Topic: 2000 point army list

[eldar rock]

Hi I havent played a 2000 point army before and was wanting to try it.  I got a few units for christmas and was wanting to use them. They are eldrad and  the howling banshees.  heres my list.

hq's
eldrad 210
avatar 155

elites
10 howling banshees exarch with executioner and all abilities
2 wave serpent tl bl spirit stones 270

troops
2* 10 dire avengers exarch dual shuriken catapults bladestorm 290
10 dire avengers exarch pw shimmer shield defend 145
10 pathfinders 240

heavy support
2 wraithlords 2 flamers bright lance eml
nightspinner spirit stones

thats 1887 points I was wondering what to get with thew rest of the points?
my strategie is to have eldrad with the howling banshees in a wave serpent and in the other wave serpent have a squad of da's. I would have the other 2 squads of dire avengers be bye the pathfinders and help if anything tries to attack the pathfinders  and ill have the wraithlords be by the wave serpents or help defend pathfinders da's and nightspinner.
I was wondering how to use eldrad correctly too.

[broodlord93]

I think that for a 2000pt army you seem to have relatively little anti tank, with only 4 bright lances and 2 missile launchers. Also the avatar doesnt look like it has a real purpose in the list with so much already being dedicated to sitting back, and he is best used going forward anyway but still i dont see him being much use.

My main advice would be to get in another wave serpent so both bladestorm avenger squads can go forward and zoom around the place, or to invest in more anti tank, like a fire prism or 2 by dropping the night spinner and avatear (night spinner wont be nearly as useful as the fire prisms can be). Or maybe some outflanking war walkers with EML or bright lances to hit the enemy where it hurts (side /rear armour)

[felixander]

Hey man, the list seemed somewhat similar to one that was posted recently and I'll tell you that people in a lot of communities will hate on the Banshees but I still think they're good if used properly (especially if you play MEQ or ShootyCrons frequently) and have good support but I would not suggest sending Eldrad with them for a few reasons. #1 if you're going to have him go in with the Banshees he is NOT fleet, which will hold back the whole squad and if he can hit the an enemy, the whole enemy squad can hit him. If you are in a situation where you can shoot he can be really good because of his ability to fortune the squad, doom the enemy, and then Eldritch Storm/MindWar (or sometimes I'll fortune the squad AND the vehicle while it's still in transport  (and moving flat out to ensure that it doesn't go down and if it does then the squad is durable) as well as guide a fire support squad. BUT by having him with the Banshees and not having any other psykers, you leave the Wraithlords and Avatar vulnerable. I personally much prefer War Walkers over the Wraithlord, for 5 more points you can replace your Wraithlord with 3 War Walkers that will pump out 24 Scatter Laser shots (and one use of guide makes them ALL re-rollable) Or 6 EML and against an army that isn't MEQ you can lay down 6 blasts and negate their 4+ armor or against get in 6 Krak Missiles in to crush a predator or a squad that isn't in cover. That and a Falcon (with 5 dire avengers inside to make a cheap scoring unit) that can house Eldrad and guide both squads can lay down tons of fire power (I have out shot Tau with this as the core before).
But that is going down a completely different avenue than you seem to want to go.

If I were doing a melee/DA heavy army I would immediately cut out the Pathfinders. Their guns aren't that good and they are very good objective holders with their 2+ cover, but there are too many quick Melee units in the game for me to feel comfortable relying on that. In all the games I've played since starting back up Rangers/Pathfinders have done a really good job of holding an objective for 1-3 rounds, but once an enemy wants to take them out, they will. So I would suggest no more than 6 if you must keep them.

So if you want to stay with a very similar list I would suggest

eldrad 210
avatar 155

elites
10 howling banshees exarch with executioner and War Shout 187
wave serpent TL Shuriken Cannon + Spirit Stones 110

troops
2* 10 dire avengers exarch dual shuriken catapults bladestorm 290
10 dire avengers exarch pw shimmer shield defend 145
Wave serpent TL Shuriken cannon + spirit stones 110
5 rangers 95

heavy support
2 wraithlords 2 flamers bright lance eml 310
nightspinner 115

The above is what you have, currently at 1613 and you have all HQ and Heavy Support full. I would suggest adding on a squad of Guardians with a spiritseer with Conceal and Eldar Missile Launcher (136) Which will put you at 1750 (Not an uncommon tournament points limit) Adding the Guardians adds in a mobile Wraithsight buffer who can stand between the two Wraithlords and let them be up to 24" apart and giving the Guardians a flexible EML that can be fired at squads with the blast if the guardians get within range of their 12" guns. I rarely use Defender Guardians and this is one of the only situations I would use them and I believe that for their points cost they will be effective. Always having at least a 5+ Cover save gives them something resembling a chance to survive some fire. If you can find a way to clear up 2 points (Drop one shooty Dire Avenger, upgrade the Tarpit DA's Wave Serpent up to having EML will do it) and you can give the Warlock a Singing Spirit for a better shooting weapon within 12", or if an enemy vehicle closes in than the squad has 2 anti tank weapons!

However the AntiTank will be kind of light and you'll have to rely heavily on those Wraithlords, if you're willing to change your list around I'd start at swapping out your entire Heavy Support by getting 2 Fire Prisms and a squad of 3 War Walkers with EMLs which would only be a 15 point increase and largely increase your AntiTank, antiMC, and vastly increase versatility

[eldar rock]

Thank you for responding to my post  heres what I want to change, I'm going to change the avatar for yriel, I'm also going to exchange one wraith lord for war walkers with scatter lasers and emls instead of my nightspinner I'll try a fire prism, and I'll just use 5 rangers instead of ten,and get another wave serpent. I'm also going to use eldar in a squad with dire avengers.
I was wondering how to use eldar ads special abilities.  Thank you for responding.

[felixander]

That all sounds like a very solid plan, though if you play against people who field vehicles with higher AV11, definitly do all EML on the WarWalkers! Just try it, obviously if you don't like it don't keep it but give it a shot! Yriel for the Avatar is a great move as well. But I was confused by this:

I'm also going to use eldar in a squad with dire avengers. I was wondering how to use eldar ads special abilities.

Can you rephrase this? All of your guys are eldar!

Just wanted to pop in and make a quick correction, just realized I got Conceal points cost confused with Embolden so

"squad of Guardians with a spiritseer with Conceal and Eldar Missile Launcher (136)" is actually 146 points!

Double posting is against the forum rules.  Please use the modify button instead - Iri.

[Zilverscale]

That all sounds like a very solid plan, though if you play against people who field vehicles with higher AV11, definitly do all EML on the WarWalkers! Just try it, obviously if you don't like it don't keep it but give it a shot! Yriel for the Avatar is a great move as well. But I was confused by this:

I'm also going to use eldar in a squad with dire avengers. I was wondering how to use eldar ads special abilities.

Can you rephrase this? All of your guys are eldar!

I think the OP meant using Eldrad with his DA squad and how to use his special/psyker abilities.

Seeing as I do not play with Eldrad I'll leave others to comment further on this.

[felixander]

I think the OP meant using Eldrad with his DA squad and how to use his special/psyker abilities.

You so smart! Here's a cookie 

The Banshees are kind of worthless without someone to doom the enemies and are pretty frail, so having a fortune to give them a better chance of surviving is always nice. Eldrad would do very little with the Dire Avenger squad. You would want to use that squad to either target anything with powerful guns to simply get in there and "Tarpit" them. The Shimmershield and Defend will help make the fight last longer so you can run around and kill everything else and then come back to them when they don't have any buddies left ^_^ Eldrad could help this with his Fortune and dooming the enemies, but putting it on a squad built for Melee with power weapons is gonna be ten times better.

As far as your question how to use Eldar "ads" abilities do you mean Eldrad's that's easy! If you're fighting an army like a gunline or a strong melee you'll want to put your units across your deployment zone so he will have to either isolate his troops in one area or spread himself thin. Then once both of you have both deployed you get to move D3+1 units, redeploy your units so that you can use everything to focus down one section, or even one high priority target right off the bat. As for his psychic abilities, they work as normal psychic abilities but that you can use any 3 of the Eldar Farseer powers and can use one twice. So you can Fortune the Wave Serpent he's in, Fortune the squad he's with, and if within 24" Doom an enemy unit (it's not a Psychic shooting attack so you don't need a Fire Port or line of sight). Then have the Wave serpent move Flat Out to get to where you want it to go so that it gets a 4+ rerollable save and even if it does get blown up your Howling Banshees and Eldrad get Fortuned against whatever shoots into them. When charging out (remember NOT to move the vehicle before disembarking the troops and not moving Flat Out after they have) have Eldrad Fortune the squad of Howling Banshees (which should separate from him, leaving him inside the Wave Serpent), Doom the squad they'll be charging and Doom another unit a squad will be shooting at!

Hoping that helps, feel free to rephrase the question if I answered the wrong question =X

[eldar rock]

Thank you for replying. I was talking about eldrad but I had to type on iPad so it was hard.  I was also going to use the guardians but accidentally erased that. Wouldn't using two
Emls on the warwalkers make them twin linked? Thanks again

[Irisado]

Wouldn't using two Emls on the warwalkers make them twin linked?

No, you're confusing War Walkers with Wraithlords.  See page 66 of the Eldar codex for details.

From a tactical perspective, if you're going to take Wraithlords in an anti-tank role, I don't see any reason to take War Walkers in a similar role.

[eldar rock]

Wouldn't the war walkers be better since they have more fire power? Or would the wraithlord be better because of assault?

[Irisado]

Wouldn't the war walkers be better since they have more fire power? Or would the wraithlord be better because of assault?

If you want more firepower, then War Walkers with Scatter Lasers are your best bet, but these are ineffective against AV12 or higher, so it depends on what you want your heavy support to do.  If it's anti-tank fire support you're after, then two Wraithlords equipped as per your list are better than War Walkers with EMLs in my opinion, owing to their superior accuracy, and they have the potential to damage AV13 targets if necessary too.

[felixander]

I'd rather take a Falcon over a Wraithlord any day. It costs 20 points less to have a Falcon with an EML, you are more likely to hit (Wraithlord will hit with 1.333 while Falcon will hit with 1.5 Since Pulse Laser is Heavy 2), can be made a scoring unit and/or protect your guideseer, and manuverability (can move 12" while still firing the EML Plasma and Pulse laser at troops if need be, to get the target in sight, or Flat Out to get away from threats and get a cover save).

It won't mess up AV13/14 as well because it doesn't have the BL and it doesn't have the obvious melee abilities (which can also be used to tie him up so he can't shoot), in most cases I would say the Wraithlord is slightly more durable (that Autocannon gets a lucky Pen/wreck on your Falcon and it's all sadfaces for you)

BUT Don't have a psychic babysitter? Takes a nap. If you go up against DE then any given unit can  him. Don't have a psychic babysitter? Takes a nap (and I don't know about you but with my rolls he always will haha). Targeting a fast/skimmer enemy? Enemy easily moves so that he will be untargetable.

So they have their places, I like the flexability of a Falcon matched with 2 Fire Prisms or 3-6 War Walkers 0-1 Nightspinner

[Irisado]

I'd rather take a Falcon over a Wraithlord any day. It costs 20 points less to have a Falcon with an EML

Only if you miss out critical pieces of equipment.  Without Spirit Stones and Holofields, the Falcon is rarely durable enough to warrant fielding it in my experience, so it costs a lot more than a Wraithlord.  A Falcon gun boat can also be shaken, whereas Wraithlords cannot, so you run the risk of losing your shooting through constant shaken results.  This is not a problem for Wraithlords, so they are more reliable anti-tank fire support.

The Falcon's mobility is its main advantage, but this is more useful when you want to contest or capture objectives, or pick up a small or depleted unit from a vulnerable position.  If that's what a player is looking to do, then yes, it may well be a better option, but in mixed lists like this one, I find taking more Wave Serpents to bolster the mechanised wing is generally more effective than adding gun boat Falcons, as mixed lists tend to require a lot of attacking options to work.