Say Hello to My Little Friend! Eldar Heavy Support.

Long range support and big guns are an essential part of an army list. The Heavy support choice provides your list with much needed killing power for both armor and infantry. The only trouble you really run into is that you are limited to three choices and you have several good ones. The Eldar codex itself has seven. Dark Reapers, Wraithlords, War Walkers, Support Platforms, Night Spinners, Falcons and Fire Prisms. It can be very hard to choose only 3 units at times.

As with most Eldar lists you have to choose the right tool for the job that will work in conjunction with the rest of the army. If you read the blog a lot you should notice a running theme. A mantra if you will of how to build and Eldar list. There must be balance and support. One unit has a job and supports the other units that cannot do that job or do not do it well.

If you look at the different choices in the heavy support section, or any of the different option sections, you will start to see the different units fill specific rolls and will excel in different situations. For Example, take the Falcon. The Falcon can be very well armed and has a transport capacity. Its weapons load out for the second turret weapon can be different depending on what roll you want it to fill. Outfitted with a scatter laser and its pulse laser it can be a support vehicle to assist a small unit of Dire Avengers hold an objective. Put a bright lance on it and you have a tank killer that can deliver anti tank troops close to the enemy. The falcon can be the focus or a unit taken to support the unit it is transporting. In this way it is like the ubiquitous Dire Avenger. It is a multi role lynch pin unit. It can provide fire support, tank busting, and transportation. In contrast the Fire Prism is a dedicated main battle tank. When used I conjunction with other Fire Prisms you can bust open pretty much anything. It can be used as an anti infantry unit though once the enemy armor is gone. Thanks to having the ability to fire in two different modes and the ability to combine beams the large blast mode can easily deal with massed troops, especially when you combine beams with another Fire Prism. Since this makes the tanks big targets it may be advisable to equip shuriken cannons to them for the inevitable main weapon destruction. Holo Fields also increase your chances of living. There is some utility, but the unit has a specific main function. Kill Tanks.

Night Spinners and support platforms fall under the artillery classification. Support platforms are actual artillery while night spinners are tanks that have a weapon that is basically long range support artillery. Units like these are best used to defend static locations. The night spinner can move and still fire so this works the best with a mobile force. I don't use either that often. When doing a planet strike mission or an Apocalypse game I use them heavily especially if I am defending. Distortion cannons are nice for denying heavy targets access to your position while vibro cannons can indiscriminately lay into any units. The night spinner basically replaces the Shadow Weaver support platform as the Weapon is better rules wise. Dark Reapers also kind of fall into the category as they need to sit back and pepper the opposing force from afar. Dark Reapers can kill light vehicles, or at least glance them to death. The Exarch can bring vehicles down but I tend to use Dark Reapers sparingly unless I know I am facing heavily armored foot troops, like my favorite genetically enhanced frat boys the space marines. Dark Reapers are best used for killing infantry. Decent strength and low AP means lost of dead troops. As always Guide and liberally Doom units for best effect.

Wraithlords and War Walkers are seen in a lot of my lists. I have never seen so much fear from an opponent, as when I field more than one Wraithlord. Blessed with high strength and a toughness of 8 Wraithlords are line breakers. Keeping them in close support of a Guardian unit or Seer council is best. This keep them close to a warlock for wraith sight tests. Always remember to have at least one Spirit Seer centrally located moving with the lords. I always make my Guardian unit Warlocks Spirit Seers if I am fielding Wraithlords. Wraithlords take a lot of fire and can dish out a lot of punishment. Most infantry units can't hurt it in close combat and most vehicles can't withstand an assault by it. Be wary of snipers though. Yes lascannons and melta guns can hurt them, but massed sniper fire can bring them down a lot quicker.

War Walkers are great for massed fire. The particular favorite is 3 all armed with scatter lasers. 24 strength 6 shots anybody. That spam aside arming them with a mix of scatter lasers and bright lances, maybe missile launchers, makes them a very flexible and deadly unit. Being able to outflank and use them as scouts is also a perk. I like to outflank them usually as they come in usually around turn 3 and lay into the rear guard of the enemy to great and devastating effect. They can support units already advanced up or take the heat off of them so they can advance.

So there you have it Heavy Support. So I think we will cover Fast attack Next time. Also I will be detailing plans for the next campaign game and the machinations of my partner and I for the End of Days Tournament that Dark Future Games is having on August 21^st at Evolution Games here in good old Lansing. Find details Here.

So until then...................

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!