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?

Path of the Bonesinger: Farseers on Jetbikes Conversion WIP

Last night I took a pile of bits and started bashing together a pair of Farseers on Jetbikes for my new Jetbike list. They are looking pretty rough right now, as I still have some Green Stuff work to do on them, but overall I'm pleased. The two Howling Banshee bodies I had lying around collecting dust finally found a purpose as well as the incomplete old style Reaver Jetbikes I had in my bits box.
My Farseer on foot was named Elros Mithrandir because that is what came out of the Elven name generator I found online when I inputted "Chuck Norris". I'll have to put in Sigourney Weaver and Kate Beckinsale to get these girls' new Farseer names.

Resurgence of Hobby

With my newfound hobby motivation, I decided to do something that had been passively keeping me away from working on my army. My work area was just trashed. The remnants of several projects had been just pushed over to one side of my table, intermingled with each other and then layers of junk were placed on top. Finding implements could result in several minutes hunting through the heaps.
I cleaned everything off, separated goodies from just worthless odds and ends, as well as organized my tools so I could actually grab the one I wanted. In addition to actually having a workspace that I am not frustrated by anymore, I found tons of bits and little things I had totally forgotten about. This is a great way to begin this new adventure in the hobby side of things.

How do you tend to keep your hobby space? Chaotic, hyper-organized, an ebb and flow of messiness to cleanliness, something else?

Wave Serpent Down: Revenge of the Jetbikes!

I had a grudge match last night against the five Wave Serpent list that massacred the previous incarnation of my Jetbike army. SeerK rolled it out again so that I could test my new retooled Jetbike list as I viewed this as my worst matchup. The new list was utterly victorious. The Wave Serpents went down fast and SeerK took the gentleman's way out and conceded at the top of Turn 3, as he only had seven infantry models and a Crimson Hunter left and I had only given up two kill points.
The new list hits like a freight train and I am inspired enough to actually get everything finished from the hobby side of things. I have been in a bit of a hobby slump because I wasn't motivated to do anything. As I reflect on my tendencies, I usually am only able to muster sustained hobby progress for models I am actually going to use and enjoy in the near future. During my search for non-Wave Serpent lists, I was unable to commit to anything. Now I have purpose.

So can my Jetbikes beat Serpents? Oh, yes. Now I just need to start hunting the other normal tournament lists.

Since "Serpent Spam" is crossed off my list, what other builds should I seek to test my Jetbikes?

The Craftworld Open: Missions

SeerK here with another UCON event feature. This time I am skipping to the end as it were and detailing the missions for the 2 ^nd annual Craftworld open. I will be making an update about prizes in the next few weeks as sponsors hop on. I do want to thank Mr. Paulson of Paulson Games for making a generous donation though. I am currently trying to put together a mini swag bag for participants. Paulson Bits bags are the first to join the mix along with a nice discount coupon from Paulson Games.

I would also like to thank B.C. Comics of Fenton and Evolution Games for their generous donations.

Now for some missions. Since this is an RT, Rogue Trader, style tournament I wanted to keep things simple and fun. So we have some consistency in the primary, secondary and tertiary objectives. I did add one bonus objective to each mission though that adds to your overall score for the tournament rather than each individual game.

The Missions

Mission 1

Deployment: Dawn of war ( aka classic pitched battle)

Primary Objective: Big Guns Never Tire with 6 objectives ( Heavies count as scoring +1 VP Per heavy killed)

Secondary Objective: Victory points ( 1 VP per unit killed, retreating units and units in reserve at end of game count as destroyed

Tertiary Objectives: Slay the Warlord, First Blood and Line breaker

Bonus Objective: “Come on you Apes....” the player who declares and successfully makes the longest charge without re rolling any of the charge dice gains this objective. You gain d3 Battle points to be added to your overall score.

Mission 2

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil (short board edges)

Primary Objective: The Scouring with 5 objectives placed on the center line of the table between the deployment zones ( fast attack units are scoring, +1 VP per fast choice destroyed)

Secondary Objective: Victory points ( 1 VP per unit killed, retreating units and units in reserve at end of game count as destroyed

Tertiary Objectives: Slay the Warlord, First Blood and Line breaker

Bonus Objective: “Are you not entertained!?!?” The player who wins the most challenges during the game wins this bonus objective. You gain d3 Battle points to be added to your overall score.

Mission 3

Deployment: Classic Spearhead (table quarters with a 12 inch diameter no mans land in the center of the table

Primary Objective: The Relic

Secondary Objective: Victory points ( 1 VP per unit killed, retreating units and units in reserve at end of game count as destroyed

Tertiary Objectives: Slay the Warlord, First Blood and Line breaker

Bonus Objective: “I got this.....” The first player to make a “Look Out Sir!” roll forfeits this objective to his opponent. You gain d3 Battle Points to be added to your overall score.

So there you have it. This missions for this years Craftworld open. I wanted to throw a thanks out to the guys at the Michigan GT as well. We will be using the terrain from this years GT for the tables at UCON this year. If you are not familiar with the terrain take a look over at the Michigan GT website. There is line of sight blocking terrain as well as ruins and forests. Prepare accordingly.

Remember I want a 3 color standard this year as well. I want to try and get some people to do some hobbying. Depending on how preregistration goes I may be lenient on this as I do want people to come and play. For the love of Khaine though no bare plastic. I will be keeping you posted here as always and on the Facebook Event page.

Until next time.

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

Perhaps There Just Weren't Enough Jetbikes Last Time...

Well, if I am really going to try this Jetbike thing, then it's time to go all in and get nearly every variation I can out of the codex. Sorry, Autarch, you're sitting the bench on this one. So here's the new retooled list I am going to try running. Other than my trusty Rangers (who are ridiculously good sometimes and compliment Jetbikes very well actually) and the often late but clutch Crimson Hunter, (somebody has to pop Heldrakes with a quickness) its all bikes. Dropped the Vypers and the Fire Prisms, they just didn't add what I was looking for in the list.

Eldar 1848

Farseer (Jetbike, Singing Spear)
Farseer (Jetbike, Singing Spear)

Warlock x4 (Jetbike, Singing Spear)
Warlock x5 (Jetbike, Witchblade)

Shining Spears x8
Shining Spear Exarch x1 (Star Lance, Hit and Run, Monster Hunter)

Windrider Jetbikes x9 (3x Shuriken Cannons)
Windrider Jetbikes x9 (3x Shuriken Cannons)
Windrider Jetbikes x9 (3x Shuriken Cannons)

Rangers x6
Rangers x6

Crimson Hunter Exarch (2x Brightlances, Pulse Laser)

If nothing else, playing this list is going to get me VERY familiar with the intricacies of the Eldar Jetbike (since there will be 47 of them now) which may lead to more adept choices for list changes in the future. I'm fairly excited, because even though the bikes have been so-so in play tests thus far, these guys are blast to run on the table. And there's some assault in there too, which I think should add an extra layer of fun.

Model count comes in at an even sixty, and some of those the opponent is really going to have to earn. I think the rework really confronts some of the glaring weaknesses of the last version. Namely Daemon Princes en-mass and Wave Serpents in any large quantity. I should be alright to make Riptides cry as well.

What do you think?