Breaking The Meta PT 3: Psychic Powers

SeerK here. In this third installment of breaking the meta, we will be talking about using your psychic powers

to maximum efficiency. I would also be remiss if I did not clue people into how you combat psychic powers as well. With all the Daemons and Eldar Bike councils running around you really need to know how to deal with them.

SO this whole thing started because I am sick of Tau and Riptides. These guys a very susceptible to the effects of psychic powers. Granted if they are rolling deep with Riptides they are using the Farsight supplement and have that stupid Amulet of Moloch. Part of establishing psychic superiority and dominance is destroying your opponents ability to counter your powers. Using the previous shooting and close assault methods discussed and good fire discipline can eliminate the threat of the amulet. By concentrating on and eliminating the bearer of the amulet, or equivalent psychic defense, with the heavy hitting weapons, IE your AP 2 weapons, you open up your warlocks and seers to hit the other units in the psychic defense zone with powers like Jinx and Horrify. These allow units like Dark Reapers and others with AP 3 weapons to eliminate the remaining Riptides.

Its all about synergy. Despite how much the codex has changed, the Eldar army is still about synergy. The same could be said for pretty much any army or codex in the game, but Eldar have to work together to get your desired results. This is one of the primary reasons I hate what Wave Serpents have become. They are like a crutch when used enmasse.

Lets look specifically at some of the powers in the Runes of Fate and the Runes of Battle that can help your other units wreck some havoc. Although many lament the fact Warlocks have to roll for their powers and take psychic tests, the Runes of Battle are very flexible now and make Warlocks much more of a utility unit. I myself am A little put off I can only have 10 per primary detachment, but I am an Ulthwe player so I am a bit biased. I digress though. The two powers I really like in the Runes of Battle are Protect/Jinx and Embolden/Horrify.

The Runes of Battle powers are duel use. You have a blessing and a malediction in most cases. My third favorite power is the only exception as it is a witchfire and blessing. That Power being Destructor /Renewer. I choose Protect/Jinx as my first favorite power because it does two things. Literally and figuratively. Not only does it give your units a better armor save but it removes the heavy armor advantage from your opponents units. In the case of 2+ armored units this make your own units way more effective against them. Although this is pretty obvious, the true value does not make itself apparent until you start looking at all your AP 3 weapons and the abilities tied to said units. Combine this with stacking powers and enemy units fall apart quick.

I will use the Riptide as an example. So you have a Unit of Warlocks or several Warlocks within striking distance of a Riptide. You successfully hit the Riptide with a Jinx power. This reduces his armor save to a 3+ and unless he activated his Nova reactor to improve his Invulnerably save this makes the Riptide very Vulnerable to units like Dark Reapers. The Jinx power will affect the whole unit, so if the Tau players is being cute and attaching a Tau Commander or some other independent character to the Riptide they will be affected to.

Embolden Horrify is great for making units more susceptible to pinning and just running away in general. Used in combination with units that have pinning weapons or psychic powers can really cause problems for your opponent. Combining Horrify with the Terrify power can be some great fun. Having a unit or effect that causes you to re roll successful leader ship adds to the fun. For example. You hit say a Unit with the Horrify power. They are at -3 Leadership. You then hit them with the Terrify power. They loose any fearless they may have had, but more importantly they have to take a leadership test and possibly have to fall back. Having a Hemlock Wraithfighter within 12 inches causing a re roll if they succeed in passing the test makes it a bit more interesting. This is a bit stacked I know, but I kinda want the Hemlock to be useful for something. The real benefit to the Horrify power is hitting units of psykers with it. If you get it to go through it can really cause some problems for Seer Councils, screamer stars and Tigerius. It combines will with Mind War and Psychic scream as well so you can set up some one two punches with your Farseers and Warlocks.

Spirit Seers add a nice bridge in the psychic arsenal. They can choose from Runes of Battle and Telepathy. This gives you some utility since they are Mastery level 2. If only they could take Jet Bikes......

What I am really getting at is that you have to look at how all your units interact. Look at how your main codex interacts and build a firm foundation with your codex. Allies do add some nice tricks and gimmicks, but you have to look at what they add to the primary detachment. The Eldar have the greatest psychic might in the game, not enough people are utilizing it. The most common way people are using it is in the form of the Bike Council or Jetseer Council as many refer to it. Two Farseers and up to 10 Warlocks on Jet Bikes. A deathstar to rival any in the game. In fact it may be the end all Deathstar in the game currently. Neutralizing it can be very difficult. Especially if Fortune is involved.

If you are running it or trying to get rid of it, the methods I have gone over here and in the previous two installments help. Basically you are trying to remove the synergy from the unit. Removing the things that make it an unstoppable force. Removing the cover save it can boost up to 2+, getting rid of the Fortune re roll, eliminating the Embolden making it fearless. Also just using things that specifically target psykers. Mindstrike Missiles, Culexes Assassins, Shadows of the Warp, Hemlocks, and my current favorite the Crucible of Malediction. Combined with something that lowers leadership, it can be devastating to a unit of psykers.

The meta will be shifting quite a bit soon. The new supplements are really going to shake things up a bit me thinks. More on that after I read them and we get a reaction from the tournament scene. \\

So there is my 2 cents about breaking the meta. I think I have all the Tau caused anger out of my system now.

Until Next time

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

Breaking The Meta And Killing Riptides PT 2: Close Combat

So before I went on a tangent plugging the ever living daylights out of the Craftworld open and the other events the Craftworld team is bringing you at UCON, I was talking about killing Riptides and trying to break the current meta, which quite frankly is pretty rough right now. Last time we talked about shooting mostly. Now I want to delve into a subject there is much conjecture about in 6^th , edition, close combat. I want to also cover the use of Psychic powers, as this is one of the biggest Benefits the Eldar have when it comes to taking down tough enemy units. So lets get into the fray as it were.

Close Combat aka Assault

The Eldar have some crack assault troops. Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions at the fore. There are some oft overlooked gems in the ranks of the Warhost though. One of my favorites and an excellent slayer of Riptides is the ignored and unused Shining Spear. Now that the Shining Spears can be taken in units of more than 5 they can be a very potent Assault unit. The Laser Lance Is a very short range weapon for shooting, but its primary function is close combat. At a strength of 6 and an AP of 3 they are very effective in hunting big varmints like Riptides. Combine this with the Ability of the Exarch have a strength 8 AP 2 Star Lance and Monster Hunter you can take down most monstrous creatures in a turn with a big enough unit. You also have Hit and Run so you can get out of combat and charge again to get your strength 6 again with the Laser Lances. I personally like running a Farseer and or Autarch with the unit to add some more punch and resiliency. Having invulnerably saves in the mix along with a possible Fortune is pretty handy. Now I know the Laser Lance is only AP 3 but that is effective against most targets. It is not effective to deal with a Riptide though, until that is you hit it with Jinx from a Warlock. I will get into this though when I cover psychic powers.

Dedicated close combat troops are an extremely effective way of dealing with Tau and some other army builds. You just have to know how to deploy them and how to use the troops effectively to get the desired results. The current rules set has killed one of the most effective ways to get your Striking Scorpions in to the fray quickly. Not being able to Assault after an Outflank deployment put a kibosh on one of my favorite tactics. This tactic forced your opponents to deploy his forces in such a way as to avoid being assaulted from the flanks. You can still do this but with units like War Walkers though. Its risky putting a lot of units in reserve, but using a screen of War Walkers followed by a unit of Scorpions can help get the Scorpions into the fray. Most opponents will try and take out the War Walkers first especially if they are armed with something suitably nasty.

Deployment for Scorpions is going to be completely situational. Infiltrating will probably be your best bet for many situations. Deploying in terrain to take advantage if the move through cover and more importantly Stealth will help keep the unit alive as it advances. The real trick is using your other units to funnel your quarry towards the Scorpions. Scarier mobile units can be used in this way. Shining Spears or even the dreaded bike council can really make big critters move where you want them to when you have them barreling down on them.

Arming your Exarch, and actually running an Exarch, is pretty clutch when hunting big critters. Also running a squad of 10 is important. When monster hunting I always arm the Exarch with a Scorpions Claw. With Crushing blow he is strength 7 and strikes at initiative. Adding Monster Hunter to the mix helps the rest of the Squad possibly finish off the high wound models. The only real snag is if the Monster is a character and it challenges the Exarch. With only 4 attacks on the charge the Exarch cant kill a full wound Riptide or Tervigon in one round. Which is kind of important as the Exarch will die quickly on strikes back in a challenge. Dedicated monster hunting units are substantially bolsters by the presence of a Phoenix Lord. Karandras and Jain Zar in their receptive Aspect units make the units much tougher to deal with for your opponent and the killing power is also increased.

Howling Banshees are not really suited to hunting big prey, but they seem to be geared towards hunting characters, especially IC's, and death star units, at least in a support kind of way. They strike fast, but not particularly hard. The Exarch can be kitted with an Executioner which makes her strength 5 with an AP of 2. This is pretty decent for hunting IC's. You can neutralize the IC by giving the Exarch disarming strike and shield of Grace. With very few exceptions you will always be striking first as well. The Banshees are great for supporting Scorpions if you have another unit moving in to support the unit or model the Scorpion unit is attacking.

The Seer Council is a good bridge between Assault and our next topic, Psychic powers. I have always preferred a council on Foot, but its proving to be quite cumbersome anymore. I prefer the foot council

mainly because you cant put Eldrad on a bike. Oh lord do I want Eldrad on a bike. The Bike council is a Death Star at its best. Mobile and chuck full of Eldar psychic Shenanigans. They are good against pretty much everything. Their resiliency make them excellent for fighting other death stars and tough units. If anything just to tar pit them so they are completely ineffective for the rest of the game. The only real down side to a full bike council, that is 10 warlocks on bikes and 2 Farseers, is the amount of points the unit takes up in a list. They can, however, completely cripple a unit before slamming into it and laying waste to it. Jinx, reveal, horrify, enervate and Drain all sap out a units effectiveness and with 10 Warlocks in the group you should get most all of these powers, sometimes doubling up so you can use the Blessing portion to further enhance your already formative capabilities.

We will get into the intricacies of Psychic powers next time. The real thing I am trying to convey is thinking outside the box and trying different things in the codex. The Eldar have changed substantially and it seems people are hung up on Wave Serpent Spam and the old way of doing things.

SO next time Psychic powers.....and probably more UCON plugging

Until next time.....

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

Musings About the Current Meta

Meta, a word that can produce sighs, sneers, or a quiet acceptance from players. Some people balk at it, but call it what you will, you know what I'm talking about. Perhaps if your play group is very small and isolated you may be insulated from it, but if you're playing in community events like small tournaments or even bigger regional ones, you've seen the meta and probably been on the receiving end of it.
Basically, my point is that its tough out there right now. There are a lot of powerhouse builds being wielded with varying degrees of skill and it is hard to make lists to deal with all the likely threats that one would be expected to face.
I'm debating in my head different approaches to succeed nowadays on the game table. Better to do your best, make a balanced "all-comers" list as its called, or specialize in one or two aspects in the game and hope to make the best of those advantages? I don't know.
I have been noticing a slight shift recently from absolute number of shots for the shooting aspect of the game to slightly better quality of shots. Grav-guns have certainly made this shift a little easier as they have quality and rate of fire. Also, an increase in general mobility has been gathering steam in people's lists. Gun line style armies are getting rarer and rarer because they struggle in the objective based environment that most missions create. Interesting shifts.
And looking to the future, the hordes are coming. Hordes that don't care what AP your weapons are, and may have enough bodies on the table that many lists might not have the sheer volume of fire to stop them. Tyranids, Orks, and to a lesser extent Imperial Guard are coming and the body count is going to rise. Essentially, throwing another curve ball into the mix for players to have to plan for when building their army.

To reiterate, it's tough out there, and it doesn't look to be letting up anytime soon. So my question to you is, what is your philosophy for surviving on the table these days and going forward into the future?