Topic: Thought experiment: IG/CWE tactics overlap

[swordoflux]

I've been listening to Forge the Narrative Forge the Narrative - Warhammer 40k Podcast by The FTN Crew on Apple Podcasts and one of their recent episodes about Imperial Guard got me thinking that there might be some useful potential overlap between their list and Eldar. The IG list was based on a few elements working together:

Manticores, which have a very similar profile to Night Spinners

Scout Sentinels, which have a very similar profile to War Walkers

Conscript screen, which Eldar can't quite replicate, although a few units of Guardians with heavy weapons platforms is not a bad choice in this edition

Buffs, which Eldar have in the form of Farseers, Warlocks, and Autarchs, as well as Phoenix Lords

The heavy support  and buff elements are screened by the troops, and the sentinels are used to keep deep strikers and assault elements away from the main force.

So, I'm thinking of a list that consists of the following:

Backfield Elements
Autarch w/ reaper launcher
Farseer
Warlock

2 Dark Reaper squads w/ tempest launcher exarch
2 Night Spinners
3 War Walkers

3 Guardian squads w/ missile launchers

Forward Elements
Autarch Skyrunner
Shining Spears
Striking Scorpions

The backfield elements can generate a decent amount of long range firepower, and can do so while moving (which is a lot of what Eldar pay for it seems). The War Walkers can be used aggressively to disrupt enemy deployment, screen the firebase by drawing fire, or engage the enemy at close quarters.  The forward elements are used to draw fire, get behind enemy lines and pick off characters, and disrupt and/or destroy vehicles.

Is this just barking up the wrong tree? Or is there some merit here?

[Blazinghand]

A "Hammer and Anvil" style list can be good. Note that barring specific wargear choices, War Walkers do take a penalty to move and shoot, as do Night Spinners and Autarchs and Guardian heavy weapons.

Shining Spears seem like they may be good this edition. I'm less sure about Striking Scorpions unless you give them a ride. I think their deep strike rules don't let them reliably reach assault, which is an issue.

[magenb]

Scorpions don't really need a ride, they are rather quick on foot and not that easy to remove from cover. They are CWE's best foot based CC unit, they are a great deterrent if you pop them near an objective too.

Don't forget about their pistols, they don't do a lot, but sometime its all the leverage you need


Spears are super sexy this edition. Just do your best to keep them away from volume fire. Again silly number of shots with spilt fire and can beat the snot out of most things.

[Fenris]

I thing your idea is interesting, however IG and CWE don't work in the same manner at all.

Two of the biggest issues:
1. Eldar infantry is too expensive to put in front of your tanks, the tanks need to protect the infantry.
2. Eldar focus on speed and guile, not stand and die. Attrition kills Eldar.

While CWE and IG might look similar in many aspects, it's just GW being lazy with copy-paste.
Guardians do not work in any way close to how conscripts work. Guardians pay more points for their guns than the person wielding it, while conscripts are just bags of flesh with flashlights.

Nightspinners and war walkers are bad choices since they can't use their mobility at the same time as they use their guns, and they still pay the full price for both.

While the Autarchs works decently, psychic powers are just too random, and they still only focus on lucky damage here and there.
Phoenix lords requires an unnatural armyfocus on their aspect to make their points back, and you need to cluster them, something no aspect warriors works good with.

If you ever played MMORPG's CWE are DPS(damage per second) and IG are Tanks(soak damage).

[Irisado]

It's an interesting idea, but I think that you need to avoid trying to make an Eldar army function as though it were an Imperial Guard army.  It has neither the numbers nor the weight of fire to pull that off.

A mobile fire base which has the option of moving forward is far better, in my experience, for Eldar armies than one which sits back in the deployment zone.  For example, your current fire base includes three Guardian squads whose Shuriken Catapults would be wasted completely if they were to remain sitting on your base line.

Regarding the forward elements, they would need to be a lot more threatening and hit much harder than the units that you've currently selected would.  Essentially, you're looking at delivering infantry in Wave Serpents for that sort of attack to break through a flank.  Shining Spears work like cavalry more or less, so after the initial strike, they can get bogged down if you are not careful, while Striking Scorpions would need ranged infantry close by to support them.

Finally, I think that too many points are being spent on characters in this list when more units are needed for this sort of army to work.

I hope that helps.