and I wasn't able to do more than a couple of wounds on the Avatar before he took out the broodlord. It was bad positioning... I was hoping the gaunts can keep them busy for a while, but they didn't last long.

If anything guardians and spears should be your reactionary force.

With the exception of escalation missions, the Avatar is far, far more than simple "counter assault." I have had tremendous success lately with the avatar/wraithlord/Eldrad combo that so many people seem to have picked up on recently. I nearly always hide my Avatar first turn, he's so important I can't risk a turn of exposure without fortune.

It is very situational, but against most opponents the Avatar advances every turn, accompanied by my guardian bloc (2x 10 defenders, 2x starcannon, 2x warlock w/ conceal) and my howling-banshee counter-charge squad (8x banshees, exarch w/ executioner). If my Dark Reapers (2x 5, 2x Exarch w/ missile launcher) are under heavy fire, my Avatar might delay advancing for a turn to confer additional fearlessness to my gunline (delay usually only happens on the 2nd or 3rd turn, I keep the avatar as far forward as possible). Usually my opponent concentrates on the wraithlord as the biggest threat, and the avatar eats a squad (or more). Eldrad of course does what he does best making them both a pain to kill. The Wraithlord I run w/ bl/eml combo because my list is weak on anti-tank other than him, so he usually stays in heavy cover until his job is done. By the way; try hiding your Wraithlord(s) in cover once in a while and cast fortune on him. Opponents are almost never prepared for how tough this nut is to crack when the big guy has gone to ground. The Wraithlord generally lacks anything more than a basic armor save, so you can really off-foot opponents by sitting him in cover for a few turns!

But, attempting to stay on topic, the Avatar is nearly always my MVP, and he is truly the anchor of my entire army. Even if your opponent realizes how important the Avatar now is, cracking a T6 W4 4++(reroll) is incredibly hard and can take several turns for most gunlines to deal with. The Fearlessness is what makes any Eldar infantry force truly dangerous, and makes the avatar a near-necessity for any foot-based Eldar force.  WIth larger forces (usually a problem with guardian gunlines) you need to watch your spacing as it can be tempting to bunch everyone up into the fearless bubble. This is generally a bad idea. Not only do you get all of this, but the Avatar is offensively powerful as well. With the melta gun attack he now (finally) gets, he makes for quite a thorn in the opponent's side. He can get bogged down by particularly large enemy squads, so be cautious of this. But generally his four attacks per turn, WS10, and monstrous creature status guarantees that he can deal with any enemy who comes in squad size 10 or less, including vehicles. And, as the topping on the cake, you get to tell your opponent that he can only hit you on a 5+ in assault about half the time!