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Nick speaking,
So let’s talk about Eldar Support Weapons, and this is
where I am looking for some feedback on your experiences as I haven’t really
used them before. It seems to me that 6th Edition has made the
Support Weapon a serious contender in the Heavy Support slot of the Eldar
Codex, especially if you consider how cheap they are. I know they are competing
with some other great Heavy Support units like War Walkers, Wraithlords and Fire
Prisms, but this is what I am thinking...
The majority of the new standard missions
are objective based, so having lots of Troops are key. Eldar troops aren’t
exactly expensive, but then again they don’t have your average Marine stat line.
Pretty much all Eldar units need some sort of support from the rest of the
army, albeit Psychic support or Aspect support. Either way, it isn’t just a
case of buying cheap troops and bobs your uncle, you need all the other goodies
to go with them to make the army work, and that costs points.
With that in mind, I think the Support Weapon offers a lot
for the very cheap points that they are. Maybe they wouldn’t sit too well in a
full Mechdar army, but with the switch over to foot armies we are seeing
nowadays, they could be perfect for a Footdar list, and that is what I have
been looking at. The question is, how many support weapons do you have and which
guns to take?
Looking at the three gun options, the Shadow Weaver seems to
stand out as the best single gun for the points, and so far it is the only gun
I have play tested. Thirty points buys you a single 48” S6 Blast template. It’s
never going to kill that much, but it has that great ‘annoying’ factor, just
like my Swooping Hawks do. This is what Eldar are all about, and three of them are
only going to cost you ninety points!
The D-Cannon is another potential choice, and this is the
one that I hear everybody rave about.
I have to admit, I do worry about its short 24” range though, but wounding
anything on a 2+ with a blast template that is AP2, is pretty good. It also
will inflicting instant death on rolls of a six to wound, and has a good chance
of taking out vehicles, glancing on a three and four, and penetrating on a five
and six. At only fifty points a gun, they do sound pretty good regardless of
their short range, but how much fire support are they going to actually bring?
Lastly is the Vibro Cannon, which does have a better range
of 36” and uses a cool ‘line’ system, where anything under the line gets hit.
The trouble with this gun is it only starts with a base strength of four. The
strength does increase by one for each additional Cannon you have in the group
that hits, but a maxed out unit of Vibro Cannons will set you back one hundred
and fifty points, so not mega cheap.
Like I said, I haven’t really got much experience with these
guns on the table myself, so if you have any experiences or views on them
yourself, please feel free to share them with me in the comments section below...
Have a group of three D-Cannon's behind aegis defense line, with a group of Rangers(Pathfinders), Set up two groups of Vibro in what ever terrain you can find that has good los, Cover them with Rangers(Pathfinders). That's only 1220 points. 39 units. Two units of shining spears at 225 each with all the goodies. 9 Guardian Jetbikes for 198 with Autarch with Jetbike, Powerweapon, Mandiblasters, & Fusion Gun for 130. 1998 points. Total 59 units. I play this list and it is amazing, people just can't deal with all the cover saves. My Pathfinders love eating special weapons, Vibro's just knock HP off of like crazy and help keep the pathfinders safe. D-cannon's have been amazing, never last a whole game, but the always make there points back. Nothing like one shoting a land raider or reducing a term squad to half strenght in one salvo. Use them, thats all I can really say, expect the weave, because its fairly useless, shelved them long time ago.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, thanks for your thoughts on this, I hope to give my Shining Spears a whirl in 6th at some point, seems like they got a nice little boost compared to what they used to be in 5th, and I love the models anyway :D
ReplyDeleteShining Spears can get anywhere they want, they can get up to 3+ cover save with Skilled rider and can sit in los blocking terrain without taking Dangerous terrain tests. Redeployment in the assault phase is a beauty as well. My Spears tend to blast a tank and jump right back into cover, 4+ jink without turbo boost and getting out of assault range is nice. My cannons-pathfinder mix help remove those pesky flamers and plasma off the field to save my spears and guardians.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a huge fan of the Eldar, but like some of their stuff. The Shadow Weaver has always been one of those bits of stuff. Sure it is AP- and only S 6, but is that so bad? 40K, to me, is roll more dice and force more rolls. Three S6 blasts can do just that. Plus now that AP- and blast don't blow vs. vehicles these guys are better. They can indirect fire...i think still and that can always add to the annoyance. They are cheap in a dated codex and no body will really think them a threat. Two squads of three for me and let the blast template silliness begin! With the proliferation of ground forces and anti-rhino hate now, the Shadow Weaver might find a home. Until the new codex eventually arrives and these become insanely awesome, if you follow the G.W. trend of what was overlooked is awesome and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts, I must admit, for the points the Shadow Weaver is where I am going to start my experiments :D
ReplyDelete