Footdar: The New Black

Well I have a couple games in with the new Footdar list. I am in at one win and a very close Tie. As in my opponent had to really work to get a tie. With all the changes in 6^th I have to say that I think The Footdar are the way to go now when running Craftworld Eldar on the table, at least in my opinion.

Space Marines got tougher. Well I should say that things with a 2+ armor save got tougher. There is a lack of sufficient AP 2 in many armies to deal with the hordes of Terminators people seem to be keen on fielding now. Granted the real key to winning games in 6^th edition is going troop heavy and I mean trying your damnedest to max out your troop slots and trying to gain more scoring units in another slot.

As it stands the Footdar list is clocking in at 5 troop units. I have two standard guardian squads, a Storm Guardian squad, a Guardian Jet Bike squad and a Squad of Dire Avengers. Although the Guardians are not as resilient as other troop choices they make up for the fact in numbers. As always you bolster them with a Farseer and the close proximity of an Avatar of Khaine.

The only real issue I have been having is close combat. If a dedicated close combat unit of size hits the guardian unit it gets shredded very fast. The Avatar is the only thing keeping the unit in combat if there are any survivors. This issue is really made worse by terminators and things with a 2+ save.

Of course my solution to this issue is to run the Fire Prisms. I have 2 in the list thus far. They have proven to be very valuable so far. In the past I have been weary for some reason about using them. They have been targeted and eliminated quickly in the past.

Massed fire has also been pretty good in dealing with those hard targets. I have an 8 man Warp Spider unit jumping around the battlefield supporting the Guardians. These guys have been pretty effective so far. Deep Striking behind my opponents army seems to be stalling forward progress. The only real issue is that stalling the opposing force limits what I can do to them at range.

This my friends is the only real big issue I am having with my Footdar list. Range. This was really evident with the short table edge deployment. Night fight aside all I had to handle the parking lot of Razorbacks was 2 Fire Prisms and a Night Spinner. Although the Prisms are adept at killing armor its hard slowing down a mechanized force with only 2 of them.

The Warp Spiders helped mitigate the range issue a bit and kept the army occupied but I couldn't bring enough fire to bear and wipe out units before they reached my lines. So I am looking at options. The Night Spinner may be removed and swapped out for something with a good amount of ranged fire. I am considering War Walkers or possibly a unit of Dark Reapers. This of course means reallocating points and shifting some points around.

So progress with the Eldar is slow but I am relearning the army in this new edition. I know once I get in the groove the new codex will drop and the process will start all over again. I do have a side project started though, besides the Dark Eldar that is. I will have more on that later though. One Elder race at a time.

Until next time...........

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