Wednesday 6 June 2012

Codex: Eldar review

4 comments:

  1. Matts Eldar codex review!! Because I <3 Eldar.
    A special note for eldar, and this could just be taste. All their units, except dark reapers, have amazing models. Most things are overcosted compared to modern books. Not horribly so, but it does show. Hurray for Power creep.

    Avatar - God yes. Though it gets shot..a lot. Hiding it can be difficult, doubly so for forgeworld, that thing is massive.

    Farseer - Synergy = amazing. Why buy a silly little template when you almost guarantee a target death with doom/guide. Sometimes see mind war, because sniping people is fun.

    Autarch - Not a whole lot of point. Worth taking one if planning to reserve things.

    Phoenix lords - all would be better if they gave abilites to their aspect beyond fearless. Jain Zar giving Banshees furious charge would be amazing. But as it is, only Fuegan and Maugan Ra have any real killing power. Fuegan especially can kill almost anything he gets close to. Maugan Ra would be doubly cool accompanying Dire Avengers, but alas.

    Aspect Warrios
    Dire Avengers are pretty damn average. Their most useful role is the 60 point upgrade to a Falcon to make it scoring.
    Fire Dragons, have melta guns. Enough said.
    Banshees vs Scorpions. Scorpions get more attacks, and higher strength = more wounds. Banshees deny armour saves, but are strength 3. Meaning they struggle to wound the targets they are designed to kill. Doom helps, but still. Scorpions also don't need to help getting across the field, and can even outflank.
    Swooping Hawks - moving on.
    Warp Spiders are scorpions, but at range. You get lots of high str shots, but no ap. Worth it though, even 2+ fails if you make them roll enough saves.
    Shining Spears - Hit and Run assaults work nicely. Not killy enough for their points though
    Dark Reapers - Kill marines as you say. Can't argue with that.

    Harlequins are strictly better than banshees, because of furious charge.

    Guardians are far from pointless. Yeah they are b3, but you are buying a heavy weapon with 10 wounds (it cannot be killed)

    Pathfinders (because no one takes standard rangers) are better than everyone elses sniper rifles. And score, great unit.

    Guardian Jetbikes are still strong as they score. Turbo boosting onto objectives for a 3+ cover is a winning move.

    Wave Serpents are probably tied for the best transport in the game (along with Dark eldar raiders). If you want to get from A > B quickly and safely, a serpent is your ride. It is however double the cost of most other transports, the premium for carrying guns. And is your only transport, making mech lists painfully expensive.

    Vypers are a sad case. The rules don't support agile gun platforms. To shoot you have to give up the save, which on a av10 open topped is death.

    Same thing for Falcons, but at least it has armour.

    War walkers, yes scatter lasers, as you you get an astounding amount of shots. And being guardians they need that many to hit anything. With guide they murder any infantry nicely.

    Fire prisms - worth taking in pairs, but alas they are not....

    Wraithlords - ...which are far more survivable and offer the same long range fire power. It's very hard to deal with toughness 8 for some armies.

    Wraithguard, die to the same things that kill marines. But no one runs plasma guns anymore. Why? No idea.

    List tailoring works for everyone, nothing special about Eldar in that case. Mission tailoring is broken in any case.

    If you break down Eldrad he actually costs less than a standard farseer. And he's better. Lets look at him.
    Has all 5 powers, a standard farseer can only take 4
    Can use three powers a turn, vs a standard 2. He can also cast the same power twice.
    3+ invulnerable vs a 4+.
    Toughness 4!! No instant death from multi-lasers for Eldrad.
    Eldrad 210 points. If a farseer could take all 5 powers, 215 points.
    Eldrad = broken

    Yriel is a pirate. Enough said.

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  2. Forgot Falcons. I adore them. Fairly heavily armed. Can carry a small squad. Whats not to like? Av 12 though, needs looking after.

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  3. Ask any Eldar player worth their game (Mike and Joel for instance locally) they will tell you that Guardians are utterly pointless. Eldar have enough heavy weapons that you don't need their weapon platforms. Dire Avengers are the only real option for a troop choice.

    As for Vypers, I think you're right. Some skimmer/flying vehicles need a sort of relentless rule IMO.

    Yriel... everything's better with pirates!

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  4. Actually Guardians can be very dangerous given the right strategy. Because no one expects it.
    I have used this on occasions:
    1. Use 20 of them.
    2. Given them a cover save (I know it is only +5)
    Note if against a close combat use the other warlock power for cc. I have won cc with orks(troups)Yes we were both shocked.
    3. Use fortune on them : )
    Why does this work:
    1. 40 shots = a lot of pain (before using guide or doom)
    2. Fortune means it will take a long time to do 20 wounds and can soak up all the fire power of a small army. Yes people learn to ignore them after that. But the first time there is a frenzy to kill the guardians and at the end of it the guardians (maybe >½) are still there and your opponent is wondering what happened.
    3. Even in CC their Initiative and number of attacks can mean they can finish what they started. especially if not against CC unit.

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