40K Editorial: I Brought a Bucket
Yeah that’s right. A bucket.
Reecius from Frontline Gaming here with my bucket.
Why did you bring a bucket, Reecius? I can hear you asking.
Why? To catch all the tears of the cry babies out there who make it sound like Eldar suck, that’s why! Otherwise they’d form into a river and all the internet Eldar players would have to get in their Boo-Hoo Canoes and sail away.
It both amuses and astounds me how much negativity there is online about this book! Haha, oh interwebz, you are such a weird place.
Here are some of the crazy arguments against Eldar I have read so far with counters based on ACTUALLY PLAYING THE BOOK, not just theory and/or trying to see the units in the dex the way they were as opposed to how they function now.
Guide got worse because Eldar BS went up to 4…….
Uh, what? First of all, math says twin linked BS4 is in actuality better than BS3, just gonna lead off with that. Second of all, what? Hahaha, talk about seeing the glass half empty, somehow folks are actually turning positives into negatives in their minds. That’s just silly.
Wraithknights suck because they can’t kill Paladins……
Why would you expect a 240pt model to take on a 1,000pt unit and have anything happen but die? And why in the world would you charge Paladins in the first place? Wriathknights are faster…..and have longer range….combat should only be happening if the Eldar player chooses for it to. Come on folks, I don’t think you need a tactics article to tell you that you use a tool correctly or not at all. Remember the old maxim: chop the shooty and shoot the choppy.
I actually saw someone seriously saying Wraithknights should be toughness 10 and/or immune to poison…..hahahaha! What? If you can’t keep a Tough 8, 6 Wound Jump Monstrous Creature around I honestly don’t know what to say. So far in half a dozen test games, mine has never gone below 3 wounds and has routinely doubled his points value in kills. I quite literally will take him in every Eldar list, he is fantastic as a gap filler. Also, Prescience is your best friend with this guy as it really increases his offense in both shooting and assault.
Wave Serpents don’t have assault ramps….
Boo. Hoo. Wave Serpents are borderline broken good. You can make a very strong argument that they are the best transport in the game, currently. If you can’t get a unit where you need it with a Wave Serpent then you are either incredibly unlucky or need to brush up on general tactics. The fault lies not with the vehicle, I can assure you of that.
If you’re bummed Banshees or Scorps can’t assault out of the transport, look at their stats and wargear for more of a hint as to what function they serve. Banshees don’t have grenades. That to me says they aren’t meant for all out assault. What they are is a top notch counter assault unit. Cheap, fast, hard hitting. Plus, they are very mobile with Acrobatics. They come in to preexisting combats or into units that have just hit a screening unit and clean up. Scorps are your go out and punch style unit, with infiltrate and move through cover, plus grenades and better defense. Neither is designed with a transport vehicle in mind. One is very fast on foot (average speed of around 13″ while shooting over open ground) and the other infiltrates. And remember, Prescience lets you reroll to hit rolls in assault, too. It really increases the damage output of both of these units and you can plan on having it every time if you want to build your list tactics around it.
Serpents are there to get SHOOTY units in to position. The Serpent Shield is straight up amazing. It not only protects the vehicle but greatly reduces the odds that the unit inside is affected by a Stun or Shaken result.
Combine that with the Wave Serpent’s hitting power (Go Go Wave Shot!) and speed and yeah, stop complaining about it. The tanks is fantastic. The only closed top vehicles with the assault rule are much, much more expensive and are actually not much more potent in offense or survivable in defense, either.
Runes of Warding got nerfed….
Already covered this one previously. It was a terrible piece of wargear that made the game less fun and was a crutch. Good riddance.
No assurance of Fortune or Doom….
Nope, they not a certainty anymore. But now we have a certainty of multiple twin linked units per turn. And, each Farseer can twin link twice, you no longer need Eldrad to pull this type of thing off. That means you have really force multiplied your offense at a lower cost than we previously paid to increase our defense. Alter your tactics and perspective and you will see that this is just as good, if not better.
Unit X doesn’t work as well as it should….
Never analyze a unit in a vacuum. It is silly to do so. Units can only accurately be analyzed within the context of a list and even then you can’t really pass judgement until you know how the owning player intents to use said unit. I can’t tell you how many times I have written a unit off as being bad on paper only to see someone else use it in a way I had not considered and then totally changing my perspective on it.
Eldar units especially operate on this principal. This isn’t an army you just smash the other guy on the head with (although there are a few builds like that in the book), generally this is an army that is about combos and force multiplication. Think about how these units function within the overall context of your list and what roll you want them to perform and you may come to see uses for units that you previously missed. Every single unit in this book is good, and I mean that literally. For once, I see no obviously crummy units. Granted, some are better than others but that is inevitable in a game where everything is made to be purposefully different.
The Proof (via battle report)
Here are some video bat reps of actual games that should help to illustrate my points. Sorry for the harsh tone, but the whining on this one is really annoying! Eldar are GREAT and I will put them on the table against any other list and feel confident that victory is possible so long as I use my units well.
Lets go to the tape…
