Tactics: The Dragonfish

In playing against other Eldar players, I'm still seeing a lot of players doing some version of this:

The Eldar player here has flown a wave serpent full of fire dragons up to the target vehicle (a rhino in this case), has spun around so that the back armor is facing the enemy, then jumped out to fire fusion guns. This is widely considered to be a standard tactic for Fire Dragons, and I don't know why. Yes, you will kill the rhino, but the problem with this maneuver is that at the beginning of your opponent's next turn, you're looking at something like this:

Congratulations. You have thoughtfully disembarked ten angry marines (or khorne berzerkers or terminators or whatever) who will now proceed to shoot, assault, and otherwise stomp your fire dragons out of existence.

Also you have turned your serpent's rear armor toward the opponent's army, and chances are there's an extra meltagun out there that can now come by and toast your wave serpent, penetrating on a 3 or better--possibly on 2d6. In a KP game, you've just traded two KPs for one. In any game you have sacrificed a large chunk of your antitank power to kill a single vehicle.

Yes, if it were a land raider full of terminators instead of a rhino and it's the opponent's deployment zone, then it might be worth the sacrifice. But I never play land raiders and I still see my Eldar opponents doing this, when it really isn't necessary. Fire dragons don't need to be suicidal, for two reasons:

1. The range of a fusion gun is 12", not 6". You really don't need the extra D6 of penetration to kill anything up to AR12, and there's no need to get any closer to transports like Storm Ravens or Wave Serpents that don't allow you the extra d6 anyway.

2. "A model may not move within 1" of an enemy model unless assaulting" (BGB 11)

Back in 4th edition when there was a rule that skimmers didn't block line of sight, there was a Tau tactic called the "Fish of Fury," in which a bunch of Tau warriors would get out behind their skimmers and fire underneath the hull at an enemy on the other side. The intervening devilfish would prevent the remains of the target unit from assaulting the warriors in the next turn. Even though you can't really fire under skimmers the same way, you can still block countercharges with your skimmer-transports like this:

In this image (sorry about the blur, but you get the idea) two wave serpents have moved up and angled to leave a space a little less than 1" between their hulls. The fire dragons (in the upper serpent) disembark in the space created and line up for a shot at the rhino. The skimmers on flying bases leave plenty of room for them to see their target.

You could put the skimmers right up against each other, but leaving a gap allows the models to be positioned so that the majority of the fire dragon unit (three models) have an unobstructed view of the rhino, denying it a cover save from the Eldar player's own skimmers blocking line of sight. If the rhino is smoked or otherwise gets a cover save, then putting the two skimmers right up against each other.

So the dragons kill the rhino, even from 12" away, and next turn you're looking at this situation, which is much better than the last one:

The marines can't fit through the gap between the serpents, so they have to go around. But the distance around is more than 12", so they aren't going to be able to assault the fire dragons. The skimmers block line of sight enough that the dragons will likely get cover saves from a lot of the AP4 and better shooting that's coming at them from different directions. But also importantly, the wave serpents are still facing their energy fields toward all that enemy antitank fire, so they will likely survive. If the fire dragons and their serpent both survive the next turn, the remaining dragons can get back in and go kill something else.

Note that you don't have to put the second serpent (the lower one) tail-to-tail with the Dragon transport--you can go nose-to-tail just as easily, and in fact it's easier not to block your own line of sight that way because the serpent's nose isn't as thick. Which way you park your second serpent depends on the situation.

Yes, if one of the serpents gets shot down, the marines will be able to assault the dragons. Yes, the dragons can still be taken out by shooting, even if they do get cover from the transports and go to ground. Yes, the marines (or terminators or whatever) can assault the serpents--so hopefully you moved more than 6" in your last turn. But instead of overextending and throwing away two units, there's at least a chance that one or both units will survive to do something else.

The need for this kind of tactic is even more obvious when the passengers that your dragons are blowing out of their transports are heavy-duty assault troops like berzerkers or wytches or whatever. It's a little bit trickier to pull the maneuver off when the target transport is a land raider (two or three units of dragons with at least three serpents creating a wall that prevents units from getting around the ends to assault will work).

Also this tactic allows you to deal more effectively with one of Eldar's toughest opponents: heavy infantry with feel no pain. Yes, it would be nice to shoot those guys with guns that wound them on 2s, don't allow them any kind of saves, and take them out even if they have multiple wounds. But if you're in range to shoot a fusion gun at a nob or whatever, he's in range to countercharge you.

So do a fish of fury instead, shown here with two units of fire dragons, each with their own serpent.

If you whiff, you won't get countercharged. If you position your serpents correctly, this even works against sanguinary guard or other jump troops. Whatever guys survive your volley can't move far enough to get behind the serpents, so they have to land on the other side from the dragons. They might have enough movement to go around, unless you use a couple more serpents to extend your wall...

Enjoy.