Eldar Army Woes

Okay so I'm looking at what I own am am wondering what to expand upon and what to sell to build a nice round force of Eldar.

Current Meta for the Eldar is Fire Dragons in a Serpent, some guardians or Dire Avengers (in or out of a Serpent) to hold objectives.  This is the Core of most Eldar armies these days and that works for me.

But What do I want to put in my HQ slots?

Currently I own Eldrad and another Farseer, with a crew of 6 Warlocks to accompany or spread out otherwise.

Do I want to get into buying different HQ models to possibly use?  An Autarch to ride along and support or even one of the named aspect warriors?

I don't know yet.  Another question that I'm pondering is what else do I need to fill out my army with? 

Anyways... below is a list by model and slot that I currently own
HQ:
Eldrad
Farseer
-6x Warlocks

Stolen from comicartfans.com

Troops:
10x DA w/ Exarch
16x Guardians w/ multiple heavy weapon platforms
9x rangers

Elites:
18 Striking Scorpions w/ 3 exarchs\
10 Fire Dragons w/ 1 exarch

Heavy:
3x Wraithlords
3x Warwalkers

Fast Attack:
4x Vipers

Transports:
3x Serpents

I know I need more troops, in assorted flavors.  But what else?  I like the idea of running more than 1 wraithlord and walking that mess across the table.  It is always effective.  3x Warwalkers with scatter lasers is a brutal and effective way to smash troops and light tanks.

Where do I expand and refine though?  I can't and do not want to run that many scorpions any more.  Fast attack choices good but the models I own are all Ebay throwbacks that need some serious work. 

I'm now on for fluff in this game so Lyanden or whatever themed army is out.  I think I need to get some Warp Spiders for entertainment and see how they work out.

Stolen from warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warp_Spiders

Space Elves...hmmm

Yes, The Eldar.

My first army, the one where I learned how to lose with grace and take each and every tiny gain and figure taken off the table as a lesson.  Because they are damn hard to play, especially against Space Wolves.  3/4 of the players I learned how to play against played puppies!  I don't know how many times Njal and his pals whooped up on me.

That is until I finally came into some realizations and learned to play the Eldar the right way.  Now it is a few years later and I have played another completely different style of army, in 2 flavors (old and new 'dex).  Grey Kniggits and Eldar cannot be played in the same fashion.

But something has been buggin me since my little tourney win a couple weeks ago.  it was the groans of people playing against me when they saw the 'Knights on the table.  They would say "Aww, not again!  I hate GK" or some such.  GK has become one of the bad armies to play.  One that no one wants to see.

So in an effort to gain more victims and school some folks, I will be digging out the Eldar for a bit.  Expanding that first timer's army of Ebay models and metal Wraith Lords, refining it to a winning strategy and bringing the destruction.

Veteran's Day

Thank You to all the vets out there who have served for our freedoms.

Thank you brothers, you are among the honored few.

1176 Tourney game 3 - Space Poopies

Yep...Space Wolves  err Puppies err...Poopies!!!

He didn't use Bjorn, but this is a pretty pic anyways.

Final game, he's got something like the following.  Its my old pal Mr. Dave who has been playing since they allowed dirt.  He's always fun to play against and has more armies than there are codexes.

So 1176 GK vs SW is the final game.


 His list resembles....
2 squads of 10 Grey Hunters with 2 melta and a plasma in a metalbawks (rhino)
Librarian
2 squads of heavy weapons 1 with plasma and the other with a mix of las & missiles
1 speeder
1 Dread with ass-can and CCW


I of course am running what I have been running.  See my first post from the other day.
Its a crowded map with ruined buildings in each quad and one in the center.  DoW deployment with (d3+2) 4 Objectives.  We place objectives asymetrically in the small space allowed for them on the 4x4 board.  I roll a 3 on the Grand Tactics and have the dreads and purifiers act as scoring.

This game was pure blood and smashing wreckage.  They always are against Dave.  He kicked me in the last tournament and every game I have against him  learn something.  He Holds everything off the edge for first turn and I deploy, putting only the GKSS on one objective in cover.  He has first turn and walks everything on.  Rhinos in the center with everything else to the left of those.  His heavy weapon squads go into the building on my left with libby assist.  I move on, dropping Mordrak into the rear with hopes of shutting down his libby and disrupting those heavy squads a bit.  Everything else comes on using the center building to block LOS and keep my lanes open as possible.  The far right objective I get my purifiers aimed at, the dreads are to push for the ones on my side. Interceptors jump to the center and hide for a turn.  Shooting is crap but Mordrak and co do a little damage.  On his turn he pushes the rhinos and speeder forward but turn nearly everything else to kill Mordrak.  Who miraculously survives and proceeds to smash into his ranks of heavy weapons and turn his Librarian into a smear on the carpet, and break his Dread like the plastic toy it is.  Sadly Mordrak does die at the end of turn 3 due to a lucky sergeant's strike.

Anyways while this is happening the rest of the battle is being waged.  The other half is getting ugly.  I open a Rhino with a dread and assault the innards with interceptors (after a fairly useless incinerator moment).  Other dread gets popped while the GKSS get reduced by las and missile fire.

I reduce his skimmer to smoking ruin and eventually it all comes down to my 3 purifiers (who are scoring) sitting on an objective trying to shoot his grey hunters off the other.  Which on the final turn they succeed in not doing.  Its a Tie, his 1 for my 1, we tie in battle points and tally scores.

In the end I will by 6 battle points.  Not much of a margin but a win is a win.  I'll take it.

1176 Tourney game 2 - Newcrons!

So carrying on from the previous post where I took apart a basic Tyranid army we move to game #2 with a Newcron army.

Now, understand that its the day after the new 'dex dropped and he is using the new rules.  I on the other hand am only barely tracking that the new rules exist.  So it was a very educational game for me.







He's running something resembling the below list.
-Monolith
-C'Tan Shard with 2 powers Grand Illusion and something else
-1x 5x warriors
-1x 10x warriors
-3x heavy destroyers
-Necron Lord with a destroyer body
-3x wraiths

The set up is 2 objectives with 12" in.  We both place objectives and drop troops on it.  We also set up almost all on the left side of the table.   So its a tight and fast fight.

I get first turn and drop Mordrak and co into the front of his 5x warriors which are screening his destroyers.  I push forward a bit and shoot a bunch.  Killing all but one warrior in the 5x (of course 2 come back), a couple of his destroyers and a wraith.  I also stun his Monolith but that's useless.  His turn, first things first he immobilizes his Monolith by parking it in terrain.  After that the monolith is largely useless as he can't face the door at approaching troops and the particle whip goes away next turn.  He does use it to vaporize some on my strike squad though.  This game is quick and brutal.  He picks away at my gunline of Dreads, Strike squad and purifiers with screening Rhino, while my Interceptors and Mordrak proceed to eat his army.

More so than anything Mordrak was a monster that he could not stop.  End of turn 2 his bubble wrap and 3 wounds were gone so every round of combat with him has me wincing.  Even with him going before me in combats at I2, he destroyed things.  The str 10 hammer with 4/5 attacks decimated his army.  Mordrak ate his wraiths, he ate the C'Tan Shard (well the remaining wound of it anyways), then he ate the warriors on his objective and finally wrecked the monolith. 

The gunline of dreads with psycannon support is nearly unbreakable if used intelligently.  There are a great many ways to possibly break it, as with anything.  Careful target priority choices are a necessity when playing a smaller model count army.

This game also illustrated the power of a GM to me.  Really hammered it in.  Mordrak's 4 wounds and capability to first turn deepstrike can divide or redirect the opponents whole army for a large number of turns.  If placed  carefully he can roll up a flank, destroying as he goes.  I can see attaching him to a bundle of Paladins and being pure unstoppable mess.  As cheesy as that is.    His ghost knight retinue may have a place in my army in the future but there are many other things I like to attach him to for that first turn delivery.

---I will have to add a pic of my version of Mordrak up later.  He's a poor conversion of an old metal Stern Model, but he works good on the table.---

I WIN! I WIN! and other inconsequential stuff.

So on Sunday I played in a LGS 1176pt (Standard force org) Tournament.  Not a huge one but most of the local villains, and a few new guys were there for the fun.  We had 2 sets of puppies, eldar, orks, my GK, nids, 2 sets of Newcrons, a marine player and something else I don't remember.


I ended up taking 1st.  Pretty cool.

Scenarios were pretty basic.  4x4 tables with 90 min time limits for fast and heavy fights.  Each had up to 4 Battle point optional bonus things like + 1 BP to kill enemy HQ, or have a unit in other deployment zone that vaired by mission.

Scenario 1 - table quarters annihilate, victory points 537+ difference for Massacre
Scenario 2 - 12" from edge, 2 obj
Scenario 3 - DoW, 4 d3+2 obj (we got 4 total)

My list was a chopped down version of my 'Ard Boyz List.
GM Mordrak w/ 5 termies (5 hammers, 1 psycannon)
5x GKSS (1 psycannon, 3 halb, 1 sword)
5x Purifiers (2 psycannon, 3 swords) in a rhino w/ searchlight
5x Interceptors (3 halb, 1 hammer, 1 incinerator)
2x TLAC Dread w/ psybolts

First game was against the 'Nid player.  Said that this was his first game in a year and he was a good guy.
He ran big maxed out blobs bugs.
20x termagaunts
20x hormagaunts
20x genestealer w/ broodlord
2x 15x harpy
1x trigon
1x hive tyrant w/gun


He puts out his two blobs of gaunts and his tyrant, I deploy holding only Mordrak for that backside punch.  he goes first and runs forward, shooting the tyrant for no good.  I proceed to drop Mordrak and the termies in the back, then shoot his tyrant and termagaunts off the table.  The hormagaunts get smashed by incinerator and Interceptors, but hold with like 9 left.  Turn 2 his trigon comes on in my backfield but is relatively useless as he can't get into combat with me.  His genestealers also come in this turn, and they proceed to eat Mordrak and friends, but loose the broodlord and a couple before finally walking away when the combat rolls back around to me.  I shoot the crap out of Trigon and finish the gaunts, but the big bug still has a wound left.  His turn rolls around again and the Trigon eats a dreadnaught, he pushes the genestealers forward.  I finish the trigon with the other dread and proceed to shoot his stealers off the table.  I regroup and kick off Warpquake to keep the harpies off me.  He tries anyways to drop them up close but mishaps get them far off into the corner where one drops off the table and the other ends up getting shot down as it comes in.

Game 1 - Lessons learned.....
#1 - Use freaking warpquake.  If I had used it consistently I would not have lost that dread, I Could have castled up and simply kept warp quake up and shot the crap out of him the whole time.  If the GKSS are not involved in a combat use quake.
#2 - Mordrak is a badass.

--more later--

Back at it

So after a several month hiatus I will be back at the 40K thing this weekend.  1176 tourney at my not so local game shop.  Should be fun.  I will endeavor to make a blog posting and analysis after.