More Thoughts On Footdar: Basic Deployment Concepts

Sorry for the pause the week of New Years. Its been crazy this week. I never realized how much stuff I had. It really piles up over a year. As I pack and get ready for my move back to Lansing I have been continuing my experiments with the Footdar. I have gotten in 3 games with OST playing his Death Wing, his Iron Warriors and His new Orky horde. The first two games were against my now evolving standard footdar list. I tried an all Aspect Warrior version when Farseer Re-Rolls dared me to try a list not involving the Avatar. Needless to say versus an Ork army not a good idea.

The Avatar is actually a lynch pin in the whole list. You have to keep your troops in the fight and making them fearless helps a whole ton. The placement of the Avatar is pretty crucial. All of your units, especially the Guardian units must have at least one member of the unit within 12 inches of the Avatar. I usually place the Avatar in the literal center of the army. The Guardian units are to The Avatars fore and wrap around the left and right. If you are using Harlequins they go ahead of the Guardians. I also use Storm Guardians instead of Harlequins as it presents a target twice the size and with a raw ton of attacks. The Warlock in the unit has the Enhance power so they hit like Aspect warriors.

Now the only units that will not be able to take advantage of the fearless aura of The Avatar are your rear guard and deep striking units. The Warp spiders and Dark reapers , as Aspect Warriors, have a good leadership and although may take a lot of fire should be able to hold up. The guardians are the main force and need the most bolstering.

Setting up the army in a pitched battle can be very difficult. This is especially true with a massed horde of Guardians. It also makes it difficult for the Harlequins to act as a screen. That said you have to choose what you screen carefully. The Harlequins will not be able to screen both Guardian units so you should place them in the front of the Avatar. This puts them in the middle of the two Guardian masses flanking the Avatar. The Seer Council will fit in behind the Avatar to bolster the Guardians Avatar and the Harlequins. The Support units, artillery and long range support, should be kept in cover on the left or right flank. In a pitched battle you still want to establish a kill corridor with your long ranged support. This is difficult given you are spanning the whole long board edge. The real key is making sure you have a kill zone established where your forces are marching.

Spearhead style deployment makes your job pretty easy. Support in the back and the Guardians surrounding the Avatar. The Harlequins up front strung out in a ling can usually screen the whole force. The kill corridor is very established since you will be squaring off corner to corner. Besides suppressing the main enemy force you will have to use your long range support to guard the flanks of your army. This is especially true on the flank facing your opponents table edge. Reserve units can hit the side of your army hard. You must also be weary of outflanking units. Genestealers and boss snikrot can wreck some havoc in your back field and cut out your long range support. I usually have the seer council hang back a bit, stretching the unit out so the seer maintains fortune range on the Avatar . You can only do this for a turn or two though. Deep strikers are no as big an issue as you can spread your force out to deny your opponent the ability to land units. Any drop zone that is viable is unappealing as its an instant kill zone. You must only be weary of units that can assault on the turn they land.

Dawn of War style deployments are a mixed bag. You can start very far forward but you only have two units on the table. This means an advanced force pretty far forward of the main force. One would think its preferable to start with nothing on the table and walk on. This has its advantages if you do not have first turn. It hampers your ability to deploy your army properly though. Units will be out of position due to space constraints. So its actually good to place a couple of units on the board. I usually go for a unit of Guardians and a Unit of Pathfinders. You have the protection of night fight and a 5+ cover save with the Guardian unit. This is where Eldrads power to redeploy units comes in handy. You can optimize your position based on what your opponent does if you are forced to set up first. Heavy weapons fire will be at a minimum. This will also allow you to get optimal firing position for the Pathfinders so they can start trying to pin units from turn one. Your opponent will see them as a target of opportunity and possibly dedicate an excess amount of resources to destroy them once he sees how hard they are to take out with shooting. I prefer buildings just because you get a get out of jail free card when it comes to indirect fire ordnance as long as you are as high as you can be without being on the top floor. Choice of HQ can be tough. I usually start with the Avatar on the table since the Farseer will not be able to deploy with the Warlock unit. Just be sure to put him in a spot that will keep him safe.

So there ya go my thoughts on the 3 basic deployment types. I would also like to announce that the Second “Test Of Khaine” tournament will take place in April. I will be bringing more details in the coming weeks on here and DarkFuture Games. It will again be at Evolution games and tentatively scheduled for the 14^th of April, which also happens to be my birthday.

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

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

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One Does Not Simply Walk.........: Seerk's Take On Footdar Pt2

Continuing on the subject of Footdar that I started last time. Strategy and formation. Besides having a good mix of units, You need to have your army deployed to take advantage of the terrain and have clear lines of fire on priority targets. My standard Footdar list has 3 layers to it. This can be varied depending on the unit mix you choose to go with.

When deploying the army you layer it. The Avatar maintains a central position in the army. This maintains the fearlessness of a majority of your units as they walk forward into the breach. It also screens the Avatar. Granted his 3+ armor save and his 4+ invulnerably save keep him pretty safe, but its good to present a bigger number of targets to try and break down your opponents fire discipline. One real key is making sure you have a Seer within Fortune range. As the Avatar really is the lynch pin in the army you must ensure his safety. Although he eats up a lot of points I always Run Eldrad in my foot lists. Mainly because he can do the duty of two Farseers and he is harder to kill than a normal Farseer. You just have to make sure you have a concise plan and order of operations when casting your powers.

Now I spoke about layers. I have covered this topic before. Since the Eldar army is a collection of specialists they have to work in concert and mutually support each other. Besides two large squads of guardians I only run one maybe two Aspect warrior squads in the foot list. I use a medium sized squad of Pathfinders and a Squad of Dark Reapers in the backfield. This is your rear guard and the ranged firepower. Both should be set up in cover with good fields of vision. Since you have the Avatar centrally located with all your foot units orbiting around him, the army moves as a great mass forward. Its the rear guards job to clear the way and hit units trying to flank the main force. The dark reapers can tear thru small squads and transports. Its important to note that the Exarch should have the Crack shot power. Given most rhinos and transports surge forward and pop smoke or have some similar defense. You need to be able to pop said transport. Crack shot ignores saves derived from cover. I usually arm my Exarch with an Eldar Missile Launcher. It does not give you the saturation of the Tempest launcher, but it has more utility. Once a transport is opened up you can hit the unit with the Pathfinders to try and kill them outright or at least pin them. I also Use a pair of Night Spinners and put them out of harms way. Since they are twin linked you can use them indirectly with a fair amount of confidence. I will hit large concentrations of troops and vehicles trying to get the template to hit as many as possible so as to spread the love so to speak. This is more for suppressing units movement rather than killing. Granted since its a strength 6 rending large blast it will kill fairly effectively. I played OST this past week using the list and despite having to deal with 4 squads of plague marines the combined fire of the Dark Reapers, Pathfinders and Night Spinners kept his units suppressed and killed large numbers very quickly. Keeping the constant pressure on the opposing force makes them adjust their tactics.

When they are hurried they make mistakes, you just have to be able to see them and capitalize on them. With a lot of long range suppressing fire coming at them you can predict where units are going to go. If they have deep strikers or out flanking units you can almost ensure they will be going for the back field units. You can sweeten the pot by placing the pathfinders on an objective in cover. I prefer to place them and the objective in a building a floor or 2 up. Its a hard target for any shooting units to take out. You can cause a mishap or lure the units in with this trick. If you have warp spiders or a unit close they can take out the new intruders so you can keep the pressure on the main force. Thats the real key with the Back field units. They are there to keep the pressure on the main force. If you have no viable targets out in the kill corridor on the field then take out the units deep striking or out flanking into your turf.

Your Vanguard units are also there to put pressure onto the main force. I have chosen to screen this particular list with a vanguard unit of Harlequins. They move swiftly ahead of the guardians and the Seer council. The Seer Council hangs back behind the Avatar and the Guardians. I arm them with the customary fusion pistols and I give all of them Harlequin Kisses. Its an expensive unit that is put in a position that you would usually use an expendable unit in. This is another key. Everybody in the Army is Expendable. If you turtle up to much and guard specific units or models they will get more fire. IF you don't draw attention then the unit gets ignored in favor of the unit that is drawing the attention. The Internet has hyped up how nasty Harlequin units are. Granted they are pretty nasty, but not as nasty as a unit of Striking Scorpions or Howling Banshees. They just are much harder to hit and pack a punch in close combat. When your opponent has that bearing down on his units expect a torrent of fire to hit them. When this happens they are doing their job. They are screening the rest of your army and taking hits that could be hitting the Avatar, guardians or your long rang back field units.

If they survive direct them towards a soft unit. Their higher strength on the charge along with a high weapon skill and a rending weapon will be able to overwhelm a unit of 5 or 6 even if there is only a couple left thanks to their high number of attacks.

So some more tidbits about how I run Footdar. I may do another part as I think there is a lot to talk about yet when it comes to deployment. I will try and fire up a drawing program and come up with some sample deployments that I have done in the past. How you deploy your force is going to differ a lot based on the deployment type of the game.

Until then...

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

WAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!

One Does Not Simply Walk........:SeerK's Take On FootDar Pt1

Well its holiday time again. I apologize for the pause. I plowed through my finals and now I am free and clear, except for work, til the 16^th of January. I realized after my game with OST this past Wednesday that I have not actually had my Craftworlders out on the table in forever. I also realized I have not had an Eldar article in a while. I played OST's Deathwing at the FLGS This past week and I whipped out a good old fashioned Footdar list. It was very nice to hear the phrase “F#@*ing Eldar” ringing like a symphony in the store again.

The elusive Footdar list. Its a list that seemed to really go by the wayside in 5^th edition. Mech lists were the norm. As we get closer to 6^th edition the meta is changing once again and foot lists once again are making appearances. Mech lists and such are generally geared towards defeating other mech lists. The backlash from the excessive amount of mech was the reemergence of the foot list and horde armies.

I could go over a bunch of different Footdar lists and how they work and such, but each one if going to have key elements that are the same. These elements are what make the list work. It is a combination of key units, formation and strategy.

First we will look at the key units in a Footdar list, besides Eldrad or a Seer as you pretty mush always need one. The first and foremost, the lynchpin if you will, in a good Footdar list is The Avatar of Khaine. The Avatar is a very potent unit and a good deal at 155 points. Yes he takes up an HQ slot so you can't run two Farseers, but you get a lot of bang for your buck. Besides he potent combat ability The Avatar has his 12” Inspiring Presence aura. As you know any Eldar unit within 12 inches of the Avatar is fearless. This is important, especially if you are running hordes of Guardians. As the army advances you will get pounded by artillery and long range fire. I run big, 20 man, units of Guardians with a Warlock as my troops. The Warlock has Conceal for that 5+ cover save in the open, combine this with no leadership tests and you have a nice big mob to distract your opponent and solid squads who are not going to run from the field. The Avatar keep your units moving forward and really makes your opponent second guess his use of fire. This makes the Avatar a big target at the same time. You have to make sure you have your Seer in range to hit him with a Fortune. This should be easy as most of your units should have at least one member in orbit of The Avatar to ensure fearlessness. The real threat to the Avatar is Plasma. For the love of Khaine keep Plasma vets away from the avatar.

Picture By Tacticangle

Now this next unit I actually don't use much, but as I explore the Footdar again I am going to be using more. Harlequins. Harlequins, although expensive are an excellent advanced unit. The ignore difficult terrain and when you have a shadow seer in with the group are very hard to target. They can move as a screen ahead of the main force providing a better cover save. Giving them fusion pistols lets them crack armor and giving the unit Harlequins kisses gives them rending, on top of the Furious charge and hit & run. They are potent and thanks to months of playing dark Eldar I finally have a grasp on how to use them effectively.

Dark Reapers, in my view, are important components to a Footdar list. They are effective in taking out light armor and are very effective at killing power armor. They also prove valuable in killing light fast moving targets like venoms, raiders, ork truks, and space marine Land speeders. When you equip the Exarch with a Eldar Missile launcher and give him crack shot, the flat out move save becomes irrelevant . This can really hamper a meched up fast moving army. Dark Eldar are especially doomed if you crack open their transports and force them to hoof it. This also hurts webway portal delivery allowing you to contain the Dark Kin in a proverbial barrel.

Guardians are my mainstay for a Footdar list. They can be fielded in big units and Shuriken Catapult fire from a unit of 20, especially if they have been guided, has unit killing potential. I always include a Warlock with the Conceal power. This helps mitigate casualties as the blob marches forward. They can effectively hold objectives thru sheer numbers. The real key though is making sure the Avatar is close enough to keep them from running.

Warp Spiders are a quirky yet very effective unit. They are an advance force to really wreck some havoc in your opponents back field. Warp spiders are Eldar that are a little off. The whole concept of hurtling themselves through the warp is crazy talk to most Eldar. Not Warp Spiders. They have a screw loose, so you kind of need to play them like you have a screw loose. Deep Striking them in behind the soft rear ends of Imperial Guard artillery or any transports and blowing them really slows down your opponent and gives you time to bring your force up and deal the killing blows.

Night Spinners are another effective method for slowing down your opponent. I am a big fan of these guys. I will try and run two with a unit of Dark Reapers or one with 2 Units of Dark Reapers sitting in my back field to give my advancing force good suppressing fire and pop fast moving units. Since the monfiliment affects foot units and vehicles, and is strength 6, it is effective in slowing down and even damaging units.

One of my favorite things to use in a foot list is the support weapon Batteries. The one weapon I really like using is vibro cannons. In a battery of three they are strength 6. The auto glance vehicles and they hit everything in a line. Did I mention they also cause pinning This suppresses enemy fire and can really hamper foot units. A battery takes up a valuable heavy slot so I will use these if I am not using a night spinner. They can be interchangeable.

So my two cents about the units that are integral to a Footdar list. I will cover Strategy and formation in my next post as they go hand in hand. Time to break out some drawing programs.

Until Next time

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

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Meta: The Foot Army Making A Comback

5^th edition is cited as being the Mech edition. That is mechanized infantry and armies are king. As such the tournament meta has shifted to very mech heavy armies with tons of anti tank. The local meta at my FLGS has shifted from mech armies to foot armies. After a couple years of tanks and armies rumbling across the field in transports people at the shop have gotten kinda tired of the parking lot the table has become. 

Some would say this is a hold over from 4^th edition. It is for players that only have been playing since 4^th ed came out. I actually never played 4^th edition. Although I play tested codex’s, benefit of working for GW back in the day, that eventually became early 4^th edition codexs, I started really playing a lot in 2^nd and 3^rd edition. Foot armies were the norm. In fact the whole concept of a foot army is not weird to me. With the local meta shifting to foot armies and massed infantry I thought I would cover some different concepts you need when doing a foot army. This goes hand in hand with my Dark Eldar Webway list as I have a whole whopping 2 transports in the army. There are two real solid methods of running a foot list. The horde method and using armies using alternate deployment methods.

To anybody who says the “Green Tide” style of list does not work has obviously never played a real one. The only time I have ever rage quit in a tournament, after the game was over, was the spanking I received by Team Americas Shawn Kemp and his Ghazghul Thraka powered Green Tide list.

The Horde Method relies on massed infantry, and I mean massed. Looking across the table at 50 man blob squads and multiple mobs of 30 boys is pretty disheartening. The main strength of a horde style foot list is its ability to win be attrition. “Green Tide” lists run by many ork players now forgo any truks and battle wagons and field as many boyz as they can fit in the list supported by mobs of lootas or flash gits. OST runs his Deathwing all on foot, ominously marching his terminators forward while the devastator squads pound the enemy from afar. Orks and Tyranids lend themselves well to the horde style. Large numbers of boys or gaunts although not robust make up for it in sheer numbers. I have been experimenting with Horde style Eldar lists. The integral part is of course Guardians, both Storm Guardians and Guardian Defenders.

Running units of 15 to 20 guardians with a warlock works well. The Warlock usually has the conceal power for the defenders to help keep them alive as they march across the table and the Storm Guardians Warlock has the Enhance power to bolster their fighting ability. The real key to running a Horde list with Eldar is long range support. Night Spinners are great for hitting close combat units and pinning them down as well as killing a few in the process. Dark Reapers are effective for getting rid of harder targets and light vehicles. I personally like using Swooping hawks to jump in and deal with vehicles. They can also deep strike in and hit the back field if you opponent was not smart enough to ensure there is no good available landing zone for deep striking units. Taking out hard hitting artillery like manticores and such is essential to foot unit survival. Regardless of how you do it you must support the advancing foot units. Having fast moving units that are capable of dealing with armor are ideal, both for harassing units and contesting objectives.

Using alternate deployment methods is the other effective method of doing a foot list. This is the method I am using with my webway list. It eliminates the need for transports and an excessive amount of kill points. Infiltration, outflanking and Deep striking your whole list can throw your opponents off. They have no idea where you are going to come in. Granted they can guess. When I place my webway portals my opponents know my forces are going to come pouring thru them. I can still come from the board edge though. If you mix deployment styles this can really throw your opponent off. They will either spread out, which makes it easier to divide the army up and kill it a unit at a time, or they will turtle up in one spot, giving you board control.

Even when you have several or one alternate deployment method the goal is victory thru attrition. Having several deployment options gives you flexibility. It also lets you mix up the flow of the game so your opponent can't adjust quickly. It helps you gain and keep momentum which is essential.

I am going to try and get a game in this weekend using my Guardian horde list so I can bring you a battle report as a decent example of a good footdar list. That and I have not had the Craftworlders out for a good romp in a while.

Also thought I would throw in a nice pic of the next half of the court of the archon.  The Slyth and the Lahmean.  I actually like both of them.  I may have to start experimenting with the Archons court and see if they are as horrible as people think they are.

Until then...

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls............... …......WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!