As always I've got the Eldar on my mind these days. With a couple of games under my belt I thought I would turn my mind to fine tuning the list at 1500 points. The place where I think I should change up the army is with the falcon. There is a lot of hate right now for the falcon: some of it justified, some of it not. There is also no question in my mind that the wave serpent is probably the best tank in the new codex. But it does not help when a unit cannot take it as a squad upgrade. Enter the falcon then, for units such as rangers, harlequins and warlocks, they do not get the privilege of selecting a wave serpent for a dedicated transport. So with that in mind I decided to rethink my 5 man avenger unit that acted as a body guard for the farseer in the falcon.
Five avengers by themselves seems like a great waste to me. The strength of the avenger is in the maxed out squad. In order to take advantage of their rules you need to be rolling lots of dice. Bladestorm loses its luster when you only have 10 shots being pumped out. Also items such as grenades on rear armour ten or counter attack don't really seem worth it when you have only 5 models. The biggest draw back, however, is giving up the option of a wave serpent. Does not make sense lol. So I've decided to replace the avengers with rangers.
What to rangers bring to the table you might ask. Well first of all a savings of 5 points. That 5 points goes a long way as I now have room to give my farseer spirit stones (to reduce warp charge 2 to 1). This is a great bit of kit for any farseer as you can reliable get 3 powers off any given turn. Now with mechdar you are somewhat limited with the utility of the farseer. The line of site changes to 6th edition really suck. So the farseer (when embarked) is limited to only buffing the unit he is attached to and the tank he is ridding in. Seeing as 2 guides are primaris powers for the farseer, they seem redundant when he is in a wave serpent. In fact, part of the reason I like the falcon is that the farseer can buff it up tremendously. Re-rollable 4+ cover save and 4 twin linked AP 2 shots a turn makes for a solid battle tank. Especially when you consider it is protecting 5 squishy troop models for late game when they need to seize objectives.
To be fair, 6th edition mech lists do not play like they did in 5th. The most important change is the inability for troops to score when embarked (a close second is the introduction of hull points). So you must at times during any given game extract your models from the transport. The 5th edition mantra 'never leave your tanks' just does not fly anymore. This then provides another reason to max out your Avenger squads. You have a better chance of surviving when you have numbers on your side.
I suggest it is also to your advantage to bring your farseer out of your transports regularly through out the game as well. Being able to spreed 2 guide spells is a huge benefit to a BS 4 army. The avengers do not really help protect the farseer but for soaking up wounds. Also when using the spirit stones, your farseer forgoes his rune armour protection for a turn. This cost to using the stone is strongly mitigated when you have rangers escorting your farseer. With the rangers your farseer gains stealth that now provides a decent save when he draws on the spirit stone (up to a 2+ going to ground in ruins). The rangers provide your farseer with more durability than the avengers ever (at least at range).
Of course deciding to bring your farseer outside of the protective confines of the falcon is subject to the particulars of any given game. If your opponent is bringing tau; helldrakes; whirlwinds or the like you likely will start the game with your farseer embarked (not so much with helldrakes). But if you have first turn and you are not facing a lot of ignore firepower, then there likely will be many times when your farseer should start out the game outside but in arms length of the transport. Providing you the ability to twin link 2 more items in your list at least for the first turn.
So with all that confusing nonsense done with here is the new 1500 point list I am thinking of.
HQ:
Farseer - spirit stone
Troops:
3 x 10 Avengers - wave serpent, holo, lasers
5 Rangers
Heavy:
Falcon - holo, laser
Fire Prism - holo
Wraith Knight
Minor changes to the list but I think it will perform better now. All things being perfect (ie first turn, you rolled fortune, guide, prescience) I can start the game with all my long range guns twin linked. The farseer and rangers try and find ruins to start out in with the falcon and wraith knight (with one toe standing in the ruins as well or best cover available) close by. My fire prism needs to then be within 24 inches of the farseer on my set up to get the benefit of guide. I can be more flexable with the starting arrangement of my wave serpents as they act independently to the other elements of my list. Finally the falcon upgrades the starcannon to a scatter laser to twin link the pulse laser (miss the star cannon though) This set up allows me to bring to bear on my first turn the following twin linked BS 4 shots:
2 strength 10 AP shots at 36 inch range
1 strength 9 lance AP 1 shot at 60 inch range (plus the other 2 blast versions of gun)
2 strength 8 AP 2 shots 36 inch range (twin linked range is reduced due to scatter laser)
3d6+3 strength 7 AP - shots at 36 inch range that pin and ignore cover (the bread and butter of list)
12 strength 6 shots (and 4 non twin linked for total of 18) AP 6 at 36 inch range
It is important to note that I can effectively add 12 inches to all of the above ranges with the movement of all of my units with out sacrificing any fire power. At 1500 points that is a lot of guns for any opponent to deal with. Thats 28 to 43 pin point accurate shots coming off the top first turn. Priority targets being an opponents anti tank then poison/sniper shots. Second turn then my avengers will be in a position to pounce with 60 rending light shots. As mentioned in an earlier post, the wraith knight acts as a utility character shooting or blocking in coming assaults et al.
I'm thinking that swapping out the avengers for rangers is a good idea. Bringing my list up to 1850 I'm planning to add another avenger serpent and 5 jet bikes to allow me some late game shenanigans. Wow what a wall of text. If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read.
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