Eldar Troop Basic Tactica

[SteveBerenyi]

Dire Avengers: easily the best troop choice for shooting as they have a nice stat line and have the capability to get an exarch with the Bladestorm and Defend abilities. Great All Around Troop Choice. Throw em in a Wave Serpent if you feel the need, but they really do not need it.
Bladestorm = Torrent of fire if done correctly
Defend = Less casualties to you.


Guardian Defenders: The greatest thing about Defenders is that they are cheap. Really cheap. And have the capability to do massive ammouts of damage when used correctly.
Best uses:
Massed Squads 10 Guardians with a heavy weapon.
This is one of my favorite tactics, Picture this 10 Guardians with a warlock and the Conceal power and singing spear and a scatter laser. This gives all your guardians a
5+ invulnerable save (no other race can claim this)
18 12” Shots S 4 AP 5
4 36” S6 AP 6 Shots
1 12” shot that wounds on +2 and kills on a 6
And you can move and shoot it all due to the guardian grav pad.
All for a whopping 138 points (about the cost of a nicely equipped dred)
And this is less than a 12th of a 1750 pt force.
Take 4 of these and you get:
5+ Invulnerable save
72 shuricat shots
16 scatter laser shots
4 Singing Spear Shots
While moving 6” forward at a time.
Total Cost of these four units: 552 points. There is no other unit in
the game that will allow you to do this.


Storm Guardians: Your premiere Cheapo Assualters These guys always need a Wave
Serpent Transport always pack 11 into a unit and add a warlock with the Enhance power. The +1 to WS and Init is great!
I’d only take one of these at most as your Elite choices can do much better in CC.

I’d Arm them as such that you make the most of them. They are CC after all.

Wave Serpent (I’d Take Scater Lasers on this puppy)
Warlock (Enhance) Witchblade
11 Storm Guardians (2x Flamer) Why take the flamer? If you are
using these guys against armor you have more problems than a Melta Gun can solve.
This setup will give you the following:
22 CC attacks at Str 3
1 CC attack that wounds on 2+ and kills on a 6
And then the wave serpent is able to go troop hunting with it’s
scatter lasers.


Wraithguard:
They may be listed under Elite, but if you read 10 and a Warlock makes them a Troop choice.
1.I would not recommend them except for a Heavyily Armor heavy armies or Large point Games (3000+ Points)
2.If you are playing that much of a points value game you need to add a Farseer (fortune / Doom) to the squad.
3.when used like this they are almost unstoppable.
4.ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS take a Warlock (spirit seer/conceal)
a.This makes them have a 5+ Invulnerable
b.They can operate w/o fear of shutdown

Rangers
Always upgrade rangers to pathfinders. IT IS WELL WORTH IT.
1.Infiltrate. Great on tables that are not open.
2.Super steath. If you are not in cover you are not using them correctly.
3.Scouts. You can reduce that 18” to 12” before the game begins.
4.5+ = AP1
If you don’t keep them in cover you wasted them. It is as simple as that.

Take only in units of 5 or you may not get them all in cover. (you can take 2 units of 5 for the same price.)
Guardian Jetbikes
Never take them, the points will never earn themselves back unless you attach an autarch on jetbike, a farseer on jetbike and a warlock or 2 on jetbikes.
In larger games they can very easily earn their points back, but in smaller games they are more liability than anything else.

[hairyyahoo]

nice one steve. didn't realise that weapon platforms make the guns assult weapons. you've given me a new respect for guardians din't think you can assult out of a wave serpent though so the 30" charge for the storm guardians might not be pos.

have you been sleeping with the dex under your pillow by any chance?

[SteveBerenyi]

OOPS my bad good catch on that one hairy.

[Lord Commander Erus]

Looking good so far. Missing some aspects and armor/heavy support. but coming along nicely. I'd like to see this go from basic troop into a full blow tactica. You'd be the man to do it Steve.

[SteveBerenyi]

working on it. i'll have basic tactics for each squad first then how to combine the squads for best effect.

[experiment 626]

well, i know you don't like fusion guns for storm guardians, but again, it really fills a big hole in the squad; anti-dread/death gribbly tool! usefull for either causing an easy'ish wound or two to large nasties which will likely mug you if you don't mug them first! (remember, it's *always* better to charge than be charged! even if you're totally out-classed, you will still come out ahead simply by denying your opponent that +1A!)

never rely on just the warlock's singing spear to do the job... (when you need it to work, it won't - that's the general rule of the 'this works or i die horribly' principle!)

also, i know it never gets much thought, but if you're throwing your storm guardians into a serpent, give a second glance towards destructor... anything that can hit multiple models, (usually 4-6+ at worst!) and has an ap4 is dead usefull and it's likely never to be expected either! (i've been caught out by this power, and my guardsmen didn't like it one bit...)
also, the storm guardians main purpose is support... a wave serpent isn't really a good buy for them as it's expensive. (save it for your dragons/avengers/wraithguard) 'fleet' is all you need. (again, banshees don't really like wave serpents because they can't assault out of them...) the storm guardians provid either a sacrifical unit to hold up an enemy and force your opponent into a much more disjointed attack, or else they tip the balance and allow you to sweep into your opponent when they've carelessly left their units bunched up!


now, the jetbike question. they really do have a solid use; escorts! if you're taking shining spears, then you really should take a unit of guardian jetbikes to act as a meatshield for them... (at the very least, those forced 'target priority' tests will become a real pain!) also, a squad of 3 isn't *that* big an investment, and it gives you another shuriken cannon which can always be usefull... (anything S6 can be handy - sometimes you never know when a T3 character is going to wander, or else be open to being picked out...)
the jetbikes also offer a very nice little annoyance unit as they can get upto 24"/turn. thus, you have a small, easy to hide unit which can contest/claim objectives litterly at will in a single turn! your opponent will hate you after you pop these guys out of hiding and turn a sure win into a bitter draw with your last turn heroics!

cheers!

[SteveBerenyi]

never though of that with the jetbikes thanks stitch.

As for the fusions in a SG squad, still not liking the idea. Eldar are all about specialization and if you have SG's up against a tank. welll that is just bad game play in my mind.

[experiment 626]

Originally Posted by SteveBerenyi

never though of that with the jetbikes thanks stitch.

As for the fusions in a SG squad, still not liking the idea. Eldar are all about specialization and if you have SG's up against a tank. welll that is just bad game play in my mind.

keep in mind though that drop pod dreadnoughts have become rather popular! chaos dreads and now defilers can also make some speedy gains which could take you by surprise... (defilers especially now having a 13"-18" charge range!)
the fusion guns make-up for the lack of haywire grenades which used to be a no-brainer upgrade and ment you never really had to worry much about getting muged by walkers.

besides, it's always fun to see the look on the smurf player's face when your 'lowly' storm guardians suddenly slag his/her precious land raider!


basically, there are uses for pretty much everything in the eldar codex... it all depends on your army selection and which other units you're taking. if you've got alot of anti-tank, then the fusion guns are likely over-kill... if you've got alot of medium strength guns however, then the guardian fusion guns act as a nasty little bit of insurance!

cheers!

[lord marcus]

nice tactics, go eldar, please don't kick my butt!

[Lord Commander Erus]

Yeah.. I think fusion guns CAN help. But unless you have spare pts., etc.. There are better ways to spend it. Which, with stuff like the defenders platforms, the wraithguard, etc.. You should be more than well equipped with anti-armor.

[Wakim]

Now i`m puzzled.. dire avengers or guardian defenders???

[Mart007]

i personally think it is a waste of points putting SG into a serpant. A Serpant costs a lot of points for a transport making the SG expensive. I play Ulthwe so I have Defnders for fluff reasons but Stormblading Dires are the way forward.

You should be loading wave Serpants with Aspects IMO.

I agree with jetbikes for escorting puposes, they work very well with weak expensive Vypers.

[experiment 626]

Originally Posted by wakim

Now i`m puzzled.. dire avengers or guardian defenders???

avengers for agressive, offensive play.

guardian defenders for holding onto and contesting your deployment zone... (they also work well protecting things like your unit of dark reapers as an added bonus!)

cheers!

[Wakim]

Reapers backed by silly guardians almost insulting, but effective, i gues

Thanks for the info.

[experiment 626]

Originally Posted by wakim

Reapers backed by silly guardians almost insulting, but effective, i gues

Thanks for the info.

perhaps, but you'll love those guardians once they for example, see off that large brood of gaunts who've tried to mug your reapers while the boyz in black have been happily gunning down that nasty flyrant?!!

cheers!