I wanted to add a little comment on this:



Exarchs do not have first strike if I recall correctly.

But Warpspiders are excellent nonetheless. Another possibility for your Harlies could be to play them as Striking Scorpions which fits ok or banshees which fits quite good. You can then even scratchbuild some Venoms as Serpents to make them ride in style

If you are a little patient...Warp Spiders do appear on ebay sometimes.

Welcome in the world of pointy eared goodness  

Warp Spider Excarchs (and Autarchs) actually do get first strike on their attacks since the special ability is listed in the Warp Spider unit notes, not the weapon notes.

This also means that Warp Spider *close combat* attacks are also first strike!

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Those grey Guardians were also available on Eldar sprues in the plastic supplementary boxed sets in the Space Marine era too, so they predate Epic 40K.



Because Epic, rightly in my opinion, continues to view them as a separate army.  In my view, adding them to the Eldar Codex in 40K was a retrograde step, which should not have been taken, and they function better when kept independent from Craftworld Eldar army lists.

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Yeah...you are right Chroma....I alwasy played it wrong so far because I always assumed that Exarchs only add one attack and inspiring...Thanks  

Actually, that *IS* all the Exarch adds...

But they add those things to the basic abilities the unit they're joining already has... which is why the Howling Banshee Exarch does *NOT* get first strike.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Just to clarify, do you mean that these guys:

Were available in the Space Marine II era as well as these guys:

?

Because I was under the impression that the top pic was the E40k-era model, while the second image was from the SM2-era infantry box.

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Anyone care to consolidate the actual tactical discussion from the models and add it to one of the Eldar tactics threads in the tactics area?

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Neal

Yea, we've gotten off topic.  My apologies since I was the OP and went off-topic on my own

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http://kealios.blogspot.com/ - My blog of my sci-fi adventures

I don't care about that.  I just wanted to capture the tactical advice.  Eldar threads are somewhat lacking in the strategy section.

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Neal

Speaking of tactics:

Here is the list I plan on running tonight assuming my friend shows (he is notorious for not showing).  It's Saim-Hann v.6.3, and is a combination of models I own, what I know I'll be facing (no aircraft yet in our armies so minimal AA), and what I think looks like an effective force:

Saim-Hann v6.3, 3000 points

[500] Wild Rider Clan Warhost: 1 Wild Rider, 6 Jetbikes, 6 Vypers (one with Farseer) [BTS]

[375] Wild Rider Clan Warhost: 1 Wild Rider w/Chieftan, 5 Jetbikes, 2 Vypers (one with Farseer)

[350] Shining Spear Aspect Warrior Warhost: 8 Shining Spears w/ 2 Exarchs

[250] Saim-Hann Guardian Troupe: 4 Guardians, 2 Heavy Weapons, 3 Wave Serpents

[375] Aspect Warriors Troupe: 6 Fire Dragons, 3 Wave Serpents

[315] Swords of Vaul Troupe: 3 Falcons, 2 Firestorms, 1 Fire Prism

[175] Night Spinner Troupe: 3 Night Spinners

[250] Engine of Vaul Troupe: 1 Scorpion

[300] 3 Nightwing Interceptors

[100] Ranger Troupe: 4 Rangers for garrisoning
---------
2990

Some issues I see:

The list has no Wraithgate, and minimal Titan intervention.  Some Anti-Aircraft, although I will be proxying the Nightwings and may not even include them in this first battle.  That would buy me another Scorpion or Storm Serpent and a Wraithgate.

It seems like I will have a few dedicated CC units:

Shining Spears
Chieftan's Wild Rider host

A few harrassing FF units, designed to support assaults and add Blast markers:

BTS Wild Rider Warhost
Guardian Troupe
Aspect Warriors

Some far-ranging Anti-Tank firepower:
1 or two Engines of Vaul
Swords of Vaul
Night Spinners

Also, 10 Activations at 3k points seems decent too.  I think I'm going to enjoy the speed of this force, but will counter it next time I play with a slower Ulthwe force, as I have a TON of infantry...

Thoughts?  Am I just asking for trouble here, or will this be competitive?  I'll likely be facing Space Marines, but that shouldnt really matter...

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http://www.net-armageddon.org - The official NetEA (Epic Armageddon) site and resource.
http://kealios.blogspot.com/ - My blog of my sci-fi adventures

You are absolutely correct, I didn't see the different poses of the grey models, so I overlooked the Epic 40K ones, my apologies.

Neal: I do a lot of writing up of Eldar strategies and tactics in 40K, but as much as I would love to do the same for Epic, I just don't have the necessary experience with the current rules to be able to do so.  I have tried to encourage those with more experience to write an Eldar tactics thread, and, a unit by unit run down, but nobody seems very keen as far as I can see.

Of course, I could write pages and pages about Second Edition Eldar strategies, but that wouldn't be of benefit to anyone at all.

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Though not the best person for this, here are a few more thoughts:-

Eldar formations really need to work together to make the best of their varied capabilities. They also usually work best in a 'counter-attack' role, so try to force the opposition to reveal and commit to their strategy before you commit to yours. Especially try to avoid collecting too many BMs - so make liberal use of Marshalling on your strategically 'important' formations.

Counter-attacking tends to imply 'stalling' activations and the same or higher activation count than the opponent. I generally work with 10-12 in a 3000 point army, or an average of 300-250 points per formation. The relatively high cost of most Eldar formations also means the use of 1-3 scout formations in garrisoned positions whose initial role is to hide and survive while hindering the enemy advance.

The Eldar Autarch is a 'must have' - so you automatically must have an Aspect Warhost, but they are so flexible that they can fit into any strategy. As you should try to have an Exarch this makes the formation a minimum of 400 points, and usually higher. There are a number of deployment options depending on the overall strategy:-

a) 'Solo' with no additional transport
(All Shining Spears, All Swooping Hawk). IMHO the SS armour and Lance make them better than SH, whose teleport capability make them good candidates for 3rd turn objective grabbing tools.

b)  Integral Wave Serpents / Falcons
Wave Serpents RA, cost and Transport capacity makes them a better choice than Falcons. If costs are tight, remember that certain units may not use transport, so reducing the number of transports (and cost) needed.

c) Storm Serpents (Gates) and Vampires
Multiple 'gates are a must to avoid the enemy cramping your style. Vampires are harder to use in my experience, again probably best used in pairs. Vampires are very vulnerable to AA and are the weakest transport in the game

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Sir Hemry Newbolt

Ginger, thanks for the solid tips!

In writing up all the different versions of lists Ive toyed with, even squeezing in 2 different Engines of Vaul is tight, let alone something like a Vampire or Phantom Titan - those seem to belong in even larger games (maybe 4k+)?

I hadnt thought about the counter-assault tactic, but I was pondering the ease of getting crossfire situations with such swift units at hand.

With the speed of your average Eldar list, especially Saim-Hann, I am contemplating the Flank Refusal tactic, where center deployment and then swing to one side, abandoning slower enemy units that have committed to one flank or another, and swamp a few activations where possible before dashing off and hiding for a turn.

I also need to be conscious that spending a turn to load up and run isnt a wasted Activation, and when staggered among my formations, can be an effective "leapfrog" method of securing an area, running and repositioning for the next targets to be wiped out.

Good ideas - must find more friends to play Epic with!!!

_________________
http://www.net-armageddon.org - The official NetEA (Epic Armageddon) site and resource.
http://kealios.blogspot.com/ - My blog of my sci-fi adventures

You can include a Phantom/Warlock in a 3k game and some people do, though you do then really have to focus the list and tactics very much around it. A Vampire could easily appear in a 3k list if you choose, depends how you want to run the army and they're a not fairly cheap activation that can affect anywhere on the board (though is itself vulnerable to AA).

Mounted formations can get into a vehicle at the start of their first move and exit it at the end of the vehicles second move, therefore you can double them 70cm across the board easily enough.

Units like Shining Spears and Jetbikes with little or not ranged shots can quite happily march 105cm late on in the 1st turn (they won't be able to support an assault that turn but you can reposition them from a false flank and get them into position).

I used such tactics against a slow moving bio-titan heavy tyranid army and was successful, winning the game.

Only one or two engines?

400 Aspect Warriors, Autark, Exarch
250 Void Spinner
250 Void Spinner
250 Void Spinner
150 Guardians
250 Void Spinner
250 Void Spinner
250 Cobra
150 Guardians
250 Cobra
250 Falcons, Firestorms
250 Falcons, Firestorms
050 Wraithgate

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