So this is what I used during my first ever W40k Tournament. Using the Biel-Tan Craftworld allowed me to include a Court of the Young King which was a monster blob of an Avatar and three Banshee Exarchs which worked well for me being a novice - basically I pointed them towards the enemy and charged into close combat! The other thing that this Craftworld allowed was kind of swapping Troops and Elites, meaning I could focus on fielding Aspect Warriors which are way more exciting than Guardian. The 'official' rules allow for three Wraithlords, however it was ruled that it wouldn't be much fun for my opponents, so I instead used the 100 points to provide a second Wave Serpent.
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| Here you can see all? my currently painted Eldar. The pesky elves have a habit of hiding all around my hobby shed and there are always few pieces that are in various states of disrepair and half completion. |
What would I change if I had my time again? Maybe nothing. Here are some thoughts:
- Crack Shot for my Dark Reaper Exarch didn't really make a difference - I might have forgotten that it allowed for rerolls of failed wound rolls. Fast Shot might have been better (giving me an extra Attack), but it would have cost me an extra 10 pts (10 vs 20pts). Maybe I could have dropped Crack Shot and used the 10 pts elsewhere. They didn't do too much during my games beyond acting as a deterrent - which isn't a bad thing I suppose!
- The Fire Dragons Exarch's Firepike was hot, but I did like the look of Burning Fist - 20 pts to re-roll failed wound rolls and ignore all armour saves. I reckon that would be worth reducing my Fire Dragon's squad count from 10-to-9.
- I applied Scythes to one of my Wave Serpents, because it was WYSIWYG and I had been expecting to play vs 'Nids and Orks. They didn't help me any during my games.
- I didn't mind the Scorpions. The Stealth Infiltrate ability was a mixed bag - the 18" range restriction felt too tough, but I did manage to get the Scorpions into combat during most of my games. Mmm for 20 pts maybe it was okay. The Scorpion's Claw was well worth the 15 pts however I didn't find myself making use of the Plasma and Haywire Grenades at 30pts.
- The Court of the Young King was pretty cool. Zero ranged fire which made playing them frustratingly easy. I was considering maybe a Dire Avenger Exarch - the Distract Power and Diresword Weapon both sound cool. A fourth Banshee would have also been awesome but would cost me another 45 pts!
- I've always wanted to field Warp Spiders - their Warp Jump Generators coupled with Exarch powers sounds like lots of fun.
- The Dire Avengers were okay. I took them to provide some mass ranged firepower to bring to bear against 'Nids and Orks which wasn't to be the case and secure objectives. Against Space Marines, their weapons just haven't got quite enough bite. I took 9 of them so that I could mount them and the Seer together in a Wave Serpent. I could have? should have? thrown their Wave Serpent to the Dark Reapers else Scorpions against the Space Marines I played at the tournament.
- Speaking of Wave Serpents, they are a cool piece of kit. There're never enough points to go around, but they could well have made good use of some of the upgrades. I'm too inexperienced to really do so just yet.
- I very much enjoyed the Wraithlords, however I misplayed them in several ways. I didn't understand their close combat attacks and only let met perform 2 instead of 3 Attacks per round. Also - damn! - I forgot to pull out the Chapter Approved Eldar Q&A which corrected the misconception that they need to strike last because of their power fists. If I'd remembered that wasn't the case, I might have won a few more melees!
- One of the common rules that I failed to leverage several times was Fleet of Foot. I also didn't realise that Howling Banshee Exarchs were able to use it which could have been useful at times.
Biel-Tan Swordwind Army [1500 pts]
HQ [293 pts]
Avatar of the Bloody-Handed God [215 pts]:
1x The Court of the Young King: 3x Howling Banshee (Acrobatic, Powerblades)
Farseer [78 pts]:
Singing Spear, Fortune
Troops [1007 pts]
Dark Reapers [223 pts]:
5x Dark Reaper with Exarch Upgrade (Crack Shot, Missile Launcher)
Dire Avengers [223 pts]:
9x Dire Avenger with Wave Serpent (Twin-Linked Shuriken Catapults, Twin-Linked Scatter Laser)
Fire Dragons [324 pts]:
10x Fire Dragon with Exarch Upgrade (Firepike)
Wave Serpent (Scythes, Twin-Linked Shuriken Catapults, Twin-Linked Scatter Laser)
Striking Scorpions [237 pts]:
10x Scorpion with Plasma and Haywire Grenades, Exarch Upgrade (Stealth, Scorpion's Claw)
Heavy Support [200 pts]
Wraithlord [100 pts]:
Shuriken Cannon
Wraithlord [100 pts]:
Shuriken Cannon