Eldar Codex Break Down – Heavy Support Section
June 22, 2013 by crew
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Time for the last segment! Andy and Lee take a look at the Heavy Support choices for the Eldar to round things off. If we missed anything juicy from the codex then let us know in the comments!
This week has inspired me to invest in the new Eldar codex.
The general feel of the Eldar codex seems to be characterful, useful units with some redundancy. The redundancy is fantastic in that established players can keep what they have whereas noobs can invest in one of the newer units to do the job. eg dark reapers or walkers to take out flyers whereas noobs can get a flyer model to do it.
only the reaper exarch can take flakk missiles, but they do ignore jink at least. so yes you do need the exarch for 2 anti-air missiles, plus additional normal missiles from normal reapers on 6s.
fast skimmers dont have to snapfire when jinking, thats flyers. holofields are awesome now, 4+ save as long as you move which you always move.
CTM is the most expensive pointless wargear for any vehicle with 1 shot. most of us will be taking holofields.
warwalkers – 30pts more for 3 with dual scatter lasers, you gain a 5++ save. how is that not better combined with battlefocus as one of you stated. much better for them, mine are not so good though as used to run twin shuricannons at 120pts for 3.
wraithlord will more than likely kill anything they challenge with instant death fists or mastercrafted sword. challenges are fine for him.
wraithknight probably not worth the points, better to take wraithlords.
overall I will be using most my heavy slots on reapers as they were always good but got better whilst being cheaper
Excuse me, but what is ‘CTM’?
Crystal targeting matrix
I don’t believe you have to snap fire if you take your jink save on a vehicle or bike or jetbike only on an aircraft making holo-fields brilliant.
Even though I don’t particularly like war walkers they are still quite good. They gained a 5++ save, battle focus and with the scatter laser rule you can make a lance, star cannon twin linked which can really add up.
The wraithknight is a nice addition to the Eldar codex, and performs a couple of roles. Not only does it act as a giant fire magnet, absorbing a huge amount of fire before going down. He also can help clear out elite infantry/hordes or high av vehicles/mc. With proper use you can keep him away from the things that can instantly kill him such as force weapons (which will be hard enough to do with his high toughness).
The Fire Prism is amazing as you have stated.
I like the night spinner the new torrent option can be awfully useful in helping clear those nasty people hiding in cover. It’s not great but not terrible however it is a nice choice that we now have.
The problem is it’s a packed part of the book. For durability the Wraithlord is best – half the points of the Wraithknight which is in danger of being instant death’d.
War walkers with two starcannons are throwing out terminator killers at 36″ range, scatter lasers will do the same and give you more shots. I really do think that a unit of three war walkers with scatter lasers – 24 shots each – is probably going to nobble any unit, even the most heavily armoured – including light vehicles like Chimera and Rhino.
The Fire Prism is a delight, but needs support and a fire lane to get to the target it is best shooting at. It may be unpleasant, but Swooping Hawks with haywire grenades are probably better placed to go for vehicles.
I think Warwalkers are much better now. Lets look at what they lost, going by as a ScatterWalker. They went up 10 pts, 60 to now 70 each and they are open topped now. So for 10 more points and the loss of closed top You get +1 to WS, BS, I, and A 5+ Invulnerable save. You also gain Battle Focus and Fleet, There is also the Laser Lock rule(No real Effect on this build but could help with others like Bright lance or EML) and that Hatred/fear slaanesh rule. 10 pts doesn’t seem like all that much considering.
I agree that Fire Prisms are awesome now but I think Warwalkers still have a place.
You get the 5+ jink save as long as you move (4+ with holo-fields), so you’re not forced into snap shot to get it, of course it improves if you move flat out (3+! with holo) which is very tempting with the crystal targeting matrix giving you the option to still fire a weapon, and let’s be honest most eldar vehicles usually only have one gun you want to fire at any given time (Vypers, wave serpents, fire prisms, night spinners all only have one heavy weapon and the falcon can have different weapons against different targets)
Generally I find that the vehicle upgrades now make the vehicle a wonderful soupstone
It makes a great soup alone (I.E. they now are good and, for eldar, cheap) but the synergy between the upgrades make it more delicious the more you add and you can usually find some use out it all.
At 165 points you get a tank who is capable of moving 30″ and still be able to fire its main cannon hitting on 3+, and it have a 3+ jink save against anything still capable of shooting back, there are nowhere to hide and it will take a lot of firepower to take it down.
Then you could add the star engines to make it move 6″ more, the ghostwalk matrix to make you able to land in terrain improving the save, the vectored engines to hide that AV10 butt after shooting and/or spirit stones to make sure you are able to keep moving and keep that jink save
why would you not take 2 heavy weapons? shuriken cannons especially with bladestorm, and can move 12″ plus fire them both. crystal targeting matrix is one use only so after that use you are back down to the rest of us, would rather have the shuriken cannon and save points than buy that piece of rubbish.
Because I actually missed the “one use only” part
Well it’s priced as a permanent item
It is also partially because of the range and partially an old habit from older editions where you could only fire one weapon after moving more that the 6″ to get the fast skimmer protection
In addition to switching about their default weapons, both Wraithlord & Wraithknight allow you to add on a scatter-laser for 20pts – so with BS4 @ 36″ a fantastic chance that all your other weapons become twinlinked. Another 20pts and they’ve also got (twinlinked?) Star-cannons.
Initially as a mobile gun-platform they’re a bit expensive – but 40pts on top and they become truly devastating! Loaded for melee they also do a lot of damage before contact!
Definitely take the Reaper Exarch as he is the only one able to have an EML with Flakk give him fast shot and the cost will be 30 points the same as another reaper.
Then I’d really push the boat out and spend another 5 points so he can enable the whole squad to have night vision.
largely agree again lads apart from corrections mentioned above… part from the wraithknight who i’d mount a couple of star cannons on its shoulders give it the glaive and shield then get it to go full pelt into the enemy just to cause a huge distraction… plus i’d like to see the riptide bring it down before it’s face got caved in with it’s blade with the 5 attacks at str 10 ap2 (ap2 simply for being a monstrous creature) pity it can only fire 2 guns or i’d go sun cannon a starcannon and a scatter laser
I’m going to hold fire on acquiring a Wraithknight. Firstly there’s the cost and I’m not to sure it will be worth it’s points as I have a feeling it won’t last to long in a game, It looks too much like a missile magnet but mainly I’m going to resist because I have far too many toys in the Heavy Support section to play with already.
Yeah, expect the WK to take a lot of fire! However, that’s great as it leaves the rest of your army untouched.
However, it’s not a must buy as everything else in the heavy slot is great aswell.
I have used the Avatar in past to perform a similar role he had a better invun then and was only 155 pts not so sure he can perform the same role anymore.
Hehe tried not to rage when the boys thought that the jink forced the skimmers to snapshot. I’m pretty sure these fellas have played with or against skimmers so should know better. No offence
Agree mostly with what people have said. War walkers have got really good with battle focus and higher BS. Popping in and out of cover.
Reapers have got better with ability to have starshot, and definately exarch is needed for flak and fast shot. Put him on the aegis with las cannon to put out two shots with intercept.
Wraith knight is awesome, tough bugger to kill as long as its not snipers having a go. The 3+ save is the only downer. However, a 2+ save would have been super cheese. Unlike the riptide this fella is fearless so no getting cutdown
. Mine has sun cannon and shield + two scats as you cannot snap fire the cannon if charged. Also great for having a go at fliers.
Fire prism has got a lot better with the different firing modes. Def having holo fields.
Not sure about having crystal matrix as pricey for one shot.
Almost forgot falcon, as I have said before the wave serpent is so much more reliable as a unit transport thanks to serpent shield 2+ and holo fields flat out for 3+ cover.
Fun fact about the WarWalkers is that the “cheapest” nasty version now is exactly the same as in last edition. one SL and one SC it now gives you the TL for the SC fire. Nice.
And of cause the other options profit from the targeting as well. With the boost in stats and the new inv save, IMO the WW has gotten significantly better.
Fireprism is now a true MBT. Adaptable and potentially deadly to anything on the board. Again better than before IMO.
Nightspinner has lost a little and gained a little so it has the same attraction for me as it did before. Primarily because 6th nerfed the terrain rule.
Wraithlord with SL + another weapon and double Flamers is now a monster! Bad idea to charge it, bad to be charged (3/4 attacks) by it and very precise in long range fireing. Bad new to see one coming at you.
Platforms can be a useful tool, depending on your situation. 2-3 Shadow weavers are very nice to have, I mean 3 Large Blasts at S6 is really not good news for the target.
Reapers need the exarch for AA work. All else they do very well alone. And honestly 8 of them (with big missile option) will reliably decimate anything walking on the board reliably in a very short time for little over 300 points.
I am not sure about the Falcon. Yes, now more reliable at shooting but still a glorified Razorback and for a (very nice) IFV just a tad too expensive, so only with points to spare…
Besides, has somebody found anything restricting the number of CTMs you can buy for a vehicle? As far as I found, it is just one use only and affects only one weapon. So you could buy 2 and fire two weapons at the same time or the same weapon in two turns of flat out.
If that were possible it would open a field for some very nasty tactics, especially shifting flanks in seconds. Very Eldar, very fluffy.
Not the best series of vids these are they? Many rule mistakes and misinterpretations and indeed bad advice!
What is happening at BoW? I never thought I’d miss Darrell so much
Shadow Weaver Support platform would be great if it was Large Blast.
But the new Eldar FAQ errata’s that to be Small Blast.
D-Cannon was and still is Barrage. I do like to take 2 of them, keep them out of LoS and within range of an objective. Having those 2 Str 10 AP2 blast on an Objective will keep most enemy units off it!
I am a War Walker user, and feel they are much better than before!
Even with the addition of Open Topped, having a 5+ Invuln (Cast Fortune on them!) and Battle Focus is just fantastic. Shoot, then run them behind cover!
Sure the Scatter Laser version is 10pts more than before, but the Bright Lance got way cheaper.
My fav build is Scatter+Bright Lance.