4.09.2010

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?

4 comments:

Gauthic said...

Obligatory....

Hey-that's not Eldrad!!! (It's not even a conversion, it's a standard stock whiney arse Farseer with a Singing Spear!...sheesh I'm in the middle of painting the same damned model :D )
http://wargaming.gauthic.com/2010/04/quick-and-dirty-farseer-part-1.html

Anonymous said...

I remember fondly of El+Av combo. They were really great and still pretty is.

Herr Fernseher said...

Did Divination help much on the flanking?

TheKing Elessar said...

Ironically, Null Zoone still shuts you down...It must be your Kryponite...

(A new favorite!) Anon: I haven’t even bothered playing a game of 6th yet, cause I have read the rules, and actually understand how they interact with units. I know my armies no longer function how they should, and so I need to change them.

Strictly Average: 'cause 6-inches is all you get.

Stalking Jawaballs since 2009.

Jawaballs: "My butt just tightened up."

Brent, preferred 2-to-1 over Not Brent in a recent, scientific poll.

Brent: emptied the Kool Aid and DRINKING YOUR MILKSHAKE with an extra-long straw.

Unicorns don't exist.

Home of the Stormbuster, the Dyson Pattern Storm Raven.

I'm a comment whore and this whore is getting no play.

Not Brent hurts Brent's feelings.

I think, therefore I blog.

"You should stop writing for everyone else and worry about your crappy blog." - Anon.

Not Brent has been spotted lurking around with a green marker.

He's not like a bad guy from a cartoon, all devious but never quite evil, Not Brent is bad beans, man, bad beans.

Dethtron: "Again I feel obliged to remind you that trying to sound smart only works if you are."

MVB: "I am not one to join the unwashed masses of self-titled 40k experts out there distributing advice from their blogs about exactly how your list should be built..."

Shiner Bock on tap: that's how I choose hotels.

Strictly Average: The Home of Hugs and Gropings.

Don't feed the trolls!

MoD: "Welcome to Brent's head."

Competitive is Consistent.

Dethtron: "...you could use that extra time to figure out a way to get your panties unbunched and perform a sandectomy on your vagina."

Dethtron: “When calling someone an idiot, it's generally best to avoid making grammatical mistakes.”

Warboss Stalin: "You know, if it actually WAS funny, maybe I wouldn't mind."

Mike Brandt: "It's not a successful bachelor party if you don't misplace someone".

"The Master Manipulator (every store needs one): "...now, enough stroking."

Kirby: "I don't know about gropings. Seriously, Brent, keep it in the pants, please."

Loquacious: "No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get Hugs & Gropings or Stalks Jawaballs into Brent's little tribute."

Captain Kellen: "I rate this article a Brent on the Faith Hill to Nancy Pelosi scale!"

Drathmere: "Come for the balls, stay for the Brent? Kind of disturbing, man."

Go no further, lest thee see something thine eyes would fain look past!

Isabelle: "So, thank you for supporting your local and not so local unicorns. A noble gesture like that can show some scared kids out there that they don't have to hide from everyone and it's ok to be who they really are."

There is nothing more interesting than We The People... in all our beautiful, ugly glory!

On Internet Advice: You see, I have an almost religious belief that's it's a huge, colossal waste of time.

...I think I'll call it the Gun Shy Pattern Stormbuster, because after the Internet destroyed my first humble effort, I find I'm a bit worried about the reaction to this one.

Lauby: "Is it left over from that time you thought that you could just complete step one 12 times to meet the mandates of that court order?"

Not Brent: "I guess we'll have to read on and find out. Signed, Not Brent. Especially today."

Cynthia Davis: "I think the scrolling text is from Glen Beck's new book."

Grimaldi: "Spamming certain units creates interesting possibilities but also fatal weaknesses."

Purgatus: "Math can inform decisions. It cannot make decisions."

Thoughts? Comments? Hugs and gropings?

You'd be that much quicker to figure out what I mean when I refer to a Unicorn if I covered it in a rainbow flag.

SinSynn: (To Brent) "Curse you and your insidious influence on the internets..."

Dave G (N++): "You know you're an internet celebrity when your following is more akin to tabloids."

I prefer the term Internet Personality (or IP) myself, seeing as how I coined it.

Lauby: "Your attempt to humanize him as failed. I feel nothing but scorn for his beard - it's like a warcrime or something."

BBF: "I've always thought you are a good player but I finally figured out that you are a great player. It's hard to see sometimes because your personality is engaging, sincere and quite charming - to me that is kind of a rare combination."

'Clearly cheating?' I didn't misspeak: you jumped to conclusions. If you'd like to apologize I'll be happy to send you an autographed picture of my ass.

Ass.

I thought I was doing alright before I realized I was losing.

Age and treachery beats youth and vigor every time.

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