SM VS Saim Hann

[timmyta]

Hi I shall be playing a 1k game against a saim hann force and was wondering if anyone had any advice, I have a large amount of models to choose from ( I usualy play 2-3k games) the saim hann player is limited to-

12 jetbikes (4 cannons)

aurtach on jb

vyper

a war walker

a psycher and banshees in a wave serpent

He tends to use alot of lances, I was thinking of using assault marines tu hunt down the bikes and a terminator squad with cyclone and lib to jumb out board with gate as I`m guessing he wont plan on me being so mobile

[Jakobus]

I guess the first thing is which Codex you are using and what the points are.

 

If you are using C:SM I'd recommend 2 Devestator Squads, Terminators in a Landraider (a LRR I think would be cool as the Flamestorm cannons will do bad things to Eldar) to go at the Bikes

You'll probably want to disable the Wave Sepent as soon as possible to slow down the Banshees.

I'm trying to remember the various loads for a Thunderfire cannon, but I kind of remember someone planning a mobility limiting force with that in there, but I don't have those rules so I can't really comment too much.

[Br0ther Rafen]

Well, if he has shining spears then you probably want to take them out early. If they assualt you, then it's gonna get ugly let me tell you.

A good way of taking them out (or at least tarpitting them) is to use an assualt squad and assualt them before you get assualted. Also, they have only a toughness of 4, which is bad for bikers at least. Blast weapons aren't that great, since they can spread out a lot. so multishot/large blasts are your best bet to take out those fast bikers.

If the banshees are getting close, don't panic. aslong as you kill the seer then it reduces their effectivness quite drastically. they will usually only kill about 1-4 guys per assualt at most. that doesn't mean tat you should assualt them however.

Last note, heavy bolters work a charm here. cheap, effective and S5 they will ruin an average of 2 bikers per single salvo. Devs with 4 HB's will elimanate any scary eldar jetbike squads. (Shining Spears are a good target)

[Fetterkey]

I don't find heavy bolters to be as effective against Eldar jetbikes as you claim, since Eldar jetbikes have 3+ saves.

[Mysticaria]

Not sure I would recommend a LR here. Low points game makes it a big investment.... and lances are good against high AV. If the opponant has a lot of lances I would think LR should be the last thing you bring. I would stick to cheaper transports. Also, I am not a fan of gate of infinity, especially with his force being so mobile. Libby and termies are going to run at least 330 and with only 6 models they will have to be extremely careful of where to land or they will just get shot/assaulted right away.

 

Devs with heavy bolters are not usually seen, but this could be a good use in this matchup. There doesn't appear to be too many units in the other army that you wouldn't be able to use them against. At the very least they could be used to create a jetbike exclusion area.

 

-Myst

[Ryjak]

A Saim Hain player will inevitably play an Air style, so it's important to know how it plays. He's going to use his extreme speed and mobility to pick his targets and try to isolate your forces. The general counter is to either A) play very defensively, so that you don't have any isolated forces, or B) play very aggressively, and try to grab 'em and hold them.

 

In either case, you have to maintain your composure and patience throughout the game. Saim Hain can be one of the most frustrating armies to fight, because when they're doing well, you're loosing forces with no way to fight back.

[Br0ther Rafen]

I don't find heavy bolters to be as effective against Eldar jetbikes as you claim, since Eldar jetbikes have 3+ saves.

 

Well yeah, if you use like one HB. HB spam, however, is very effective against bikes. even SM bikes hav been sythed down by HB fire from my squads.

Just remember to grab their objective. :D

[thade]

Keep your marines together. Spreading your guys out vs Eldar is playing into your opponent's hands. Each Eldar unit is horribly broken in one aspect of game play (e.g. some are awesome at sustained ranged anti-infantry fire, others at close-range anti-vehicle; still others are awesome for the charge in an assault, and others are good for sustained assault tarpits...) so if you split your marines up, that will let your opponent pit against your units whatever would best handle them. This is bad for you.

 

If you keep your marines close together, they can support each other versus Eldar shenanigans.

 

Jetbikes: An Eldar is T3 and +1 for the bike means you're just shooting at marines. Hose them down with the Emperor's Holy Rapid-fire. Two tactical squads' worth of shots will send them packing.

 

Autarch: Pretty good in melee. If you have an assault team on standby behind your two tactical squads, it can countercharge in when teh Autarch brings the pain to your tactical squads, or better still: charge the Autarch after the first volley when his unit is cut in half.

 

Banshees: These ladies are *amazing* on the charge with a huge volume of attacks, and they all have power weapons. In later rounds they still have powre weapons but will not hit as often. They'll still clean you out. You brought a unit of Devs or some other anti-vehicle, right? Ground that Wave Serpent!! Make them slog then ra-ra-ra-rapid fire them down. Do everything you can to keep distance between you and the Banshees...you don't want to go into melee with them.

 

Warwalker: Whenever I see these things, they come with missile launchers and they outflank...then they're really annoying. They're fragile though; a good round of Devastator missile fire should do the trick.

 

Eldar Psyker: If your opponent is a savy Eldar player, that psyker will be a discount Your-Librarian-Is-Useless model, so forget about Gating around. Not unless you think you can pass all your psychic tests on 3d6 (and keep in mind that any roll over 11 on those 3d6 is a miscast).

 

No matter how mobile you are, he will be more mobile: he's Eldar. Their transports are Fast Skimmers and the entire army (with like one exception) is Fleet. Beaming your terminators around the table is like playing into his hands. =( What are the lances mounted on? If you have a unit of assault terminators, this wouldn't be a bad time to have them foot-slog it with a chaplain.They would give the banshees a run for their money, when they inevitably charge one of your tac squads.

 

Eldar are a fun fight; they are in many ways a finesse army. Try to ground their transports to prevent them from turbo-boosting onto Objectives on Turn 5. In fact, try to ground their transports period. ;) Good luck!

[Brother_Fatiswon]

Banshees: These ladies are *amazing* on the charge with a huge volume of attacks, and they all have power weapons. In later rounds they still have powre weapons but will not hit as often. They'll still clean you out. You brought a unit of Devs or some other anti-vehicle, right? Ground that Wave Serpent!! Make them slog then ra-ra-ra-rapid fire them down. Do everything you can to keep distance between you and the Banshees...you don't want to go into melee with them.

 

just food for thought would not a base line dread in a pod (MM/SH/DCCW) be the cheap and prefect choice for tar pitting a Banshees/serpent death squad? or even lose the drop pod, and have the dread tucked in your line to "step out" at the right moment?

[Hellios]

Hi I shall be playing a 1k game against a saim hann force and was wondering if anyone had any advice, I have a large amount of models to choose from ( I usualy play 2-3k games) the saim hann player is limited to-

12 jetbikes (4 cannons)

aurtach on jb

vyper

a war walker

a psycher and banshees in a wave serpent

He tends to use alot of lances, I was thinking of using assault marines tu hunt down the bikes and a terminator squad with cyclone and lib to jumb out board with gate as I`m guessing he wont plan on me being so mobile

 

Their is a good chance you won't be able to use your psychic powers against the Eldar due to upgrades on the Farseer, however a Libby may be worth taking so that you can use his psychic hood.

 

As has been mentioned speed is the best weapon of the Eldar, you don't want to split apart you want to stick together and ram your fist down his throat, Land Raiders are a waste against Eldar... if he has lots of lances... I knew a guy who brought a Land Raider in 500pts... I always beat him as I had 5 units that could destroy it in my 500pts cheaper rhinos however don't care if someone had a missile or a lance... Shuriken Catapults will hurt you... but they need to get closer for that...

 

A common tactic for Eldar players using jetbikes is to hide behind terrain move shoot and then move back behind terrain again (I'm in the right edition yes?)

So these will be a pain, although if they don't come near me and if you can use cover to your advantage you shouldn't take to much damage (expect turn 5 turbo-boosts onto objectives)...

 

I would suggest having a look Land Speeder Typhoons with range 48 they should be able to stay out of range of Shuriken catapults and they have the fire power to easily destroy the Vyper and War Walker and iif you have a few you should be able to take the Wave serpent as well... on foot you should butcher the bashees with shooting. Twin-linked auto-cannon dreads can also bring the pain but suffer from being slow.

 

I assumed you play normal marines :P

[thade]

just food for thought would not a base line dread in a pod (MM/SH/DCCW) be the cheap and prefect choice for tar pitting a Banshees/serpent death squad? or even lose the drop pod, and have the dread tucked in your line to "step out" at the right moment?

 

Dread vs Banshees is win for the Dread in most cases, sure...but if your marines were all together it'd be very easy to get the Dread over there to help. If your marines are spread out, and you DP that Dread, well the Fleet banshees - if they aren't in their transport still - will easily outpace the dread and leave him behind, so they can focus on something else.

 

Eldar WANT you to Drop Pod in and spread out. That lets them pair off your units with theirs, ensuring that you are fighting uphill - if not impossible - skirmishes across the table. Be a turtle. <3 It's okay if you're a fast-moving, bring the fight to their table edge turtle...but still a turtle.

[Farromeister]

I like to take sternguard against eldar - with there mulitple choice rounds and the ability to have them as a combi weapon mean they can take pretty much anything out - and can give the banshees a run for their money in combat as they have two attacks base. Don't discount using the helffire rounds on the bikers as they will get saving throws against all your ammo but you will be forcing more armour saves ;)

[thade]

I like to take sternguard against eldar - with there mulitple choice rounds and the ability to have them as a combi weapon mean they can take pretty much anything out - and can give the banshees a run for their money in combat as they have two attacks base. Don't discount using the helffire rounds on the bikers as they will get saving throws against all your ammo but you will be forcing more armour saves :)

 

I disagree. The banshees in melee will tear apart virtually any squad you have, save maybe hammernators and Dreadnoughts. They are going to strike first and all of their attacks ignore armor saves: they will eat the sternguard in one round of melee.

 

That said, sternguard are remarkably good at range (which is why your opponent will want to send Banshees against them) so give them a combi-melta or two (to pop a banshee transport) and have a Dread close by. Ideally you would never engage the banshees in Melee. In general, each Eldar unit is super-powered in one aspect of the game. For banshees it's melee. For each unit, figure out what it's super-powered at, and don't let it play that game. Kite their melee and assault their super-ranged.