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Ok guys, I kinda need your help.
Here is the deal. I have had considerable succes with Eldar. I have played Ulthwe, USF, Biel Tann, Iyanden and a boatload of vanilla. And though some are certainly more challenging than others I have been consistently winning with them all. I play against, Marines, Necrons, Nids and Dark Eldar. My problem is that I am pretty much fed up with the whole Eldar way of doing things... superior firepower, fragile yet hard hitting units that must be used right, and in the right context... yada, yada, yada... You know the party line.
I have given it a lot of consideration. One thing I have noticed is that I can make a perfectly valid Eldar army using only two heavy weapon choices, namely starcannons and bright lances. So one option could be to try making an army without any of those weapons. That got me thinking a little further...
How about I make an army without all those rock solid can't-go-wrong choices. Ie. an Eldar army without starcannons, wraithlords and falcons. And how about deciding to include some of the choices that simply are not very good. Like Shining Spears, Guardian Jetbikes, Swooping Hawks, Vibro Cannons, Fire Prisms. Can you see that working?
Now it was very clear to me, that by specifically selecting suboptimal choices I was in essense hampering myself. But maybe I could find a way to turn this to an advantage. Jetbikes, swooping hawks, shining spears... they all share one thing...speed. They are wicked fast! I could feel the general in me stirring at this prospect. Fielding an army that had a huge amount of speed, but would require very precise leadership in order to work.
The concept I am considering right now is something like this. (this is just a tentative outline, I will try to work out a real army list later today)
HQ
Farseer, not sure about powers and gear yet. Might give him witchblade and jetbike and have him join a squad of guardian jetbikers.
Perhaps an avatar
Elites.
Maybe scorpions since I feel I am gonna need something solid to form the center of the army. Joined with a fortune Farseer they will do that just fine.
maybe Warp Spiders since they certainly do the speed thing with gusto.
Overall I am not sure about these. They are both very solid choices and a stable element of 4th edition eldar armies.
Troops.
2 squads of dire avengers both with exarch and a power weapon.
Maybe a waveserpent for them in order to fit the overall speed-theme.
1-2 squad of rangers
Fast attack
Shinging Spears with exarch and bright lance. An expensive, but effective tank buster. This will be the only bright lance in my army btw.
Guardian Jetbikes. Shuriken Cannon(s). Warlock with conceal.
Swooping Hawks. Exarch with sustained assault. I take this in order to make the squad able to actually do something versus MEQ armies, but my plan is not to reduce them to an exarch delivery system. Therefore the squad will be close to 10 man strong.
Heavy Support
Fire Prism - meh... I can't find any realistic way of making this thing worth it. I could glue a farseer on its butt and continually guide it, but that just tastes wrong.
Vibrocannon or shadow weaver.
The armys strength is speed (although I would have no trouble making a Biel Tann army capable of the same speed) and maneuverability. I could realistially set up along one board edge and then use my first turn to turbo boost and fleet of foot towards one side of the table giving me superiority on that side. I could use the speed of say hawks, jetbikes and spears to make three squadrons focus on one enemy unit. On the other hand, I would have to do that. 10 swooping hawks alone shooting at a squad of marines don't make much of an impression.
The two main drawbacks are
1. a severe lack of any shooting power with AP. I will have a royal struggle trying to get marines or necrons to stay down. I have some power weapons for cc, but they are all in the hands of strength 3 guys and not likely to really cause anyone problems. Also, I will be using a lot of shuriken cannons, and their range is far from impressive.
2. Expensive and fragile units. I lack a solid centre of the army. Nothing really (apart from fortuned scorpions) can stand up to any kind of attention. Sure, my saves are pretty much all 4+ or 3+, which is rather good for an eldar army, but many of my models are amazingly expensive. That shining spears exarch clocks in at just under 100 points! For a one wound model!
So, my real question to you is... can this be made to work? I realize that by selecting several of the choices everyone agrees on to be sub standard I am giving myself a huge handicap. Can I build a functional army that does not crumble at the first sign of the enemy? And do you have any suggestions as to how I can make units like shining spears or jetbikes really do anything? I have really tried to see how shining spears can be anything but a flying three wound bs5 brightlance. They have neither the punch nor the staying power to be worth anything in cc.
I hope you guys can help me. I need a new take on Eldar. Otherwise I think I am just gonna let them sit on the shelve until the new codex.
Arizzar
Here is the deal. I have had considerable succes with Eldar. I have played Ulthwe, USF, Biel Tann, Iyanden and a boatload of vanilla. And though some are certainly more challenging than others I have been consistently winning with them all. I play against, Marines, Necrons, Nids and Dark Eldar. My problem is that I am pretty much fed up with the whole Eldar way of doing things... superior firepower, fragile yet hard hitting units that must be used right, and in the right context... yada, yada, yada... You know the party line.
I have given it a lot of consideration. One thing I have noticed is that I can make a perfectly valid Eldar army using only two heavy weapon choices, namely starcannons and bright lances. So one option could be to try making an army without any of those weapons. That got me thinking a little further...
How about I make an army without all those rock solid can't-go-wrong choices. Ie. an Eldar army without starcannons, wraithlords and falcons. And how about deciding to include some of the choices that simply are not very good. Like Shining Spears, Guardian Jetbikes, Swooping Hawks, Vibro Cannons, Fire Prisms. Can you see that working?
Now it was very clear to me, that by specifically selecting suboptimal choices I was in essense hampering myself. But maybe I could find a way to turn this to an advantage. Jetbikes, swooping hawks, shining spears... they all share one thing...speed. They are wicked fast! I could feel the general in me stirring at this prospect. Fielding an army that had a huge amount of speed, but would require very precise leadership in order to work.
The concept I am considering right now is something like this. (this is just a tentative outline, I will try to work out a real army list later today)
HQ
Farseer, not sure about powers and gear yet. Might give him witchblade and jetbike and have him join a squad of guardian jetbikers.
Perhaps an avatar
Elites.
Maybe scorpions since I feel I am gonna need something solid to form the center of the army. Joined with a fortune Farseer they will do that just fine.
maybe Warp Spiders since they certainly do the speed thing with gusto.
Overall I am not sure about these. They are both very solid choices and a stable element of 4th edition eldar armies.
Troops.
2 squads of dire avengers both with exarch and a power weapon.
Maybe a waveserpent for them in order to fit the overall speed-theme.
1-2 squad of rangers
Fast attack
Shinging Spears with exarch and bright lance. An expensive, but effective tank buster. This will be the only bright lance in my army btw.
Guardian Jetbikes. Shuriken Cannon(s). Warlock with conceal.
Swooping Hawks. Exarch with sustained assault. I take this in order to make the squad able to actually do something versus MEQ armies, but my plan is not to reduce them to an exarch delivery system. Therefore the squad will be close to 10 man strong.
Heavy Support
Fire Prism - meh... I can't find any realistic way of making this thing worth it. I could glue a farseer on its butt and continually guide it, but that just tastes wrong.
Vibrocannon or shadow weaver.
The armys strength is speed (although I would have no trouble making a Biel Tann army capable of the same speed) and maneuverability. I could realistially set up along one board edge and then use my first turn to turbo boost and fleet of foot towards one side of the table giving me superiority on that side. I could use the speed of say hawks, jetbikes and spears to make three squadrons focus on one enemy unit. On the other hand, I would have to do that. 10 swooping hawks alone shooting at a squad of marines don't make much of an impression.
The two main drawbacks are
1. a severe lack of any shooting power with AP. I will have a royal struggle trying to get marines or necrons to stay down. I have some power weapons for cc, but they are all in the hands of strength 3 guys and not likely to really cause anyone problems. Also, I will be using a lot of shuriken cannons, and their range is far from impressive.
2. Expensive and fragile units. I lack a solid centre of the army. Nothing really (apart from fortuned scorpions) can stand up to any kind of attention. Sure, my saves are pretty much all 4+ or 3+, which is rather good for an eldar army, but many of my models are amazingly expensive. That shining spears exarch clocks in at just under 100 points! For a one wound model!
So, my real question to you is... can this be made to work? I realize that by selecting several of the choices everyone agrees on to be sub standard I am giving myself a huge handicap. Can I build a functional army that does not crumble at the first sign of the enemy? And do you have any suggestions as to how I can make units like shining spears or jetbikes really do anything? I have really tried to see how shining spears can be anything but a flying three wound bs5 brightlance. They have neither the punch nor the staying power to be worth anything in cc.
I hope you guys can help me. I need a new take on Eldar. Otherwise I think I am just gonna let them sit on the shelve until the new codex.
Arizzar
