8.07.2009

Eldar Seer Council (On Jetbike!) Conversion


Well, it can hardly be called a conversion, really. After playtesting, I decided I wanted to keep my Eldrad/Avatar tag team, but I really loved the tar-pit potential of a Fortune'd Council, so I'm trying to have the best of both worlds.

This squad obviously isn't going to be as effective as a 10-strong, decked out, Farseer-led Superbrick, but it should be okay for what I need it for.

It can block, contest, screen Serpents, tar pit, and (if all else fails) it won't kill me to sacrifice it.

I can also kill tanks. People who don't play against Eldar much seldom realize the Witchblade counts as str9 against a vehicle in close combat. 16 attacks and 8 hit, assuming the vehicle moved 6 inches, so against a Land Raider that's 2 or 3 Penetrating hits with 2 or 1 Glancing (4 rolls on the chart).

Yea, I hate Mathhammer too - it doesn't work out that way when you hit the green, but it does make it a unit capable of destroying AV14, the single thing I'm most worried about facing.

Fuzzy math... but it is for this reason I take a full squad of Fire Dragons. Yes The Truth Hurts, the only major site for consistent tactica imho, advocates for squads of 5. I can't argue with that; there are good reasons behind it, but I simply have another perspective. The Land Raider is the only Mech I'm worried about - I can crack anything else easily enough - but is 5 Dragons enough? At over 6 inches, only 1.1 will get a roll on the chart but you have a 50/50 chance that's a glance. The weapon is AP1, so even a glance has a chance to destroy the Land Raider, but it's not a great chance. Now closer to the tank that changes: with the Dragon rolling two dice for AP, you can pretty much count on 3 penetrating hits and a destroyed tank... but it's still not a guarantee.

Keep in mind, it's not always easy to deliver the Dragons within 6 inches. Many times you'll have to pivot the Wave Serpent and 'show your ass' in order to get the extra space necessary to do it. Basically you could be throwing away a Serpent to deliver your payload. Now in Stelek's build I'm not sure that's such a problem, since he overwhelms with numerous tanks and a bigass Seer Council, but I go another way.

I prefer to use my Fire Dragons as a... well... Tactical Squad. To mix my terms a bit, but you get the point. I use a full-size squad and I'll target tanks, marines, terminators - whatever shows it's ugly humie-head. My Exarch has a Dragon's Breath flamer but still supports tank hunting by the 15pt Tank Hunter upgrade. I know it's important to avoid unnecessary wargear expense in list-building, but AV+1 means I don't have to get within 6 inches of a Land Raider to get the kill. Usually I'll try to park my Wave Serpent and unload out the back, shooting underneath it and hopefully keeping the tank in the way.

Enough! I've rambled on, and I'm well aware nobody reads this...

Take care - Brent

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have to ask this but since 5ed uses the true LoS rules arnt you worried that since your seer council is elevated on flying bases that they will have a harder time staying out of LoS?

Brent said...

They're my Seer Council on Jetbike conversion - I guess I should have made that more clear!

As conversions, I wanted to make sure they were at least as visible as a jetbike would be, so thus the tall models on larger bases; I don't want my opponent feeling I'm getting an unfair advantage through the way the model looks.

I don't believe that to be the case, but my arguement would be, if it came up, that GW doesn't make a model for the option. Yes, they make a jetbike, but they don't have a Warlock for it. It is up to gamers to find inexpensive alternatives to these options.

One I've seen is to stand the Warlocks on Weapon Platforms with the gun-mount removed. I'd probably have done that if I had the bitz.

Take Care - Brent

Anonymous said...

Actually, that's a pretty cool, on the cheap, alternative to using the Heavy Weapon platforms. I started out with the best of intentions when building my council on bikes. However, I quickly realized that the amount of time I would be spending cutting, converting, and greenstuffing was going to be way more than I was willing to invest at the time. Currently, I plan on the Heavy Weapon platform method in order to get a "quick and dirty" unit together, with long term plans to eventually move it all over to the actual jetbikes. I think that puts me in the 2012 timeframe, which we all know is when the world is going to end.

Bruce said...

The Mayans are going to die, not the world. Oh crap, it's to late for that.

Anonymous said...

Mathhammer is all I've had time for, but it has been fun to see that most of my conclusions are conforming with battle-proven tactica.

Haven't read much on mounted seer-councils, but it's a fact they're a threat to vehicles--especially in an assault. Also, don't you find that fire dragons often get a chance (in subsequent turns) to assault a vehicle they fail to shoot dead? Many times the vehicle I'm shooting at screens me from retaliatory fire. :) (I count auto-passing tankshock as a real benefit of tank-hunter, too). ALSO I agree with your dragon's breath selection. The exarch's real contribution isn't one more shot; it's the tank hunter ability. But the flamer is a free option that gets used frequently. and 5 pts extra to reroll to wound? good deal...

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