Unwelcome Visitors Battle Report

Nick speaking,

This is a 1750pts battle report (old Codex) with the 'Unwelcome Visitors' mission that was in White Dwarf during the Harlequin release a while back. I have not seen anyone else play this mission, but it was great fun and I would recommend giving it a go if you want to mix things up on the table...

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More Mechdar Messing - Jetbike Units Sizes?

Nick speaking,

After a few games with another re-vamped Mechdar list that enabled me to get my Wraithknight in, I think I am ready to make a few decisions regarding my Jetbike units. I have noticed that my six strong Jetbike units always go down in one turn of shooting or assault if they get targeted, regardless of how well I am using them! So what is the ideal unit size?

The conclusion at the moment is for me to have four units of three rather than two units of six, I only had four troop slots previously, so I have the space for them. It would also mean that I could drop the two Warlocks I had with the larger bike squades. The Warlocks weren't that great anyway, and sort of went against the idea of reserving them, as I couldn't get the Psychic Powers up from reserve, and then when I did get the chance, failed the Leadership eight roll anyway! With the Warlocks dropped and a few tweaks here and there, I am able to get a second unit of Warp Spiders into the list and fill out my Troops slots at the same time...

HQ
1 x Autarch/Jetbike/Fusion Gun/Blaze/Mantle/Lance/Mask (150)

TROOPS
3 x Jetbikes/1x Shuriken Cannon (61)
3 x Jetbikes/1x Shuriken Cannon (61)
3 x Jetbikes/1x Shuriken Cannon (61)
3 x Jetbikes/1x Shuriken Cannon (61)
10 x Dire Avengers/Exarch - Power Weapon + Shimmershield (150)
        Wave Serpent/Scatter Laser/Holofields (135)
10 x Storm Guardians/2x Flamer (100)
        Wave Serpent/Scatter Laser/Holofields (135)

ELITES
5 x Fire Dragons (110)
      Wave Serpent/Scatter Laser/Holofields (135)

FAST
6 x Warp Spiders/Exarch (124)
6 x Warp Spiders (114)

HEAVY
1 x Fire Prism/Holofields/Spirit stone (150)
1 x Fire Prism/Holofields/Spirit stone (150)
1 x Wraithlord/Suncannon/Scatterfield (300)

Points 1997

Battle report to follow...

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How will 6th Edition effect my Saim-Hann Eldar?

Nick speaking,

One thing I love about the Eldar is their versatility when it comes to making lists, and that's the main reason I gave my Eldar the name IDIC Eldar. These pointed ear Vulcan type dudes really live up to the Vulcan philosophy of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. In my mind I actually have three Eldar armies, a Saim-Hann jetbike themed army, a Harlequin themed army and a Hybrid army. In today's post though, I want to have a look at the IDIC Hann...

As you can see from the picture above, the starting point of my army is a Jetbike Seer Council. I have been experimenting with swapping the Farseers powers, but in all honesty, without Fortune, the Council really loses what it needs to keep it up as long as possible. I have concluding that it's not really worth dropping your Doom and Fortune for the random powers, unless you have more than one Farseer on the table.

Both the Council and the standard Jetbikes have a huge range of movement now, and it's especially useful that you can now cast fortune and turbo boost the same turn. With my five Dire Avengers in the Falcon now having issues with being a scoring unit, the Jetbikes are even more important to my army now, more than ever. I am seriously going consider putting in an Embolden Warlock in each group of Jetbikes, and it wouldn't surprise me if I ended up having to buy some more Jetbikes for my list in the future. Talking of Embolden, have you checked out Embolden40k Blog yet? If not, please go and have a look after you have finished reading and commenting here.

As for Vypers, so far it all looks even worse for these flying beauties. Not that they were the best unit before, but they really do fit in with the Saim-Hann theme so well. OK, so we now have a 5+ cover save for just moving and 4+ if we move instead of shooting as before, but we can now move 12" and shoot all our guns at normal ballistic skill. The main extra issue with these guys is both the rubbish two hull points and the new vehicle damage chart modifiers, +3 to the chart if AP1 and +2 to the chart if AP2, as we are open-topped. Ouch, that really hurts, and a 5+ save really doesn't make up for it. I am not writing Vypers off in my list, as I really like the models and they fit into the list too well for instant dismissal, but some new tactics are going to be needed for them, if they are going to work.

My first thoughts are that the two Fire Prisms are staying in my list. The new blast rules and random weapon destroyed results are going to help these two do damage. I don't think it's worth having Holo-Fields on them anymore though, as three Glancing/Penetrating hits will wreck it anyway. Better to spend the points on Warlocks for the Jetbikes instead. The main issue with them and any Eldar Tank now, is the lack of objective contesting, and long range tank shocking. In 5th Edition, I rarely had the big gun left intact, but they were nearly always around at the end of the game with their Holo-Fields, ready to contest objectives, and I think this is the biggest draw back any Mech Eldar list is going to have.

Now we come onto the Falcon, which was once the most survivable scoring tank in the game, is now just basically a gun boat. Is it even worth putting anything inside it? I think the Falcon is still great, but the only reason I took it over a Wave Serpent, was to have a solid Scoring unit in case my Jetbikes went down, and with the Holo-fields, it very often did score. Maybe it is time to change it over for a Wave Serpent, with a twin linked gun instead. To be honest, unless the Falcon was guided, it didn't really shoot very well anyway! The question is, what to put in the Serpent? I want it to have Troops, so it's either Storm Guardians or Dire Avengers?

One thing I want to quickly add in here, is how happy I am that Shining Spears have had a bit of a boost in 6th Edition. They are still over priced, but then again isn't everything Eldar? The main reason I mention Shining Spears, is from a previous post I did a while back, where I talked about how much I liked the Shining Spear models and paint scheme. Now with a Skilled Rider Exarch, they are actually a potential option for me! 

Well, that's my initial thoughts for my IDIC Hann from what I have seen so far. I haven't put any of this into an actual list yet, as my buddies and I are still experimenting with 1k point games until we get use to the new rules.

Any thoughts and comments are most welcome, as usual...

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Giving your IC a chance to stay alive!

Nick speaking,

The other day when I was playing a game with my Eldar, I came across something that I have never really thought about before, a way to give your independent character a chance to stay alive, and this is how I came across it...

I was playing an Annihilation mission with my mech Eldar, I had a full unit of Banshees and a Farseer in a Wave Serpent mid-table, backed up by other tanks. Farseer does the usual trick and fortunes the Banshees so they can get out and assault a doomed unit, with the Farseer staying in the Wave Serpent. Banshees do the business in the assault and gradually die over the next turn or so.

Meanwhile, the Farseer's Serpent gets assaulted and destroyed in one of my opponents turns leaving him stranded in the wreckage, ready to give up a kill point! In my turn, I see that I have a Falcon nearby, with five Dire Avengers embarked on it, Farseer moves to the Falcon and embarks, saving his life, and letting me continue to use his powers the rest of the game.

It then struck me that if I had filled up the Falcon with six Dire Avengers, my Farseer would not have been able to embark, and probably would have died the next turn potentially costing me the game! It may not happen very often, but having that chance to save the Farseer has opened a new tactic for me. If you are running a mech army, try not to fill the tank up to full capacity in case you need to rescue an IC!

Maybe this is a tried and tested tactic that everybody knows about already? Maybe it's a useless tactic, as it isn't going to happen very often? Or maybe it's a gem, that is well worth considering, so I thought I would share it with you, just in case, like me, you hadn't thought of it either!

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Defending Defender Guardians!

Nick speaking,

As I walked home from work one hot summers day, and passed a local charity shop, that's when it happened! Sitting in the front window was an Eldar Farseer and some boxes of Eldar Guardians, for pretty much next to nothing. Next thing I know I am walking home with a bag of Eldar goodies! Then after a trip to my local Hobby Shop for the Eldar Codex, the IDIC Eldar were born...

To be fair, I knew very little about Eldar at that time, I had never seen them on the battlefield before, and had only known that they were "fast and fragile", as told to me by a friend. I built up my Guardians and purchased some Striking Scorpions next, to go with my Farseer, for some small fun games.

Although I found the Scorpions to be great in those small games, It didn't take me long to discover that Guardians were one of the worst units in the Eldar Codex. On a side note as I write this, why did I stop using Striking Scorpions? They were fun to play and did the job in the assault, oh yes, I then got some howling Banshees and the Scorps went out of the window, but still, maybe I should get them out again for some infiltrating/flanking fun!

Anyway, with twenty of my thirty Guardians converted into Storm Guardians, I now only have ten Defender Guardians left. I kept these guy's as they were the bench mark for my IDIC Eldar paint scheme, and I would love to see them on the table at some point, but sadly these days, they hardly ever make it out of the case...

I know that there is a potential for a foot slogging list that is based around mass defender guardians and the Avatar etc, but is it viable to fit just ten guardians in a list and make them work?

Needless to say, I have been struggling to fit them in any sort of list apart from when I am playing Cities of Death. This has lead me to start thinking about using the models for something else totally, maybe having the platform controller guy's as doom, fortune and guide markers just to get them out on the table. Not ideal I know, but how else am I going to get them out of the case? Is there anyone out there prepared to defend the defender Guardian?

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Power of the Pathfinder Ranger

Nick speaking,

In my Harlequin list I have two units of Pathfinder Rangers. Being my only two troop choices, keeping at least one of the units alive is key for me to get a victory in any objective based missions. Camping one unit out on an objective with Eldrad is an obvious start, but also makes them a bit of a priority for your opponent. Lately I have been doing the opposite and not deploying them on the objective, with some great success.

I have found that deploying the Pathfinders away and behind the objectives seems to make them less threatening. Your opponent will probably ignore them for a few turns as they are not scoring yet. Also as your opponent comes closer to you they will have to make a choice of either stopping on the objective or coming off it to get to your troops. Of course either way I plan on giving them some laughing death with my Harlequins whatever they choose.

Now here comes the ace card...

On turn four or five I will start to make moves for objectives. Having been sat at the back of the board in terrain your opponent feels fairly safe. After all it's a rough terrain test and a run move right? OK, normal Rangers get a 3D6 test, but upgrading to Pathfinders means they Ignore terrain all together making them incredibly fast moving! Within one or maybe two turns I can get to an objective deceivingly quick.

When combined with some supporting units the power of the Pathfinder is not to be overlooked.

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Sending the Angels to Heaven!

Nick speaking,

Having my Eldar Fire Prisms and Falcon on the work bench being painted at the moment got me thinking about my Eldar. Whilst the tanks are getting their coats of paint I have been playing with my other armies, but having just played against a heavy Jump based Blood Angels list, made me think of Eldar Dark Reapers!

Having got two squads of Reapers available to me, but never using them for the obvious reason of Reapers Vs Fire Prisms! Made me start to think about all the units that don't make it into my lists for similar reasons, like the Avatar, Swooping Hawks and Warp Spiders! So there was my challenge, to make a 1750 point list that included units I rarely use and would be good against a Blood Angel Jump list?

This was my thought process:

Heavy Support - First of all I new that I wanted to get as many Star Cannon's in the list as possible. Star Cannon's are also something else I don't use much and all that AP2 to go with the AP3 Reapers was a good starting point. Having two Units of Dark Reapers meant I only had one Heavy slot left and that would have to go to some Star Cannon War Walkers. I know that War Walkers are best with Scatter Lasers or Shuriken Cannon's, but this list is going to be something different. Unlike my Harlequin army where anything near me gets some laughing assault death, this army is going to try and blast the Angels to heaven with the AP2/3.

HQ - Knowing that I wanted to stick in my Forge World Avatar was obvious, he would have to become my tar-pit unit for anything that was left after the blasting, and of course making units around him fearless. My second choice was Eldrad. He is in the list to use his Jedi tricks and do what he does best, Guiding, fortuning and dooming is going to be key.

Troops - Having seen the power of Eldrad and Pathfinders in my Harlequin list I opted for a unit of Pathfinders to hold my objective and a unit of jetbikes to go out and capture/contest.

Fast Attack - Stealing a bit of my Saim-Hann list I wanted to stick with two squads of Vypers for the Star Cannon's and of course their speed to help out the Jetbikes. Warp spiders are a must for me to try as I have had no luck with them yet, but it seems like everyone else loves them! So a squad of Spiders has been included to either warp in to distract or take out any annoying rear tanks.

Although I wanted to get some Swooping Hawks in the list they just didn't really fit in with the AP theme, plus I just ran out of points and fast attack slots.

So this is the final AP list is:

1x Avatar

1x Eldrad

6x Jetbikes (2x Cannon's)

5x Pathfinders

2x Vypers (Star Cannon's/Shuriken Cannon's)

2x Vypers (Star Cannon's/Shuriken Cannon's)

6x Warp spiders (Exarch with Dual Death Spinner & Power Blades)

2x War Walkers (Star Cannon's)

5x Dark Reapers (Exarch with Tempest Launcher)

5x Dark Reapers (Exarch with Tempest Launcher)

Not many models and anti-foot Space Marine orientated, but like I said this is mainly just about using my unused units and having a bit of fun. Having said that of course I still need to have a plan for this list as with all lists! So on to mission tactics.

Starting with Capture and Control. I would put my objective in one corner and hopefully as far from my enemy as possible, I will ideally take second turn and will try and hold my objective with Eldrad and the Pathfinders. These will then be supported by the Avatar, Walkers and one squad of Dark Reapers. I will place the other Reapers and two Vyper units on the other side of my Objective to give me crossfire and to draw off units. Of course the jetbikes will reserve and it will be the job of the Jetbikes and Vypers to contest on turn five/six. Warp Spiders will deep strike with a multi roll depending on the enemy, either behind pesky tanks or behind incoming units toward my objective. I also have the option to hide them ready to contest if the game needs it.

Seize ground would have a similar take on Capture and control, but I would put as many remaining objectives in the middle of the table in open as possible, ready for my AP2/3 to hit anything that tries to take them. In the Annihilation mission, I would take first turn and castle up on one side and deploy two units on the other side using Eldrad's Deviation ability to bring them back to my castle before the game starts. Hopefully this will syphon off a some units taking them further away from me.

So thanks to my tanks being out of commission this is going to be my list for the next few games. lets hope my opponent doesn't get his Orks out instead.

Battle reports to follow

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Eldar tanks "Less is more?"

Nick speaking,

The Eldar anti-grav tank is a wonderful piece of machinery, but how are you gearing them up? Not so much as the guns you put on them as we all have our own favourites. I'm talking about the upgrade options like Star engines, Vectored engines, Holo-fields and Spirit stones? Ok, lets forget Spirit stones as everybody takes them, all the time no matter what, right?

I currently have one Wave Serpent, one Falcon and two Fire Prisms and I am still in the process of building up my army with the plan of getting myself two more Serpents in the future. I started off in the usual fashion of just using the models that I had purchased so far and trying out the different combinations of units available.

It didn't take me long to discover that Mech Eldar/Saim-Hann style was the first direction I wanted to go and the rest of my efforts have been to get this style of army up first, followed by a Harlequin list and finally onto a Hybrid style list. As you can probably tell I am the type of person who goes all out, rather than taking a fixed list approach. I just love having all the options open to me to play and have some fun with.

Focussing on a IDIC Hann style Army List, lead me to taking all the options on my tanks that are available. After all, I am going to need to keep them in action ready to contest/control for as long as possible.

Holo-fields (wish you could take these on the Wave Serpent) for durability. Star Engines for the extra speed and for some sneaky Eldar cover save tricks and Vectored engines so that I don't go down after the high speed movement when contesting.

So this brings me on to the whole reason of this post. So far I have been very happy with my very expensive versatile tanks.  I am at a stage now where I am so used to having my geared up tanks, that I am almost afraid to take the upgrades off! But should I be? Am I missing something? Is less, more? After all I could probably get another tank for the cost of the upgrades?

What are your views on Anti-Grav upgrades? Is less More?

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IDIC Eldar Attack Options

Nick speaking

I have been thinking of a new “Attack/Distraction” unit for my Eldar list apart from the usual Seer Council or Banshee Serpent squads.

I have been toying with the idea of taking a full squad of Striking Scorpions in a Wave Serpent with the usual stones, Star and Vectored engines. I would upgrade to an Exarch with Shadow strike and flank them! Probably add in either a Farseer with Doom and Fortune or Karandras, maybe even both?

I can imagine this unit held in reserve known to be coming via flank, would be a concern for my opponent! The options open to you are immense, using the speed of the Serpent to get to almost any position, ready to unload the next turn, giving the rest of your army a bit of breathing space!

Have any of my fellow Eldar players had any success with this unit as the main "attack" unit?

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