I finally managed to get my first game in with the new Eldar codex on Wednesday night. Tracked down a local gaming club I’ve been meaning to check out for a while now and picked up a game against Blood Angels. We played 1500pts each and rolled The Relic with Hammer and Anvil. Between my Battle Focus and his jump packs it was a fast-moving game, even with Hammer and Anvil deployment, and plenty of units were able to pick out the targets they wanted.
In terms of units, here’s a breakdown of what was in my list and how I felt it performed:
- Farseers - These are a good cheap option to get a lot of psychic powers. Running 2 Farseers I got lucky on my power rolls and ended up with two Fortunes, two Guides, a Doom and an Eldridtch Storm. I did put Runes of Witnessing on both, and used one of them but over all I’m not sure it’s worth the points. Both Farseers went in a Wave Serpent with the Dire Avengers, but I’d be tempted to run one on a bike with the Mantle of the Laughing God in future. A chunk more expensive, but virtually impossible to kill, can get where he needs to be for casting powers and doesn’t have to worry about being stuck inside a transport with no line of sight to units he wants to put Blessings and Maledictions on. Alternatively I could probably justify doing that without the Mantle, and instead just leading a squad of Guardian Jetbikes.
- Warlocks - With one in my Guardian squad and the other in the Jetbike squad I went with the Conceal power on both. There were a couple of times I forgot to cast their power, and a couple more when it failed on their Ld 8 but overall I think they’ve got a lot of potential once I’m more used to how the new rules work for them. I struggle to think of situations I’d want to take powers other than Conceal, but that may depend on the mission and opponent.
- Dire Avengers - I never used Avengers in the old codex, and the general consensus seems to be they’re less useful than they were. There were a few reasons I took these guys, however. First, I could fit a small squad in a Wave Serpent and still transport my Farseers with them. Second, I was wanting to keep the Exarch in there with a Diresword in case I ran into anything like Terminators or multi-wound characters that he could tear down. The Avengers also benefited from having a better save than Guardians, mostly when boosted by Fortune.
- Guardian Defenders - I ran this unit in a Wave Serpent to support the Avengers, and gave them a Starcannon. As the Scatter Laser’s target lock ability doesn’t apply to the squad I felt it wasn’t worth the points now that they’re up to BS4 and can take something more powerful. Only paying 10pts more than before for the unit and getting the boost to BS as well as Bladestorm is amazing value, and popping out of a Wave Serpent meant they were right in position to cut down a lot of Marines. Unfortunately they were then charged by a Dreadnought, and despite a good stab from the Warlock that cut off one of its arms the Guardians lost combat, broke, and were even caught by the Dread and destroyed. Not the best performance, but mostly bad luck so I’ll not be holding this against them. I am curious how they’d perform if I left the Starcannon behind and used the extra space in the transport to take one of my Farseers to give the unit Guide, and potentially a Fortune on their Conceal save.
- Jetbikes - This unit has the same boosts Guardians got, gaining Ballistic Skill and access to Bladestorm. I’m still running my small unit of 3 and a Warlock from before, but think that adding another 3 for access to a second Shuriken Cannon and increased survivability wouldn’t go amiss. The fact I was running such a small unit meant that I lost exactly enough models to finish off the unit on the last turn and stopped them making a last-second grab for the Relic, so a bigger squad might even have swung the game. I’d also feel happier diverting one of my Farseers onto a Jetbike if he had a bigger unit to back him up, and it would give me more than just my Warlock to tank shots from units like Helldrakes and others that will ignore cover and armour.
- Warp Spiders - I don’t even know where to start with these guys, they were so good. They’re fast enough to get where they need, have an easy time wounding any ordinary infantry and get plenty of AP1 shots. The Exarch with Fast Shot, Marksman and Spinneret Rifle might even have to be my MVP from the game for the number of models he took out. I was able to use their speed to get into a position so that melta guns and the like were the first models hit, and anything hidden in the squad can be picked out by the Exarch anyway.
- Swooping Hawks - This unit didn’t perform as I’d hoped. I think I may have been using them for the wrong role, as I’d equipped the Exarch with a Sunrifle to try and pick off Marines, but even at AP3 he needed 5s to wound, and then all his squads had Feel No Pain. I also threw them forward to contest the objective too early, and should have held them back an extra turn as he wouldn’t have been able to grab it that turn anyway. Instead they could have held back then rushed one way or the other to contest the Relic, or take Linebreaker if I’d been able to hold them off of the Relic anyway.
- Wave Serpents - Unless you roll the way I did these are more survivable than ever. Unfortunately I went through that game with an uncanny ability to roll 1s on my Serpent Shield roll allowing my opponent to take the turret off of one Serpent and blow up the second. I also consistently failed jink saves, even with holo-fields. The twin-linked Bright Lances, on the few turns I was able to use them, did a great job of cutting past Feel No Pain, and both Serpents did a great job of delivering my Guardians and Avengers into firing position. I’m conscious spending too much on upgrades, but there were a few times I wished I’d taken Vectored Engines so I could drop the infantry and still swing about to protect the rear armour and bring the underslung Shuriken Cannon to bear.
- Fire Prisms - Like the Wave Serpents these suffered from my awful dice-rolling. Between failed jink saves and armour penetration rolls of 1 they didn’t really perform as I’d hoped, though the one that survived past turn 2 made up for it somewhat by passing a surprising number of jink saves as two Marine attack bikes spend 3 turns trying to multi-melta and krak grenade it to death. But even in turns where they didn’t achieve much damage they still gave my opponent a lot to think about, a large blast that will go straight through standard Space Marine armour is a real threat, and two of them becomes a huge threat.
Overall I’d say there’s a lot to remember moving to the new codex, particularly as I’ve mostly been using my Necrons recently anyway so am not too familiar with psychic powers. There were several times I forgot to Battle Focus a unit out of harms way, and a few times my Warp Spiders didn’t make their jet pack move either. I feel like the two Farseers with the Dire Avengers were over-kill as I often ran out of targets before I ran out of powers. Instead I expect I’ll split one off, or simply run Eldrad instead of two separate Farseers. Alternatively I may try running them together but using different psychic disciplines to get a better mix of powers.
Looking forward to more games with this codex, and really enjoying how fast the army can get around the board. Bladestorm is a brilliant ability, adding a lot to the burst of firepower that Eldar release when they hit close range.
(image source: http://ukitakumuki.deviantart.com/art/Training-to-be-Spiders-22690494)
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