In my recent 3 player battle, one of the features of the ecounter was the power Warlocks have to neutralise praetorians (and Titans). Throwing Eldrich storms directly in the path of Leviathans and Collossus prevented the war machines from unleashing their extensive armouries upon the Eldar.

At the weekend I took control of a 6k Squat army against the 6k Eldar. My brother took three Warlocks, all of which used their storms to completely neutralise 2 Collossus and a Land Train, while the rest of his force set about annihilating the remainder of my army. At the end of Turn 2, the points score was 50VPs to 17VPs, and I was forced into a humiliating defeat!

The moral of the story: Warlocks can seriously damage your army's health!

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I rarely used to get my Warlocks close enough to make use of Eldritch Storm. They tended to hold back, and be objective holders with Guardian Warhosts in my armies. It's a very underrated power when used on the right target though.

In view of the range of the Collossus, I'm curious as to how a Warlock got close enough to be able to cast it. Could you explain in more detail?

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No probs - we always start play 80cm apart. The praetorians move 10cm, reducing the distance to 70 cm. Under the revised rules, the Eldar Warlock can now move 60cm (Grav-Tank moves 50cm less 5cm to drop off the Warlock, plus Warlock 20cm less 5cm for disembarking), theoretically getting to within 10cm of the super-heavies although this didn't happen in practice, but they were within the 50cm range to unleash the storms. Using the Guardians from the Warhost as Elven shields, my forces could not target the Warlocks (cannot target HQs unless nearest target) so I was powerless to stop the (very successful) tactic. Rereading the rules again I did miss a trick as it says that barrages may still be fired indirectly over the storm.

Now that I've just worked out that the Warlocks could get to within 10cm of the Praetorians on turn 1, another tactic that could be used would be to throw them forward to use the Mind Blast to destroy the Leviathan/Collosus! Ok, the Void Shields would offer a 4+ Psychic save but still, could be deadly!

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Thanks for the explanation.

It's as I thought, in that your opponent uses his Guardians far more aggressively than I do. I'd forgotten about the changes to the rules for disembarking though.

I'd prefer the Mind Blast route if I were going to be that aggressive, at least with one Warlock, and then have another to cast Eldritch Storm as a back up. Dark Reapers could strip the shields from afar, making Mind Blast more of a threat.

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The only problem is that unless you were also willing to sacrifice a unit of Guardians, you'd be guaranteeing that the Warlock would be the closest target. You'd have to have initiative and Mind Blast the Leviathan immediately because you'd most likely be dead after the Leviathan fired. I suppose chucking the Grav Tank in front of the Warlock stand might help a little because the stand wouldn't be able to be targeted until that was disposed of!

Used correctly those little swines can be quite a menace!

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I'd definitely have the Guardians lined up in front, but I'd also be attacking with Aspect formations in Falcons, and Jetbikes/Vypers. If you're going to attack with the Eldar, use concentration of force, and utterly cripple a small section of the opposing army's battle line .

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Sounds like a plan! Sadly, it'll be a while before I give it a whirl as I'm currently tied up playing as Marines for the forseeable future!

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