Eldar Reserves

[jjfelber]

How does the Eldar Reserves strategy work?

 

I have a game tonight against Eldar, I have never faced eldar and all I know is that the can start their entire Army in reserves and can bring them all on first turn with "Strategy Points?".

 

Does that mean they can come on from any table edge? Do they have to roll to see if the unit enters? This could be devastating as he gets first turn no matter what, gets to see my complete deployment, and my drop pods become kinda worthless.

 

How do eldar reserves work and how do I combat them?

[Uncooked]

in a standard eldar army, there is nothing special about reserves besides from the fact they roll at +1 is there is an Autarch included in the army.

 

i.e Turn 2 they come on a 3+ instead of 4+, on Their Turn 3 they arrive on a 2+ if the Autarch is still alive.

 

All usualy rules apply if they have the scouts special rules (Which war walkers have)

[wiplash]

if they have 2 autarchs it stacks to 2+ i believe

they come in on their board edge

turn 2 or later (not turn 1) the strategy i believe is to leave the troops off the board and scoop the objectives last turn with jetbikes

 

so if you get first turn then you get 2 turns in a row before he comes on, in that time you can get great defensive positions or even just sit on his board edge waiting for him!

you dont need to bring your drop pods if you dont want too just wait until he comes in

[Adarul Greystalker]

Mechanized eldar armies often use a strategy where they reserve their entire army and use one or more autarchs (an HQ independant character) to allow them to add to their reserve rolls. With two autarchs, the eldar player can bring any of his reserves on in the second turn on a 2+. This allows him to effectively achieve an alpha strike regardless of who actually goes first. They have to enter from their own board edge, with the exception of a few units that your opponent may or may not use, such as war walkers and striking scorpions. However, their vehicles are incredibly fast, so you may find yourself outmaneuvered regardless.

 

There are a few ways that this can throw a wrench in your plans. The main one is the thing that you touched on already, which is the problem of drop pods. Obviously, a drop pod assault onto an empty board is not desirable. The best way to combat this (other than not using drop pods against eldar) is to take an equal number of empty and full drop pods. If you have, for instance, two drop podding units, take two additional drop pods with units that don't need to use their transport options like long fangs or ranged dreads. If your opponent reserves everything, just drop the empty pods in the first turn or use them to deploy your ranged units into more advantageous positions. Then you can bring in your terminators or grey hunters later on after the eldar have decided to show up. It's crucial to take the second turn in this kind of situation, but your opponent will probably be trying to go second as well, so good luck with that.

 

As far as general strategy goes, mechanized eldar will usually be fast and hard to pin down. They'll try to shoot you from range, only closing in to pounce on units that you leave unsupported or to contest objectives with their tanks in last turn or so. Strategically, you should take a lot of ranged firepower if possible. Any close-range units you take should have good speed. Rhino squads can't chase down eldar skimmers or jetbikes, so use them to threaten enemy forces without committing to a charge until you can shoot down a few skimmers with missile launchers or land speeder meltas. Then you can send in the grey hunters or blood claws to smash the fragile infantry that spill out, but don't commit to an attack without support. Remember your objectives and don't spread out too much if you can help it. Your enemy's battle plan is probably to lure you into spreading out, destroying dangerous units with fast strikes, and then tank shocking and turbo boosting onto objectives at the last minute.

 

That's your intel report. Now figure out how to counter it :lol:

[SJumppanen]

Just a reminder that Eldar (and everyone else) can come from the reserves at the first turn in the "dawn-of-war" scenario.

 

I was also wondering if this new Battle Missions -book can change some things, but i would imagine that use of that book requires consent of the both parties.

[Grey Mage]

The Eldar have a strategy rating... but that does absolutely nothing in 5th edition. Ever.

[Mike Somerville]

The Autarch has a rule called "Master Strategist", which give Eldar +1 to reserve rolls. (This is likely what they were referring to)

If you win the die roll, force the Eldar player to go first. (It actually puts us at a disadvantage)

 

Eldar players do not like playing long games (5+ turns) as we hit hard but tend to fold once our transports go down.

We usually give up one turn of firing due to our reserves tricks. The difference is, if we force you to go first, you lose 2 turns of firing, while we only lose one.

 

Couple this with Random Game Length and it is entirely possible that you could only have 3 'real' turns against an Eldar player.

Try to take out the Wave Serpents in the first two turns, especially ones carrying scoring units. (If the mission relies on them)

 

-Mike

[jjfelber]

After all was said and done I walked away with a win.

 

2RP

2LF units

2GH units in Rhinos

1 WG unit in DP

2 Venerable Dreads in DPs

 

He managed to destroy 2 Rhinos, 2 LF units and 1 RP.

 

I believe he had (bad with names)

 

1 Fire Dragons in Wave Serpent (2 Hvy Flamers killed the entire unit and immobilized the Serpent)

1 Banshees in Wave Serpent (GH1s Destroyed the Serpent and Charged and killed the banshees)

2 Dire avenger units in Wave Serpents (VDread1 made one unit flee off the board and destroyed the Serpent, GH2s Destroyed the other unit)

2 War Walker Squads (were a nuisance and started to die to LL in last few turns)

1 Viper Bike Squad (VDread2 Killed one and GH1s Killed one)

1 Autarch (Fell to WG in GHs)

1 Farseer (Ran off Board

1 Wrathlord (Crushed in one turn by taking 3 wounds in CC with VDread2)

 

At the end He had 2 Wave Serpents Immobilized 1 of 3 Viper Bikes, 2 of 3 War Walkers, and 1 of 3 War Walkers.

[Mike Somerville]

Good work.

How many points was this?

 

-Mike

[SJumppanen]

Good work.

How many points was this?

 

-Mike

 

I'd say 2K at least.

[jjfelber]

You are Correct 2k