40K Deep Thoughts: Eldar Units
Hi all,
You know I’ve been a bit down on the Eldar’s chances of late, but I refuse to throw in the towel on my beloved Craftworlders. Since codex IG arrived, I’ve been making a series of omnibus lists that have worked thier way through almost every unit in the codex, from the Avatar to Support Platforms.
Here is my thinking so far on the Craftworlders:
1)There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the armylist (outside of a handful of stinker units, but most codices have some), from a rules perspective.
2)The problem is costing, with the units being fairly overcosted across the board compared to more recent codices, with minor costing problems with infantry scaling up to crazy costs for Eldar vehicles.
3)The biggest issue I’m encountering is the cost of transport options. The vast majority of the killyness of the codex has short range so you have to get the troops to the bad guys in relative safety. The problem is the Eldar transports are very pricy for their abilities, compared to the newer races APCs, leaving you with a very brittle army of troops to do the damage once they arrive. Compare:
Rhino: 35 pts
Razorback: 40 pts
Drop pod: 35 pts
Chimera: 55 pts
Valkyrie: 100
Wave Serpent: 100pts
Falcon: 120 pts
There are of course weapon differences, but you get the idea. Combine this with expensive infantry and you can see the bigger issue. Outside of the ridiculously priced jetbike seer councils or mounted dragons dealing with vehicles is a real issue for the army. Brightlances are pricy and difficult to come by in a cost effective manner. Here is a unit price breakdown per Brightlance (you can roughly apply it to the others as well)
Cost per Brightlance:
Wave Serpent: 135 (Twin linked, BS3)
Guardian Defenders: 110 (BS3)
Viper Squadron: 75 (BS3)
Wraithlord: 130 (BS4)
War Walker Squadron: 45 (BS3)
Falcon: 145 (BS3)
I have had success of late with farseer-supported brightlance war walker squadrons, (shooting hull down from behind vehicles or cover), and a few other standouts in 5th edition:
-Dark Reaper-Tempest Exarchs with crack/fast shots are nasty killers who ignore cover.
-Small guardian jetbike squads with destructor/singing spear warlocks are cheap multipurpose scoring units (maybe the most survavable of the troops choices)
-War walker squadrons are the most cost efficent method of adding heavy weapons to the army and support with farseers.
-Surprisingly, Guardian Storms are now a great choice for aggressive burninating, supported by destructor warlocks. They are both efficient, and cheap enough to risk using in the overpriced transports.
-Eldrad is almost manadatory at this point. Facing an uphill struggle versus the newer codices, his redeployment power can ensure you don’t get caught out of position and maximize on a foe’s deployment mistakes. Eldrad can also anchor a small section of your line with the effectiveness of 2 farseers, freeing you to try out interesting things with your second HQ slot.
~I’m having mixed results as I adapt to the new IG-dominated world but I feel that the Eldar may be down but not out. What are you guys seeing and using?
