The Hunt: Craftworld Eldar

[MeatGrinder]

So taking a cue from the prepping for death guard post I think we should start a series of threads each discussing facing off against some of these new army books as they come out.

 

This time: upcoming Craftworld eldar.

 

What we know so far:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/10/17/craftworld-focus-Ulthwé-oct-17gw-homepage-post-3/

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/10/16/craftworld-focus-iyanden-oct-16gw-homepage-post-3/

 

So to get started lets talk about your experiances with the index eldar so far.

[Karhedron]

I play SWs and Eldar so this may help. Craftworlders are a bit gimped in the Index list with only a subset of really dangerous units. Wraithguard, Dark Reapers and the Hemlock fighter are probably the most dangerous units as they all have comparatively high strength and RoF shooting combined with enough AP to dent power armour. Wave Serpents are very tough for their points but only moderately shooty by themselves so should only be treated as threateningly as their cargo.

 

Deep Striking units are the way to clear Eldar backfield units. Reapers are fearsome shooters but still only T3 so easily gunned down. Eldar are expensive and most players cannot afford to bubble-wrap their shooty units. Eldar units tend to be highly specialised so the old maxim of "shoot the choppy and chop the shooty" applies well.

 

While only their infantry are normally only T3 (apart from Wraithguard), they do still have access to good armour (several Aspects have a 3+ save) so don't be afraid to invest in some plasma, it won't be wasted.

 

Mobilty is important when facing Eldar as they will tend to dance around you a lot given half a chance. Units in Razorbacks, bikers and TWC are all good for catching them up. Eldar have a lot of units that Fly so don't expect to hamper their shooting if you catch them in assault but do make the most of any hits you can bring to bear. Even Grey Hunters can do respectable damage to any Eldar unit not optimised for assault.

 

Eldar are pretty good on psychics. Fortunately their Warlocks only have access to Destructor rather than Smite so you are unlikely to face proper Smite-spam from them. I would normally take Njal if possible as he can Deny 2 powers per turn and gets an additional +1 to Deny which will help to keep a lid on their worst psychic excesses.

 

Lastly, we don't need to fear Wraithknights the way we used to. They now clock in around 100 points more than a comparable Imperial Knight and are actually slightly less impressive. In my last game against one, I took one down in a single turn by softening it up with a bit of shooting first and then Bjorn tore it apart in assault with a whopping 17 points of damage. It never even got to strike back.

 

Having said all that, the new Eldar codex is less than 2 weeks away so this information is somewhat time-limited.

[Wolf Guard Dan]

Dang I don't know how to follow up after Karhedronuk's post. Good post man.

 

What we probably know is the units aren't going to change very much outside of point adjustments so I think most of your advice will be usable.

 

The real change comes from stratagems and craftworld traits. Can't really talk about the stratagems at this point because there's going to be a lot more than they've already revealed. The ones they've revealed don't look too strong.

 

The traits aren't game-breaking. Natfka posted something with all 5 craftworld traits (the other two are still a rumor at this point). Saim Hann will be good for scatbikes. Alaitoc will probably be seen a decent amount for their -1 to hit at 12"+. The others are okay. Biel tann good for lots of shuriken. Iyanden good for Knights and vehicles. I don't think their LD trick is that great. Ulthwé may be good because it automatically makes your army 16% more durable. 

 

We may be a good foil for Eldar because they are so specialized and if we can play to their weaknesses we can win games.