I have been thinking about the Tau quite a bit and their role in the tournament. I don't think a Tau army took any of the top three spots, even though there was quite a bit of Tau out there. Steinerp did a good job doing the codex demographics over on his blog Aspects of the Void. Check it out.
Other than the legion of Riptides (I battled ten of them over the course of four opponents *sigh*) the running constant for the Tau was the buff commander suit. That little fellow was in all four lists doing about the exact same thing. Either joined to Riptides or Dark Reapers. Sprinkle in some Sky Rays and maybe a dash of Kroot and you had the basic core list everyone seemed to be running. Got kinda boring after awhile. So it would seem that slightly tailoring a list in order to just kill that bugger would do loads to help destroy these kinds of lists. Usually the whole thing was built around the one combo and the amount of damage it could do. I don't think that is a particularly sound plan for a six round tournament. Looks like the standings agree with me.
Also, I expected a ton of "Wave Serpent Spam" lists, as people tend to say with varying degrees of vitriol. As far as I know, I had the most Serpents at five. Strangely, there weren't even that many with four. Perhaps the actual spam version of that flavor of Eldar finally made its weaknesses apparent enough.
I have also decided to mostly retire my mechanized Eldar list from regular play. I will still probably take it to tournaments until I get a new one honed enough that I think I have a chance at winning with it. My new list won't have any Wave Serpents in it. Largely, because Wave Serpents have pretty much ruined my play experience. I've been heavily into mech-dar for a long time now, and I won a lot of games when Wave Serpents were considered to be over costed and sub par. Now that they are awesome, I look like "that guy", I see the fun drain out of my opponents' faces about turn 2 or 3, and I sound like everyone else running net lists throwing the caveat that they "have always played this list". So now I am on a quest to make a new killer tournament list that doesn't utilize a composition similar to what people expect tournament Eldar to look like.
Sounds like fun to me.
And as a last note, I want to say congratulations to the staff of the GT, it was a great event. There were a few hiccups which were to be expected for a first year event, but overall it was a ton of fun and I can't wait for next year.
Bro, I am with you and always have been. You see when the "best thing ever" threatensd to become the usual, you take the things that would otherwise be a weakness to that same vein. Wave serpents are the Shizzy? Well, everyone must want to kill wave serpents, let's look at hawks and blobs and defense lines again. Let's look at batteries and the avatar and all manner of shit people think is well ... shit. That has always been my game and low and behold all the units I have ever picked under that mantra have remained cluthc for me.
ReplyDeletePlaying counter meta and mastering units that other people disregard was my favorite part about this hobby. It's time to get back into what I love about this game.
ReplyDeleteNo Tau finished in the top 8 for Battle points. Eldar did a good job of beating them down. I don't think Wave Serpents are "required" by any means and you should be able to create some very strong lists. Especially with the new marines helping take out the big guns with grav guns and solid anti-air. If you ever want to get some test games in let me know, I've got a table in the basement and am stuck home most nights "watching" a sleeping kid.
ReplyDeleteTJ- just a quick notes, batteries are one of the best things in the codex.
Yes, our space elves did manage to keep the fish heads in their place. I think much of that is also because many of the Eldar players never really shelved their armies like many Tau players did. So I think experience was a strong component in the showings.
DeleteI wholeheartedly agree with you about the Vaul's Wrath Batteries. They are wonderfully points efficient.
They were ok this toruney, but i rolled puppetmaster a lot and didn't have both guide and prescience so a lot of the tourney they were not effectivly twin linked (used x3 vibro)...getting hit with poiosoned DE splinter cannon during night fighting really hurt them, even with skyshield :(
DeleteStill a solid buy for 90 points. Poison weapons not withstanding.
DeleteI think Grav Guns will throw off people for a bit, but I dont think thye are going to be as game breaking as everybody thinks. Same thing with bike armies.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree Steinerp on the batteries, if you are talking about Vauls Wrath. Every game I have used them they have killed at leats double their points in enemy units.
I agree with the grav gun sentiment, mainly because they have very high rate of diminishing returns.
DeleteBikes though, I think that White Scar lists will be a main tournament build for quite some time. They excel at many areas of the game in 6th.
I do agree that grav guns won't be as common as everyone thinks and won't hurt riptides as much, but I do think they will have an impact especially once 'nids hit the tabletop. If centurions become common (and they might as they do have good utility regardless of target -especially if ruled as written and as no cover save for vehicles) they are good paper for a lot of rock armies.
DeleteI am look forward to teaming my Mantis Warriors (White Scars successor) up with my eldar.
I think the grav guns will shake things up just enough. We're definitely in the Deathstar phase of this edition. Perhaps these super shooty units will make people space their points out a little more.
DeleteI'm sure there will be some good lists built by adding Space Marines to Eldar. Though, I think the Tau are going to have some more fierce pairings with it. Where will we be seeing the Buff Commander popping up next? Centurions? Devastators? Only time will tell.
Or possibly doing some Riptide + Librarian action. Nothing like slapping Iron Arm on a Riptide.
DeleteI think its time we really started looking at Footdar Spellduckwrong. I want to experiment with Iyanden. I see some good potential there
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you should mention footdar. My brain hit one of its zen moments today on that subject. Even after I tried to dismantle the idea, it still seemed strong enough to merit time on the table.
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