Dave's 1500 Eldar list (O-bon 2010)

[me_in_japan]

OK, so Rob (Badruck) asked me to post this list, presumably so he can have the painboyz dissect it at their leisure. This is the list which I played during the Obon tourney that Stu very kindly organised. I did not deliberately design it as a "haha, I shall win with this for sure!" kind of list. Obviously, I do try and build a list that I think will be OK, but I didnt really set out with the intent to be a cheesemonger, particularly. I did think it was a strong list (it was built based off advice from various others, particularly Prim and Voss, (thank ee) mixed in with a fair dollop of personal experience) but it was also kinda new thing for me as I havent run such a mech heavy list before. 2, occasionally 3, but to have 4 was a new thing. Anyway, here it is:

HQ - Eldrad UIthran. (sadly, Eldar have pretty much no other competitive HQ choices, these days...) (210)

Elite - 10 Striking Scorpions, Exarch, Scorpion's claw. (187) Wave Serpent, TL scatter lasers. (115)

Troops - 10 Storm Guardians, 2 Fusion guns, Warlock, Embolden, Singing Spear. (125) Wave Serpent, TL scatter lasers. (115)

3 Jetbikes, 1 Shuricannon u/g (76)
3 Jetbikes, 1 Shuricannon u/g (76)

5 Dire Avengers (60)

Fast Attack - none

Heavy Support - 3 War Walkers, each with 1 scatter laser and 1 starcannon (210)
1 Falcon, with starcannon and Holo-fields (175)
1 Fire Prism, with holo-fields (150)

Total: 1499 pts.

The plan was: start out as much like this as possible:


Eldrad starts in the Scorpion's Wave Serpent. Dire Avengers start in Falcon. Both Jetbike squads start in reserve.
Turn 1: Eldrad casts Guide on the War Walkers, allowing them to re-roll misses. Each walker shoots 6 shots per turn, and at BS 3 theyre gonna need the re-rolls. Eldrad then casts Fortune on his own Wave Serpent, allowing re-rolls of saving throws. If he can, he also casts Fortune on the War Walkers.
The Scorpion WaveSerpent (with Eldrad) zooms flat out 24" up the table towards an enemy infantry target, and now has a re-rollable 4+ cover save. If it gets assaulted, enemies need a 6+ to hit it. The rest of the army whales on the opposition with as many shots as they can, taking down the most dangerous looking stuff, but with particular attention to opening transports, as the Eldar have a lot of S6 guns but not a lot of really hurty stuff for taking down Land Raiders etc. This is a secondary role for the storm guardians/warlock. Mostly, theyre there just to be a Troops unit, but if any land raider gets too troublesome, then they at least give you the option of dealing with it.

In turn 2, Eldrad casts Doom on whichever poor unit of infantry happens to be near enough the Wave Serpent to be assaulted by the Scorpions. He also casts Fortune on the Scorpions (and himself, as he is part of the unit). His third power can either be kept for the shooting phase or used to Doom someone else.
The Scorpions disembark and move towards the nearest enemy. The Serpent either hangs around to block incoming fire, or moves to shoot the enemy tanks in the rear. The rest of the Eldar continue to whale on the opposition. Guardian Jetbikes, if they come on, either move into cover near an objective, or zoom 24" behind the enemy, with a view to shooting their tanks in the ass.

Jetbikes moving around the back to shoot the Leman Russ in the rear armour.


In the assault phase, the scorpions and Eldrad assault their target unit. Being doomed, and with the scorps having re-rollable saves, this will probably kibble the enemy.
the plan.
the aftermath. This was a particularly nasty one. The scorps caused 9 casualties with their shuriken pistols, and then a further 22 casualties in the assault itself - exactly enough to annhihilate the guard unit. The Commisar took 2 scorps with him, mind you...

Same thing against Ash's marines.
move in
assault

Turn 3: Eldrad re-fortunes the Scorpions, Dooms anyone else in the vicinity, and keeps his third power for the shooting phase. Jetbikes and Troop-containing tanks move onto objectives, while the rest of the army (yup) whales on the opposition. If possible, the scorps assault another unit, altho this is a bit optimistic.

Turn 4: repeat turn 3

Turn 5: repeat turn 4, but rather more carefully, and with all the focus being on clearing objectives of enemy units.


Anyway. I was going to write proper battle reports for each game, but I learned that getting decent pics of terrain into the BattleRep software is a right pain in the arse, so these few photos will have to do to explain the thinking behind my army.

I hope this wee report/info-on-dave's-eldar is useful for folks, and that folks will share their own thought on tactics n stuff and how their respective Event With No Name went.

Comments, anyone?

[Sergent Zhyr]

Doom and guild and fortune seem very good... I guess you are lucky nobody you played took blood angels or space wolves or any other marine librarians they may not be able to do as much cool stuff as Eldrad but they can shut him down.

I have never seen Eldrad thrown in to assaults like that, but if it works well done

[me_in_japan]

Using Eldrad in assaults was something I tried for the first time just last month. I was looking at his rules and thought "hey! wounds on a 2+ with no armour save allowed? Why not use him to bust a few heads?" I know he only has 1 attack, but his staff is NOT a 2 handed weapon, and he also has a shuriken pistol, so he can get 3 attacks on the charge. If he's also fortuned he has a re-rollable 3+ invulnerable save, which coupled with his T4, makes him quite hard to hurt.

And yes, I agree that enemy psykers would have made my life much more difficult. I dont know why no one round here uses them. Until they do, Eldrad and his Farseer friends are quite happy to have the psychic realm all to themselves

And for what it's worth, both Mephiston and (even worse) Njall Stormcaller whiz all over Eldrad's psychic ability. Those are two of the most ridiculously overpowered characters in the game. Eldrad is good at helping other units out, but by himself he's mostly harmless. Meph and Njall are one man killing machines, who are bitchin hard to kill, AND have very powerful psychic abilities.

Besides, according to the fluff, Eldrad is the most powerful psyker in the galaxy...

[Colonel Voss]

Two things from me for now:

1) pretty solid list. As people have pointed out, you'd be hurting if they had had psychers. I'd test the list against such an army just to get use to the limitations that it can put on the list.
2) I think this list fits your style and the style of the eldar very well. I'd have loved to watch it in action.

[Primarch]

Dave has used a similar list against Blood Angels with Mephiston. Basically Mephiston and Eldrad shut each other down. Its just that one of them has daemon prince stats and one doesnt. Mephiston did wound himself twice trying to get powers off and that ultimately caused him to die when a warwalker kicked him. He did dish out a lot of pain first though.

[me_in_japan]

I think against enemy psykers, this list would still perform, just not as well as it did. e.g. a squad of scorps on the charge will kill a lot, but a squad of scorps on the charge against a Doomed enemy will turn em into pate. The enemy basically has to ask himself if minimizing Eldrad's impact is worth paying the points for a psyker for, as as Stu has said, if a psyker does come along, Eldrad shuts him down just as well as he shuts down Eldrad.

I think the main points about the list I'd consider changing would be the Fire Prism, which tends to be a bit meh, and minor tweaks with the guardians. e.g. melta or flamer, what to do with the warlock, etc. My main contender for the Fire Prism slot would be my wraithlord, who is very solid, rocks in CC, can deal with vehicles well (in CC) and can be damn hard to shift. His only weakness compared to the Prism is mobility, and the fact that you have to choose either anti MEQ (starcannon) or anti GEQ (scatterlaser), while the Prism can do both quite happily.

Anyway, I'm happy with how the list performed. I've been a bit set in my ways when it comes to Eldar lists, which I think is a throwback to my old 2nd ed way of thinking (as pointed out some time ago by Voss...) I've played about half a dozen games with this kind of list now, and its been mostly good, but I'm kinda in the mood for a change, so I'm thinking about kinda going back to my aspect warrior heavy lists for a while. That, and my nurglies are crying out for some game-time. And my Cryx, not to mention my Arcanists...

note: against Primarch's BA, my list had no scorpions, and one less tank. Since the scorps are the choppy edge of the army, I reckon that this would have had a detrimental effect on the outcome of the game...

[Primarch]

Well, my Blood Angels are nearly all built now, just another vindicator and baal to go. Personally I think Scorps vs Angels would be an awesome game regardless of outcome, so we'll have to do that at some stage.

In the meantime Cryx and Arcanists!!! YES!

[Tau_Rebelz]

Nice list and I loved watching ya cause total havoc on the table. Would love to make either Tau or GK (or both) against that list and see how they do. I'm sure it could also be chance to battlefield test the list against different races to tune-up the list and cause Badruck more heartbreak.

Let me know if interested

[Admiral-Badruck]

I think you would be in good shape against almost any army I gave... I think my nurgle daemons would give you a bit more work than any of my other armies...

[me_in_japan]

dont be daft man, yon eldar army is full of S6 shots. What would give em serious gyp would be, as always, your orks. I'm happy to try against either or both of those armies, though.