Continued Eldar Advice :)

Greg said...

excellent advice, I've tried to take it all into account when editing my earlier list, is this more the kind of list you're talking about?

Farseer
-Doom
-Guide
-Rune of Witnessing
-Rune of Warding
-Spirit Stones
145
6 Fire Dragons
Wave Serpent
-Eldar Missile Launcher
-Spirit Stones
210
5 Dire Avengers
-Exarch
-Dual Shuriken Catapult
-Bladestorm
Wave Serpent
-Eldar Missile Launcher
-Spirit Stones
222
5 Dire Avengers
-Exarch
-Dual Shuriken Catapult
-Bladestorm
Wave Serpent
-Eldar Missile Launcher
-Spirit Stones
222
5 Pathfinders
120
9 Warp Spiders
-Exarch
-Dual Death Spinner
215
Fire Prism
115
Fire Prism
115
Fire Prism
115
total:1495

Also, I've been toying with a couple of options, namely:
a) take out both Dire Avenger Exarchs and all they come with, as well as one Fire Dragon, in order to upgrade one Serpent to a Bright Lance and replace the Farseer with Eldrad!
b) again take out both Dire Avenger Exarchs and all they come with, as well as one Fire Dragon and one Warp Spider to give all 3 Prisms Holo-Fields.
I know I can't seem to stop asking for advice, and I am sorry, but so far its helped massively :

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Better, definitely :)

Having 3 Fire Prisms is a huge boost from having 2 - the ability to pump out that S10 AP1 t-l hit when you need it (Monoliths, for example, or even a LR that's too far away to commit the Dragons to [never shoot a Monolith through choice, but that's another story]) - y0u can still throw out a 9/2 or a 5/4 to another target. It adds redundancy, vital to Eldar possibly above all lists, due to the Eldar's fragility, keeping you firing more for longer.

The issue with DAVUs having Exarchs is threefold:

Encourages aggressive use - at ten men this is possibly viable, if not ideal. With merely 5, a single blast from a Railhead will kill the whole squad. Only if ALL anti-Infantry threats in range are eliminated is it then okay to get out - and if this is the case you're obviously trying to table the opponent, so don't lose your focus, commit more firepower than you need to guarantee a bad roll won't cost you the points.

Points Sink - The Exarch upgrade costs the same as another guy - without upgrades he merely adds a fraction of an extra hit a turn - definitely not wworth it unless tooled, but then the points quickly mount up. With a your set of upgrades that single model costs 44 points - this could be far better invested in a model that might get out of the transport more than once a game. :)

Torrent of Fire - The fact that there are only 5 guys in the unit makes it more likely, when they do get out, that the Exarch has to take wounds, thanks to the Wound Allocation rules - this makes it more likely he'll die, and all his abilities are lost to the unit. Even if they never get out, you can still take a wound if the transport is blown out of the sky, since you all take wounds on 3+, it's not hugely unlikely everyone takes one.

Now, discussing the options you put forward -

Holo-fields are awesome on anything that'll take a significant amount of fire. However, they're expensive - those 3 almost buys you another Prism, had you the room. On Prisms, I don't run them. I use Wave Serpents to block enemy LOS, and obscure my vehicle for the cover save, this is generally enough, coupled with moving away 12" a turn, lol, to save me from the majority of enemy fire. Admittedly, I've never played an IG gunline with this list, or an army as mobile as mine - keep them in mind, but, for now, I recommend taking Eldrad. After playing a few games with Eldrad, I want to see how he gets on - I used to use him in my similar list, but eventually dropped for Yriel for the CC power (at 1750) and I want to see if you encounter the same issues as I did. :)