I wanted to write a post to help reinvigorate my fellow Eldar players. I still believe Eldar to stand on equal footing with the best of the other armies. so without further interruption I would like to do a comparison of a simple troops choice, The Dire Avengers.The true strength of every Eldar unit is how specialized it is. The dire avengers aspect is the first of the many who exemplify my point. The Dark Eldar put up similar number of shots, the advantage is their ability to always wound on a 4, but keep in mind these weapons cannot hurt a tank. Short of a blaster hiding in the squad you have no chance to damage a vehicle. The imperial guard can put up the same amount of shots but have a lack of leadership and their save isn't as good as the dire avengers without upgrading. No marine variant can put up near the same number of shots. The tau are impressive at shooting but they lack the ability to fight in close quarters, worse than dire avengers.
This isn’t a comprehensive list, more of a short list of examples of the comparable units. Many of these units possess the ability to stand up in situations where the dire avengers are rendered useless, but I wish to point out is that the dire avengers can pose a serious threat in the situations they were designed for. Which brings me to the bigger point I want to convey.
Eldar have superb specialization. While this point has its faults, (i.e. a certain lack of versatility) the craft world’ers can still dish out some pain. In the given situations where the aspects where designed to perform.....they still do. The tactics of Eldar involve getting your opponent to do what you want them to do.
The last thing I’d like to point out is some of the units who still stand tall.
Fire Prisms still command respect in every game, not one opponent scoffs at a tank with that much maneuverability and fire power in one package. Eldar battles are won with the devastating fire power these puppies can let loose.
The Wave Serpent is another great unit, no army has both the speed and dependability that the wave serpent rocks out. Energy shielding makes any shot that gets additional dice to penetrate usually find no purchase against the front or side of these fine transports.
The Fire Dragons command respect from every general. There aren’t any squads or even tanks who boast 10 melta gun level weapons at once.
The also have access to the best psychic defense in the game bar none. Even Njal’s staff has the drawback of range.
The Eldar still boast two of the greatest offensive psychic powers, Guide and Doom. These powers are near unrivaled in their usefulness. Doom makes an effective turn into a devastating turn. Guide while slightly more limited makes almost every shot find home.
The psychic power Fortune is the strongest defensive power in the games, Making up for the Eldars lack of durability that comes from toughness 3. This power is most commonly seen on the next unit in my list.
The Warlock Council. Each opponent that decides to deploy against the Eldar expect to see these guys and rightly fear them. High weapon skill, high initiative, decent amount of attacks, good leadership along with the ability to re roll, the scariest non-powered weapon available, high power template shot, and god forbid you encounter these guys mounted up on jet bikes. Versatile and powerful, the warlock council fears little as long as they are fortune’d up.
The last but not least of all Eldar has to offer. The hqs, heart and soul of the army, are powerful indeed. A Farseer is all but required to lead the ancient race into battle. Each Farseer brings the aforementioned powers Should you find yourself in a pickle, bring the big daddy, Eldrad Ulthran. Point for point perhaps the scariest single hq in the game.
This is the list of the things I find to be most important, the units I did not list, while many of them effective have certain drawbacks that couldn’t drive my point as poignantly. I just wanted to point out that the Eldar are not dead yet, just has arthritis now-a-days.
If you feel that I missed a major point from the glorious Craft world Eldar, feel free to help me remind everyone that the Eldar haven’t burnt out yet.
Warp spiders are one of my most-used units. With a hail of s6 shots, the best jump packs in the game,and a 3+ save, what is not to like? They usually bodyguard my Autarch to make a nasty combat unit.
ReplyDeleteWarp Spiders are underused by a lot of people, including myself. Since they came out in fincast I have been considering buying a bunch more. Them and Swooping hawks, my answer to dark eldar thinking they can zoom across the board with impunity.
ReplyDeleteI'm sold on Warp SPiders. They rock the house 75% of the time. Swooping Hawks, however, have yet to make me think I shouldn't have spent the point elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteWith current points costs as they are, more than ever, it is imperative that you make the most out of every unit. I have been looking at the various MSU builds lately to see if there is a merit to that style of play.
Warp spiders make an appearance in about half of my lists. I have always felt they were good, in reflection, I'm not sure why they didn't make the cut. I was probably thinking about the last time they reached the table when I rolled like poo.
ReplyDeleteThe time before that however, they beat ten wyches in close combat and sent them running. I had them fortuned and the agonizer only wounded once, which was the only wound that they caused.
I was very proud :P
They are nice because you can juice them with a farseer, they can keep up with your grav tanks for a rolling assault screen, or you can just let them do their own thing. They are fairly hardy and incredible useful. The eldar don't get many units that are multirole, and most armies don't get a multirole that is as mobile as the Spiders are. Solid choice in a list, they are just kinda pricey.
ReplyDeleteSo what you really mean to say is the ork boy from Grand Haven with the large shoota boyz mob specailize even more effectivly than Dire Avengers >;)
ReplyDeleteI have seen large groups of shoota boyz do some amazing things. There are alot of dice to be rolled when they do something, and sometimes the stars align and it's like God was playing Yahtzee.
ReplyDeleteI swear by them. People always debate the shoota vs slugga. No comparison in my mind. Yeah, the attacks equal when you do the shoot/charge totals...but killing a bunch of grey hutners before you charge them cuts down their counter attacks by a mile, and shootas can be effective 18" away...or shooting out of your red battlewagon that rolled 7"....
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