Tips for Fighting the Eldar

 Keveldramon  Sent: 12/07/2002 18:18

Keveldramon's dirty tips for beating the Eldar.
 

Due to the overwhelming need the people have for wanting to be the Eldar I have come up with a few tips for you all This is based on a vanilla marine list, so pleas adjust according to you chapter or list. Pts range is in the area of 1700-2000 pts. The Eldar are deadly at ranges of 500 to 1000 pts and again at 2000 pts. At higher larger battles there is a diminishing return in the cost of points vs. effectiveness of troop type and number (basically we lack the staying power and the soaking capacity of the IG and hoard armies.) The Eldar are a quick strike, low number army Made to KILL MARINES, yes your read that right kill marines, but we all know that didn't we.

Okay so now you want to beat the cone heads? Here are some tips.

One, forced armor saves, with the majority of the Eldar your bolters are going to ventilate them, so take high volume tac squads and lay in to the wily cone heads. The majority of the saves are all 4+ not to bad not to good. The heavy bolter is going to cut swaths through the Eldar ranks. Focus on one unit at a time to wipe them out. Wanna watch an Eldar player cry, pull out a land raider crusader
 

Second, massed guardians are devastating at close range. Either get into assault with them fast, or stay just outside of 18" true your not going to get away from star cannons with their ER of 42" but that only 3 from each squad. If you mess this up and the guardians get in range you have potentially 40 shots coming in on you 5-10 guys, odds are your going to lose a few before he opens up with the dreaded star cannon. Once that goes on it almost guaranties to cut down two more or your precious marines. Figure on losing maybe 3 to 4 marines in a volley. This is bad.

Third, Assault. When in doubt charge. (Charge Eldar! huh? I 5 goes before I 4 right? You smoking something!) Yeah Charge trust me. All you have to remember is hold off when you charge two units. I will discuss that later, sufficed to say scorpions and Banshees should be shot with lots of bolters. Sure he goes before you. So what. Have faith in the Emperor. Remember that every single aspect of the Eldar has a specialized function. Unless they are a close combat squad the elder perform dismally in hth, with notable exceptions in the exarchs. Keep in mind that guardians are WS 3 and aspect warriors are WS 4. Almost all Eldar are T 3 and S 3 and A 1. The few noticeable exceptions are the ones that cause people to have fits (read: Wraithlord, wraithgurad, Farseer, Avatar. I will deal with them later under specialist units.) In general you are going to save most of the ones that hit. (4s to hit 5s to wound then apply your +3 save. You may lose one or two compared to his 5. Plus if his units are tangled up in assault that leaves the nasty star cannon with out a shot.

Fourth Ordnance. I hate this word. The Whirlwind, this is one of the most cost effective units in the game, and you can get three of them! This thing is the doom of the Eldar. Park this bad boy out of the way and let it fly. You will blow HUGE wholes in an Eldar army. Give it some cover and a squad of 5 marines to protect it and your golden other wise you will find that the whirlwind will be the target of every bit of fast attack that your opponent has. I hate this thing more then anything else. That said most other blast templates, flamers, plasma cannons and crap will do wonders for your game. Most of these are all AP 4, good for you bad for me.

Five Mobility. Eldar units have mobility in spades. Chances are unless you are playing Ravenwing, Whitescars, or something freaky like that, the Eldar are going to move how they want. Stick together and meet them with massed force. Try and take their transports out before they get to you. This can be a little tricky and some luck is needed. If you find that first turn you have a mess of Howling Banshees in your ranks, well suck it up and hope that he doesn't wound. Remember everything goes to pot on first contact with the enemy. It has been suggested that you try a pincer movement. This would be a sound tactic up until the point that all of his close combat units are hitting your base of fire. Or trying the same thing. Well seasoned Eldar veterans are going to expect you to maneuver. Chances are they are going to have a few things up their sleeves as a counter this would depend on composition of your opponent's army. Remember in your rush that you use good cover and concealment to take away the star cannon edge.

Six General tips. Remember the range of the Dark Reaper missile launcher is 48" and a full squad has the ability to take out an entire squad in one go. If you are going to use your assault squad to take out the reapers MAKE sure you can get their in one turn or land outa sight, otherwise, kiss that squad goodbye. Howling banshees always go first in a new combat, shoot them. Striking scorpions are tough, strong, and resilient and have attacks at I 7 and I 5. These guys are hard, especially if a farseer is camped behind them. Wraithguard are deadly, fortunately for you the wraith cannon is only a 12" weapon. Other things, remember that Fleet of foot, is not hampered by terrain, so watch out for that. I have ran my banshees a total of 18" (6 move, lucky 6 FoF!! and a 6 assault) in one turn through a section of difficult terrain to cut a dev squad to icky ribbons.

Unit breakdowns.

Howling Banshees. For the goodness that they bring banshees are expensive and relatively fragile. Your advantage is that if you survive the initial assault your will kill many of them. Keep your termies away and land an ord template on them. Chances are most Eldar players are going to use banshee's ether as a first strike or as counter charge unit. Remember that they always go first in a new combat situation, unless of course your troops are equipped with a comparable item and then both would go at the same time.

Striking Scorpions. A very good unit, their disadvantages lie in their toughness 3 and lack of power weapons. The also have an extra attack at a very high I (8 for the exarch and 7 for the regulars.) fortunately for you all it still allows normal armor saves to be made.

Wraithlord. Avoid him. Or sick some AP 3 weapons on it. Massed lascannon fire is nice Snipers also can do a number on him with the need for a 4 to wound. Granted with a 3+ save he still make a lot of his saves. But just remember that it's not an invulnerable save. The more you force on him the more it is likely that he will fail a couple. Slow movement is his other big draw back, although with his rules he may move and shoot that nasty star cannon, that 90% of the world equips him with. (The others go for a bright lance)

Avatar, ventilate him with bolters. Don't allow him to get into close combat. At I 5 he will go before you, he doesn't need high rolls to hit (WS 10) and will crush what ever he goes up against. His biggest drawback is that he only has a 5+ inv save. Add that to the fact that he can only move 6, (no fleet of foot.) Most Eldar players will have him near a squad to prevent you from shooting at him right away. Try to avoid close combat with him, if you do get into HTH with him, overwhelm him with numbers.

Farseers. These guys can be tough, but there is light where these guys are concerned. With a low strength they don't wound too much (unless there kitted out.) and they must take at least one power. Now a USEFULL farseer is going to be 101pts with a ghost helm, runes of witnessing, spirit stones, witch blade, pistol, mind war, and fortune. Be very afraid of the farseer with the singing spear mounted on a jet bike. In this capacity he becomes a very lethal sniper. Sniper you say? Yes. On a jet bike he can move 12, then cast mind war 18" out and then move 6 back to within friendly units. (Remember the farseer is an independent character. That makes for a range 30 mind war attack that can fry most marines especially your specialist weapon guys. As mind war is an opposed LD check with the target taking the difference in wounds if he fails. (LD 10 +d6 vs. target LD +d6). Also he makes a very good tank hunter. Singing spears and witch blades are S 3x3 +d6 for armor penetration. (That works out as 9 +d6 to do damage.) The singing spear can also be thrown in the shooting phase, but then can not be used in the assault phase that turn. Now back to that low strength in combat. Both the witch blade and the Singing spear wound on +2, but you get your armor saves so that is useful.
Warlocks are a great unit. A 4+ inv save and you can give them a witch blade or a spear. Plus it is not necessary to take powers with these guys. The powers that they do get are nice enhancements to the unit they are with each power has a specific use and it pretty much dependant on the player and what role the squad plays that the warlock is with. Conceal grants a +5 cover save, Enhance grants a +1 WS and a +1 I, Destructor is a nifty flamer, and Embolden makes the squad fearless.

Seer council. Tie it up with sacrificial lambs, or massed bolter fire. Mind you these guys are a primary combat support unit, as almost all their abilities are used to enhance the Eldar army. Be cautious of a fully kitted council is very lethal. Most seer councils are going to be a hefty chunk of points. Mine totals out to around 530pts but then again I use two Farseers and 8 warlocks. The council itself is between 6 and 7 minis with the other 3 or warlocks detached to squads. This unit is pretty trimmed up with the minimal goodies for it to be a threat. I like to use them as a counter charge unit, to clean up in HTH as having them in close combat take away from their ability to reach out and 'touch' someone with mind war at 36". Seer councils are very effective against vehicles with the number of witch blades and Singing spears that are more often than not present. Mixed Farseers and warlocks armed with witch blades Enhanced, and Fortune are a though nut to crack in HTH. My advice is to shoot them or ignore them. Watch out for the little known power optional with Ulthwe seercouncil warlocks Augment. It doubles the range of a Farseers powers. Now you see were the 36" mind-phuk comes from. An almost guaranteed way to combat these guys is with a TAC termi squad with assault cannons loaded into a land raider crusader. Expensive, hell yeah but it works.
 

Dark Reapers. Ord templates clean them up nice. Assault them with a very fast unit. (I.e. once that can go all the way to the other side of the table in one turn) supped up rhino's maybe. Hide you dev squads and your TAC marines; they are a primary target for the reapers.

Fire Dragons. These guys are rough but fortunately you should have no problem in HTH taking them out. These guys are a nasty melta gun wielding unit. (Yeah all of them have melta guns.) The exarch is going to have a fire pike (range 18 melta gun) but they lack in HTH. Standard tactics for taking these guys out is to stay just out of the 12" bubble and then rush them. Alternately drop a bike squad or a squad with jump packs on them.

Dire Avengers. staying outside of their range is easy, but watch out for them they can fleet of foot and the exarch makes for a nasty opponent, dire swords are rough as a wound with them as the chance of instant killing multi wound opponents (that and they are power weapons.)

Swooping hawks. Not to much worries here, though if played right by a crafty opponent, your' whirlwind may be in trouble. With the option of Always deep striking plus the nifty grenade pack they can cause some havoc in you rear areas. But in HTH they become lethal. The exarch power sustained attack gives the exarch the ability to keep on hitting every time he successfully hits. At WS 5 it's a pretty good chance he will hit as well. Give him a power sword and theoretically he can hit for an infinite amount of times. (Okay maybe, not but it IS possible.) Granted this really make the swooping hawks an exarch delivery vehicle for the exarch (crap fluff-wise IMO)

Guardian Squads.
Defenders. Standard squad size is 5 to 20. Armed with the shuri cats at short range before a charge they are deadly. Assault 2 for all 20 can chew through a large number of troops. Add that with a warlock and a guardian platform for a total of 23 warm bodies at a relatively low cost plus the support weapon which your most likely to see as a star cannon which gives them some ranged punch. Expect to at least lose one or two before you get into assault range. In assault they are pretty soft.
Storm guardians. These guys work great as a first assault unit. Same size as the defender squads. (5-20) plus the warlock. As we don't have the option of purchasing a model for these guys, we have to convert them all; you may not see too many of them except from dedicated players. However with 3 attacks each on a charge, if the Eldar guy can do it right you can see upwards of 40+ attacks. Also you may see the Avatar hanging out with these guys, to give them some backbone. Behind them will more then likely be a squad of banshees or scorpions, try and break that screen before it gets to you.

Vehicles and Support batteries.
Okay I haven't used any of these yet so I don't know too much about them I would suggest visiting WWW.ELDARONLINE.COM. This is all just general observations.

All Eldar vehicles (with the exception of the Titans) are all skimmers. They move FAST! Real FAST! Remember that. If you are playing on a short board and he goes first, you might as well adopt a counter charge strategy. He will get to you in one turn, deploy and then assault. IF you go first, they you have to decide, do I want to focus on one skimmer a turn, or try all of them at once? From there you should be able to adopt an appropriate stance.
Jet bikes okay for there cost vs. ability, you probably won't find too many people use these, although in a twist your opponent could deploy these and cause you a lot of trouble, Take these out just like you would regular bikes. But remember this they have a hit and run ability which allows them to move an additional 6" in any direction in the assault phase.
Vypers being open-topped skimmers they are a little fragile, BUT most people equip them with starcannons, so watch out. They can move fast, expect them to use break through or flanking tactics.
Falcons, tanks with a troop transport ability.
Wave snakes (Serpents) hard large transport with a good weapons package.
Fire prism. Great weapon at a 60" range and a high strength.
 

Okay all of these should help you guys out quite nicely. Now I am going to take a shower cuz I feel dirty for telling you all my conehead secrets. For your benefit I am going to update this as I use more units.
 
 

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