1850 Iyanden Ghost Army List

[Garradh]

Hi I'm a new Eldar player, doing the "try before you buy" thing since . . . well, gonna try before I buy.

HQ: Yriel
HQ: Farseer w/Runes of Warding, Fortune, Guide; 5 Warlocks including Spiritseer, Embolden, Enhance; Wave Serpent with TL Shurikannon, Shurikannon, Spirit Stones, Star Engines

Troops: 10 Wraithguards, Spiritseer with Conceal
Troops: 10 Wraithguards, Spiritseer with Conceal
Troops: 3 Guardian Jetbikes

Heavy Support: Wraithlord with Wraithblade and Missile Launcher
Heavy Support: Wraithlord with Wraithblade and Missile Launcher
Heavy Support: War Walker Squadron x3, All with two Scatter Lasers

My plan is to use Yriel and the Farseer/Warlock group to swamp up deathstars while the Wraithguards and Wraithlords work as a two-pronged attack. War Walkers will either be close to Farseer for Guide, or against armies where I need it (Space Wolves) they will Outflank. Jetbikes for objective-grabbing late in the game.

Thoughts/Improvements?

[BrokenWing]

Don't forget to fortune your Wraithguard. People will tell you not to play Wraithguard, but they're great, and alot of fun. Might not be super competitive but still fun to play.

[Garradh]

I was wondering if I should take Enhance on my Wraithguard Spiritseers. The Wraithguard seem to be in melee quite a bit.

[BrokenWing]

Really? I never had that problem with my Wraithguard when I fielded Iyanden under the old codex. It should be pretty easy for you to shoot the living hell out of whatever is going to charge you. Also if you drop Conceal, you will find yourself being shot alot and wishing you hadn't...especially since you may need to move forward every turn.

[BrokenWing]

Oh one thing I would suggest is some Bright Lances, because while Wraithguard are great at just murdering vehicles at close range, you need something for long range.

[Garradh]

I figured missile launchers would be good enough for transport-popping, and having some pinning is never bad. Unless I'm fighting Land Raiders I'm not too worried about needing super duper tank poppers.

[BrokenWing]

That's fair.

[Cheese]

Hi I'm a new Eldar player, doing the "try before you buy" thing since . . . well, gonna try before I buy.

HQ: Yriel
HQ: Farseer w/Runes of Warding, Fortune, Guide; 5 Warlocks including Spiritseer, Embolden, Enhance; Wave Serpent with TL Shurikannon, Shurikannon, Spirit Stones, Star Engines
The Farseer needs Spirit Stones. It's the very thing that makes Farseers what they are. I wouldn't bother with the Spiritseer seeing as your Farseer does not suffer from Wraithsight... Drop the non-TL Shuriken Cannon, you should always be moving 12" and this will stop you from firing the 2nd Shuriken Cannon, where as if it were a Shuriken Catapult you could still fire.

Troops: 10 Wraithguards, Spiritseer with Conceal
Troops: 10 Wraithguards, Spiritseer with Conceal
Troops: 3 Guardian Jetbikes
I'd leave the Jetbikes in reserves if you weren't going to do that already.

Heavy Support: Wraithlord with Wraithblade and Missile Launcher
It's usually best to do one thing with your Wraithlord, either CC or shooting. I advice giving one of them a Bright Lance and EML, your really do need it. Even if they're not fielding LR it's likely you'll face some AV 13 and such so it would be helpful.
Heavy Support: Wraithlord with Wraithblade and Missile Launcher
Heavy Support: War Walker Squadron x3, All with two Scatter Lasers

My plan is to use Yriel and the Farseer/Warlock group to swamp up deathstars while the Wraithguards and Wraithlords work as a two-pronged attack. War Walkers will either be close to Farseer for Guide, or against armies where I need it (Space Wolves) they will Outflank. Jetbikes for objective-grabbing late in the game.

Thoughts/Improvements?

The list looks like it would be fun, and Wraithguard can be pretty solid, but you are lacking in AT, a lot. I'd probably even try dropping the Warlocks in favour of a unit of 5 Fire Dragons and put them in that Wave Serpant instead.

BrokenWing, I don't mean to be that guy, but please stop double/triple posting, it's actually against the site rules.

[Garradh]

I would really have to argue that the one thing I'm NOT lacking in is AT, if I'm suffering from anything it's anti-infantry firepower. Wraithguard kill tanks at 12" regardless of their AV, Wraithlords have S10 melee backed up by missile launchers, and the warlocks, farseer and Yriel are all S9 in melee against vehicles.

I will drop the Shurikannon upgrade on the WS, it was an afterthought "where do I put 10 points" kind of thing. If I do that, then ditch the spiritseer in the warlock squad (just a redundancy addition) and trade one warlock for a jetbike, I will be able to afford Spirit Stones for my Farseer.

[scadugenga]

The only trouble I really foresee you having with this army is going up against a DE force.

Whereas every other army is going to have a hard time with all the T6 and T8 you have going on---the poisoned everything that the DE have are going to cause you serious issues.

I would also recommend detailing that both WL have twin flamers. (They're free--why not?) and I'd drop at least one of the wraithblades for something a bit more long ranged and powerful--like a BL. You have, with the exception of the wraithguard & Yriel, no ap2 ranged weaponry. That means Terms and other 2+ save folks are going to be able to move about relatively freely--because you don't have any torrent-of-fire to make them eventually start rolling 1's.

All your firepower really seems so be in the 12" range--which is going to be a problem for you with the more mobile shoot & scoot type armies. (DE, BA, SW ML Spam).

I would also definitely recommend making sure you always have a cover save for your WLs--otherwise you'll find yourself gettting krak missiles to the face repeatedly--and those hurt.

[davel]

OK this list istrue to the fluff but not easy to win with.

As a rule I'd say try to save points to fill out troops jet bikes are good but I think you need more

my advise loose guide far seer will be moving towards enemy flat out leaving war walkers behind. He is joined to a close combat squad and his transport is twin linked any way. All other units are twin linked or BS 4.

Destructor is a good pick for warlocks as you are going to be out numbered.

Conceal well for one unit a good strat will be in placing objectives. in both obj based missions you can place an objective in a place where wraith guard can get to and in cover. To maximise the tough nut to shift place then in reserve when they come on they run on to the objective the longer they stay off the less time foe has to get rid of. Enhance is a good power for this squad.

Star engines not essential

how about vypers instead of war walkers. Their speed gives them a great contest ability. at the moment you have 2 things to rapidly contest and jet bikes most things can deal with. Keep them seperate Put them in reserve and they can motor on flat outand yariel can help with the reseve roll

davel

[Garradh]

Good, this is all getting me thinking.

Termies . . . the plan has always been to throw the 4++ Warlock/Yriel/Farseer combo at them and watch them bounce off of invulnerable saves. Softening them up a bit first isn't a bad idea though. My original idea was to use BLs on the Wraithlords but then switched to MLs to free up some points. My concern with 2+ is that my army is already weak on ToF, so horde and fast/light armies are going to be a problem.

My circle plays SWs, GKs, DE and Tyranids, along with Lysandermarines and occasionally Orks. How important is 2+ against Nids and DE? I realize my army is going to be weak against DE poisoned attacks but I really don't see any simple way around that without just buying different models to replace the Wraithguard/lords.

[thecactusman17]

War walkers are a great shooting platform fir this list. One thing you might do is replace the scatter lasers with shuriken cannons. I get almost as many shots at the same strength and save a ton of points that can be directed to your scoring units and transports.

[Garradh]

Made a few modifications to strike greater fear into the hearts of heavy infantry:

HQ: Yriel
HQ: Farseer w/Runes of Warding, Fortune, Guide; 3 Warlocks, one with Enhance; Wave Serpent with TL Shurikannon, Spirit Stones, Star Engines

Troops: 10 Wraithguards, Spiritseer with Conceal
Troops: 10 Wraithguards, Spiritseer with Conceal
Troops: 3 Guardian Jetbikes

Heavy Support: Wraithlord with Bright Lance
Heavy Support: Wraithlord with Bright Lance
Heavy Support: War Walker Squadron x3, All with two Starcannons

[Cheese]

Star Cannons aren't particularly great. The Wraithguard should be doing that job anyway, so there's no real point to all the Star Cannons on your Walkers. Just swap them back to Scatter Lasers and your Farseer NEEDS Spirit Stones. A Farseer without Spirit Stones is just a Failseer.

[dvs1]

I think I have a suggestion for your army that's both effective and fluffy. Turn that 3 man jet bike squad into a small mounted seer council. the spirit host list I run is almost identical to yours with the addition a a mid sized mounted seer council. Throw some spears on them and they can do a decent job tank hunting by JSJ'ing. Throw some destructor and now you have some minor horde control. Maybe drop the serpent to mount the council? In my experience one serpent dies really really fast.

[Cheese]

^I agree with this. Drop the Serpant and maybe the 3 Jetbikes if you have to and stick your Farseer and Warlocks on Jetbikes, give them Destructors, give the Farseer Spirit Stones, Doom and Fortune and they will kill a lot while not dieing in the process.

[thecactusman17]

Easiest way you can free up points to mount your farseer/warlocks, honest to goodness, is to take your walkers and change them down to dual Shuriken Cannons. You will still put out 18 S6 AP5 shots a turn. More than enough to wound nearly every marine on a 2+ and instant death Guard and Eldar. Also scares the living crap out of AV10.

[Cheese]

Another good point, although if he was mounting his Seer Council on bikes he'd have no need for the Serpant, so he should still drop that and maybe he would have enough points to boost the numbers a little.

[Garradh]

If I bike my Seer Council then I don't have a Yriel, which is the bite of the Seer Council in the first place. If I wasn't playing Yriel than I would just take a Farseer for psychic defense and pour the saved points into more bodies, maybe try to squeeze in a third Wraithguard squad.

I am still kicking the dog around about WW Shurikannons, the idea is volume of fire and I do like the 36". Then again how long am I going to be able to really capitalize on that extra 12"? It seems like a good idea and I'll playtest it out. Right now my opponents are either Marines so it doesn't matter what AP is and the extra shot and +range is good, or Tyranids/Orks so Scatter Laser defeats their armor anyway. For a tourney I believe I should go with Shurikannons. I've dropped the idea of playing Starcannons on them, though I'm going to do it one game just to watch my GK buddy cry.

I got to play one game with the original list versus a Draigo GK list and fought them to an effective draw even though I wasn't nearly aggressive enough with my Wraithguard (I hid them in cover tried to bait the GKs into coming up for two turns, derp). The Seer Council/Yriel did an outstanding job and Runes of Warding actually got the GK player to give up on psychic rolls after only two turns. The GK player separated Draigo and a Librarian to charge the council while the Paladin squad went after my objective, council managed to kill them both in two player turns and then fleet down the Paladins to keep them tied up the rest of the game. The War Walkers didn't manage to accomplish anything. They made friends with two Psyfleman dreads on the second turn of the game. All in all the list worked how I expected it to work and I had fun playing it.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll reply again when I have another game under my belt!

[Anggul]

You could always just have a big council on foot, that way they'll be in the right place to guide the walkers and fortune the wraiths, while also providing mass troop-clearing by way of destructor for when the wraithguard are going to get bogged down. That way you could also keep Yriel to help out when things get hairy close-up.

On the other hand, the jetbikes are great for flying over and wasting tons of tanks.

[Garradh]

You could always just have a big council on foot, that way they'll be in the right place to guide the walkers and fortune the wraiths, while also providing mass troop-clearing by way of destructor for when the wraithguard are going to get bogged down. That way you could also keep Yriel to help out when things get hairy close-up.

On the other hand, the jetbikes are great for flying over and wasting tons of tanks.

I considered that - after all they are fleet so they can get around a battlefield pretty well behind a wall of Wraithguard. The extra points could help me buy some tank-killing firepower too.

[thecactusman17]

you wouldn't need to have them behind a wall of anything, in fact you might choose to do the opposite. Warlocks have a 4+ invul save regardless, so they aren't going to often be in a position to benefit from staying back in cover. Even the bikes would have to turbo in order to improve that.

[Garradh]

Here's what I'm thinking . . .

Dropping:
Warlock with No Upgrades
3x War Walkers
the Wave Serpent

Picking Up:
Spirit Stones for my Farseer (still not sold on this, especially now that I'm losing the ToF from the War Walkers)
3x Vypers with Shuriken Cannons
Falcon with Shuriken Cannon, Holo-Fields and Spirit Stones

Seems like I am losing a lot of shooting for a bit more survivability. Seems I cannot convince myself this is wise, and the Falcon setup lacks direction other than "throw rounds down-range".