New Eldar, a second look after some games under my belt...

[Lost Vyper]

I don´t know what i was thinking, when i was b******g about trivial stuff when the codex came out. My games (three latest ones, now knowing the rules better ) have been FREAKING AWESOME!!!

** SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN´T WATCHED MY TWO LAST BATREPS **

First game of these three was against Space Wolves and i cleared the table with ease...some argue, that my opponent didn´t have the best list, but hey, we all make these choices ourselves. In this match, i got a glimpse, how great the Crimson Hunter really is. If there is no AA on the table, it´s game over. New Bladestorm is superior to the last one and Phoenix Lords (and even Banshees) and psychic powers work.
And i know, i ramble always about the Walkers, but c´mon...it´s hard to make a list WITHOUT them nowadays...

Second one was a tag-team game with Eldar/IG vs. Grey Knights/Space Wolves. In this game i tried Illic and Fire Dragons infiltrate trick and gave opponent the first blood and lost the Warlord on turn one too. But due to a cinematic rise in the games second half, my Wraithknight and Crimson Hunter saved the game to a draw. Again, nothing to complain about the list, the swiftness and firepower of the Lost Vyper fleet is just brutal...

Third one was against the Blood Angels and i STILL tried the Illic+FD trick and it worked as bad as in the last game...BUT...he had 2 x Hyperios Whirlwinds + Quad-Gun and my Crimson Hunter STILL caused havoc all around (fe. dropping Storm Raven and killing the Dred inside and wounding Mephiston ). It was the first time i tabled our FLGC skilled veteran with his first army.

So, the second look give me the reassurance, that we really have a codex to play with for many years to come. Warlord traits and the "filled to the rim" Heavy choices are the only complaints now. I just love that codex...just got me 6 Warp Spiders for more shenanigans ...:)

Next game is on wednesday (i hope) and i´m going to try to make a list, filled with Elites and options i haven´t used yet (Dark Reapers, Harlequins etc.). Maybe play with out Walkers (NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! :D), just to see, is there the certain units that work, or is everything kosher...Hemlock fighter against Marines? Well, let´s not be THAT crazy...

[Cap'nSmurfs]

Great to hear it's going well, and thanks for posting this. It's easy to look at books when they come out and think, well, that doesn't look so sharp... it's another to see them work in the fires of battle.

What's your loadout for the Crimson Hunter? My brother is convinced that the Starcannons are the way to go, I'm much less sure.

[Lost Vyper]

I take Exarch and that´s about it. If facing Necrons Nightvision is a must. I usually face a load of vehicles, so i need the punching power of the basic weaponry, plus those weapons kill also everything alive :)

[Cap'nSmurfs]

Right, that's my thinking. It's for hunting flyers, tanks, and then anything else.

[Lost Vyper]

Yep, that´s job. Altough it cleared nicely Grey Knight terminators :)

[the9ravan]

Did the Blood Angel player have a good amount of sanguinary priests? I am curious if the change to Shuriken weapons help at all to midigate some of the difficulty of kill FnP marines.

[Lost Vyper]

When FnP went from 4+ to 5+, it stopped working IMHO (and i like it :) ), plus BS4 on (Eldar) everything boosted the killing rate enormously! He had a priest if i remember correctly. Check the BATREP to find out more :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj-SzlxamBA

[G00dySmiley]

Did the Blood Angel player have a good amount of sanguinary priests? I am curious if the change to Shuriken weapons help at all to midigate some of the difficulty of kill FnP marines.

5+ fnp only saves 1/3 of wounds, granted as an eldar player I like my rending shuri weapons, but a save of 3+ then 5+ fnp turned to a 5+ fnp is still a win in my book.

for the op will say the Illic trick can be nice but some tourney's won't allow it (the one i played this weekend did not) so once more and more bat repa are out with tournety's not allowing (though i could not get a rules refrence to why) it may be frowned upon or just disallowed by opponents, though I am failry sure it will be faq'd soon (i hope anyway).

there was the question also about star cnanons... yes they are nice btu unless i was sporting 3 crimson hunters i would go standard loadout. more shots at ap 2 is good for anti termninator and heavy armor infantry, but with eldar you pay alot of points to do one things really well. you have a av10 with 4 str 8 ap2 shots 2 with lance. for 160 points.. if that were the end of the sotry nobody would take a flyer that cna be glances to death by bolters and most standard troop guns; that is however not what you pay for, you pay to be abel to reroll pens against flyers making a crimson hunter one of if not the best anti flyer in the game. if you want to turn terminators into paste then get wraithguard with ap2 flamers, if you need fast attack get vipers, 3 vipers with staer cannons are 165 and you get more ap2 shots, spend and extra 30 points on cannons and you have 6 str 6 ap2 shots at 36" and if you get within 24" an aditional 9 shots str 6 ap5 with minirend

[Defenestratus]

how great the Crimson Hunter really is. If there is no AA on the table

Otherwise its as worthless as a football bat.

[Mr.Pickelz]

The same can be said of the Ork Fliers, the Dakkajet is utterly amazing when there is nothing to shoot at it, as it comes in.

[Dave Mcturk]

i dream about kin-war against a 3x3 walker list... but seriously unless you dont show lists b4 game the walker threat is still nothing gr8 on the flanks and if they are on table, although they are a vast improvement on last dex, they are still vulnerable ... not many ppl going to take twin EML.. so their range is still poor ... but they are gr8 v noobs...

think lots of players out there must play on billiard tables... apply terrain rules... walkers suck..
my ork army would take them out in one turn [yes all 9] and my eldar army in 2 or if they were incredibly lucky 3...

can only imagine how horribly they die against necron or tau...

[Roadkill Zombie]

I dance my War Walkers in and out of line of sight blocking terrain all game long due to being able to run after I shoot. Unless you have line of sight ignoring weapons you won't be taking anyone's War Walkers out so easily.

Simply give them Star Engines, hide them behind LOS blocking terrain, walk them forward, shoot the enemy with them, run back behind the LOS blocking terrain, getting a minimum of a 4 inch run. But with Fleet, it will probably be much more than that.

At any rate, don't think a smart Eldar player is going to let you just rickroll his War Walkers. That isn't going to happen.

[JMichael]

I agree that the new Eldar, when played right, are just fantastic!
I'm now taking 3-4 10man Dire Avenger squads instead of 5man.
The Serpent Shield shooting is just ridiculous when combined with the Scatter Laser's Laser Lock rule.
Crimson Hunter FTW to be sure!
WraithKnight is also awesome as well as War Walkers (their 5++ has saved them more than I can count. Add Fortune and BOOYA!)
Night Spinner is also a beast.
Str 7 against most units, but Str 8 vs Init 3 or less and vehicles. That's a Large Blast Str 8 Barrage shot! And twin linked!

[Finnegan]

New Eldar rocks. Period.

I've played only one battle using new Codex so far (too much work now :/) but it was awesome.
2K points against Ultramarines in our local campaign - Eldar of Tis'Aenai Craftworld clashed with Third Company of Ultramarines in Starport Sector of ruined city of Volkengard.

When the battle was over my friend said that he felt like his power armours were made of paper :)

-Bladestorm is awesome - Jetbikes and Dire Avengers turned his tacticals to shreds and moved on, taking partial or total cover, closing on new targets or pulling back to safety.
-Wave Serpents are great - extremely tough and mobile with deadly firepower. They destroyed Quad Gun in first turn and no Rhino, Dreadnought or scout was save behind cover of Aegis Battleline.
-Wraithguards took crazy amount of fire (their WS was destroyed in midfield) but they pressed on and finally last of them smashed into remnants of tac squad, pounding it to the ground.
-Warp Spider Exarch with Spinneret Rifle is scary. Squad of six Spiders appeared out of Warp, killed four Terminators and jumped back, out of their efficient assault range.
-Dark Reapers with Shrouding (from Spiritseer) and Fortune (from Farseer) were untouchable. They withstand three turns of shooting from Thunderfire Cannon and scouts without casualties.

Forge World units (two Hornets and Void Dragon) also done well but it was codex units that won the day.

[Lost Vyper]

Otherwise its as worthless as a football bat.

Well, as was said, two Hyperios Whirlwinds and a Quad-Gun didn´t drop it from the sky, while all have the Interceptor/Skyfire -rule...but the AV10 is terrible still...

[Demonus]

Then thats some piss poor rolling or terrific save making. Mine was wrecked by bolt guns double firing at it once...

[G00dySmiley]

Well, as was said, two Hyperios Whirlwinds and a Quad-Gun didn´t drop it from the sky, while all have the Interceptor/Skyfire -rule...but the AV10 is terrible still...

just because a statistically improbably outcome occurs once does not mean you should rely on it to occur again.

[Defenestratus]

The same can be said of the Ork Fliers, the Dakkajet is utterly amazing when there is nothing to shoot at it, as it comes in.

And how many points is the dakkajet?

What does it compete with in the fast attack slot?

[z3r05k1ll]

have you tried vaul's wrath vibro cannons yet? I know the heavies are crowded but an aegis/quad with a vauls behind it and warlock for conceal gets you 3 psuedo las cannons and a quad gun with 13 wounds at T7 (for shooting) and a 2+ cover save at 225 points. Add in a farseer and you'll almost never miss with prescience/guide. Might even pull perfect timing from divination and have 3 S9 AP2 ignores cover shots coming out of that unit.