A powerful addition to the new Eldar Codex...

Been doing a bit of testing for the upcoming tournament in my local store and have found a VERY nice combo:
When you have them in squads of 3 Falcon grav-tanks can deep-strike without scattering, each holding a squad. Fire Dragons are an obvious choice, and Dark Reapers are good too (Slow and Purposeful means they can drop out and start shooting even though they have heavy weapons). Add a third squad of aspect warriors to the 3rd Falcon, then use the Aspect Shrine formation for them to up their ballistic skill... that is a LOT of firepower that's going to get at least one good round of shooting from exactly where it needs to be. I tend to add my Farseer to the mix to throw down guide on the tank squadron, meaning their high-end firepower is also super accurate.

It's very points intensive to pull off, and if you're unlucky with your reserve rolls then you're in trouble, but I still think it's possibly too powerful. What are the thoughts of the community?

It is fun to deep strike those Falcons, but honestly it's really ineffective in terms of points and sheer bulk of the models in a tournament setting. Yeah you can deep strike them within 4inches of each other, but a good player will LOS block or bubble wrap so you can't effectively deep strike that unit and you will leave yourself vulnerable to return fire. The best deep striking unit at the moment for the elves is an archon with blaster and web way portal combined with a squad of your choosing, aspect shrines fire dragons or D-Scythe wraith guard. Reapers have such amazing range, +2-3 DR with the exarch and star shot missiles upgrade is right at or just under 200 points and is really all you need for them to sit in a building or ruin and shoot from 48". Trust me they make their points back and then some, which combining them with a falcon is sort of a waste because of their range.

I guess a question, I read the formation special rules and I dont think unless you deploy normally 1st turn and then deploy units into them 1st turn im not sure you can get units into the falcons, which would mean they cant deepstrike with units inside as theyde have to be dedicated transports... right?

that aside, I love fielding falcons because as skimmers they can move 12" and then shoot 36/48 inches (i usually use b-lances)

for this reason I often find it more effective to fly em on late in the game preferably to smother a unit in S8 Ap2 and a lot of Lancing which can usually be fairly burtal.

If i was per say facing off against an army of imperial knights I would probably deep strike them into some of the empty space that usualy occurs. I definetly think this is brutal on knights. basically you show up, plop down behind one of them (preferably one that doesnt have interceptor USR) and then do a little ditty on their back armour. although its exspensive for me to field a three falcon sqaud all kitted up for fun they can usually earn their points back on a really tough high priority target the turn they come in.

I mapped out some options for this and they look like fun. Don't think I'll take them to an event though as they seem to be more of a handicap then a help.

I agree with Haten, Dark Reapers definitely don't need a transport to get into range and in fact leaving them in Reserves is counter-productive. They do just fine with some elevation. Multiple squads of 6 Fire Dragons (with an Exarch for the reroll) each are really the best candidates for a Falcon deep strike, if you want to invest in the formation. Disembark-run-shoot guarantees you'll be in range, and the potential for 18 melta shots at 3 different targets will make Guard and Space Marine players weep. Falcons are really best for killing MEQ and TEQ, so you'll want them to be mopping up after the Fire Dragons melt anything that looks like a vehicle. I typically capitalize on the AP 2. If the Fire Dragons survive (which is possible), you have a very large amount of ignores-AP shooting sitting around.

The only other thing I'd consider running is a single 5 + Diresword Exarch of Dire Avengers, just in case you need to screen the two squads of Fire Dragons from infantry and vehicles aren't popular enough in your meta to justify three entire squads of anti-armour shooting. There really aren't any other decent combinations for Falcons. None of the other candidates make sense to slot in (Dark Reapers can already shoot across the entire board if you sit them on a hill or in a building, Banshees and Scorpions have no shooting worth mentioning, and Wraithguard don't fit).

That being said, if you're going to be investing more than 300 points into a Reserves unit or two, there's pretty much no reason to not take an Autarch for the Reserves manipulation rolls (you could even sit him in the aforementioned Dark Reaper unit). Dropping a Farseer into the formation is probably over-kill as well: there's no real need to leave the Farseer in Reserves, since the formation doesn't scatter (and everyone in the formation will be shooting at BS 5 with the Aspect Shrine formation). When you're dumping that many points into a Reserves bomb already, you really want to minimize how many points are in it, as much as possible. Having a good portion of your list in Reserves can be a very painful handicap.

Honestly though, Falcon shooting really isn't that good anymore. It's not bad, but it's not nearly as good as it was pre-6th edition. Even with an Autarch to make sure that the formation arrives when you want it to, and it doesn't scatter... a huge amount of stuff has no-scatter or less-scatter deep strike these days. Out of Eldar units, only Fire Dragons and maybe Dire Avengers really want to be very close to the enemy without immediately charging them. So it'd be great against Imperial Knights, parking lots, and backfield objective campers, but that's about it, really.

And you have to consider that Falcon with Fire Dragon deep strike is competing with 5/6 cannon Wraithguard in a Wave Serpent, which is just about as good against Vehicles and much better against everything else for about the same cost and no need for Reserves rolls.

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Originally Posted by Arkhan Land

I guess a question, I read the formation special rules and I dont think unless you deploy normally 1st turn and then deploy units into them 1st turn im not sure you can get units into the falcons, which would mean they cant deepstrike with units inside as theyde have to be dedicated transports... right?

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If you buy a transport as a regular choice, not a dedicated transport, you can deploy anything you want (well, battle brothers) into them. On the table or in reserves. It's only when you buy something as a dedicated transport that there is a restriction.

I buy a dark Eldar raider and put harlequins in it all the time. (Although not as often now that we have our own transports.)

I used the fire dragon falcon bomb yesterday against necrons. If it wasn't for some terribad dice rolling (out of 6 shots hitting on 2's, I only hit twice for example) I put a serious dent in some undead necron dudes.

We even played on a table that was terrible for this kind of thing, essentially a blown up zone mortalis board. I think that the tactic is fun, but its rather pricey. I also put vectored engines on the falcons to make the deployment a lot more .. flexible.

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Originally Posted by Defenestratus

I used the fire dragon falcon bomb yesterday against necrons. If it wasn't for some terribad dice rolling (out of 6 shots hitting on 2's, I only hit twice for example) I put a serious dent in some undead necron dudes.

We even played on a table that was terrible for this kind of thing, essentially a blown up zone mortalis board. I think that the tactic is fun, but its rather pricey. I also put vectored engines on the falcons to make the deployment a lot more .. flexible.

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I played a bomb against an all Knight army. 3 x Falcons, 3 x 5 Dragons with Exarch, Farseer, Autarch. This trumps Knights as bad as Knights trump most everything else. Being able to pinpoint your landing, deploy the Dragons at the 'seam line' of the Knight shields then run into the unshielded zone and unload after the Knight player has to declare the shield facing is an epic level of silliness.

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Originally Posted by deinol

If you buy a transport as a regular choice, not a dedicated transport, you can deploy anything you want (well, battle brothers) into them. On the table or in reserves. It's only when you buy something as a dedicated transport that there is a restriction.

I buy a dark Eldar raider and put harlequins in it all the time. (Although not as often now that we have our own transports.)

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ha I guess cause falcons are my only non-ded transport I use in all the armies I have, ive never (like years and years and years) investigated that, i am truly a spacecase, ive always used a serpent as my dragon mobile. as much as I love the falcon as an emergency extraction transport, serpents always felt a lot lot safer