Ah well, a 3+/4+ can't save an Avatar when you roll like that...
Regular readers of my blog (that is, of course, a misnomer; there are no readers of this blog...) will know I've been doing a lot of researching, list-building, and testing of my Eldar army for events past and upcoming. My list for BOLSCON is set, so I'm devoting zero skull-sweat to that: it will be what it will be - but Hard Boyz Round 3 in Chicago is looming, and it is very much on my mind.So much so I've been bugging the crap out of my friends, emailing them, arguing with them - basically making a pest of myself. Here's a letter Evil Homer himself, follower of Nurgle and in cohoots with the Master Manipulator (every store needs one) himself, responding to my question about troop choices in general and jetbike squads in particular...
ok...really it depends on the mission of the bike squad, if they are in the list, simply to grab or contest objectives in the last turn, and they won't be active during the remainder of the game (generally) you mightbe able to do 5 man. If you want something more out of them then 5 will not cut it.
Wave serpents/Falcons will get popped. At 2500 poiints, in an anticipated heavy mech evironment and with the Meta being what it is, you have to plan on losing 4-5 of those serpents. Which ones go first depends on the opponent. some will see the fire dragons as a threat and move to neutralize them first, Others will look for a way to deny you the win first buy killing your troops. If he can kill or immobilize yours while preservintg 1 of his he has a chance at winning. Especially if he plays to sacrifice units to the seer council to achieve other objectives.
I really think that if all your looking for is objetive campers in vehicles then go with 10 man STORM guardian squads w/warlock carrying conceal and if the serpent gets popped then go to ground and hope to survive on the objective. Flamers help with hordes.
If you want the squad to be active in the game then roll with DA's.
for last minute grabbers then 5 man bike squad might cut it.
I think rolling with less than 4 troop choices is a mistake unless you think your army is going to be tabling guys.
Wave serpents/Falcons will get popped. At 2500 poiints, in an anticipated heavy mech evironment and with the Meta being what it is, you have to plan on losing 4-5 of those serpents. Which ones go first depends on the opponent. some will see the fire dragons as a threat and move to neutralize them first, Others will look for a way to deny you the win first buy killing your troops. If he can kill or immobilize yours while preservintg 1 of his he has a chance at winning. Especially if he plays to sacrifice units to the seer council to achieve other objectives.
I really think that if all your looking for is objetive campers in vehicles then go with 10 man STORM guardian squads w/warlock carrying conceal and if the serpent gets popped then go to ground and hope to survive on the objective. Flamers help with hordes.
If you want the squad to be active in the game then roll with DA's.
for last minute grabbers then 5 man bike squad might cut it.
I think rolling with less than 4 troop choices is a mistake unless you think your army is going to be tabling guys.
I've been giving this some thought. I'd originally planned to stick 3 squads of 5 Avengers in a Falcon and use this as portable objective claimers. There are some downsides to this plan, some of which Homer points out in the Email above, but also the cost of the Falcon as I'd like to run it is 205; is that a good use of points, especially given the effectiveness of Fire Prisms for much cheaper? For these and other reasons, I'm considering adding Jetbike squads, thus the email I sent out. Regarding Homers other point, I don't think he realizes how difficult it can be to bring down Wave Serpents, much less Falcons/Prisms with Holofield, but that's not really the point, is it? I should plan to lose 5 just as a strategy; after all, good luck is easy to plan for but just how useful is it? I need a plan to win or draw when everything starts going south.
Okay, it's not like I don't already do this. I've got a lot of experience playing this game and it generally serves me well. But I do have a tendancy to buck convention, or play inferior choices to throw people off, but all that pales in comparison with my biggest weakness as a player: my constant need for change. Many times I've bombed a tournament by making last minute changes to my list; speaking from experience, that's never good.
Evil Homer is a tough player. His strengths are planning and consistency - you can see this in his choice of tournament army.
He's not the only dude whose input I've sought, and I appreciate the time people have taken, both on the net and IRL, answering questions and all-around putting up with me. I've been accused to not listening, but ultimately I've got to filter all the ideas and incorporate it with my playing style.
All that said, my list has already changed significantly - and one of those changes prompted the title of this post. My new need for mobility has caused me to drop my Avatar from my final list.
Eldrad will miss babysitting him.
5 comments:
Yes, finally I won't have to deal with the Avatard! I will mark this day on the calender, as the greatest day of my life. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of my Salamanders that had to die at the hands of the avatar, in order to give me experience points. I would like to thank my land raider, who tried tank shock only to be killed. I would also like to thank the 6 termies that got out and killed the Avatar for the first time. I would like to give a special thanks to Sgt Telion and snipers who got a first round kill on the Avatar. I still think that you should take him because most list that I saw would have had a hard time dealing with him. I know that the only reasons I now have snipers is because I needed to take out multi wound creatures, and I have the Avatar to thank for that. Most of those mec list out there can easily have their armor riped open with a m.c., but it's up to you to decide what's best for your army
HA! Funny stuff...
Wait till you see what I replace him with...
Brent
I tried something new tonight against Carlos, and it did pretty good. I'm feeling confident with my army. I can't wait until I get the rest of my new unit in the mail, and test out 2500pts.
Sigh. I remember when I had to let the Avatar go...
BTW, I hate the Avenger/Falcon combo, but what else are you going to do? 60pts is not too expensive an upgrade to make your fast tank a scoring unit. I guess I just don't like not using the Avengers. Also, the only thing I really like about the Falcon is its indestructibility (and I guess it's transport capability). But a pair of prisms is sooo much more effective at popping tanks. Is a third just backup/redundancy?
Your lists that I've been seeing look tailored to kill tanks. Which means your offense will be defended wave serpents to an extent, but not necessarily defending jetbikes. Does that make sense? Sorry to go off halfcocked...guess I need to get back to my homework
Quick question about your fast Eldar: What do you think about putting everything in reserve as a deployment tactic? You're so fast, that it is likely to hurt your opponent more than you, and it will also help out your slow play issue in tournaments. I'm sure this has been analyzed to death elsewhere, but I'm curious what your take is, since you're working on a list that could use this stategy--I think.
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