Flying Blind: Coping without Seers

This past Saturday I got a game in at the FLGS with Vogrin. I have been fielding the Craftworlders for the past month taking a break from the Dark Eldar. I needed a break mainly because I will be fielding the Craftworlders at Adepticon. I also did not want to get rusty. I have to say though the 2 to 3 month stint of Dark Eldar use has honed my playing ability. Vogrin brought his Imperial Guard including 2 newly acquired Tallern Griffins. I left the Ulthwe army to rest this battle. The Aspect Warriors of Biel Tan came out to great the imperials. Lead by the Avatar and the Phoenix Lord Fuegan the Bahzhakhaine, “sword wind” to those that don't speak Eldar, was ready to purge the Mon-Keigh from the field. There was one big and very notable difference with this list as opposed to the ones I usually field. The Farseers and warlocks stayed home. Not only have the Dark Kin honed my game they have allowed me to play without Seers with confidence.

The absence of psykers in the Dark Eldar army is a major hurtle for Eldar players turning to the dark side. The Eldar army as it stands relies heavily on Farseers to augment the army. Doom and Guide work to increase the kills and Fortune helps keep troops alive. People base their whole strategy on using the seer to do what they are meant for. They of course are bolstered by a unit of warlocks or they tag along in a group of Aspect Warriors. The Seer helps keep the unit or units alive and help pick off the big nasties that may come try and interfere.

The only real problem with this strategy, especially with newer players, is that once the Seer is killed the whole army falls apart. In fact players go to great lengths to protect their Seers. Not a bad thing except this usually uses up resources that could otherwise be thrown at the opposing force.

The key to running an efficient Eldar army list, as I have said time and time again, is to have all the units working in concert and supporting one another. There are no real generalists only specialists. The key to good support is redundancy and trying to think a turn ahead even 2. This means having 2 or 3 different plans based on possible opponent actions.

That said you must be able to cope without a Seer. You must have a plan of attack that includes, but is not dependent on the Seer. As I said I ran the Avatar and Fuegan in my Biel Tan Sword Wind list. The strategy did not center around one unit as the hub. Each unit worked in mutual support of the other. Blade Storms were delivered to units that were in assault distance of Striking Scorpions. Transports were opened up by Fuegan or the Avatar and then promptly shot by Dark reapers. The key is fire order. You must plan out your fire before you start just randomly firing at units. Its kind of like knocking down domino’s. If they are lined up and spaced properly when you knock down the first one in the line the rest fall in sequence. Take out a domino in the line and the rest don't fall. You must make each shot count and contribute to the whole. When you get into this mindset, which is essential in my opinion for effective Dark Eldar armies. When you add the Seers to the mix with this all in mind you get a lot more use and utility out of the psychic powers. You also make your self ready for the loss of the Seer.

This can actually be a very effective ruse to players used to rampant Seer use. They will be so intent on taking out the fortuned Seer the rest of your army can carry out its mission and catch your opponent off guard. Being Sans Seer playing the Dark Eldar really has improved my game.

SO there ya go, some thoughts after my game. Tonight I plan on taking on Captain Obvious and his Marines. We will see how that goes. I am taking out the Banshees from the list and adding in more scorpions or possibly some War Spiders and see if ti does better. IF so I may have some painting to catch up on with my Craftworlders before Adepticon.

Although I won't be playing in it due to work. The boys at MI40K are hosting a tournament this Saturday at Get Your Game on in Ann Arbor. I will be stopping in after work to see how things are going. SO go over to MI40K for details. The Test of Kaine , my tournament will be the following weekend, March 19^th, at Evolution Games in Lansing. I hope to see you there.

Until then...........

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

The Art of War pt 3: The Seer Council

I really do like Farseers. I think that is why I have always have had an Ulthwe themed Eldar army. Honestly besides the Avatar of Khaine is your only real good HQ choice in the list. I have had smatterings of Seer council advice in a few blogs but I decided for part 3 of the art of war to just cover Farseers and Seer Councils as they are the real backbone of the army. They tie everything together and let all the units do their thing and do it well in support of each other.

The basic Farseer clocks in at 55 points. You get a Ghost Helm, Witch Blade, shuriken pistol and Rune Armor. You then buy your upgrades and psychic powers.

Upgrades

Singing Spear- I hardly every buy this option for my Seers unless I am running two of them. I then equip the Warlocks with the Seer with Singing Spears as well so I have a nice short ranged anti tank, thanks to the strength of 9 against vehicles, / support unit. This option should be considered carefully. As your Farseer only has one base attack you only get 2 attacks in close combat. This can be bad if you are taking on a big unit. Granted as long as you have a warlock with enhance and a doom on the unit you are fighting you will make every attack count and pretty much everything that hits will wound.

Runes of Warding- No Farseer should be without runes of warding. In fact unless you have no threat of facing psykers you should always have this upgrade. Although some forum guys say its a waste to give it both your Seers if you are running two . I ignore this as I want to make sure my opponents psykers are taking tests on 3d6 even if I loose a Farseer. This upgrade really is a thorn in the side of Librarian and Rune Priest heavy armies. Eldar are the best psykers in the game so make your opponents remember that.

Runes of Witnessing- You should always equip your Farseer with this upgrade. Even if you have given a Warlock Embolden in his retinue you are much less likely to fail any psychic tests when you are taking them on 3d6 and taking the lowest two.

Spirit Stones- This is also an upgrade I think of as required. Having the ability to use two psychic powers a turn is very important. It allows you to doom a unit or guide it and cast fortune on the Farseer and his retinue.

Eldar Jetbike- This option is best for a second Seer or if you are doing an all mech list. The mobility you are afforded is awesome. You can get the Farseer into range where his powers are most effective and needed and then move him into cover and out of sight. Things do get expensive very quickly though when you start handing out bikes. You must not be tempted to have the ultimate Seer Council of doom at the expense of the rest of your force. I keep the council small so it can easily get behind objects that block line of sight. You can't do that with 11 models in the squad.

Psychic powers

Fortune- This power is probably one of the best and most important powers to take for two reasons. First it increases the squads survivability by a lot. You can take large amounts of shooting and come out relatively unscathed. Second this really frustrates your opponent and he will either throw everything he has at the council or just leave it alone as he feels he cannot hurt it. Playing Eldar is basically like playing the odds. This power gives you much better odds.

Guide- Like Fortune this is a nice power to take if you are running a seer that is going to be near units on a permanent basis. I use this power quite a bit with my Pathfinder units. Re rolling misses gives them a much better chance of getting AP1 hits. Again you are getting the odds to play in your favor. You really do want to doom any unit that the guided unit is shooting at to really make sure it takes the maximum amount of wounds and saves.

Eldritch Storm- Even though this power is only strength 3 it is a large blast template it is very very useful and not often used. You get 2d6+3 armor penetration and it spins the vehicle in a random direction. It is also pinning. SO you can wreck a lot a havoc with units that are clumped together. I only really use this power though when I am using Eldrad. My other seers are pretty lean on powers for points purposes.

Mind War- This is one of my favorite powers. Being able to inflict very large number of wounds with one roll is pretty nice. Granted its is really only effective when you use it on models with low leadership. This is a nice power to take out all those pesky heavy weapon, special weapons and power weapons. Your opponents really loose heart when they loose their precious power fists and plasma guns. Combine this with fire from the retinue and you can really cut down squads to make sure you wipe them out in close combat. Try to avoid models with invulnerably saves unless its a high one and their leadership is like 8 or lower.

Doom- This is the power that really strikes fear into opponents. Any ability that gives you the ability to re-roll wounds is powerful. This power is so great because you cast it once and any failed wounds the affected squads takes until your next turn can be re rolled. This means massive casualties between shooting and 2 assault phases. Dooming a unit can really discourage its use. So besides the obvious effect of more wounds it is also a demoralizing power.

Warlock Retinue

My Warlock retinues are usually pretty big. At least 6. One Warlock should have Embolden so you can re-roll any failed leadership rolls, which includes psychic tests. One with Enhance so you hit most enemy units on a 3 and go way before them in combat with an initiative of 5. I like to also give 2 Warlocks Destructor so you can deal with large units before you charge them. Destructor is pretty devastating against anything with a 4+ or worse armor save.

If you are mounting your Farseer on a bike I limit my council to 4 Warlocks as the unit gets expensive really quick. I do 4 so I can give the Warlocks the power list I just mentioned.

The Farseer and his retinue is a very powerful unit. They can take out just about anything with very little problem. You can afford to be a little bold, but do not damn the torpedoes so to speak. You want this unit to stay alive so use it intelligently.

OK that’s another 2 cents about the Seer Council. I will have another battle report up Saturday. I got a test run in for my prototype Adepticon list versus one of our local Chaos Marine players. It was not pretty. Th list did very well though.

Until then........

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

Oh Captain My Captain: Eldar HQ's

I have always liked doing themes in my armies. I almost always build according to fluff even if its not tactically sound. Every army has a theme and a background. Personally I think that the choice of HQ sets the tone and theme of the army list. It really dictates what kind of units you are going to pick. The Eldar army has several HQ choices that are quite different. You have Farseers, Autarchs, Phoenix Lords and of course the Avatar. My first HQ choice is always a Farseer.

My Eldar are all painted and themed. They hail from Craftworld Ulthwe. As such I always use a Farseer, possibly two, and a large council of warlocks as well as lots of Guardians. Ulthwe is noted for its Seer Council and of course everybody's favorite special character Eldrad Ulthran.

The Farseer is really the capstone of an Eldar army themed or not. They are very formidable opponents especially with a retinue of warlocks. They bring to bear psychic powers that help your units and hinder the enemy. This is very different from the powers that most armies have. Most armies have all attack powers with a couple that may enhance or protect. Eldar powers, especially warlock powers, enhance and protect your units. The actual attack powers are very good. Mind War has fallen many troopers and enemy commanders. Eldritch storm is a nice one for lightly armored targets with the bonus of flipping vehicles around. Destructor, for the warlocks in the retinue, is a nice one for thinning out light infantry. Combine the psychic powers with the ability to cast multiple powers and make your opponents roll psychic tests on 3d6, thanks to Runes of Warding, and you have psychic dominance of the table. I prefer the blanket effect Runes of Warding has to psychic hoods, not to mention they cover the whole table. An entire unit with an invulnerable save and weapons that wound on a 2+ is also very nice against, well everybody. Most people do not expect your HQ to be a lethal tank killer either. Since Singing Spears and Witch Blades count as strength 9 versus vehicles it makes for a nice surprise when you pop them out near the tanks and let them tear them open.

I use Farseers in just about every list and I have a sizable retinue of warlocks no matter the points cost. This is mainly due to the fact they are the conductor of the symphony that is the Eldar army. They have lots of combat ability and buffing ability. If I don't use Eldrad I use a regular Farseer with Runes of witnessing and spirit stones. I always give him 3 powers. Fortune, Doom and Guide. If I know I am facing psykers then I also give him Runes of Warding. If I do use Eldrad a regular Farseer is secondary. I give him fortune and doom. I also like to put the second seer on a bike. This gets him closer and allows him to doom the units in the back field for your long range support units.

Sometimes I don't run two seers, but my first choice is always a Farseer as my primary HQ. If you have a lot of units being held in reserve an Autarch is a good choice if you want to get them in quick. You can stick him with different Aspect warrior squads with a nice mix of war gear from several of the Aspects. In most cases the Exarch powers with affect him. I use an Autarch with Swooping hawk wings and deep strike him with a unit of Hawks. This still allows use of his Master Strategist rule and its always nice to deep strike into the rear of a tank or artillery unit with a fusion gun.

I take the Avatar as a second choice when I need some heavy hitting. Since I like to use lots of Guardians, it is great to put him in between my two squads. Since he makes all units within 12 inches fearless I have a huge mass of troops that will not run and will continue to march forward until they are within catapult range. A squad of 15 or more Guardians laying into a squad or an individual is not pretty. My Guardians have fallen Trygons, Daemon Princes and even greater daemons from sheer weight of fire. It also Helps to have the Avatar there for any cleanup work.

I do not use Phoenix Lords a lot. I do have a themed infiltrator / deep striker list that uses Karandras with an Autarch as a secondary HQ and 30 striking scorpions, but other than that I do not run them that often. Although expensive they are worth every point. They make an Aspect Squad of the appropriate shrine very deadly. It would be nice if they did not take up and HQ slot and were an uber upgrade for the Aspect squad. With only 2 HQ slots its hard to pick one of them. This is why I tend to use them when I have a themed list. Karandras in the list above is one example. I use Maugan Ra with my Ulthwe army as a point of fluff. Since the Dark Reaper Aspect is the most populace on Ulthwe I like to use Dark Reapers a lot. Maugan Ra is always present in Apocalypse games.

So there you have it. The HQ choices and my two cents about them. I like themes. I have always believed the HQ slot to really set the theme of an army. Be it an Avatar and Phoenix lord lead army from Biel-Tan, to a Seer heavy army of Ulthwe. So next time we will have some battle reports from the campaign I am playing in at Evolution games that starts today and the army lists and possibly the results from the third round of the GW store tournament series that is this Saturday.

Until then....................

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