2: The Perfect Anvil: The hammer and Anvil tactic is one that is quite popular among the eldar players. Many players I know solidify an anvil force with slower, tougher units with a long reach, or middle runners such as Dire Avengers. But this is something that the Wraithguard can also do with GREAT effect.
The first thing that you will unanimously hear from people who hate foot slogging their troops is something that is very basic. "They can't shoot till they are within 12 inches." This alone makes people skeptical, and very reluctant at feilding wraithguard as a foot slogging force. Despite this short comming though, the Wraithguard actualy accell at Anvil tactics because of their resiliance. And despite them not being able to return fire, they themselves provide a ponderous advance that is near impossible to break though when they are in large enough numbers. Not to mention that without a transport, the wraithguard are free to do what they do best...DRAW FIRE.
As I mentioned before, their high Toughness and high armor makes them nearly invulnerable to small arms fire. Although weapons like Plasma Cannons / Laz guns, and other low AP weapon do go though guard quite easily, as I mentioned before, other army's are not as specialized as us Eldar. Which means that more often then not, you will have a constant stream of bolter fire with only one or two shots from weapons that can actualy harm the wraithguard from your average infantry unit. This means that as they advance, in order for your opponent to bring to bear the weapons that can harm the Wraithguard, he must use his units that have smaller calibur weapons that the wraithguard virtualy ignore.
But while your wraithguard slog through bolter fire without a care in the world, bolters are the BANE of every other unit in the eldar army, due to their low toughness. By allowing your guard to be shot by these units that bring to bear only one or two plasma hits per unit, By allowing these units to be shot at, the rest of your army is free to advance without the worry of comming under fire of numerous mid strength weapons. This in itself is worth its weight in gold to an eldar army.
But what if your opponents "ignore" this slow foot slogging threat? Well then that works to your benifit. Despite peoples bickering about wraithguard, even if you where to set up 27 inches away from an opponent at the start of the game, if you use your wraithguard to literaly just march in a straight line twards your opponents, they will be at his line by turn 3. This leaves you 2/3rds of the game in range of your weapons alllowing you to bring your weapons to bear. And this is only IF he sits in your deployment zone. If he is a force such as black Templar, then he might even be at your line in 2 turns.
As before, the two big options to take the warlock / spirit seer with is Enhance or Conceil. Enhance will make you a bit more potent offensively, as if you are fortunate enough to get into charge range, you can deliver a brutal one two punch with your wraithcannon followed by your high Initiative, High WS, High STR, High T, Low Armor goodness.
This makes the guard the "Perfect Anvil" as they can literaly be a rock hard anvil force that will continously advance up the line. To this day, I have yet to see ANY force that can break though a Wraithguard / Dire Avenger Anvil when the wraithguard are in play. Although "Slow and Steady" are hardly what Eldar players concider a way to fight, for those that are patient enough this anvil force can Steam roll over a force with its sheer resiliance.
3: Wraithconstruct line: Just like with Guardians, the warlock that is given with a wraithguard squad is great for those that wish to feild WraithLords in their force. In fact Wraithlords make great support units for Wraithguard as they are similarly tough, can continue to shoot as they take wounds, and can draw even more fire away from both your main "soft" troops, as well as your wraithguard. Needless to say, If you are playing a Hammer and Anvil Eldar force, and you need your farseer to stick close to your shining spear or warpspiders to fortune them, Wraithguard are a great unit to pair up with your wraithlords to form an anvil, as the wraithguard and Lords can be an anvil force un-to themselves. Where Guardians would need a few aspect warriors around to realy settle in as an anvil force.
4: A Note on Wraithguard as Troops:
When employed as mentioned above, Wraithguard become PHENOMINAL troop choices. With a fully loaded Wraithguard unit, and a Dire Avenger squad, you do not just have a lethal anvil tag team, but you also have your compulsory troops. And I have yet to see anyone complain about not taking more troops when they see that you have spent almost 400 points for the wraithguard unit alone. (This is more points then I see most armys put into their ENTIRE troop choices.)
As I mentioned before with Guardians, having wraithguard in your forces are not for everyone. They are best employed in foot slogging forces that wish to draw large amount of fire away from the "soft" troops that the eldar have. These guys are more then enough to weather any storm your opponent might bring you. But caution must be taken, as like anything, there are a few things that wraithguard cannont handle well. Wraithguard are very good at occupying and holding back horde army's, but against large amount of power weapon units such as Space Marine Veteran Squads, or genestealers, Wraithguard will often get overwhelmed. Like everything in the eldar army, Wraithguard need propper support from other elements of the Eldar army. But unlike other elements, They can be give alittle bit more le-way compared to other troops. They will not die to incoming fire if they are caught out in the open like Banshee's, nor will they crumble in the first turn of CC like Dark Reapers, or Rangers do. But never the less, they CAN fall if you put too much of a burden on them. It takes experiance to know when to leave them, and when to help them, but needless to say, if you learn how to recognize when they can be left on their own, and when others need to intervein to bring more offensive might to bear, then the Wraithguard are turely a nearly unstopable force. As to this day, I have only ever seen a squad of wraithguard go below scoreing size ONCE. (And that was due to a Vindicator sacraficing itself to do just that.)
A note on powerfists
Although it is true that Wraithguard will fall to powerfists, I would like to note that going up against a unit with a powerfist does not spell doom for the wraithguard unit. As the powerfist will only give a handfull of casualties a turn, and a large unit of wraithguard should be able to weather the storm of one power fist and still cause enough casualties to win or tie combat. Whenever you see yourself in one of these situations, do not panic. Let the guard take the powerfist charge, as it is better to loose one or two fearless units that will most likely tie down that squad for the remainder of the game then to withdraw and allow the squad to run rampant among your more frail troops.
The things you SHOULD look out for are high STR low AP template weaponry such as Vindicator cannons, BattleCannons, and FirePrism's. Pairing up with a pair of Tank hunting wraithlords is ususaly enough to discorage an opponent from bringing these kind of weapons to bear against the guard, but if he feels it a good trade off to B-line his tank to decimate your guard squad, its a good thing to have your wraithlords there to get even on the tank when they do kill off large numbers of wraithguard.
Whew. That was alot. But I hope it helped.
