Exarch Question

[Blood Angel]

Ok, Striking Scorpions - Exarch with two swords or sword and pistol
Dire Avengers - Same question 3 different choices, which and why??

Thanks

[DWest]

Striking Scorpions- replace Pistol w/ Scorpion Claw if you have the points; it's an AP 2, Str x2, non-specialist, non-unwieldy weapon; or in plainer terms, it's a Power Fist that swings at I6. Chainsabres would seem to be the next best option, +1 A over the Biting Blade and Rending gives you options. Both of these options give you effectively a Shuriken Catapult for a ranged attack as well.

Dire Avengers- I would honestly say don't bother taking an Exarch for these guys. Avengers really should be hanging back and shooting things, and the Exarch neither offers better Ld nor significantly better shooting. The Exarch just isn't good enough to make the Diresword or Power wep work, and the Shimmershield isn't going to save the Avengers either if they get focused upon.

[Dave Mcturk]

not sure why anyone is even taking scopz or unavengers... when almost every other choice is better ! unavengers are just expensive gruniags.. and scorpz are nowhere near as good as spiderz... if you really must have close combat counter attackers then try our blood brothers in DE...

[Asuryan]

Striking Scorpions- replace Pistol w/ Scorpion Claw if you have the points; it's an AP 2, Str x2, non-specialist, non-unwieldy weapon; or in plainer terms, it's a Power Fist that swings at I6. Chainsabres would seem to be the next best option, +1 A over the Biting Blade and Rending gives you options. Both of these options give you effectively a Shuriken Catapult for a ranged attack as well.

Dire Avengers- I would honestly say don't bother taking an Exarch for these guys. Avengers really should be hanging back and shooting things, and the Exarch neither offers better Ld nor significantly better shooting. The Exarch just isn't good enough to make the Diresword or Power wep work, and the Shimmershield isn't going to save the Avengers either if they get focused upon.

Agree with everything, except that the shimmer shield is definitely worth it because it makes your DA's one of the best tar pit units in the game. though when i do take this upgrade i also take Eldrad and Asurmen which also increases their effectiveness. So for DA take the shimmer shield if you want or don't bother with and exarch.


not sure why anyone is even taking scopz or unavengers... when almost every other choice is better ! unavengers are just expensive gruniags.. and scorpz are nowhere near as good as spiderz... if you really must have close combat counter attackers then try our blood brothers in DE...

1) I'm assuming that "gruniags" are guardians, and while DA's are more expensive for 4 points a model you get +6 inches for your gun, and a better armor save. Honestly i would pay 4 points for one of those.

2) Spiders vs Scorpions is; like almost everything else in the Eldar army, apples to oranges. Spiders hit and run (literally) and scorpions are ambush, spiders do have better guns but scorpions are more resilient with stealth. spiders and more random which can push you over the edge and get you right were you need to be or leave you stranded for a turn and scorpions and slower but with infiltrate can still get where they need to be

[Cpt Codpiece]

scorpions are eldars only valid combat unit now.... even storm guardians are better than banshees LOL
ive not played with new dex yet, still trying to get time between life to squeeze one in :(

avengers camped with the shield seems ok to me, as well as run and gun, the extra 6" over guardians is quite a difference (1/3rd extra).

my scorpions since last dex have had chainsabres, they are mean :) i will be adding another exarch with claw for when i need the powerfist.

[Xenith]

5-6 man unit of scorps - leave with basic weaponry, maybe the biting blade to make sure you get enough wounds in. The 30pts for the claw at this level is better spent on more bodies. Chainblades are a good compromise. Id generally go without an exarch in a 5 man unit and use for disruption.

8-10man - take the claw to up the units damage output. More bodies means the opponent has to kill 9 dudes before the claw, as opposed to 4.

10 man units get the exarch, claw.

Avengers - Dont take the twin linked guns. Bit silly with BS5. Diresword is...interesting. While unlikely to do anything with 3a S3, he could be a massive deterrent from your opponent charging with a character, knowing that a dude with I6, 3A AP2, remove from play is lurking in the unit. (4A with counterattack...)

Shimmershield is alright if you dont have cover.

[Dave Mcturk]

scorpz used to be good when they could outflank and attack ... at least they had a threat bubble... now unless your opponent bumbles some fodder up to them ... they really arent making it into cc...

playing against mostly csm/sm/necron and de, guardians and unavengers are almost equally outranged... at least the guardians can have some heavy weapons and are 'objective' holders and force enemy action, dire unavengers are still possibly useful to get cheap serpents ?

[Blood Angel]

Ok, from a pure modeling and painting standpoint (I hate seeing these sitting on the sprue while I take 2 weeks to figure out how to make them. SS come with Exarch. Six figs in the box. Do I just toss that fig in the bits box for later and just build the 5 man SS squad vanilla?

Same Q with DA. I'm mainly a SM player, never done Eldar before, I'm used to every squad having a sergeant for some sort of leader. Is this not the case with Aspects? Can you just run them all like vanilla with no leader guy? Or is there someone between "regular grunt" (for whatever type of unit) and Exarch? I can build all the regular dudemans, but I don't know what to do with the exarch/leader fig. at least SS comes with 5 PLUS exarch, DA only has 5 period. I'm assuming you can equip them all as grunts if wanted and just go with 5 vanilla.

Comments? I have the model for the exarch for SS, Since I'm building and painting the squad together, it makes sense for me to just get him built even if I'm not using him, as he may come in valuable later, or as was pointed out, If I add more to make a larger squad or add certain HQ's.

[DarkLink]

You don't need the Exarchs. Some of them are worth it, some aren't, but they're optional either way.



playing against mostly csm/sm/necron and de, guardians and unavengers are almost equally outranged... at least the guardians can have some heavy weapons and are 'objective' holders and force enemy action, dire unavengers are still possibly useful to get cheap serpents ?

The extra 6" on your gun is a big deal. The bonus to your armor save is a big deal. And I don't know why you would assume that Guardians can hold objectives but Dire Avengers can't.

[Kryczek]

Avengers all the way for me, I took guardians in my last battle and they got stomped on.
If taking any aspect unit make them big or don't bother. 5-6 man units die quick.
Exarch with shimmer shield upgrade every time. The rest,and exarch powers, aren't really worth it.

Scorpions need to be 10, T3 does get them done in. Exarch should always get a claw.
Just over 200pts and worth it almost every time.

[Blood Angel]

Avengers all the way for me, I took guardians in my last battle and they got stomped on.
If taking any aspect unit make them big or don't bother. 5-6 man units die quick.
Exarch with shimmer shield upgrade every time. The rest,and exarch powers, aren't really worth it.

Scorpions need to be 10, T3 does get them done in. Exarch should always get a claw.
Just over 200pts and worth it almost every time.


Ok I get this, Another box of SS if I want to make a unit that will last beyond initial contact with an enemy. Take shimmershield. Is there a claw for the model or is it something you kit bash. Also, Dire Avengers. If I get another box and make a ten man squad, should I make "Leader Guy" I know they are technically Aspect warriors, but they are troops and I have always understood that they are the least specialized out of all the aspect warriors, so, is their leader/sergeant/leaderguy an exarch? Or can you run a squad of them (up to 10) without any leader (like veterans in black templars) They don't know the meaning of sergeant. just sword bretheren, Initiate/novice.

Please remember, I have never played Eldar so I just bought some units that appealed to me physically and looked fun to paint. (I had another post asking what to start with) So I have no idea how it works with these guys.

Striking Scorpions - there are 6 figs in the box. one appears to be an exarch. I'm not sure if the box has the options to make him just a regular striking scorpion or if he MUST be made an exarch. This is a finecast box and there are NO directions, just a bunch of parts.

Dire Avengers - Five man squad. Comes with five figures, one on the box is a leader with a flag on his back and there are four options for building him out. Can he just be made a regular member of the squad, or are there only model bits to make him a leader. If he is the squad leader, does that make him an exarch? IF he can only be built into a leader, what options out of the four options in the instructions would be best TO BUILD THE MODEL. It shows Exarch with diresword and shuiriken pistol, Exarch with power weapon and shimmershield and exarch with shuriken catapult or exarch with two shuriken catapults.

So, assuming you guys are saying shimmershield, then the only option is the power weapon (which looks like a glaive or other pole arm) and shimmershield.

OR, like has been mentioned, can you run the squad leaderless. I am seeing on the directions that it says he is an exarch, so I will assume exarchs are kind of like a sergeant, but the squad itself could run leaderless? And I get the up the numbers of the squads, I am going to max out any squads I have that need it, I am just sitting here with superglue and hoping not to have to mess up and chop them up later after I find that I glued them all together wrong (or at lease took the wrong options)

Thanks, Sorry to sound so noobish, but I really NEVER EVER thought I'd do Eldar and really never paid attention to how they were outfitted. I only knew one guy who played them and he moved away in the early nineties and I never played against him anyway. Honestly, I am doing them now because of the models. I think they have finally caught up with the way eldar SHOULS look. Even the finecast looks better to me than the same models in metal. Plus, like I could say no to a dreadknight or two.

I am trading a guy a bunch of extra SM stuff I have for his DA batalion box, so I will be back here next week asking about allies. but for now, I am just stuck on a couple of nooby questions.

Thanks,

Remember I am building them so Alot of what I am asking for is advice so I can get these models off their sprues and built so I can play with the painting. I've been Painting a gazillion Tyranids for forever and I need a break with that. (Plus, I know EXACTLY how I'm playing the nids, so there is nothing new and exciting about that right now. It's just a grind. I seriously have at least a hundred more termagaunts to paint. guh.

[DarkLink]

Ultimately, that's all up to you, you'll have to read the codex and decide.

But really, the Dire Avenger Exarch isn't really worth it, you don't want your DAs in assault anyways and the Exarch upgrades add up. The Striking Scorpion Exarch, however, gets a powerfist that strikes at Initiative, so he's probably worth it.

[Blood Angel]

Cool, thanks for all the advice. Believe it or not, this actually helps. Oh and I did go back to the codex and half my questions were answered there. I had read it before, but I didn't really realize exactly what questions to ask until I started gluing arms and weapons on. Once I asked the questions, I knew what I had to look up. It told me how everything CAN go together, now to decide what is NEEDED to go together (based on a good army list)

Thanks ALL !!!

[Dave Mcturk]

good luck... newdar are gr8 fun... and much as i used to love DA ... since guardians can choose to camp further back, can have a team warlock, are now bs4 ,can be popped into transport to objective steal, can have a variety of platforms, can come in a blob if you prefer, and DA are an obvious fire magnet against most opponents [lots of them ignore guardians]...
i think GD have the edge... im sure if you love the DA figures [i have 40 !] that most opponents will be happy if you proxy them as guardians for the sake of experimentation...

i still prefer the exarch with shimmershield ... which is even better now as it used to only count in combat ! ... and it looks so cool ! [always perplexed me why he had to lose his pistol to use it though, have eldar never heard of lanyards or holsters ?]

[cebalrai]

Ultimately, that's all up to you, you'll have to read the codex and decide.

But really, the Dire Avenger Exarch isn't really worth it, you don't want your DAs in assault anyways and the Exarch upgrades add up. The Striking Scorpion Exarch, however, gets a powerfist that strikes at Initiative, so he's probably worth it.


I take a different route. I assault with my Dire Avengers all the time for a couple reasons. One, once their target is weakened with shooting they can often finish the target in assault. And their Exarch can be effective in challenges. Two, getting into CC gives them shelter from shooting. Especially when you're playing Tau or IG you're often better in CC than trying to sweat out armor saves against a high volume of fire.

I miss Defend though :(

[Asuryan]

I take a different route. I assault with my Dire Avengers all the time for a couple reasons. One, once their target is weakened with shooting they can often finish the target in assault. And their Exarch can be effective in challenges. Two, getting into CC gives them shelter from shooting. Especially when you're playing Tau or IG you're often better in CC than trying to sweat out armor saves against a high volume of fire.

I miss Defend though :(

This 100% all the way, and another 100% for missing defend.

[Tyrendian]

with Dire Avengers I'd also say either don't use an Exarch at all or go with the Shimmershield for added durability, but that gets rather expensive... the box contains all the parts you could want for a squad, including all Exarch options and the parts to just make him a regular guy (rather useful for making 10 man squads one might say... wish the other aspects were plastic as well, especially the Spider exarch is complete nonsense right now, and very hard to convert to using a Spinneret... anyone got tips on that by the way?)
Scorps I don't use myself, but as has been said either small bare bones squads as distraction or full 10 man with tooled Exarch if you want to actually do damage.

[deinol]

I used grew stuff to add a cone to the end of my barrel, adding a line on each quarter. Looks like a spinarrette rifle to me. Was very easy to do.