The Iyanden Discussion Thread

[Nebulas]

This thread is for the discussion of Craftworld Iyanden. Feel free to discuss tactics, models, conversion, and anything else to do with Iyanden.

From here on, any topics which should belong in here will be deleted without notice.

[chomolungma]

For a start of this topic I have a question. Are guardian defender squads woth taking in Iyanden?

[Nebulas]

Well, that depends whether your going to shoot up the field in Wave Serpents, or your going to march up. Marching up, then I would suggest it because it bulks out numbers, and you can give them a Heavy Weapon. If your making use of Wave Serpents, because the Guardians can't keep up.

[chomolungma]

I ment, are they useful? Guardians as heavy support? How they can make their points back? Or I simply underestimate them?

[Quick]

It depends on how you apply them.
They don't fill a 'heavy support' choice in the traditional sense, but they can certainly win back their points. The ShuriCat puts out a lot of firepower and against enemies that aren't wearing Power Armor, it rips them to shreds.

When playing against Orks or Tyranids, for example, I make sure to take a full squad of them, with a Spiritseer (with Destructor). The sheer number of shots will thin out those mobs so that the Nob armed with a Power Klaw cannot hide behind thirty meat-shields when his squad assaults your Wraithlords. Fleet of Foot will see to it that they never have to get in close combat.

Whether or not they make their own points back is not as important when they do more to prevent the enemy's units from making their points back.

Myself, I've recently grown to love Dire Avengers. I prefer to take them when I am outnumbered, but no so dramatically like when facing the Orks. (I field them against the Tau, for example) They do the same thing I ask of Defender Guardians, more or less, and they tend to do it better, I feel, despite giving up the some of the shots.

[chomolungma]

When playing against Orks or Tyranids, for example, I make sure to take a full squad of them, with a Spiritseer (with Destructor). The sheer number of shots will thin out those mobs so that the Nob armed with a Power Klaw cannot hide behind thirty meat-shields when his squad assaults your Wraithlords. Fleet of Foot will see to it that they never have to get in close combat.

That is an interesting idea. This squad can be nasty to Nids, orks and IG or tau. Even marines have to respect it. I was bound to include platform to guardians, but this is really vaiable option. And with FoF this squad is also quite mobile and can act as a meat shield(not fluffy).

[Nebulas]

When playing against Orks or Tyranids, for example, I make sure to take a full squad of them, with a Spiritseer (with Destructor). The sheer number of shots will thin out those mobs so that the Nob armed with a Power Klaw cannot hide behind thirty meat-shields when his squad assaults your Wraithlords. Fleet of Foot will see to it that they never have to get in close combat.

We have a bit of a rules problem here. Lets have a look at the Iyanden section in the Craftworld Eldar Codex:

"Any number of Warlocks in the army may be upgraded to Spiritseers for +X pts each and follow the rules given below."*

Seems fine, but then it says:

"Character: Spiritseers are characters, but may not move on their own. They must be assigned to join a Wraithguard squad, replacing the Warlock entry in the army list."*

Here it says they may only be assigned to Wraithguard units, so it doesn't look like you can include them within your Guardian squads, thus rendering yuor tactic illegal.

*Please note that this information comes form the 2nd (and most up to date) printing of Codex: Craftworld Eldar.

[chomolungma]

What about usefullness of aspects in Iyanden? Our troops cost so many points, there is hard to find room for any.

I personally don't think that aspects are obligatory. If anyone have a different opinion please shere it and explain why.

[Goines]

I feel a great lack of any 'oompf' in the assault departement and hence I use a 10 strong unit of Scorpions. I've realized that even with good S,T and save the Wraithguards can't win any lengthy combats and so I want something that can untie them from combat.

I use 10 Scorpions and a 5 strong squad of Reapers.

[Quick]

Nebulas: I interpreted the Spiritseer entry to indicate that they replace the Warlock outright, meaning every warlock to be added to a Guardian Squad would have to receive the upgrade.
It's really a moot point, though, as I always take Spiritseers with Wraithguard squads, and aside from the Ghostvoice trait, there is no appreciable difference between the two, the Ghostvoice being rendered moot by having an SS in each squad.
The only thing I'm guilty of in this case is paying X points too many for an upgrade that does nothing at all.

As for aspects in Iyanden, my preferences are (in no particular order), Dark Reapers, Dire Avengers, Howling Banshees, and Warp Spiders. (I guess that's alphabetical order. )

Dark Reapers provide the good long-range firepower that the slow Iyanden need. Avengers can soften-up huge mobs of low armor troops and are fast enough to hit the lines before the Wraith units. Warp Spiders, function largely the same way, hitting the enemy first and forcing him to expend his fire taking out the Spiders instead of focusing his fire on the Wraith-line. I tend to hold Howling Banshees back until the Wraithguard get close to combat. I then use them to make sure that they aren't bogged down in hand-to-hand.

In an expensive list like Iyanden, it's hard to wedge a lot of aspect squads in there, so I usually only end up with one, two at most.