Miniwargaming.com's Open Letter

I find myself agreeing with a lot of what is being said here, so I'm just spreading the word:



I love 40K, but every now and then, I begin to feel like a battered spouse with a black eye, and GW is promising they'll never do it again...

Specialize vs Generalize: What's your approach?

Recently I've seen a flux of small point value lists (I consider 1500 small for reference) and I've been taking particular note in how some people like to run/equip their various units. For example, a common build I've been seeing a lot recently for tactical marines is a missile launcher and a flamer. Delving deeper, the common reason is "well, it can shoot a tank and toast a horde of orks!" And this build pattern repeats itself in the army where they'll have 3-4 squads each with an anti-infantry and an anti-tank weapon. As a matter of fact, I think the Assault on Black Reach marines come built like that. But, is it the right move?

I can understand wanting to have that old boy scouts motto of being prepared be applicable to everything you have, but shouldn't that be something you have applied to your army in general? Not the individual units? I'm a big fan of specialization, and I will admit that the habit does stem from playing a specialist army (Eldar), but that doesn't mean to say that the same mistakes can't be made. For example, the community recognizes Dire Avengers as being one of the best shooty infantry units in the game, but the Exarch has melee build options. Why? Well, first off, it's a hold over from 3rd and 4th, back when mech was something noobs did. Second, I think a lot of people perceive putting a power weapon in the hands of one model makes it a viable assault unit. In reality, I'm just going to laugh off any Eldar assault lead by a power weapon toting exarch. S3 + T3 + power weapon x= assault unit. Or even a unit that is capable of handling whatever situation is thrown at it. Honestly, I almost feel like the Dire Avengers having any assault options is a misleading joke that GW just throws in there, and I don't understand why people fall for it. As I always say, to succeed with the Eldar, use their units for what they're designed to do.

If you can find a double use for a single build though, well, now you're thinking ~_^. For example, Fire Dragons are excellent tank hunters, but their S8 AP1 weapons also happen to be good at roasting Tyranid monstrous creatures, and War Walkers with a scatter laser build not only make hordes run in fear, but 24 S6 shots outflanking makes almost any tank quiver in its treads. Dual purpose builds rock and should always be taken advantage of.

Anywho, back to marines. So let's say Jimmy wants to run four tactical squads, and wants to make sure he has good tank hunting and a horde contingency available. He decides to go the way of the Salamander and use meltaguns and flamers, but how should he equip the units? Following an emerging trend, he would put one multi-melta and one flamer in each squad. But here's the rub for me. Jimmy may think he's covered, but what if he was a monstrous creature and a horde of gaunts in front of him? A flamer is worthless versus an MC and the squad of gaunts will just laugh off a single melta shot. And here's the kicker, let's say it's critical that he needs to take down the MC. Jimmy may end up firing all four squads at the MC just to get the melta shots in, and everything else, from bolter shots to flamers just go to waste, and now the guant squad can swarm him. How do you remedy this? By combining your special weapons together.

Plague marines are fantastic at this. I dedicate each squad to either flamers or melta guns, and then on top of that, I'll give each champion a combi-weapon to match. So, if I were to use the same scenario, I can bury 6 melta shots in to the MC and 6 flamers in to the gaunts, which is much more efficient.

-FF

Pie Plate Woes aka Fire Prisms, What's the Point?

Every so often, I like to go back and reread units to make sure I feel like I'm taking full advantage of everything my Codex has to offer, and sometimes I have a revelation. Most times though, I feel like I made a good call in never using something, like Fire Prisms (and the Night Spinner counterpart). And it's not just Fire Prisms either. I feel the same way about most tank choices that rely on a single gun with a large blast template to own face, and this includes vindicators and defilers for example, but at least they're already Strength 10 with a good AP. Fire Prisms though...just yuck. Sure, some people may tell you "dat's why you link 2 or 3 of 'em up and get a betterer gun to do da shootin' wit..." Congratulations on having a 500 point gun that automatically has a 50% miss built into it. Every time I watch a batrep on YouTube and see an Eldar lose and gt a confused look on their face because their Fire Prism didn't do anything, I just chuckle to myself.

There are so many things wrong with the Fire Prism, and for a proof of concept, compare it to a Falcon. The Falcon is the same point cost, has access to the same upgrades, and you can get 3 Strength 8 shots as opposed to the single Strength 9 shot (Strength 5 if you use the large blast). For a real kick in the teeth, the Fire Prism arbitrarily has BS4, but since it's a scatter weapon, you get the same hit chance as BS3...same as the Falcon! The last important note is that the Falcon is also troop transport. So not only can I blast you at long range with Strength 8 weapons, but I can hold an objective as well. Fantastic.

So what brings on this rant? Just so many "famous players" on YouTube who use this and seem to advocate it, but I've never really seen them do well with it consistently. In my opinion, check out War Walkers. These guys are my bread and butter, and every battle, tournament, league, etc, they've been by MVPs. My lists usually tend to include 2 3-model squads of walkers, each decked out with dual scatter lasers, and a Falcon with holo-fields that I keep a 5 man dire avenger squad in.

In closing, I'm not the only one on DED 'ARD who's gotten fed up with pie plate guns. A few of our marines players won't touch vindicators, and one who did own 3 of them, dumped them because of how little they performed for him. IG players have it a bit easier though since they can run their template producing vehicles in squadrons for better cost. I'd be very interested to hear if you have had similar experiences with your blast template vehicles, or if you even think I'm completely off the mark.

-FF

Adventure Games: Kickoff Tournament

While normally we just discuss tactics or the hobby, I've decided to give a plug to a local store here in Northeast Pennsylvania. Adventure Games just opened a brand new location in Dickson City, PA and is having it's first Warhammer 40K Tournament in years.

The new location is over 8000 square feet and is currently set up to run nearly 20 tables for wargaming tournaments including 40K, WHFB, and Warmachine. The tournament is on June 4th at 11am. Armies are 1850 points with a cash prize for the winners. Yours truly will definitely be participating, along with several other DED'ARD members. So, if you think you'll be able to make it, here's the details:

Adventure Games
849-851 Main St
Dickson City, PA 18519
570.307.GAME

If you'd like to register contact j.evans.84@hotmail.com before June 1st with your roster and to pre-register.

Stay tuned for follow up pics of the tournament itself.

-FF

Not So Finecast

I've been viewing the recent Games Workshop price increases with my usual disbelief. I'll still pay these prices because I love their miniatures and their games are the best in my opinion, but even I'm starting to get a bit annoyed. Along with the price raise, we also had this whole concept of metal miniatures going away and being replaced with resin. As Tenacious D would say, "You can't kill the metal. The metal will live on." Looks like that isn't the case and these new resin figs will reign supreme. Not sure how I feel about all this.

When the rumors started flying, I was thinking that Games Workshop was going to use all of the same molds from their metal miniatures and just sell these new miniatures like Forge World direct on their website. This would cut out discount shops like TheWarStore and others and increase their bottom line. Since the announcement on Monday, I've been kinda meh about this.

The idea of getting lighter miniatures was cool as I honestly hate working with metal, but there are other issues of working with resin. I know a lot of people love Forge World and can't get enough of their kits, but I hate working with that stuff more than metal and every time I buy something from them it's not only overpriced, but the casts are terrible. The concept of boiling miniatures and sawing through 2 inches of flash is just ridiculous to me.

Over on Dakka Dakka, Legion4500 got one of the new Finecast miniatures and has been posting a review on it. You can read his review here. All of the pictures I have here are taken from Legion4500's post. First off we have new packaging. I'm really digging this. Nice full color pic of the model on the front and the back is clear so you can see what you are getting. The miniatures come on sprues which means Games Workshop made entirely new molds. Also, this will be sold through distribution so you'll still be able to get them at your favorite local game store (FLGS). Mabybe GW isn't so bad afterall...

Then we get a look at one of the miniatures and it looks pretty good. I know they claim the detail is sharper, but I don't see much of a difference from the metal miniature. Resin can capture finer details, but I don't have a habit of looking at my miniatures with a microscope so this doesn't intrigue me too much. 

Then we move on to the material itself. From what Legion said, "The material is wierd feeling, it does not feel or smell like resin - its more on the plastic end. it is EXTREMELY SOFT - cuts with a new hobby knife easier then a hot knife thru butter. There are some heavy sprue gates but due to the softness of the material its easy to remove and clean up. Sanding is semi easy - I recommend fine grit or you will cut right thru the figures details in no time. The metal burs and stuff that plague the metal figures don't exist here. Sanding leaves less mess then a plastic figure. Almost no dust." Sounds intriguing. Maybe I will have to pick one of these up.

Lastly, we come to the casting and it looks like the same Forge World shenanigans. Pieces are bent or entirely missing and there are a lot of air bubbles that are marring the surface. The proof is in the pudding and all my hopes for this line are pretty much gone. Maybe this is just the first batch and the quality will improve over time, but I'm not holding my breath.

What do you guys think? Is Finecast worth it or not? Is this the next big thing in miniatures or is this another crazy scheme by GW to make more money? Leave your comments and let me know what you think. And don't forget to check out Legion's full review with more pics over at Dakka Dakka.

I was recently commissioned to do 4 gaming tables for the game store Adventure Games in Dickson City, PA. I plan on having a tutorial up in the near future. Also, Adventure Games is running a 1,850 point 40K tournament next weekend and I hear Jawaballs is planning on attending. I won't be playing in the tournament, but I plan on being there to see it all go down. Maybe I'll post some pics.

Till next time,

–The Harrower

Building Desert Terrain

I've been doing this blog for over a year and looking back I find it pretty surprising that I haven't done any posts on terrain. I'm sure the other members of DED 'ARD are equally surprised considering how insane I am when it comes to making terrain. I'll admit, I'm somewhat of a terrain snob and nothing makes me lash out more than bad terrain. My devotion to terrain usually comes at the sacrifice of my models as you'll typically see primed red Blood Angels being pushed through lavish terrain when you play at my house. I know that defeats the whole purpose of why we game, but it is something I'm still working on. Anyway, building terrain wasn't the main reason why I got into the hobby, but it was pretty high on the list.

As a kid, I've always been amazed by model building and I used to look through old magazines on how they made models for movies like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Dark Crystal for hours on end. Alas, today a lot of the modeling craft has been replaced by 3d modeling, but I still love it and I was glad to see Peter Jackson go old school with The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Not so glad with how he butchered the story and turned Frodo into an unlikeable ass, but that's a topic for another time. Today, building terrain and converting miniatures are my two favorite things with the hobby and terrain building is still something my wife really enjoys so I usually get her to help me out on my latest projects. Here's a few examples of some terrain we've made in the past.

I'm going to be running a campaign for our Gaming Club starting next month. It's going to be based on Planetary Empires and everyone is going to be fighting over the planet Ghalis IV. The planet has been lost since the Dark Age of Technology and has remained hidden in the Ayntaara Nebula for thousands of years. Ghalis IV has remained untouched by the strife of the 41st millennium as no scanners or Psykers have been able to pierce the nebula's depths. This will be an escalation campaign with games starting at 500 point combat patrol matches as the armies make planetfall and escalate to 1,500 point games as they stake their foothold on the planet.

One of my new 4" by 4" table sections.

As you see in the pics above, my tables are kinda huge and really heavy. I made them years ago with 3/4" plywood and 2x4s. I'm replacing these with newer tables made out of 1/4" MDF and 1x3s. The tables are in two pieces one 4" by 4" for Combat Patrol and another 2" by 4" so I can make a tournament size 6" by 4" table. These tables are a lot lighter and easier to store.

In total, I'll have 3 tables. 1 grass board, 1 city board, and 1 desert board. Each of these will correspond to the tiles on the Planetary Empires sets we'll be using. I have the desert board painted and ready to go, but as of yet no terrain to speak of. Don't worry I'll have pics soon including a tutorial on making your own game table.

With the table completed, I did what I usually do. I scoured the internet looking for examples of cool looking desert terrain to draw inspiration from. Problem is, this time I came back pretty much empty handed. I would have thought with Tomb Kings just being released and Necrons on the near horizon there would be a ton of cool desert boards to get ideas from. Alas, there isn't much out there and the stuff I looked at was your basic rocks and tan colored hills.

So I'm not off to a great start and I sat in my basement for the past week waiting for inspiration to strike. I've got a spark thanks to my wife and I started working on a tar pit while she was doing a rock pile with a stone arch, but at this point that's not much. There's something about doing a desert board that just makes it harder to visualize for me. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I can definitely use some ideas from my readers. I really want the terrain on this board to be more than tan colored hills. I need stuff that is unique to the desert from a visual standpoint, but also allows new challenges on the table top.

So what do you guys think? If you were playing on a desert board what would you like to see that would not only look cool, but bring some unique terrain elements to the game. Please share some links and thoughts in the comments below. Hopefully I can get some ideas and put together a really awesome board. I'll be sure to share and do tutorials along the way.

Till next time,
–The Harrower

P.S. Geek bonus points to the person who can identify where my terrain logo draws inspiration from.

Warhammer 40K 6th Edition: Part 1

I apologize for my hiatus. School and work have been keeping me incredibly busy and I haven't had a lot of time to do anything hobby related. Work has finally slowed down a bit and the harder classes are behind me for now, so I can get back to 40K and focus on the hobby. I just want to thank Farseer Frank for taking up the reins again the past few weeks and sharing his tactical insight. I hate the Eldar with a passion and that's thanks to my poor record against his Eldar in 1 on 1 matches. The best I've managed is a draw, but that will hopefully be something I improve on in the future.

I've been reading a bit about the rumored 6th Edition of everyone's favorite game coming out next year and I just want to point out some things I would like to see in the new edition. All of my ties to GW HQ in Nottingham have been severed years ago and I don't know anyone that works there anymore. That being said, these are not "rumors" or an "insider's look". These are just my thoughts on what I think needs improvement going into a 6th Edition. I'll start with 3 and add to it over the coming weeks. In no particular order.

1. Wound Allocation Rules. The current rules are bollocks. Nothing annoys me more than doubling up power weapon wounds on the same model to reduce casualties. Here's an example: I have an Assault Squad with 4 marines left. 3 of the marines are just standard with bolt pistol and close combat weapon and the 4th marine has a flamer. I get charged by a unit of Khorne Berzerkers. I take 2 power weapon wounds and 6 regular wounds. I allocate the 2 power weapon wounds to the poor SoB with the flamer and I roll 6 saves on the remaining 3 marines. This greatly tips the odds in my favor and actually makes it beneficial for the attacker to cause less wounds! Come on Alessio you didn't see this in playtesting?

I hope how they fix this is that allocation works the same way, but you don't do it all at once. You start with any attacks that ignore armor saves and then resolve the rest from highest strength down to lowest. So in the same example from above, 2 of my guys are dead outright. No save. I take the 6 wounds on the remaining 2 troops. That makes sense! This will still allow defenders to avoid taking saves on characters and certain models, but won't result in lost wounds because you decide to put 2 of those power weapon hits on the guy carrying the flamer. Not only that, it will speed things up. Nothing is worse than having a squad with a lot of different wargear and trying to figure out who is saving for what and new players have a VERY hard time with this.

2. Kill Points. I'm REALLY not a fan of Kill Points. In a game where you use equal points on both sides, I don't like that one army can give up a lot more than the other. For starters, Victory Points work a lot better. I kill a 400 point unit I get 400 points. Gee, that makes a lot of sense. I've been in games where my opponent has basically nothing left and I still lose by 1 or 2 Kill Points. And it's not like this is good for list building. It's stupid to build a list around how many points you are going to give up as that has nothing to do with the fluff of the game.

Can you see Dante talking to one of his Captains, "I don't know Tycho. Let's leave all of the tanks behind. Let's just use Jump Packs so our army is less vulnerable." Dumb. What I would like to see is something similar to Victory Points, but round the numbers to the nearest hundred. If I have a unit of Death Company that costs 250 points, they're worth 3 Kill Points. If you want some variety in there, make specific Org choices add to it. HQs are worth an additional 3 Kill Points. Elites are worth an additional 2 Kill Points. Troops, Fast Attack, and Heavy Support are worth an additional 1 Kill Point. That makes a lot more sense. I should get more points for taking out my opponents more powerful troops and his leaders.

Also, you should get points for units that are at half strength or immobilized. As is, Kill Points force you to make tactical decisions that don't make a lot of sense.

"Tycho, fire on that immobilized Rhino!"

Tycho responds incredulously, "Um, what!?"

"We have a better chance of destroying that then we do that unit of Plague Marines. That's an order marine!"

There will always be a way to game the system, but Kill Points can be done in a way that makes a lot more sense and isn't as lopsided.

3. More Missions. The current crop of missions is a joke. 3 missions with 3 different types of deployment? That gives us the huge variety of 9 different game types which as everyone who has been playing 40K for a few weeks knows isn't much. I miss the old days when you bought a new Codex and you got a mission to go along with it. Or what about the cool mission cards from 2nd Edition? When you had no clue what your opponent was trying to do and the game was more exciting.

I do think Battle Missions was a step in the right direction and I hope both it and Planet Strike are mined for ideas when they come around to creating missions. I do like the Stratagem System and I hope to see that in 40K proper. I'd like to see more variety. You can add the dynamic of Attacker vs. Defender or change the Force Organization Chart depending on the mission. The good news is that the new version of Warhammer Fantasy Battle has a bunch of missions. Hopefully we'll get that in the next iteration of Warhammer 40K.

So what do you guys not like about the current edition? What would you like to see changed? Post your thoughts below. Next time I'll talk a bit more about what I'd like to see in 6th Edition and I'll let you know what I've been working on.

Till then,
–The Harrower

Jump Infantry: Love 'em or Hate 'em

Recently I've been spending a lot of time with my Warp Spiders - hanging out at the beach, volleyball, all you can eat crab leg buffets, and the like, and it's been a fun time. Ever since I first heard of jump infantry in my neophyte days, I was smitten. I was warned though and told that they were never as good as they seemed, so I stayed away. From casual players to more experienced tournament players with an affinity for sci-fi testicles, there was a general advice of not going with the ever-so-cool looking jump packs. Well, then I started my CSM army (yes...I have more than just Eldar), and I decided that I really wanted to convert my own raptors, and that's when I began to think about how to best utilize these under appreciated unit types.

Moving infantry across the board without a transport is a bit taboo these days, and, honestly, I think for good reason. Without debating the finer points of foot vs mech, I think we can all see the troubles one may have with foot sloggers (save for Orks and Nids of course). And, as far as I'm concerned, jump infantry are basically foot sloggers that can move 12", so how are they best used?

For starters, don't lead with them. As a matter of fact, don't start them on the board. My experience has taught me that leading off with them, or even putting them on the board, immediately makes them a target. Jump infantry aren't usually strong enough to initiate an assault without support, or, better yet, should only really be assaulting to support another unit. Put them in reserve, but not to deep strike. Deep striking is just not worth all the trouble unless you have the tricks to make it work for you consistently.

With the unit in reserves, you now have a contingency that can counter your opponents offense, or if you're ready to hit him where it hurts, send the infantry in to seal the deal and guarantee (as best as RNG will let you anyway :P) the victory. For my Eldar, the Warp Spiders have proven invaluable as far as clinching victories with their strong fire support. Often, they have even stopped an opponents offensive plans by coming in and popping a rhino, speeder, or similar, strength six fearing target. Warp spiders may seem unique in how they're nicely suited at dealing with both infantry and light armor, seeing as how the Eldar is an army of specialists, but they're still true to the Eldar methodology. Their specialty is providing rapid, ambush style supporting fire. They complement a bladestorm very well, and if you give your Exarch powerblades, you can probably take out a marine or 2 very easily if need be.


And this is true for all units. I'm a big fan of dedicating your unit to a particular role, and when I get a little further along with my CSM, I plan on adding those raptors, 2 squads to be specific. One will specialize in anti-armor/MC combat with melta guns and a power fist, while the other will run flamers and lightning claws for dealing with infantry.

Not all jump infantry is made equal though. For example, gargoyles I'm just having a hard time making sense of. I'm sure more experienced Nid players can offer a simple strategy on how to use them. What makes them different is sheer size. You can afford to start off with these guys on the board as long as losses can be tolerated, but if you lose your synapse connection, you may just watch your entire unit go to hell because you've lost control of them, where reserves prevent this from happening, at least for a bit.

That's it for now. I'd love to hear your thoughts on jump infantry and whether or not you love 'em or hate 'em.

-FF

Eldar and Assaults Pt 2

So in my last article, I discussed Eldar assault units that can "self-propel" or move 12"+ on their own, and to recap, my opinion is that they're the best way to go if you want to be able to get into assaults on a consistent basis. Much like anything else though from this particular era of 40k, the units always have caveats that make you second guess their effectiveness. Cost, squad size, "killiness," and durability are just a few of the factors that you have to consider, and not one Eldar unit has all of these covered...well, at least not effectively.

What do I mean? Well, let me explain.

Again, let's use the standard candle of vanilla terminators. Now you might ask, why? And I would understand, because as a rule of thumb, you should never try to compare units cross army since it will only lead to frustration in the end, but primarily because armies are only balanced against themselves, not each other. Terminators, though, have the benefit of durability, very strong attacks, cost effectiveness, and even mobility (land raiders). They can do that complete package for less than 500 points.

That being said, what are we left with? As discussed previously, bike councils offer good durability, but at a premium cost and with no significant killing power. Shining spears offer good killing power, but with reduced durability (compared to the council) and still at a ridiculous cost. There's also the factor of their max squad size. That leaves us with Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions. Both are good units and each has a specialty: Scorpions are meant for horde or swarm style armies, and Banshees are meant for pretty much everything else. So, when tournaments require you to have a submitted list that you can't change out throughout the tournament, how are you supposed to prepare?
Based on the math, against all opponents, your best choice is the Scorpions. They offer some durability with a 3+ armor save (fortune is the win here), but still suffer from only being toughness 3. They have an increased number of attacks with the mandiblasters, and the option for a power fist. These guys will do well against horde/swarm armies, as mentioned earlier, as well as tactical marines and other similar units. In the grand scheme of the game though, Scorpions may seem lackluster, but there is a lot going for them. Their biggest asset is their initiative 5. Against most armies, this means you're going first with roughly 40 attacks at WS4, and with the +1 strength from their swords, they'll be converting wounds nicely. With farseer support, these guys can really hurt. They do have their issues though. First, they're not fleet. A trade-off for better armor essentially, but they can purchase move through cover cheaply. There's still the issue of toughness 3, but a re-rollable 3+ armor save (fortune) balances that out, but their biggest weakness is the metagame. There are just so many marines out there that fielding these guys is just a little impractical. While I would always bet on the scorpions beating out a squad of tacticals, they aren't capable of killing it fast enough to prevent a counter from a more "elite" unit, like terminators. With the 40K gaming scene being saturated with marines players, Scorpions just don't get a large enough opportunity to shine. Another good example would be the new inquisitorial henchman from the new GX codex. The death cult assassins are scary. Hopefully, we may see the Scorpions moved to a troops slot position with a new Eldar codex in the future (they did it with incubi in the DE dex :) ). That may pave the way for a more elite assault choice, or possibly give them a chance to buff up the Banshees.

Speaking of Banshees, they are our next topic. While I said that Scorpions are the overall best choice, Banshees are the most practical. They hurt marines players where it matters: in the armor save. What's critical though for these guys to function is access to a transport, which presents it's own issues, but I digress. With only a 4+ armor save and toughness 3, bolter fire is just terrifying. If you do have to move these ladies on foot, make sure to abuse the cover save rules and "fleet" as much as possible. Once you do get an assault off, just watch your opponent melt. Properly run, again with farseer support, you can statistically kill a whole squad of tacticals on the charge, as well as a squad of regular termies (based on an average squad size of 5, and no storm shield). Despite their being frail, they do have an good defense of having a srong offense. You should kill enough models to wipe out an entire 5 - 10 man squad, or leave only a couple models behind such that the return attacks won't really matter. With the guarantee to always go first, this is an effective defense method. And as far as the metagame goes, pesky rules like Feel No Pain, which is fairly common now, and will be even more so when Necrons hit, won't matter. So with Banshees, they are the winner for now with current game trends, but make sure to avoid swarms at all costs. Killing 10 out of 30 orks isn't that great an accomplishment :P

So what is the current status of the Eldar as far as assaults go? It depends. While lauded as their greatest asset, the specialization of the assault units makes them unwieldy to play consistently. And while I know that this isn't unique to the Eldar (Ork boyz can actually walk all over terminators just through sheer attrition for example), it's just painfully more obvious. Also, while I will stand by Wave Serpents till the end of days as the best transports in the game, the lack of assault vehicles as well as just the general rules exacerbate the situation. If spinning a vehicle didn't count as movement for the purpose of assaults, that would make things much easier to work with as far as Eldar assaulting. If you do plan on running either of the assault units mentioned, knowing and understanding their strengths and weaknesses is critical. In all situations, no Eldar unit should be operating on its own. For example, there should always be farseer support, or the scorpions are assaulting after a bladestorm to mop up the survivors, etc.

To sum everything up, assaulting for the Eldar is tricky. Each type of assault unit has little idiosyncrasies that make it good vs some, and bad vs others. You should obviously choose what you're most comfortable with, but if you plan on competing, Banshees seem to be the best choice right now with so many marines players. I'd love to hear some other thoughts out there.

-FF

P.S. I just realized I forgot a whole other unit, but I can sum them up very quickly: friends don't let friends play harlequins.

Eldar and "Decisive Assaults"

'Ard Boyz has been announced for August 13th, and my wheels are already spinning!

Unfortunately my first go at 'Ard Boyz last year ended with a poor positioning for me, and I don't want that to happen again. So where to start? A friend of mine once offered a comment that I completely agree with: "Warhammer 40K is a game of shooting with decisive assaults." This statement rang true with me immediately, and it's now a core concept that I build upon. Assaults are endeavors that usually require a significant time investment (measured in turns) on the part of a particular unit, and if you're running asault units, typically you have a plan for getting them into assault with your desired target and plan the assault occurring on your own terms. Usually this means cracking open a tank and assaulting the soft, gooey center on inside. Opening tanks is not a hard thing to do with a shooty army like the Craftworld Eldar, but the Eldar, unfortunately, aren't all that great at the assault phase. Their codex is built very much around the old editions (it is a 4th edition codex after all) when transports weren't all that great, and foot slogging was the primary means of moving around. "Footdar" lists are some of the best as far as foot slogging goes, and are only bested by Orks. Fleet, 2 different types of jump infantry and Eldar Jetbikes, and the Avatar are only a few items that make them hard to challenge on foot. There's also Heavy Support options like Wraithlords and Dark Reapers. Unfortunately, this all goes down the drain with the metagame. The point I'm trying to make here, is that Eldar assault units are built with the old metagame in mind and trying to use them effectively now on a consistent basis is tough, especially with a lack of zero assault vehicle options. It wouldn't be quite so bad if rotation didn't count as movement as far as assaults go, but it does. It's also worthwhile to note that one of our most popular "elite" assault units is only slightly better than space marine troops choices.

The best approach to Eldar assaults is to go with units that can "self-propel" as it were. And since both of the jump infantry units are dedicated to shooting (go figure, right?), this leaves jetbikes. In particular, bike councils and shining spears are the best choices for trying to own the assault phase, and each tends to specialize in handling a certain type of enemy. It is the Eldar after all...

Bike councils are best for assaulting vehicles, monstrous creatures, and basic infantry, and they can hold up a tougher (throughout this article, my standard for tough will be terminators) unit for quite a while. Vehicles and monstrous creatures are a no-brainer: Strength 9 vs armor means you'll have an easy time damaging any tank, including Land Raiders with the sheer number of attacks a properly built council can put out (please note, I said damaging, not destroying :P ). Monstrous Creatures are known for having a high toughness, and these guys get to ignore it. With Farseer support, you should have fortune running, meaning that you'll have a re-rollable 3+ armor and 4+ invulnerable, which again allows them to hold their own against Monstrous Creatures. Against elite choices though from other armies, namely terminators, they fall flat though. For as awesome as Witchblades are, they aren't power weapons, and unfortunately a generic farseer doesn't come with a power weapon option.

Normally, there would be two ways to hurt terminators (generally speaking): attrition or power weapons/AP2 shooting. A bike council offers neither. Unlike other "leadership level" models in the game, warlocks and farseers only have 1 attack on their profile, and the best shooting they have to offer, including powers, is AP4. The only saving grace the Eldar have in this situation is their durability. A fortuned 4+ invulnerable can be very frustrating to your terminator wielding opponent, and with you usually going first, there's a good chance you can kill 1 terminator before he gets to roll against you. In these situations, if it is critical that a terminator unit does not reach a certain destination on the board, I will assault them with the bike council to hold them up for a good 2 turns.The Shining Spears is a unit that I tended to overlook a lot, but I've been studying them a lot more recently, and they're becoming more appealing to me. They're decent at damaging light armored vehicles (rhinos or less) and they have Str 6 power weapons on the charge (yes they can shoot their laser lances, but str 6 with the lance effect is laughable). With hit and run, this unit can own. The drawbacks? Cost, max unit size, and their durability. They are expensive at 35 points/model without upgrades, and their limited to only 5 bikes in a squad. "But if they're so expensive, why is a small squad size so bad?" Well Jimmy, that means that the unit suffers hard with each casualty. If I'm going to spend a lot of points on a unit, I want them to survive the trip and still have some punch to them. I know at toughness 4(3) and having a 3+ armor save makes these guys tough as nails by Eldar standards, but anything that can kill marines with ease will rip this expensive unit to pieces. Abusing the already abuseable cover save rules will be your only choice. With farseer support, these guys can do reasonably well against units like regular termies (and by regular, I mean no storm shield). Their main issue is their squad size. It is severely limiting here. A good charge with farseer support can yield 2-3 dead termies (assuming 5+ save) on average. With normal squad sizes being 5, this can really hurt your opponent, but the return attacks will pretty much end the combat. Even against two termies, you're going to lose 2 bikes and there's nothing you can do to really stop it. Hit and Run will offer a chance to survive, but you're still hoping for a good roll.

In regards to jetbikes vs more elite opponents, you have mobility. It's usually best to ignore them. If it's inevitable, just do your best to make sure it's on your terms.

Quickly, I'd like to sum up how these units would work against horde type armies: Councils would do well, but not because of their assault prowess, but rather because of their entire package. Destructor is great for dealing with hordes, and fortuned 3+ armor means that even against a deluge of attacks, losses will be minimal. Here are the odds: a 2+ armor save has a ~17% chance to fail. A re-rollable 3+ has an ~11% chance to fail, so against a full squad of Ork boyz for example, a bike council is more durable than even TH/SS terminators (in terms of vanilla marines). This is all a calculated risk of course as it depends on the successful cast of Fortune.

Shining Spears on the other hand will fall rather ungracefully under a tide like this. As far as durability goes, they're basically just regular space marines, practically speaking. Better to keep these guys to intercepting basic infantry (essentially troops) and lightly armored vehicles (speeders, rhinos, etc).

If you're planning on running a bike council and it's going to be the focal point of your army, one thing you can do to increase it's killiness is to run it with a farseeer and an autarch. The autarch, properly equipped, can add a lot of power to the unit. He can bring either a regular power weapon, or, as I would suggest, a laser lance. The laser lance strikes on initiative, so if you have a warlock with enhance in the unit (which you should!), you end up with 5 S6 power weapon attacks striking on initiative 7, with farseer support. For extra fun, since a biker is relentless, you can give the autarch a reaper launcher :)

Now, if you think I'm completely writing off the effectiveness of the other assault units, Banshees and Scorpions, I'm not. Part 2 will talk about how to best utilize these guys.

-FF