Dealing with Eldar Strats

[Gentlemanloser]

They have a few tasty, er annoying, strats.

 

1. Anti ds. Gives a unit a shooting attack against a ds unit. Better than Auspex Scan (no -1 hit), far better than Coteaz. Edit. And that will be used on reapers or possibly wraithbros.

 

2. Double range psychic powers. So they can out range deny and still cast jinx (-1 save) on you.

 

3. DS 1/2 units. Much like ours. But imagine a wave serpent or unit of Wraitbros with scythes and a seer (who then uses a power to let the Scyte wraiths move again in psychic phase to get them into auto hit range. And of course they are ynarri, so get a second attack after killing your unit).

 

Then the banshees can move auto advsnce 6" and move again. And are immune to overwatch. So they run up and let the harlies assault you safely without fear of overwatch.

 

Plus the reroll 1's to hit and wound being given out. An Index Autarch as warlord (so they retain thier warp jump generator and launcher) with 6+ CP regen.

 

Damn. The space elves are going to be tough. With seemingly a tool for any occasion.

 

And I'm sure there's more combos to be found.

 

Oh and with the ds strat they can also ds guardian squads for cheaper 40 storm bolter shots, than our strikes. That also rend. And can get other buffs.

 

/sigh

 

Also. Combination of farseer with mind war (purge soul) and a hemlock and terrify gives a -3 ld.

 

So we're facing ld9 +1d6 versus or ld-3 +1d6.

 

And ghost helms give the farseer 2+ save versus perils...

 

I'm busting out as many culexes as i can make. And watching them get obliterated by always hit on 3+ reapers....

Edited October 29, 2017 by Gentlemanloser

[Reclusiarch Darius]

Don't have any local Eldar players (yet) so I guess I'm lucky for now :P

 

On a more practical front, I think the sniper Autarch will get nerfed eventually. Not a huge deal for us anyway, as GMDK's can already be shot with impunity, and I'm not super worried about having my Brother Captain or Apothecary sniped.

 

The anti-DS strat you can cheese by landing 13" out from them anyway, just means no double tap storm bolter. Which does suck, but being T3 (mainly) means you'll still cause casualties with multiple Strike squads, plus the GMDK firepower. 

 

Webway Portal is no different to Deepstriking Scions, Terminators etc. It's something you'll have to spread out and screen for. They do have some nice options for hopping say Fire Dragons or Wraithguard in and out of Serpents landing using it though.

 

Fire Prisms would probably be the biggest concern at the moment. The linked fire strategem makes them excellent at blowing up dangerous single targets. I'd expect to lose one of your GMDK's Turn 1 unless you can kill off at least one of the Prism tanks (IIRC it only gets obnoxious with at least 3, 2 is nasty but not as broken). Raven or Venerables with 'Astral Aim' would help. At least they're not Russ tough, and the means to heal them is more limited (just strategems IIRC, I don't think Eldar have any vehicle repair characters). 

 

The psychic phase will probably be kinda a wash. We have the Aegis strat, Brotherhood bonus and a tonne of deny attempts, so like Tzeentch Daemons we're probably the toughest army to push through a critical power against. The downside for them is they don't have a wholly psychic army, so you can pick off the Farseers, Spiritseers and Warlocks. By definition they will have to be out in the open to use their powers, and Eldar won't have the same screening options as Guard to keep their characters alive (Eldar never play hordes of Guardians etc). They do have strong psykers and a very strong racial lore, but if their psykers are dead it is no longer an issue. I'd expect them to be on jetbikes of course (like every edition of the game), so Raven or Interceptors would be a strong choice to hunt them down. 

 

Reapers also seem like a priority target, at least to prevent our limited infantry numbers getting picked off. They're still only T3 dudes on foot though, so I'd expect provided you have something to hit them with after the initial Turn 1 volley, they will go down. Not as rough as having to deal with Helblasters IMO. 

[Gentlemanloser]

Reapers will be in cover for a 2+ save. Usually backed by conceal for -1 hit.

[Corvus Fortis]

Reapers will be in cover for a 2+ save. Usually backed by conceal for -1 hit.

 

And that is what we have Astral Aim for   . And Conceal can be denied with Aegis. 

 

I have no Eldar in meta too, but, I guess, having tons of stormbolters is our advantage. We wound their infantry on at least on 3+, can deny psychic powers with +1 bonus (+2 for libby) and still destoy them in close combat. It looks like a hard MA certainly, but not impossible. 

[Gentlemanloser]

Talking to our eldar player he can ds a unit of scythe wraiths and keep his warlock conclave out of los.

 

They can use the move in psychic phase power on the wraiths at 36", out of deny range. Oh and jinx if necessary for the -1 save on top.

 

And of course those wraiths will be ynarri.

 

Supported by native deep striking warp spiders.

 

Did i mention the warlock conclave won't need los and have no need to be out in the open?

Edited October 29, 2017 by Gentlemanloser

[Danarc]

It seems that our only answer is... waiting for CA?

[Reclusiarch Darius]

Reapers will be in cover for a 2+ save. Usually backed by conceal for -1 hit. 

 

Is conceal worded to 12" or more, or just straight -1 to hit? Even so, 'Astral Aim' does help. 

 

Given that we will be alpha striking into their face Turn 1, how are they staying 36" away at all times? Given we have deny on pretty much every unit, and can boost it with Aegis strat, they're gonna be hard pressed getting that critical power off (I'm sure they will spam Smites and other stuff through).

 

I've been having a read of the Eldar codex. 'Forewarned' is range unlimited :( seems kinda broken so long as they castle up around their Farseer with everything. They can quite easily dump Wraithknight d-cannons (or whatever) into your GMDK on arrival, and unless you keep out of Line of Sight you can't stop it. 

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

Conceal is a -1 to hit buff with no range requirement. That said each warlock can only cast one power, or less if they're in a conclave (in which case they also lose the character rule. They also have a nerfed smite, spirit seers may be an issue but we'll see. I just think its unlikely to see an elder bring more than 3-4 and doubt they'll get off all of them.

 

Forwarned is good but it has to be a unit close to the farseer so you should be able to pick a spot that reapers don't have los of sight to. Plus it can only be used once per phase so you can make it a tough choice for them.

[Gentlemanloser]

RD and if they go first?

[Godeskian]

Given that we will be alpha striking into their face Turn 1, how are they staying 36" away at all times?

 

I've been advised by my regular eldar opponent that the points reduction means he'll now be running a 3*5 man ranger screening units in all games to force my alpha strike at least 18" further away from his main line.

Edited October 30, 2017 by Godeskian

[Reclusiarch Darius]

RD and if they go first? 

 

Burn a CP to reroll that Seize roll ;)

 

In all seriousness, hide. That's how I deal with shooty matchups, I hide all my on-table drops (Venerable Dreads, Doomglaive, Purgators, Brother-Captain) behind line of sight blockers as best I can. You try and weather the storm Turn 1, then your alpha turns up anyway and hopefully mauls them sufficiently. 

I've been advised by my regular eldar opponent that the points reduction means he'll now be running a 3*5 man ranger screening units in all games to force my alpha strike at least 18" further away from his main line. 

 

Oh yeah that's standard, Marines do that with Scouts and Ad Mech with Vanguard/Rangers. You're unlikely to be 36" away from them in any case, barring some weird deployment tricks. 

[Gentlemanloser]

I might have to start using some deimos ranger screens myself.

[Gentlemanloser]

From our Eldar player;

 

"Like a Alitoc list with Autarch as warlord. Running an index one with reaper Launcher.

 

Warlord trait that let's him target characters for a 48" S8 ap-2 D d6 sniper rerolling 1s.

 

Oh, misread Protect. Is saves. So can have wraithbro with axes with 2+ 3++!!!"