"No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy."
"All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved."
- Sun Tzu
I've been playing Warhammer 40,000 for a number of years now. I know, I'm too old for pleasant diversions that keep my mind sharp. Somewhere along the line I went from 'what's an organizational chart again' to 'beardy veteran of death and glory'. I have a number of tactical, statistical and design concepts I want to discuss: first I will discuss my own method for winning Eldar army list design, as well as how and why it works. Presumably this is written for people who are involved in the hobby.
Fluff-wise -- and in theory -- the Eldar list is supposed to be the most tactical list, behind the Tau. They certainly have the most specialized units (not to mention imo varied and fun) of any other army. Another Sun Tzu maxim, their biggest strength is their ability to concentrate firepower and hit hard where it is needed. According to the fluff, their strength is their ability to conduct hit and run raids and overcome their opponent with their advanced technology and fearless arrogance.
In practice their concentration of firepower comes in four forms: mobile heavy weapons and fast vehicles; devastating assault squads, Eldar Farseers and the not-so-humble shuriken catapult. The idea is that if you're playing a 2000 points game you want to set it up so say 650 of your own points (say guardians or a tricked out Falcon) are in his face taking hits while the rest of your army is positioned to completely take out 500 of his points. After the smoke settles he should be down say 800 points and you're down maybe 350 points. After that you should hopefully pull off a victory. Note that because Eldar are designed to be _good_ at this, they have other weaknesses and victory is by no means certain.
The problem is of course -- your opponent gets to shoot back. Space Marine HQ are 150 to 200 points of single base concentrated firepower goodness. Any experienced Eldar (or Tau) player has a 'what is this shit' story as one jump-pack-wearing, master-crafted-weapon-wielding 25 mm base blew a massive gaping hole in their battle line. We don't get that. It might sound obvious, but a winning Eldar general (Autarch?) has to avoid turning his army into an 'upside down pyramid' relying on one favorite unit.
Here's a list I used against an opponent for a pair of games last time he was in town.
Avatar 155
Scorpions 212
Wraithguard 140
Harlequins + Falcon 335
2x Guardians 159 and 165
Dire Avengers 177
Pathfinders 120
2x Vyper (EML) 65 each
Swooping Hawks 173
2x Fire Prism 115 each
I included the point costs, because with the exception of the Harlequins and the Falcon everything is ~150 to 200 points. Your opponent can only shoot so much in one turn and if one squad is removed from play the rest of the army is positioned. The only expensive unit is the most resilient tank in the game. And every shot at a Falcon is one less shot at the Avatar making the army fearless or those beautiful 2006 Codex Fire Prisms with their AP3 pie plate. Or even the Wraithguard, which always have their uses in a balanced list even if they rarely get their points back.
According to the fluff, Eldar units are specialized, and they are an aggressive race. This is true at least. Each unit has a purpose and it needs to live up to it. Guardians have an assault weapon for a reason. Get them stuck in. They might get wiped out 2 turns later but the opposing squad was denied the charge. They were going to attack anyway.
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The important thing to notice here is that every unit has its job and your enemy gets to attack too. 40k isn't chess. It's a skirmishing game where movement is very free flowing and there are lots of long range weapons that can take your squads out from a distance. 'Guardians suck!'? They're not the greatest. Lacking ATSKNF they have a tendency to get cut down in close combat for one. Embolden or an Avatar can mitigate this. But their job is to get stuck in combat and shoot something with shuriken catapults. It's not a question of whether a unit 'gets its points back' -- altho that's a good measuring stick -- victory goes to the player who positions and plays his units such that the army as a whole is guaranteed victory.
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3 comments:
I notice you don't take any Jetbikes? What do you think of them? Speed & mobility Vs. points and only 12" on the shuriken catapults?
I've never used jetbikes, but when I think of them, I compare them to Space Marine Bikes, which I like.
When I take Space Marine Bikes for 152 points you get 3 bikes, 1 Heavy Bolter Attack bike, 1 flamer and frag grenades. So you get 4 TL bolters that count as a stationary platform and 1 Heavy Bolter, and you get a Space Marine statline w/ some assault ability.
The comparison for guardian bikes is for the same price you get six guardians and 2 Shuriken cannons.
Considering their speed, we can ignore the Heavy Bolter's longer range. After moving, when the enemy is > 12" and < 24" the guardians get 6 S6 shots, which equates to 2.5 wounds before armour saves on a MEQ or else 1.25 dead Fire Warriors. The Space Marine bikes at the same distance get 3.11 wounds on MEQ before armour saves and kill 2.45 Fire Warriors (with no cover save).
So as a shooting platform the Space Marine bikes are better.
The difference is that the guardian bikes are a squad of six, and they still haven't had a chance to fire their Shuriken catapults.
Within the Eldar list, my 14 man squads w/ a Scatterlaser and conceal come to 159 points. While they often take casualites, I'd guess that about 2/3 of them get a chance to let rip and shoot their Shuriken catapults at something, so lets say hand-waving 7 to 9 of them survive to fire their Shuriken catapults, this would be compared to the 3 or 4 bikes that would survive to fire theirs.
So I'd say guardians have a slight edge on offence, as well as resiliency w/ conceal and the extra wounds.
Like you said, what you get with your points w/ the bikes is mobility. This increases tactical options slightly, altho not as much as someone might think. It also gives them a chance to fire on turn 2 rather than maybe having to wait for turn 3, and lets them keep up with other fast units.
The problem is that like you say they have 12" on their shuriken catapults, and after they make their assault move they are in rapid fire range. If they're on a flank, that's fine but it's ineffective as line troops.
The other thing they can do is tank hunt. For 129 points you get a Shuriken cannon and a Spearlock w/ embolden. Pretty good for a Troop choice.
So bascically I think they kind of suck :). I don't consider them to be line troops but they are an effective flank/harraser if you deploy them right. What you want is you want your opponent to split his force to go after them, they are a bait or distraction unit, at least the way that I would use them.
They just aren't me, not as line troops. That doesn't mean Saim Hann isn't INSANELY COOL. I love your case, btw I have a thing for army transports.
If I took them as line troops I think I'd try 10 man squads with enhance and three cannons coming in at 288 points each.
Tactically what I do is put two squads of guardians w/ some other resiliant assault support front and center and then have everything else fly around and shoot. If my assault squads start to get out manouvered I just shoot the offending squad before assaulting it. Rinse and repeat.
Now that said, maybe I'm overestimating their weakness to rapid fire. Part of their increased cost is T4 and a 3+ save which can shrug off an awful lot of bolter fire. 6 bolters kills 32 points worth of guardians and about the same points of jetbikes. And then the jetbikes can Move->shoot->assault, and they are I5 w/ enhance.
In this case they are line troops front and center but they are also a bait unit as well. You _want_ them to rapid fire the bikes, just like guardians. I find that guardians never work unless they're used aggresively. Of course you could also hang back at longer range plunking with the Shuriken Cannons.
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