How to make MSU Aspect warriors work

[Karhedron]

I am in a bit of puzzle. I keep seeing lists doing well competitively that make use of multiple small units (MSU) of Aspect Warriors, 10-12 5-man squads on foot. These lists seem to do very well but I cannot make this style of army work for the life of me. A 5-man squad is trivially easy to delete, a 5-man Intercessor squad can delete 5 Aspect Warriors from 24" with just average shooting.

 

To make Eldar work, I need to mech up my Aspect Warriors (which means fewer units) and usually support them with some Wraith units to handle the tough jobs. This works OK for me but it looks nothing like any of the competitive lists I see winning tournaments on places like Goonhammer. When I run mostly infantry lists, they just get hosed off the board.

 

Are our tables too light on terrain? I am thinking this might be part of the problem as I am also finding Agile Manoeuvres to be completely underwhelming. The extra movement is quite nice but most of the reactive moves seem pointless. If an enemy squad can target Aspect warriors then Fading Back after being shot is pretty academic as there is not usually much left to move or nowhere safer to move to.

[Mordekiem]

I haven't played much 10th.  I'm just recently getting back into the game.  But traditionally I have always found our units to be fairly easy to kill if they are just running around on foot.  I've been playing some form of Mechdar for just about my whole 40k career.  Not only do our transports protect our troops, but they are able to deliver them where they are most effective.

 

I think that has always been the balancing point for me. How many transports vs troops do I want?

 

And of course other support as well.

[Karhedron]

I agree, I have found Mechdar to be pretty much essential. That is what is puzzling me, how are competitive players getting away with such minimal amounts of transport?

[Bouargh]

Fair question. I do not play with terrain lay out such as depicted in packs (Pariah nexus or others) and that look like being fairly close to competitive arrangements. Yet these Maps lay out are rather loaded and there is very few LoS. Or at least it looks like there are ver few LoS. Might it be the clue ? I do not compete and as such it is more a genuine question of mine.

[Dr. Clock]

Yea I'd imagine the solution is at least partially to make sure there are enough LOS-blocking pieces that you can realistically and consistently hide stuff by sticking close without tapping in to ruins.

 

Craftworlds do MSU really well, but they're so weedy that I'll always try and throw in at least 4-5 vehicles to make choosing my fights that much easier. 

 

I think the 'meta' armies you're referring to are largely Ynnari lists where the reactive moves into engagement range, exrtra moves when stuff dies, and the free fights-first all complicate enemy decision-making and give you lots of opportunities to capitalize on missteps. I recently used 2 windriders to just shut off 2 units' shooting with an out-of-phase 'charge that's not a charge' and effectively save their flank as a result. I don't even use an Yncarne, but that detachment basically turns Agile Maneuvers all the way up to 11 in my experience.

 

Further to that I'd say that Agile Maneuvers, like Stratagems, get better when applied to larger units. Having like 12-1400 points of MSU nonsense is great, but for the last 6-800 or so I'd be focusing on getting some bigger units so you can throw (or take) some bigger punches, or at least stick around a short while. 10 wyches last longer than you think in melee, and Yvraine's rez mechanic is not to be trifled with on something like Incubi or Troupe. Heck, even storm guardians with their 5++ are a natural bullet magnet / bait unit. 

 

MSU is great, but it gets alot better when you have 'anchor' units for the smalls to operate around, whether those are just transports, or some WLords or whatever. 

 

What's in your pure MSU list right now? 

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[Xenith]

On 5/8/2025 at 10:26 AM, Karhedron said:

A 5-man squad is trivially easy to delete, a 5-man Intercessor squad can delete 5 Aspect Warriors from 24" with just average shooting.

 

I think that's the point of it - that 5 man hypermobile unit can often punch above it's weight, but will die in return - but as long as it stops your opponent scoring a primary, who then has to kill you off it, is a good trade for 80-100pts. 

 

1200pts on 12x 5 man squads (who usually have a nasty exarch) will do work, and you have 800pts left over for support and damage pieces.