General Tactics

[Ravinella]

In the near future I have a grudge match against 1500 pts of Eldar.

 

I was looking for some general advice/tactics in fighting elder as it's a long time since I faced any.

 

I'll probably be facing some sort of seer council, some fire dragons (?), some guardians as well as whatever the eldar heavy tank is.

 

I can pretty much field anything I want from C:SM as a vanilla, no special characters chapter.

 

Hoping for something a bit more specific than shoot the assaulty ones and assault the shooty ones :)

[Justicar Valius]

Expect Grey Mage to do somthing like the following:

 

YOU RANG

 

Tactics and such about Eldar to follow....

 

Also: Dead Eldar

[Koremu]

How to deal with a Seer Council; Drop A Librarian in TDA with a Storm Shield & 5 Terminators with an Assault Cannon on them.

[Jackelope King]

Shoot them. Shoot them until they die from it.

 

In all seriousness, Eldar in the hands of a good general are nasty, but certainly not unbeatable. If you're going to tailor your list, grab a naked Librarian for your HQ, or if you plan on using TH/SS termies to win the day (I think they're pricy at this level), stick him in Terminator armor. See, Psychic Hood makes Eldar cry. The Null Zone power makes the Seer Council cry blood. Especially if the Council is unmounted.

 

Fire Dragons are nasty, but really the only truly reliable anti-tank the Eldar get. Expect them to come down, pop a tank, and then you shoot them to death. Ideally, pop their transport with some autocannons or krak missiles fired en masse before they can get to you.

 

Eldar tanks are insanely tough, especially when taken in huge numbers. In smaller numbers, they're more manageable. And if he's running a hybrid foot/mech list, Eldar infantry turn into a ball and chain for the tanks. So long as you take enough long-ranged firepower, you'll win the firefight against them eventually.

 

Guardians are garbage. Farmers with pitchforks. Save them for last, or if no other targets present themselves.

[Cadarn]

Heavy Bolters and Missile Launchers.

 

Heavy Bolers are perfect Eldar killers. Most Eldar infantry has at best 4+ save, and with them all being T3, that's s 2 to wound and no armour save. One round of shooting from a TL Heavy Bolter can rip the heart out of any small Eldar unit, and still lay some hurt on the larger ones. And the nice thing is that as a Marine player, you can spam these out for very little cost. Auto cannons are just as nice. One less shot, but more range and higher strength, so great at taking out light vehicles such as Vypers and War Walkers.

 

Missile Launcher are also great. Frag missiles are wonderful against guardians, or any other Eldar infantry, and the Krak missiles are the most efficient anti vehicle weapon you'll find. Wave Serpents ignore anything over Str 8 from the front arc, so forking out on the expensive Lascannon or Melta isn't worth it so much. Missile Launchers are also cheap as chips, so you can have plenty of them and they are great for taking down any vehicle or Wraithlord.

 

Librarians will be VERY handy. The Psychic Hood will help to mitigate any psychic powers that get used (doesn't work on Warlock powers though, so be aware), and Null zone will be very useful for mitigating those pesky Seer Council saves.

 

If you have the points for it, then Sternguard can be a nice choice. They can use either Hellfire or Kraken rounds. Hellfire rounds are very useful against Wraithlords, and one round of shooting should send him on his way. Kraken rounds give you extra range and some more blessed AP4.

 

Heavy Flamers are terrifying against Eldar. With reasonably small squads, one shot from a heavy flamer can take out a whole unit. Mounted on a fast platform such as a Land Speeder will also help to chase them down.

 

As for tactics, it can vary greatly dependant on how he plays his force. If he plays a fast mechanised army then don't go chasing him as he will simply split up your army and then take it apart a piece at a time (a favoured tactic of mine when I play Eldar). If he likes a stationary shooting army then drop pods are your friend, as you can get behind his line and make with the rapid fire goodness.

 

As a cover all tactic, I would suggest planning your army around two sections, a hammer and anvil set up. The Hammer should take the form of Tactical drop pods (or sternguard), speeders and maybe an Assault Squad (2 flamers). Something that can either deep strike, or close the distance quickly. The Anvil should be devastators, Dakka predators, Tactical squads (or sternguard) and even Assault Squads again. Something that will sit still and pound at him as he flies around the table and then if he gets too close can pounce with rapid fire goodness and a defensive charge.

 

But generally, Heavy Bolters and Missile Launchers are gold.

[Justicar Valius]

^^^

 

So you are suggesting land speeder typhoons am i correct?

 

Awseome against everything the days.

[greatcrusade08]

Pm grey mage, he wrote some good tactics called dead eldar in the librarium forum

[bystrom]

shake the fire prism (heavy eldar tank?), as its going to be tough destroying, guardians tend to die to just about anything, they don't like flamers. Against guardians and rangers, whirlwind or thunderfire (you choice), failing that, flamers or sternguards, or even better, close combat. Though as Jackelope King's said, they're not much of a threat.

 

No eldar likes heavy flamers.

 

If you actually want to destroy fire prisms or falcons, you've really only got one choice, melta weapons, with the eldar holofields, two dice and choose the lowest for damage table, you need the +1 that AP1 brings, so you raise your chances from 1/9 (11%) to 1/4 (25%) (that is, to get a destroyed result). Problem is getting close enough, you'll need speed, melta weapons have short range so you're risking whatever you're using to deliver the meltas. Which is why the above suggestions all say missile launchers. They have range, avoid eldar special rules, have decent strength, allow you to shake the eldar tanks and can kill infantry quite well.

[Ming]

Shoulda read this before last wednesday...oh...it wasn't written yet! LOML!!!!

 

Yep, I played a 2000 point game vs an eldar horde army last week. All the advise above would have applied.

 

From my "blog fame" here in B&C I took a Kantor-led force, actually designed for ork/IG/Tyranid horde. We played an Adepticon Scenario (3 objectives, spearhead).

 

The game started awesome for me.

 

My list included 2 dev squads (one all ML, one all HB), a sternguard (2 PCs), assault marines, whirlwind, terminators, librarian, 2 tac squads in rhinos, Kanrtor, yadayada.

 

Turns 1-2 I slaughtered horde guardian squads with maybe 3 models of my own being lost. Sounds awesome.

 

I did this all the while 2 wraithlords, 1 Khaine, Eldrad, and harlies advanced up the middle. My assualt marines, libby, and termies were in reserve, the dice gods not wanting them on the board.

 

Turn 3, assault marines arrive and finish off 2 guardian squads. Termies and libby remained in the transporter...wraithlords and Khaine hit my line, I start losing guys because even the the wraithlords are wounded, once in HTH I cannot kill them. And I'm stubborn....I cannot run away...whirlwind is immobile and weaponless.

 

Turn 4 the termies come in but deviate onto the harlies...I roll on the perils table, and the termies and libby are placed in a far table corner...I don't have Gate. They start the long run back towards the fight. Eldrad and harlies finish off my assault troops. We each own an objective.

 

Turn 5 My termies are advancing and shooting at a remnant guardian squad heading for objective #3. I'm pounding them but they are not breaking. I rush 2 rhinos onto Objective 2 to contest them, and I'm still holding objective 3. The eldar have killed off the devs, and are munching sternguard. I kill Khaine. It is a draw, then we go to turn 6.

 

 

Turn 6 termies are advaning, libby is killed by a eldar cannon with a lucky shot. Have killed a bunch of harlies, but am being whittled down. Kantor is killed by Eldrad. Wraithlords go back and attack the rhinos, wrecking one. The other rhino is tank shocking and moving around like a madman. Still 1-1 tie.

 

Turn 7 - I'm spent. Eldrad and remnant harlies kill off my last troops at oobjetive 1, objective 2 rhino is now wrecked by rampaging wraithlords, and I cannot get the guardians on objective 3 to break. I lose, 2-1....

 

The woulda-coulda-shouldas:

 

1. Coulda start game with terminators and libby on board. Extra firepower would have been great, libby would have aided cancelling eldrads spells. Gate and smite would have been great, rather than Machine Curse and Avenger.

2. Shoulda shot the wraithlords first instead of the guardians, killing them was a key element that cost me alot of firepower.

3. Woulda started all the marines outside their vehicles, to maximize shots, and woulda had my whirlwind hidden elsewhere or start it off-board, cause the eldar to focus in 2 directions rather than one.

[Ravinella]

Thanks for everyones suggestions, the dead eldar link was very helpful, as was your post Ming.

 

I have a few ideas on Librarian equipping now where I was still thinking.

 

I suppose I better go back to painting this terminator librarian so that I can use him although I could use the old style one if I don't get him finished to my satisfaction

[Grey Mage]

Sorry, my PM box is full if you tried. Ill deal with that tonight.

 

Why dont your tactical squads have powerfists? And why werent the wraithlords targetted by your lascannons and missile launchers? The gaurdians were certainly not going to be large enough to grant them a cover save, and as a monstrous creature you need to be obscured by 50% to get the 4+.

 

Seriously... its JUST like shooting tyranids against the army you described- Shoot the BIG ones first. Use your whirlwinds and anyone who doesnt have a clear shot to hit gaurdians, but those monsters should be your first target. No armor save= no fortune rerolls.

 

THEN once the gaurdians are right on your doorstep just walk up and rapid fire. Theyll melt like ice cream in phoenix.

 

I see my article has already been linked... I need to post a couple more articles up *looks sheepish*

 

Your army list of units looks fine... just some equipment tweaks and better target priority.

 

Though you might want to consider dropping the assault terminators for something more useful.