Topic: Army Idea - Snipers R Us

[faitherun (Fay-ith-er-run)]

So I am playing around with different styles of armies I may want to run - not sure yet.

Most of the people at my local store play by power level, so I designed this list for that.

This is my first run at an Alaitoc List


++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Aeldari - Craftworlds) [50 PL, 1013pts] ++

Craftworld Attribute: Alaitoc: Fieldcraft


+ HQ +

Autarch: Forceshield, Plasma Grenades, Star Glaive, The Path of Command

Illic Nightspear

Warlock: Conceal/Reveal, Shiftshroud of Alanssair, Singing Spear

+ Troops +

Dire Avengers
. 4x Dire Avenger: 4x Avenger Shuriken Catapult
. Dire Avenger Exarch: Two Avenger Shuriken Catapults

Rangers: 5x

Rangers: 5x

+ Fast Attack +

Swooping Hawks
. 4x Swooping Hawk: 4x Lasblaster
. Swooping Hawk Exarch: Hawk's Talon, Power sword

+ Heavy Support +

Fire Prism: Spirit Stones, Shuriken Cannon

Fire Prism: Spirit Stones, Shuriken Cannon

+ Flyer +

Hemlock Wraithfighter: Embolden/Horrify

++ Total: [50 PL] ++
6 CP


Tactics and such:
Rangers and Illic do their hide and appear thing. As does the warlock. Hawks will hold for a latter turn 2/3 drop to try and go after weakened units.

Warlock is mainly there to push a ranger squad or Illic up to -3 to hit. Liberal use of the Pathfinders Stratagem and Conceal (one on each squad, not the same on both) should make rangers a fairly difficult target to remove. Likewise, Hemlock may make use of Reflexes strat on the first turn for a -3 to hit it, should a big target be painted on it.

Autuarch will take Fate's messenger, as he is really just there to try and recycle CP. Should get another one or two from him, pushing the total up to 8 or so. That gives me roughly 2 turns of dodging fire with most of my units.

Avengers are there to help guard the Autuarch and back field, with an eventual move up for objectives.

Fire Prism's will try and make use of the Jump-shoot-jump strat as well as the linked fire one. This should allow one Prism to move up the board at a decent pace, while still putting a lot of firepower on target.

Hemlock is gonna be a hemlock, and try to force some morale tests...

This list will struggle I feel vs any extreme lists. Hoard, parking lots, or pure CC will tear it apart pretty quickly. TBH, is it still a decently competitive / fun list? How would you all improve it, sticking more to the Alaitoc style?

[Cavalier]

I actually like your list. For a thousand points its pretty solid. You'll get a lot of mileage out of those Prisms. Great AT, great AI and they can gang up with the Hemlock to take out armor, or gang up with the Hemlocks + Hawks to take out infantry. The Rangers I find are way undervalued by people. Taking out characters has been so key and my Rangers have really kept the pressure on... of course with a few legendary kills sprinkled in like when Illic took down Guilliman.

Just wanted to post my own list so maybe you can snatch some ideas from me. Because I think there are some cool combos that'd work well.


For a thousand point list I think its pretty solid. I just spent the past 2 days crafting a double battalion, one Iyanden, one Alaitoc and my roughly thousand point wing looks like this:

HQ

Illic Nightspear
Warlord: 6” Auto-Pass Morale

Spirit Seer- Shiftshroud of Alanssair
Quicken/Restrain, Enhance/Drain

Warlock
Conceal/Reveal

TROOPS

Rangers x5
Rangers x5
Rangers x5

ELITES

Scorpions x10: Claw

FAST

Hornet- Lances x2 
Hornet- Lances x2 
       
HEAVY

Reapers x5
Reapers x5

The Reapers and Scorpions are putting out solid anti infantry. The Spirit Seer is touching down with the Scorpions (using the Shroudshift relic) to cast quicken to get them into assault. The Warlock is casting conceal on Illic and the lads to get them -3 and the Reapers -2. Plus Illic is giving a really nice morale buff as well (he's the Warlord). The Hornets and the Reapers double for anti-tank too.

The other thousand point battalion is bulked out with lots of anti-infantry, wraithguard etc making me super confident 

But you may want to consider going with Reapers instead of Prisms to capitalize on Warlocks with Conceal. I've clustered my Rangers and Reapers together with a Warlock previously and its been great. Also Illic will give them excellent morale. Plus you can use Webway Strike to position the Reapers alongside the Rangers where ever they go, and you could alternaltey give the Shroudshift to the Warlock (or Spiritseer) that you have rocking with your Rangers + Reaper combo (if you wanted to try that).

Anyway just my thoughts bud. I think the list you have is very solid. I see mine as a sort of alternate version where maybe you can plug and play elements in future games. I would definitley give your lists a go. I dont see any issues with it really.

Anyway good luck bud and let me know what you think

[faitherun (Fay-ith-er-run)]

Thanks Cav. Some very interesting ideas.

I like how you fit in the CC element there, and allowing for the relic and the scorps ability means you don't need to burn CP to get them in deep...

I had considered doing three squads of rangers, but wasn't sure how effective that would be, vs one of Avengers.

Question on the Hornets. I have never really looked at them before - but taking a look now, my first thought is to keep them stock with Shruiken Cannons, give them vectored engines, and advance every turn. A -3 to hit will really push their durability up

How do you contend against Fast CC armies? Quins and Nids and Bezerkers etc?

[Cavalier]

Hey bud. Yeah glad you liked the Relic bearing Seer pairing with the Scorps. I just keep re-listening to SS82's codex review while I paint... and the ideas just keep coming. lol

Yeah its just an extra bit of CC to help out. Good distraction, plus Scorpions are great for ambushing characters. With the +1 to wound, their Mandiblasters are dealing mortal wounds on a 5+ also. Eat that Cawl! LOL

Yeah I went 3x Rangers just because I literally had to to get up to the Battalion. All my Guardians/Avengers are in the other battalion.

Also YES! About the Hornets with Shuriken Cannons. I was chatting with a guy on FB the other day about that and its super nice. It gives you a super durable Jetbike equivalent... plus you can fire and fade with them if you need to. I'm gonna give it a serious play test cause my Jetbikes are out of the planned list I have and I know I'm gonna miss that Str 6 fire power.

As for fast CC armies... I've literally played NONE. All I have played against the entire edition is Guard and Space Marines. I'm the only guy who has fast CC in my area (Incubi, Wyches etc). Plus my World Eaters are inbound.

When my World Eaters are complete though my brother will be playing them against me and I still think I'm good to go. Thats because in my other battalion I've got a whole mess of Wraithguard led by Prince Y'riel. So fast armies can eat d-scythe overwatch, while Y'riel and the lads go in beat face with Wraithfists and the Spear of Twilight. Plus by that time, the Scorpion trap will have been sprung. So Scorpions, Y'riel and 2x5 Wraithguard shooting and then assaulting all as one is a pretty good wing of CC. Plus their are gonna be 2 Warlocks and the Spirit Seer buffing them with Protect and Empower.

I'm gonna experiment with Wraithblades with Axe and Shield as well. They are a straight swap with the D-Scythes... and I'm thinking of paying the CP's to give the Pystronome to the Warlock riding with Y'riel and his Wraithblades.

But If I do find the whole thing is a bit too shooty, I can basically swap out my Iyanden wing for a Ynnari wing in which I'd have the Wyches, Incubi, Wraithguard and Visarch fighting away.

While they aren't gonna go toe to toe with 3x10 Berserkers... I can go out and at least meet an important unit of them and let the shooting elements take care of the rest. Plus that Ynnari wing can sort of replicate the Berserkers double fight phase with Soulbursts ... with Reapers hopefully popping tanks, Y'vraine casting Soulburst on them to do so again.

Furthermore, I plan on using Phantasm and Webway Strike to make life miserable for fast CC armies with deployment tricks as well. I usually split my force into 2 blocks... a firebase and an attack wing. The attack wing will be able to be completely shifted as its only a small number of units. I can swing them all the way to the other side of the board. Also the Rangers can be kept in reserves and the Dark Reapers can be Webway Striked in if I feel like they are seriously threatened. Or I can use Phantasm to shift the Reapers and drop the Rangers via infilatrate.

I'm actually gonna make a list on the back of my army sheet of Stratagem combos, just in case I'm having a brain cramp at the beginning of the game (which is when they usually happen for me).

So yeah... let me know your own thoughts on the matter. Does my strategy sound good to you? Its all theory hammer at this point... and I'm amping up for a big game so I'd love to know your thoughts

[Partninja]

I feel like the Avengers and Hawks are the weakest part but only due to their unit size. I would personally drop the Hemlock to bolster the Avengers and Hawks. At this level I feel the two prisms will be plenty for heavy hitting. You could also swap the hawks out and try some windriders or reapers which would benefit well from the Alaitoc trait.

[faitherun (Fay-ith-er-run)]

So got to test this list out tonight.


++ Battalion Detachment ++

The Path of War

+ HQ +

Illic Nightspear

Spiritseer Protect/Jinx

+ Troops +

5x Ranger

5x Ranger

5x Ranger

+ Elites +

Striking Scorpions
. 9x Striking Scorpion: 9x Scorpion Chainsword
. Striking Scorpion Exarch: Scorpion's Claw & Scorpion Chainsword

+ Fast Attack +

Swooping Hawks
. 4x Swooping Hawk: 4x Lasblaster
. Swooping Hawk Exarch: Hawk's Talon, Power sword

+ Heavy Support +

. 5x Dark Reaper

. 5x Dark Reaper

+ Flyer +

Hemlock Wraithfighter

++ Total: [50 PL, 1018pts] ++

We ran the open war cards.
Mission was Kill the courier.
Twist was the Dawn Raid. Can't shoot further that 12". At the start of each battle round, on a 4+ add 6".

I designated the SpiritSeer as warlord so I could make Illioc the Courier. My opponent played Salamanders.

Rough list from memory:
Librarian (Might of ancients and power to re-roll charges)
5 man Assault marines x2, 3 plasma pistols
Assault Marines with Jet packs, 3 plasma pistols
Caplain
Storm Raven with lots of guns
IronClad Dread (courier)

My hawcks and Scorps went into DS. Reapers and Seer held back in cover while rangers and Illoc pushed forward far into cover.

The lizard men put 2 assault squads, both HQs, and the dread into the storm raven. Last Assault squad Deep struck in.

Salamanders took the first turn.

Top of turn 1
Roll of Dawn fight keeps us as just 12" to shoot. Storm raven flies straight up to unleash hell on earth into the Hemlock, dropping it down to a single wound. Assault marines Deep Strike out of sight into cover to try and Line a charge into Rangers on the next turn.

Bottom of turn 1.
Hemlock flies away, after burning the stratagem to heal 3 wounds back onto it. Lines up a shot onto the Assault Marines and BBQ's 2 of them. The last two will flee to Moral. Reapers move up to shoot the Raven, one squad getting protect on it. Raven is reduced to 5 wounds...

Top of turn 2. Everything gets out of the Raven, which maneuvers to shoot the Hemlock again. Badly wounded, it only lands 2 more wounds (4 total but Spirit Stones ate 2). Massed fire and charges sees the rest of the Reapers with Protect melting.

CC sees the SpiritSeer and a squad of Reapers spatting. Iron Clad dreads do stupid damage....

Bottom of turn 2.  g
Hemlock moves to target the dread. Scorpions and Hawcks come in, and prepare to charge/shoot stuff....

Start off shooting with the Hemlock into the Dread, and it just pops... And that was game!



Didn't really get to try out a lot with the list, it was over so quick. Will have to try again latter...