[Archeantus]

I'm not real new to the forums but I consider myself still new to WH40K as I've spent more time collecting and painting than actually playing. I've been in it about 6 months and have only played 3 games.
I'm going up against a seasoned Space Wolves player on Wednesday. I don't expect to win the 1st time against him but I would like to take as many down with me as possible. (Oh, and I consider myself a fairly good painter so my Eldar may not win but they'll look good going down.) I know he is heavy on troops, has a Dread, a unit of bikes, a few of those...ummm.. 2-seat hover bikes(?), a rhino, and terminators. Thats's all I can remember off hand. And sorry I'm still unfamiliar with all of the models.
Anyway, I hit the jackpot over the holidays and was able to horde dirt-cheap models from a hobby store going out of business. So here's what I have:

3 farseers
5 warlocks
2 guardian units
1 unit o rangers (5)
1 full unit o banshees + exarch
1 full unit o reapers + exarch
2 units o spiders + exarchs
1 unit o wraithguard (7)
1 support weapons platform
2 vypers
2 falcons
1 wraithlord
1 partridge in a pear tree

The battle will be 1500 points but maybe 2000 not finalized yet. ALL of the variable equipment on my models is magnetized and can be switched out table side (muahahahaha!). I played my 1st 3 battles as Iyanden but looking back that was stupid having only 1 unit of wraithguard and 1 wraithlord.
Any suggestions b4 my Eldar get their nether-regions handed to them?

 

[Cheredanine]

KO so what he will have is some sort of character who is lethal in close combat, presumably in terminator armour accompanied by a wolf guard retinue in termie armour
a venerable dread- truely nasy
Some gray hunters - basically a souped up tactical squad with hidden powerfists and no heavy weapons
Some blood claws - close combat bezerkers - noprmally accompanied by a battle leader to try and give thm some degree of control
Blood claws bike pack
A land speeder or more likely LST

what you have probabyl not noticed but he has if he has any sense is wolf scouts and a long fang squad.

Still if he plays with termies you have a bit of an advantage.

You are, one assumes, using vanilla eldar (not ulthwe/beil tann/ any other craftworld?

What you have that is all but useless is:
rangers - dont bother with them against SW
Wraint huard - foot sloggin makes these iffy, but may be usable

What is good:
If you can keep these alive and charge the blood claws withthem, they will make mince meat out of him, they are also usefull vs terminators and to a degree any troop choices

Spiders, ok he gets his saves but he really cant keep up with these guys

Farseer possibly - mind war, if you can get to use it with its limited range, can wipe out his character

reapers - these can chew through his powered armour troops

wraithlord (always usefull)
falcons - ditto, be careful, cos with 2 of these, you now have 4 HS choices, falcons are more than capable of downing a ven dread too

Vypers- what guns do these have? if they have star cannons then fine otherwise they are a waste
support weapons - what are these? star cannon? fine - put them in guardian squads, drop a warlock with conceal into each unit and fine.

 

[chrishin]

just few words

as eldar/BT player. Alot of star cannons. Can't have enough of them against marines even though they call cheese. In cc you will get shredded like paper.

 

[Da Mighty Camel]

In cc you will get shredded like paper.

Thats what he have the Banshees for. Assault, kill, move to the next unit.

 

[Emp.]

KO so what he will have is some sort of character who is lethal in close combat, presumably in terminator armour accompanied by a wolf guard retinue in termie armour.

Probably a Rune Priest but maybe not in termie armor as they have other methods of armor to gain a 2+/4+. He could also have a Wolf Lord but many Space Wolf players love the Rune Priest's special spell (I hate it, its too good). Sum it up, it puts a squad in a 5+ cover save, if he charges he goes first, he charges cover you go simo, you charge him he goes first but grenades work again him. I've seen the Runes Priest attached to a Blood Claw squad with 4 power weapons all loaded in a LRC, and boy, if that hits combat and he charges.....he makes my Banshees look like wimps.

a venerable dread- truely nasy.

"T"....N-A-S-T-Y....come on Chered, but yes those things are dumb! He can re-roll first turn rolls for himself (once).

Some blood claws - close combat bezerkers - noprmally accompanied by a battle leader to try and give thm some degree of control.

n-o-r-m-a-l-l-y, again I'm watching you :shifty:....t-h-e-m....but yes again, very tough squad BUT any model with Ws 4+ will hit these guys on a 3+ so remember that, Blood Claws have a lower WS than a regular marine or Grey Hunter squad.

what you have probabyl not noticed but he has if he has any sense is wolf scouts and a long fang squad.

Long Fangs - He can split up shots (2x lascannons at dread, 1x plasma cannon at infantry squad, 1x heavy bolter at Banshees, etc.). He MUST declare splitting up before he rolls to hit though, make sure he declares first and doesn't see what hits and then splits up the fire.
Scouts - I personally despise these guys, they use reserve rolls to come in from YOUR table edge, don't scatter, can move, shoot, and assault the same turn. And can have a possible 1x melta gun, 2x plasma pistols, and 1x plasma gun all in 1x squad WITH 2x power weapons....Anything you have staying back, watch out for these but tank wise, with Eldar tanks you shouldn't worry since your tanks should be around the middle of the board.

That's all I have to say for now...Also, Chered, no hard feelings about the spelling if you want you can go through and correct me too.....(though I am perfect at spelling :shifty

 

[farseer_seele]

falcons - ditto, be careful, cos with 2 of these, you now have 4 HS choices, falcons are more than capable of downing a ven dread too

3-2=4?? um... am i the only one thats confused here???


10 Defenders
Warlock
Conceal
Starcannon Platform
= 161 pts

basically an invuln 5+ (unless they ignore cover saves...). If it works for Avatars, it should work for 10 guardians... just starcannon the $#17 out of them until they are within 12", where you starcannon, shurikats (22 shots, 11 hits, 5.5 wounds, 1-2 dead marines :x ), and assault (right? or since you fired the plat you can't assault?)

dark reapers... death from afar... with a 5 man squad, sans exarch (10 shots, 6 hits, 4 pasted marines... from up to 4' away... tasty...

vypers with starcannons... move 12". fire 36" more. it takes 4-5 normal 15 pt marines killed (2-3 turns of shooting, on avg) to earn its points book...

wraithlord is iffy... bolter fire can't down it but it has SHOOT ME! written all over it. also, if assaulted by a squad with a hidden powerfisted vet sgt that charged, the vet sg strike simul the lord... (4 attacks, 2 hits, 1-2 wounds) in counter assault next turn (wraithlord cant retreat, just like dreads, roit?) they inflict one wound... maybe if your lucky you come out of it severely, severely damaged... or you don't leave... that's why i leave WLs on the shelf 'gainst marines.

I prefer striking scorpions over every other elite choice in the codex, and i would recommend using them. simply put, banshees scream shoot me even more than a WL. always atk first, power weapons. They will pour lots of fire into the squad/avoid giving it good targets, or plain avoid them...

scorps, on the other hand, can have haywire 'nades (take out vehicles), have a hardy 3+ save, and get more attacks. Also, you opponent most likely will underestimate them (if they are similar to the SMurf Commanders I play), and not soak them with the same amount of fire poured into banshees. also, they will not spend as much effort avoiding them... 4 scorpions hafta kill 5 plain marines to get roughly thier points back, or 5 hafta kill 4 assault marines. And scorp's look cooler/have better exarch.

school's closing, g2g
farseer_seele

 

[hsin_dragon]

What he meant was that 2 Falcons, 1 Support Weapon, and a DR squad makes 4 heavy supports(I think) in Iyanden.

Support Weapons are usually not very usefule especially on their own, so go ahead and plan on not using it, you've got too many heavy support choices anyway.

 

[Archeantus]

Battle Report

Well the Space Wolf won but only just barely. The dice were definitely not in my favor. Also my forgetfulness didnt help (forgetting to shoot w/ a unit, forgetting to 2nd jump spiders out of assault range). I made lots of beginner mistakes. Live and learn eh?
My falcon went down in turn 1 to heavy bolter fire (was immobilized so therefore crashed due to distance moved). It definitely didnt earn its points value back. My dark reapers were my MVP's taking out all of his bloodclaws, scouts, and some long fangs.
He used an empty rhino as a fire magnet and I took the bait hook, line, and sinker. I wasted alot of shots on that thing and finally destroyed it on turn 3 with wraithguard.
Losing all on my expensive vehicles and my wraithlord really hurt my points as these didnt earn their points back (bad choice of targets and bad rolls.)
Good learning experience. But like I said in the beginning, being a fairly good painter, my Eldar looked fantastic going down.

Thanks for all the input!

 

[Emp.]

Heavy Bolters can't take down a falcon....the minimum to take down a Falcon is str-6 and that's needing 6+. Heavy Bolters are only str-5....1

Can't have an empty Rhino as it's strictly a transport unit and must be bought for a squad and the squad must use it, can pop out but I doubt he did that....2

I think you weren't the only person making mistakes, by what you said a few things went wrong. BUT, correct, learn from your mistakes.

 

[Da Mighty Camel]

Can't have an empty Rhino as it's strictly a transport unit and must be bought for a squad and the squad must use it, can pop out but I doubt he did that....2

Must be bought as a transport, yes. Unit must be mounted, no.

 

[OverchargeThis!]

take the WL

I play Blood Angel space marines and organize my army along the lines of a combined arms, mobile force that builds on the basic strength of space marines, fire and maneuver. Point is, they're played tactically with minimal HQ comps and about 45 percent in troops.

anyhow, my composition is close enough to basic space marines that I thought I could comment meaningfully on your force composition, specifically your use of WL.

About WL, I can say the same thing as I say about Space Wolves in general, 'Rock Hard!'. i don't bother pumping fire into it unless it's the only target I have. I just close to CC and kill it with PF's. It's easier said than done and usually goes at least 2 turns and sometimes requires a second PF-enabled squad to support the first one. in CC they're tough and are great for tying units up, if you use them that way. As a fire magnet, they can take a huge amount of pressure off the rest of your army to the extent that even if one is popped before you make your points back, you're left with more points on the board than you would have if that fire were directed elsewhere.

I'll tell you something else: I don't think a starcannon-heavy army is cheesy. And I agree that you should take as many as possible against marines, at least until the new dex comes out and you have more viable options. I just played a 2000 point game against an Uthwe opponent who had

seer council

3 guardian squads starcannon
2 guardian squad bright lance

1 banshee squad

1 WL bright lance
1 WL star cannon
1 D-Cannon squad (forget the name of it).

2 jet bike skimmers (forget name of it) with star cannons
1 with bright lance.

I got a victory out of it, but only because I go balanced force and was able to maneuver and shoot, then assault effectively after blowing a hole through his guardians.

I had

Master of Sanctity/DC LCLaws JP, etc.

2 tacticals in rhino PF MG LC 10 marines
2 7 man scout squads PF cc weapons

1 assautl squad PW 3 PP MB 10 marines

1 whirlie
2 dev squads 10 man PF 4 ML each

Anyway, he had a well-balanced tactical army that had good synergy and endurance. His troops choices were wiped early. His banshees were shot up. I cc'd both WL's. 1 went down to the assault squad and a tactical. the other got a supporting assault to help his seer council. In that scrap, he took down my master of sanctity before those units went down. I was assisted by a PF scout squad on the third turn of the fight.

Anyhow, it was an awesome game and gave me a good idea of what a shooty eldar army with good synergy can do.

Cheers.

 

[farseer_seele]

that's shooty with good synergy??? that list is looking meh... he lacks almost any assault, as his banshees are slogging it, as well as his two WLs. seer councils are great, but if you pump to many points into them they become a waste. maybe its just me but his list didnt sound balanced, enduranceful (is that a word), or synergetic.