How do you deal with this Eldar list?

[Saint_Anger]

Recently, I had a friendly 1500-pts match with a guy at my local club. He played Eldar and I played Chaos Space Marines. We got Seize Ground and deployed Spear Head. The result is draw as no one could not control any objectives, but, however, it liked he controlled all the game. He moved fast and attacked so aggressive, but I managed to gain some momentum.

Here was his list:

HQ 1
Farseer – Jetbike, Singing Spear, Spirit Stones, Rune of Warding, Rune of Witnessing, Doom, Fortune, Guide
6 Warlocks – Jetbikes, Enhance, 3 Singing Spears

HQ 2
Farseer – Rune of Warding, Rune of Witnessing, Spirit Stones, Fortune, Doom, Guide : He joined a squad of Dire Avengers below.

Troop 1
Exarch – Bladestorm
9 Dire Avengers
with Wave Serpent w Twin-linked Scatter Laser

Troop 2
Exarch – Bladestorm
9 Dire Avengers
with Wave Serpent w Twin-linked Scatter Laser

Elite 1
Exarch – Firepike
9 Fire Dragons
with Wave Serpent w Twin-linked Scatter Laser

Here was my list:

HQ 1
Daemon Prince – Wings, Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt of Change

Elite 1
10 Chaos Terminators – 2 Reaper Autocannons, Tzeentch Icon, 3 Combi-Meltas, One chainfist

Elite 2
Dreadnought – Twin-linked Lascannon, Missile Launcher

Troop 1
Aspiring Sorcerer – Doom Bolt
8 Thousand Sons

Troop 2
Aspiring Champion – Power Weapon
9 Chaos Space Marines – Plasmagun, Missile Launcher
With Rhino

Heavy Support 1
Chaos Defiler

Heavy Support 2
Chaos Vindicator

I got to admit that I had little experience with Eldar and my list tended toward Anti-MEq too much. And that Fortune + Wave Serpent’s Energy Field is just annoying me. In the end, only two chaos terminators and about 7 CSM were still on the table, while he got a Farseer & 5 Warlocks, 7-8 Fire Dragons and 3 Wave Serpents left. I did lose if we counted the victory points. What tactics do you guys use against this kind of Eldar list? And how could I amend my list to be more anti-Eldar?

[Wolfshade]

Trying to be anti-Eldar is not easily done, since the eldar lists can vary greatly. Most commonly they are all holed up in Falcons/Wave Serpents.
Eldar are quite fragile T3 but you have to get them out of their transports, which is less than straight forward.
When I play against eldar I always target their transports and make them foot slog, it serious hampers their maneuverability.
Your list itself doesn't look bad

[Drakkan Vael]

Shoot them slow then remember that they are generally very fragile. In you example: destroy the Firedragons first.
You might have had an easier time with concentrated Missile or Laser fire at their transport and saving the pie-plates from the defiler and vindicator for the seer-council on the jet-bikes. A vindicator is not the ideal choice against eldar.
Strength 10 does not account for much against the serpents shields. and as the eldar are only toughness 3 or 4 (with few exceptions) instant death is possible with autocannons or missile launchers. It has a limited range of 24" on top of that. Obliterators would have been better.

Your opponent had a mobile yet not very cc or range oriented force. Long range firepower and cc assault might have been your way out.

[Colonel Bindoff]

I've not played Eldar with my Chaos but I'd definitely worry about those fire dragons as a priority as the only thing to threaten your terminator slaughterhouse. Pop the Wave serpent, get your DP in to slaughter them in CC as he can assault from far enough away not to worry about their fusiony things, have your other guys do something about the Seer Council at range, then pick the rest apart.

[miweq]

I would drop the Vindicator for a lascannon Predator for destroying vehicles and considering swaping Drednought for something less random. Also think about spliting Termies to smaller units.

[SaganGree]

I have played Eldar for a very long time and I have faced similar lists and had a hard time...

When playing against Eldar its all about positioning... with that said, I would split your Terminators into 2 squads and drop the Icon. This will allow you to get more combi-meltas. Then I would deep-strike the terminators with the intention of getting back shots on the Eldar transport of your choice. Remember, at AV 10 you don't HAVE to get within 6" and the Bow Fields to not apply from the rear.

Second, change your Prince to have a Mark of Slaneesh and get Lash of Submission... this is critical as you can then move your opponents troops out of cover and your thousand suns can then actually get their points back.

With the points you saved from the changes above I would then add a TL-Lascannon to the defiler as it is better vs tanks than the battle cannon any day of the week. One hit is still one hit... and Eldar Wave Serpents don't care if its ord or not, so go with what will hit more often.

On that line of thought, the Vindicator has the same problem of Wave Serpents... it only has ONE gun that does anything... so if you can I would swap out the Vindi for an Auto/LAS Pred.

Lastly, I would drop Doom Bolt from the TSuns and give them the Bolt of change as having some AT gives them some much needed flexibility to hurt tanks.

[Alxmas]

Yeah the trick is neutralizing the Fire Dragon serpent ASAP. Once that is down your heavy infantry and vehicles can work at picking apart the large unit of warlocks. This can be very difficult with fortune up so make sure that if the fortune power is failed you pounce on them with everything you've got.

Also it is good to note that getting first turn and trying to shoot the warlocks is a good plan. They are much weaker if they don't have fortune which he can't cast until his turn. Also if he sees your plan and tries to reserve them to save them from your 1st turn shooting, psychic powers are done before the moment phase so the bikes wont be on the table so the Farseer won't be able to cast fortune the turn they arrive from reserve.

As was said earlier without any heavy support options the Eldar list is lacking in the ranged fire power department. Use this to your advantage.

[Saint_Anger]

Thanks guys. My idea, now so far, is around destroying those wave serpents ASAP. I shall drop vindicator and a little wargear I can spare to add two obliterators. I'll deep strike them and make them attack the rear side of wave serpent. Also on Dreadnought, I'll drop the lascannon, and let him have only missile launcher and heavy flamer. For the Farseer & Warlock Jetbikes squad, I'll use my 10-man termiantors against them, but this time, I'll put combi-flamer instead of combi-melta.