Tag Team: Eldrad and the Avatar

Ah, my favorite 'buddy movie' has got to be Eldrad and the Avatar.

In fact, that's the name of the flick.  It's like a bad comedy now, though.

"Wait," I hear you say, "that's not Eldrad!"

"But it is," says I.  "Eldrad is the master of disguise.  Hell, I've seen him gender-bend.  Ask anyone."

Back in the glory days of the Eldar, which is winding down with a whimper now, these two were great.  Now, I'm aware they don't fit the Mech Ideal for 5th, but I ran an Eldar Hybrid Army, with mixed mech and foot units working together.  I'm aware what folks say about that and it's much dumber cousin, the Footdar list.

Frankly, the proof is in the pudding: I won.  A lot.  Against all comers, and yes, I played tough, mech'd up and optimized lists.  Part of it is probably what part of it is always about; I'm a good player that knows how to use my list.  But part of it has got to be the surprise that is the Avatar with Fortune.

And that's really what this combo was about.  Part of the downside of taking anything other than a Farseer is taking anything other than a Farseer.  You limit the amount of times you can cast Fortune, Doom, and Guide - it's so bad that only now, with Eldar no longer the undisputed master of psychic powers, are you seeing people playing anything else.  For those interested, Autarchs built around a full-reserve list, but I digress.  As always.

Point is, Eldrad mitigates that by basically being two Farseers.  He can cast Fortune on the Avatar and still support the Army. 

I would play off two basic plans, which I called Lever 'n Anchor and Open Wide.  With Lever 'n Anchor, I would set up a firebase in the middle of my deployment zone and swing my mobile units around it.  The Avatar is the link in the chains, given his ability to make my troops Fearless.  With Open Wide, I'd double flank while pushing the Avatar aggressively down the middle of the board.  Usually, one flank would take off across the board, joining the other army group, and hopefully leaving enemy units out of position. 

The Avatar is pretty capable of taking stupid amounts of firepower without falling, but of course I'd try to mitigate that when possible, by blocking or presenting another target.  Regardless of that, consider Toughness 6, Immune to Melta/Flamer, 4 wounds, and with a 3+/4+ rerollable save.  Rock on.  Then, when he gets there, he can throw a Meltagun and rip apart a Land Raider with his bare hands, to say nothing of what he does to troops.  Nice.

Turn 5 is your typical Fritz-like turbo and contest turn.  And there you have it, the recipe for a good time.

Of course, there is countless tricks and tactics I'd use, but those were my basic strategies.  I think it's important not to forget a trick, either.  For example, when I played Jawaballs at BoLSCon 2009 (my first successful stalk), he showed me how ugly a full-reserve with quarters-deployment can be: I fell right into it, but never again.  Since, I let others do that.

But the party ended, I'm sad to say.  Wanna know when?  I got an inkling the first time I played a Librarian with Null Zone.  That ruined my day, needless to say.

For reasons that have nothing to do with my love of Eldar, I've moved on to Daemons.  Fairly soon, that army will be painted to 2000 points, and while I won't stop playing them I'm itching to build my Blood Angels variant army.  After all, I spent quite a sum on Evil Homer's Jump Marines - it would be a shame not to use them.

Peace - Brent

PS: I'm aware I didn't mention Eldrad much.  Did I need to?