Hello and welcome to a new series - Euans Excellent(?) Eldar Experiments - Episode one.
This series is intended to my thoughts on trying out new Eldar idea, be it lists, traits or units that I haven't tried before. Some of these may be obvious to more experienced Eldar players, but as someone still learning Eldar I hope some of these may be useful.
Experiment: Trait - Expert Crafters + Masterful Shots
When Salamander first came out at the start, a friend of mine ran them to very strong effect and it seemed then like they would be the most powerful trait. Time and an evolving metagame put heed to that,but the re-roll a single dice each time you shoot/fight for both hits and wounds seemed like something to keep an eye on, especially on Lascannons. At first I dismissed this, not because of its power level but because Alaitoc seems just better than this + any other trait.
My experience at B&G, and to a lesser extent at the club convinced me that more traditional Eldar lists are going to struggle with Marines, especially going second so a new style of list seemed worth a go, especially as I'm not a fan of Flyers in general as a game mechanic. Crafters is therefore the first of the new Psychic awakening traits I'm trying out - Masterfull Shots (ignore cover) ended up as a kinda why not for the second pick. Headstrong and Masters of Concealment both seemed like other potential picks. Denying Stealthy marines cover seems like a good pick in current metagame.
So the list:
Battalion detachment:
HQS: Farseer, Spirtseer, Warlock
Troops: 5 Dire Avengers with Bladestorm * 2, 5 Rangers
FA: 5 Swooping Hawks, Exarch with Hawk's Talon + Suppressing Fire *2
Heavy Support - 3 Reapers, Exarch with Rapid shot *2, Wraithlord with Missile Launcher + Scatter Laser
Dedicated Transports - Wave Serpents *2, one with Twin Missile Launcher and Shuriken Cannon, one with Shuriken Catapult and Twin Starcannon.
Spearhead Detachment
HQ - Wraithseer with Bright lance *2.
HS - Nightspinner *2, 3 squads of 3 support weapons, all with Vibro Cannons.
The theory:
Vibro cannons took the place of my normal 'big heavy guns' with Fire Prisms. Whilst I like Prisms, and they have some clear advantages over the Cannons the cannons are cheaper with more shots per point, albeit harder to move and can't do some of the LoS tricks the Prisms can use. With that in mind the 2 Nightspinners were there to try and flush any tricks units out of hiding places.
Wraiths, of any form are my favorite part of Eldar and the chance to try 3, two Seers and a Lord all with a heavy weapon of some sort was too good to pass up and in none ITC missions were kingslayer isn't an issue putting one as Warlord with a chance to snipe charters in the right match up seemed good and Seer is Shifting Vector is just a general good trait in the rest. Otherwise in ITC I like giving either the Warlock or Spirit seer the Shifting Vector trait for the re-roll and it takes away some focus from the Farseer. Speaking of,i'm always split on Guide v Executioner as a power on the Farseer but this list was planning to take Executioner given the re-rolls already available + Doom of course. With 3 big Wraiths to throw at people the Spiritseer was going to take Quicken/Smite and the Warlock Jinx and probably Ghostwalk. With a decent number of high damage weapons I wanted to ensure infantry wrapping things wasn't a problem - Hawks are a unit I really want to like and having them with -2 to charge via Suppressing fire seemed like they could be fun. Wave Serpents also helped with screening even if they wouldn't have much use as a transport (although they could hide some infantry if needed.) The plan was set!
Game 1:
Opponent - Stuarts Chaos Knights:
List (Roughly)
1 Chainsword/Gauntlet Knight
1 Double Gatling Knight
1 Double Melta Knight
Ahriman, DP, Tzaangor Shaman
2 min cultists squads, 1 Tzaangor Bomb.
This list was an odd one - I felt very confident if I went first, less so if I went second for one reason - Tzaangors. I had a lot of juicy targets to lock in place and didn't have enough punch in Melee to clear them quickly if they got there buffs on. Conversely if I went first the Knights would struggle to hide. We did a ITC mission which I'm not going to pretend mattered and ended search and destroy deployment with me going first.
I moved my Avengers and a Wraithseer up, with his Tzaangors in DS (not DMC) I wanted to move block the knights were possible and hopefully quicken a Wraithseer into a knight. Most of the Vibro cannons didn't need to move to pick up shots on the Gatling Knight and I could keep doom out of deny range of Ahriman. Physics phase went well with Doom/Jinx and Enliven (3d6 charge drop the lowest) going off on the Wraithseer.
The Vibro cannons then opening up on the Double Gatling knight and with doom/jinx it fell after 8 had shot, the rest of the army then opening up on the melee knight reducing it to 3 wounds, even with the Nightspinner rolling a combined total of 5 shots on 4d6. The Wraithseer managed to charge it to overkill it in melee.
In response, 4 mortal wounds Stuarts psychic phase was all he could manage after my denies stopped his buffs/debuffs , his shooting phase was negligible, killing a reaper and an Avenger with some wounds on a Wraithlord/Nightspinner - I had killed as many knights as he had killed models at this stage. A mass charge from his charters and knight into my Wraithseer followed, the knight brought it down to 3 when it interrupted and with a CP re-roll managed to skewered Ahirman on his spear before being killed.
With his charters exposed and my army virtually untouched Stewart conceded.
Verdict - Well I high rolled this one, very high. My psychic phase completely outdid the Thousands songs and the deny rolls were great too. Indeed the Vibro cannons seemed to have fixed 3 shots most of the time, rather than D3 - the Reapers (who don't even get a mention above) I think used 1 inbuilt reroll to hit and forced 8 saves on a knight of which only 1 I think was passed. Hard to take away much from this game other than A - the theory is at least solid, and B - Going first and rolling really well is good.
Next up was James Ork list. On paper James list seemed like a Orkish version of my list, 10 artillery pieces, a 5/5 mix of Traktor Kannons and Smash guns, two big meks, one with the relic gun, one with a Kustom Force field which sat in the middle of the artillery. A warboss/weirdboy/painboy rounded out the list. Slightly in front were 3 battlewagons loaded with boys and a Gorkanaut with some Gretchin hiding away.
The artillery was very scary, but I won the deploy first, go first role in an ITC mission. I was confident I could wipe out enough to put James on the back foot and win a shooting duel - therefore the aim was to keep the boy away from the Vibro cannons - time for the hawks to earn their pay!
Deployment was Hammer and Anvil, so I put the Vibro cannons mid/back of my deployment to try and stop any cheeky teleporting tricks, whilst getting them as far forward as possible. The Nightspinners went in each corner - the thought was so that they could move up forwards to shoot if needed but retrospectively I wonder if moving them up in front of the Vibros as another layer of screens might have been better. One squad of Hawk and both Wave Serpents with a Reaper/Avenger squad in each went up front with the Wraith behind to counter attack. One ranger squad and one Hawk squad went in reserve.
James put his units down around his Mekboy bubble, Battlewagons loaded with boys in front and gretching holding building - he didn't screen his artillery pieces with the grots, I don't think he thought I was likely to be aggressive. Thankfully he didn't seize.
I moved the both Reapers into cover and both Avenger squads moved up to bravely get in the way of the Wagons, with the Artillery unprotected I considered quickening the Hawks up but didn't feel confident they would be able to take overwatch + tagging artillery pieces so I ended up quickening a Wave Serpent up to be a nuisance. My army had another devastating round one of shooting, even with James army entirely within a 5++ range of the Mekboy, the Vibro cannons and reapers were in particular excellent with there inbuilt re-rolls, killing a battlewagon and 7 of the Artillery pieces and a couple of boys. The Nightspinners continued there poor form, the first rolling 2 for its shots, even with re-rolling a 1! My Wave Serpent tagged the Grots and Artillery piece.
James responded by Green Tiding his injured squad and moving his battlewagons upfield, running over a Hawk/Avenger squad. His shooting phase threatened to completely wiff (although I didn't realise how much damage his artillery could put out) until his Shokk Attack gun double shot a Nightspinner to death making space in my backlines. Sadly his Green tided squad make the charge against my Avengers and left the Exarch alive on one wound to trap them and a BattleWagon in combat.
With his artillery mostly gone and slightly leading on points my objective was clear - kill or stop the boys from getting into my lines. The Wraiths moved up to engage the boys trapping my Avenger and the rest of my army laid into the battlewagon/Boys inside killing them. The Wraiths, combined with smites nearly finished of the boys squad. Unable to get to my backlines and with his guns mostly destroyed James conceded.
Take away:
Both Reapers and Vibro cannons love the new trait. If you don't want to invest in Support Batteries then min squads of reapers are deadly - albeit the opportunity cost of buffing a squad and fire and fading it is notable - see game 3 v Nathan below for more.
Going first in a gun line duel is really good.
The list really needs screening with fly or counter attacking infantry, otherwise it can be shut down with a single large infantry unit - if I'd gone second in this game/different deployment then the boys could get in close and ruin most of my plan. Drukari battalion with 3 Venoms feel like an interesting idea to try.
Hawks still felt meh. They were good, but not game-changing enough to make them feel more useful than say another Wave Serpent which has use in the other scenarios, especially with the option of Rangers deep striking.
So as a recap so far - the Vibrocanons were great, and certainly had enough damage to be a build around, the question was - what else benefits strongly enough to take advantage. For the final experiment I changed up the list to:
Farseer/Spiritseer/Warlock
5 Avengers
20 Guardians
5 Rangers
5 Banshees
4 Shining Spears
WraithGuard with axes
9 Reapers in 3 man squads
Wave Serpent
WraithSeer
2 Night Spinners
2 Wraithlord with ML or Bright Lances.
I also switched out ignore cover for +1 to charge.
I won't bother recapping - you can watch the entire thing here as a Youtube battle report!
As for units which excelled - The reapers did a lot of damage quickly but died almost immediately back, the Spinners were solid without ever really being exceptional. The big Wraith models struggled to impact the game due to Nathan play but felt good when they had the chance to and I liked their ability to switch from gun platform to counter punch. The Spears were good as well, I'd been considering them in small 3 man squads with the +1 invule on Exarch power to protect them.
Final thoughts
The Excellent -
Vibro cannons - Going first against opponents that struggled to hide these were amazing. Will consider D-Cannons in future as well in high LOS given they have a similar rate of fire and ignore LOS, albeit at a much shorter range.
The very good -
Reapers, Wave Serpents with Starcannons.
I'm not sure if this is a new way, or a better way to play reapers than a large blob with Fire and Fade, they were certainly strong but the game v Nathan highlighted how quickly they die when they can't hide. Starcannons are a gun I initially disliked when moving to Eldar (it seemed to compare poorly to Plasma) but it's something I've come around to when re-rolls are available (like on CHE) and it gave Wave Serpents a lot more agency turns 2 onwards after hiding the reapers whilst being cheaper than most other heavy weapon options.
Solid Pass - Wraithlords/Seers, Night Spinners
So this is an interesting one. Both the big Wraith Units felt really important in the list, but easily replaceable - rather than use them to counter attack there arguably competing for a screening role v CHE which outperform them in a pure damage role, and they are much harder to hide from. The Spinners didn't really benefit enough from the trait to change their role from - solid and certainly not a bad inclusion with a nice bonus from the trait.
The Ok
Spiritseer/Warlock, Wave Serpents with Missile Launcher, Rangers.
These were all fine - the Warlock/Spirtseer would have got a higher grade if they weren't already good and the traits did nothing for them. The ML Wave Serpent was good, but the Starcannon felt better so gets a slight Downgrade. Rangers killed maybe 1 model but there DS ability to nab an objective were really useful and the troops weren't great overall...
The below average -
Dive Avengers, , Farseer.
So the troops were Meh - they did their role fine but Storm Guardians, possibly even with a single melta seem more appealing if I ever decide to buy the upgrade kit. The Farseer being below average seems really odd given how strong they are, but it mostly felt redundant. Not bad, but was essentially used for Smite/Executioner more often than Doom - possibly a unit to drop in this list? Surely not, but something to consider going forwards.
The Bad -
Hawks, Wraithblades
The Hawks just feel upstaged by other units. If I want a DS threat guardians are better, if I want a Screen, Wave Serpents are tougher, if I want a DS objective holder Rangers are cheaper. I really want to like them but it feels like the wrong meta, and army for them. Whilst most of the units that only got one game don't get a mention, Wraithblades get an honourable mention only because they feel so much weaker than the other Wraith units - you can get 2 Seers with Brightlancers for only a couple points more than a 5 man Blade unit with axes which feels more survivable and more damaging, albeit without infantry keyword and less attacks.
Final Verdict -
The 3 main questions I had going in were -
1. Is re-roll hit/wound better than Aloitic -1 to hit at over 12 inches?
2. Does it make Vibro cannons a better alternative to Fire Prisms?
3. Does it make Wraithlords/Seers viable?
1 is tough to answer, its inarguable its better on some units but for units were Aloitic is really good (planes for example) i’m not sure its better. Certainly a good trait, and the second customer trait may end up as a ‘season to taste’ going forwards, especially if Stealthy marines become less of a thing.
2 For damage output - unquestionably in a ideal scenario. The lack of reliance on CP and more freedom of targets make this an easy call, although the lack of Fly and movement is certainly considerations which could cause this to change if points change.
3. They really benefit from it, I’m not sure its worth taking a detachment of Wraithlords/Seers to make use of it for this reason alone, but if your already want to make a detachment then there a decent fit.