Aurtach

[HarlekissofDeath]

Hey question about Aurtachs; anyone have advice on them? How to use them, how you have them spec'd, and is Prince Yriel any good? Also for HQ choices, what is better to bring (aurtach, farseer, avatar, etc...)?

Thanks

[Herald of Nurgle]

Autarchs... the tactical commander of the Eldar army. Useful obviously in a force built around the Reserve game for the option to add +1 to your roll when you want to, and (should there eventually be a tactical rating again) good for making sure you get what mission you want.

The Autarch seems to be the most versatile HQ in the game in my experience, as befits the uber Aspect Warrior guy. If you want a CC guy, you can outfit with Mandiblasters, Scorp Chainsword/Power Weapon, and the normal pistol - meaning everything up to a Hive Tyrant or Broodlord will be hit on a 3+ in combat and wounded on 4+ with CS or 5+ with PW which isn't that bad for Eldar especially when you're swinging in with 7 attacks on the charge - but if you want Fire Support you can take the good old Reaper Launcher and perhaps still a PW and Banshee mask (unsure) to defend your unit (2+ to hit with a 5+ reroll is mneh, but still good for the price)

Autarchs I think benefit from some of the Exarch Powers so you can tailor him to fit your hammer units.

Personally I run my Autarchs like this:
Autarch with Eldar Jetbike, Power Weapon, and Reaper Launcher.
Autarch with Eldar Jetbike, Lance, and Power Weapon.
While these give me few attacks, I like to be a Jack of Trades with my Eldar. Being in a slow moving local metagame, however, means that i'm probably not using optimal lists though however. But this does go well with my army, as each Autarch is with a large Guardian Jetbike squad (12 models) including an Enhance Warlock (so that's a WS 8 Autarch hitting at Initiative 8 :D )

Yriel is a good choice for the Iyanden 'fluff brigade' force, but if you like a really CC orientated guy then you'll enjoy him. Remember that hes THE Suicide character for your list - even with a 3+ Inv, i've found that every time he ends the game on a single wound he will die, giving up a KP or potentially losing you a contested objective if you're that unlucky. Don't be afraid to run him into those hordes which are attacking you, and try to use his big 'Blast' attack in second round of combat when he'll either be isolated from his squad or at a small number left (this can get you out of sticky messes lmao).

The Avatar is brilliant against Marine armies, especially the still popular He'stan list. Nothing flame based (regardless of what other people say) will hurt him, so the only way you can get him down is if you CC him to death. Luckily the thousands of Guardians you will probably surround him with should stop this from happening while they're in his Fearless bubble of doom, while the Avatar can pick off enemies at your leisure.

Seer Council of DoooOOOoooOOOm I have no experience in.

Farseer is the utility psyker. Always bring one for Witnessing, and if you have points stick him with Fortune in an Enhanced/Concealed unit.

[RealGenius]

Personally I find the problem with Autarchs is their lack of a power fist equivalent. If you want to kill any of the other serious HQ models out there you need a power weapon and an S3 power weapon just isn't going to cut it (no pun intended) when something is T5 or T6. I think he's best on a bike with PW and Fusion gun. The S8 shooting attack before you charge in gives you some opportunity to at least put a wound on most things you'll have trouble with.

I've also run a cheap Autarch with ASC and Chainsword. Not really spectacular, but you can get away for under 80 points so that's an option for a cheap HQ and still be better than your average Aspect Warrior.

Lately I've been running more of a Reserve oriented army and I run a lone Autarch HQ with fusion gun, Warp Jump Generator and power weapon with a squad of Warp Spiders. He can Deep Strike if I want (Exarch with Surprise Assault) and the squad has a fair amount of high S shooting and power weapon attacks in assault. They're fun, but not super killy.

If you are looking for something more killy in assault I recommend a Phoenix Lord over an Autarch. You pay a lot more points, but characters like Karandras with his silly number of attacks and Fuegan with his Feel No Pain are pretty good. Throwing a Farseer with Fortune with them makes them all the better since you can put the Invulnerable saves on the Farseer (only Phoenix Lord Asurmen has an Invulnerable save).

Yriel is pretty good; his advantage being that he can wound really high T enemies and ignore their armor saves. He can carve up Monstrous Creatures pretty good, but can easily get bogged down by massed, lesser foes (like Orks). I've run him a few times and never been really impressed with his abilities, but didn't feel like he sucked either.

Bike Council is pretty good, but suffers from a lack of power weapons and a relatively low number of attacks for their cost. Charging them into Terminators usually provides less than spectacular results. Remember that although they wound on a 2+, people get normal armor saves against Witchblades. And anything worth killing with your expensive "hammer" unit usually has a decent armor save. They are very durable, so they can hand in a protracted fight. Bike Council is also a lot more work and money to model up, but you'll get good use of those bike psychers.

I think the best HQ kit is Eldrad plus Avatar; they work really well together and require a lot of fire to take down if run properly.

But it really depends what you do with the rest of your army. The Farseer is really a support HQ and can make parts of your army a lot better, but if you are running a list that is going to reserve everything, then he's not going to give you much benefit as an Autarch (since the Farseer can't use powers the turn he comes on to the board).

[KenStorm989]

Hey if you want a really good Tactica on Anything Eldar check out this forum, This is the MiniWarGaming forums, there Eldar Admin is excellent, he has 4 Eldar Tactica post stickied at the top of the Eldar Forum. In Tactica part which is the HQ post he covers this well, He does an Excellent job.

His User Name is Azeebo

http://www.miniwargaming.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=59

[scadugenga]

I've tried autarchs several different ways, and I vastly prefer the jetbike autarch with laser lance, mandiblasters, and reaper launcher.

2 MEQ killing shots a turn at up to 48", and 5 Str 6 power weapon attacks on the charge with the lance--nestled in a beefy shining spears unit, and that's a squad killer. Sure, it's a lot of points, but hit&run means you don't get bogged down in combat. Charge for PW attacks. Hit & run to set up the next charge. You just need to make sure you have a guardian jetbike squad handy to "leapfrog" with, so you have a mobile screen to prevent the revenge shooting/assault after you HnR.

Scorpion chainsword on an autarch is an exercise in futility. I've tried it more than once, and no matter the number of hits I can generate, they all seem to be saved out of proportion to what the law of averages say they "should" be saved.

If you foot, or wing/generator equip your autarch, make sure to give him the power sword and mandiblasters. With his already high I, I don't see the need for the banshee mask.

[davel]

using yariel

I have to say that yariel is the character who plays like a eldar army should play like. Very destructive but fragile. If you have a problem with that then you may have picked the wrong army.

the spear of twilight

1st the eldar list lacks many things that can remove tough well armored things from close combat. e.g. hammer units.
the things that can are w lords avatars and ss exarchs these tend to be slow as only one with transport has no fleet. yariel can be placed in a transport with a squad.

the spear is great against tanks squads with out power fists, will do lots of damage to monstrous creatures however with no strength, no insta kill and noway of messing up invulnerable saves despite many pictures showing him squaring up to other special characters ( battle missions I'm looking at you here) those clashes will end badly for him.

2nd it can be thrown. It is good against tanks though i don't think you can claim AP 1. It is worth remembering that due to uber high bs yariel can reroll 1 hitting on a 6 ( this has saved me on 1 occasion)

3rd yariel with uber high I hits first. how ever with low toughness and (disagreeing with first post) 4+ invulnerable he does tend to get targeted by power fist and instant killed. This means his doomed rule is not a problem as in my experience he makes it through the battle unscathed or is instant killed.
you should consider yariel to be an expendable asset in all but anilate his loss should not affect the path to victory as long as he destroys or badly damages something the rest of your force will struggle with.

the occularis

1st this has got better in 5th. the pile in move brings more victims around. Wound allocation meaning it could take out power fist sergeants. you only get one shot, all of this helps to make it count.

2nd it kills marine easily but will flatten your men too. even wraith guard go down half of the time to this. So you should be planning to use it in the movement phase ( or before if you have a doom sheer) separate from squad run fleet.

a leader
on the plus side high ld certainly helps with pinning from damaged transports. On the negative he has no ld special rules so he can run off the board with a squad never to be seen again. remember there are more and more ld reducing abilities in 5th.

also (standard thing when writing about yariel) has the reserve bonus

adaptability

something unique to yariel as a special character is that you can adapt him giving you some degree of flexibility. This is due to him benefitting from exarch powers and warlock powers.

exarch powers he benefits from
defend
tank hunter
technically move through cover with scorpions (unlikely due to use of infiltrate)
war shout
acrobat ( double whammy here as he improve ld to make it happen)
technically intercept with hawks (unlikely due to use of jump packs)
technically hit and run with s (unlikely due to use of jump packs and or bikes)

some of the above you can plan for. others may present themselves as opportunities

war lock powers
embolden, enhance

also there are some squads which give some interesting sinergy
harlequins with shadow seer ( though opponent will/ should avoid this unit)

my personal favorite wraith guard( with warlock above, enhance) makes him fearless plus majority toughness of 6 means he is unlikely to fall to shooting.

Dave l

[fuzzbuket]

Iprefer the

fusiongun/chainsowrd/ mandiblaster flavour (esesialy against guard/marines)

deepstrike shoot tank in rear amour

hide

repeat

kill dev/mortar/ artillery squad

repeat!

you should get more than his points back and kill some pie plate too:D

[CouchViking]

I second Fuzz, keep your Autarch simple and give them a specified role. Keep your hq under 100pts with a unit that compliments it's abilities. I run a similar setup to Fuzz's Autarch with my storm guardians and it works beautifully.

[Judge]

You'll want to have at least one Farseer in your army for Runes of Warding unless you know for certain that your enemy in non-psychic. Depending on your enemy, you might well want a second Farseer (Mind War is lethal to low Leadership big bugs and Ork leaders).

Yriel and an Avatar have the same cost. Yriel strikes harder against units with Toughness, the Avatar harder against vehicles. If you use Yriel, embed him in a large, durable squad, probably in a transport. If you place your Farseer in the same squad, you can use Fortune for rerolls on his invulnerable save (this is the only way he'll be durable).

Autarchs in general are useful if you're using reserves, but Eldar, ironically, have less effective jump troops than other factions. In most cases, you're better off spending your HQ slots elsewhere. Necrons are a possible exception to this, being vulnerable to fusion weapons and power weapons, having no psychic powers and being resistant to psychic powers, limiting use of Farseers, but even then Fortune is a hard power to pass up.