Emailage...

EMAIL from Hod:

This is the list I am running and its to the theme of Saim-Hann. I am using an army of what I got painted up and ready to play but would like to know what your plans for expansion would be. I am making a bike council but trying to make warlock bikers is difficult. I am still in the process of making my mech eldar but the army I built and painted was towards the end of 4th. I can handle most other lists but my problem stems from fighting Nidzilla as I lack any real killing power outside of the prisms.

2000 Pts

HQ: Farseer (1#, 205 Pts)

1 Farseer @ 205 Pts

Unit Type: Jetbike Infantry; Psyker; Doom ; Fortune ; Guide ; Turbo-boosters; Ghost Helm (GH); Rune Armour (RAmr); Runes of Warding (RofWard); Runes of Witnessing (RofWit); Spirit Stones (P:SpStn); Eldar Jetbike (EJB); Shuriken Pistol (Sp); Witchblade (WB); TL Shuriken Catapult (TL-Scat) (x1)

HQ: Farseer (1#, 205 Pts)

1 Farseer @ 205 Pts

Unit Type: Jetbike Infantry; Psyker; Doom ; Fortune ; Guide ; Turbo-boosters; Ghost Helm (GH); Rune Armour (RAmr); Runes of Warding (RofWard); Runes of Witnessing (RofWit); Spirit Stones (P:SpStn); Eldar Jetbike (EJB); Shuriken Pistol (Sp); Witchblade (WB); TL Shuriken Catapult (TL-Scat) (x1)

Troops: Guardian Jetbike Squadron (6#, 152 Pts)

6 Guardian Jetbike Squadron @ 152 Pts

Unit Type: Jetbike Infantry; Turbo-boosters; Eldar Jetbike (EJB); Shuriken Cannon (SCan) (x2); TL Shuriken Catapult (TL-Scat) (x4)

Troops: Guardian Jetbike Squadron (6#, 152 Pts)

6 Guardian Jetbike Squadron @ 152 Pts

Unit Type: Jetbike Infantry; Turbo-boosters; Eldar Jetbike (EJB); Shuriken Cannon (SCan) (x2); TL Shuriken Catapult (TL-Scat) (x4)

Troops: Guardian Jetbike Squadron (7#, 205 Pts)

6 Guardian Jetbike Squadron @ 205 Pts

Unit Type: Jetbike Infantry; Turbo-boosters; Eldar Jetbike (EJB); Shuriken Cannon (SCan) (x2); TL Shuriken Catapult (TL-Scat) (x4)

1 Warlock @ [53] Pts

Unit Type: Jetbike Infantry; Psyker; Embolden ; Turbo-boosters; Rune Armour (RAmr); Eldar Jetbike (EJB); Shuriken Pistol (Sp); Singing Spear (SSpr); TL Shuriken Catapult (TL-Scat) (x1)

Troops: Guardian Jetbike Squadron (3#, 76 Pts)

3 Guardian Jetbike Squadron @ 76 Pts

Unit Type: Jetbike Infantry; Turbo-boosters; Eldar Jetbike (EJB); Shuriken Cannon (SCan) (x1); TL Shuriken Catapult (TL-Scat) (x2)

Troops: Guardian Jetbike Squadron (3#, 76 Pts)

3 Guardian Jetbike Squadron @ 76 Pts

Unit Type: Jetbike Infantry; Turbo-boosters; Eldar Jetbike (EJB); Shuriken Cannon (SCan) (x1); TL Shuriken Catapult (TL-Scat) (x2)

Fast Attack: Vyper Squadron (2#, 195 Pts)

1 Vyper Squadron @ 195 Pts

1 Vyper @ [80] Pts

Spirit Stone (V:SpStn); Scatter Laser (SctL); Shuriken Cannon (SCan)

1 Vyper @ [115] Pts

Holo-Field (Vehicle) (H-F); Spirit Stone (V:SpStn); Scatter Laser (SctL); Shuriken Cannon (SCan)

Fast Attack: Vyper Squadron (2#, 205 Pts)

1 Vyper Squadron @ 205 Pts

1 Vyper @ [85] Pts

Spirit Stone (V:SpStn); Missile Launcher (ML); Shuriken Cannon (SCan)

1 Vyper @ [120] Pts

Holo-Field (Vehicle) (H-F); Spirit Stone (V:SpStn); Missile Launcher (ML); Shuriken Cannon (SCan)

Heavy Support: Fire Prism (1#, 175 Pts)

1 Fire Prism @ 175 Pts

Holo-Field (Vehicle) (H-F); Spirit Stone (V:SpStn); Star Engines (SE); TL Shuriken Catapult (TL-Scat); Prism Cannon (PC)

Heavy Support: Fire Prism (1#, 175 Pts)

1 Fire Prism @ 175 Pts

Holo-Field (Vehicle) (H-F); Spirit Stone (V:SpStn); Star Engines (SE); TL Shuriken Catapult (TL-Scat); Prism Cannon (PC)

Heavy Support: Fire Prism (1#, 175 Pts)

1 Fire Prism @ 175 Pts

Holo-Field (Vehicle) (H-F); Spirit Stone (V:SpStn); Star Engines (SE); TL Shuriken Catapult (TL-Scat); Prism Cannon (PC)

MY REPLY:

First thing's first - Holo Fields on Vypers. Have to confess, this is a pet hate of mine, for two main reasons:

1) Cost. It's only 15 points less than a new Vyper. If it increased survivability more than another Vyper, it'd perhaps be worth the expense, but when you're paying that 70 points on them you could just get a 3rd Squadron, which presents more threats to the foe. Of course, I'm not a huge fan of Vypers at all, but let's work with what you have for now.

2) Survivability. A Vyper has paper-thin armour, suffers from the Squadron rule, and is Open-topped. These factors combined make your Vypers no more survivable than the proverbial snowball when the opponent turns his fire to them - while H-Fs mitigate a serious amount of this hate, there's a 0.11111 chance of them downing a Falcon with H-Fs, compared to a .54762 chance of a Vyper being obliterated. Remember, that's WITH the bloody upgrade. lol

Next: Spirit Stones on same. In a squadron, these have no effect. If one gets shot down, odds are the other isn't far enough behind to warrant the expense.

Holo-Fields on Fire Prisms. I've done my math for the day (;)) but these are unnecessary, overall. Slightly increased chance of Weapon Destroyed is bad, especially when you have no underslug Cannon as back-up to the primary weapon. Star Engines are also bad, because if you can't fire you are either a guided missile or dead, and you cannot Ram with Star Engine moves. As fond of them as Fritz is, preventing Turn 5 contesting isn't rocket science.

Small Jetbike Squads are flexible, allow multiple Objective Grabs and contests, and are incredibly vulnerable to enemy fire. As you've no doubt surmised, I favour consolidating into two ten-man units with EmboldenLocks, with the other units kept around 6 where possible to act as harrying units.

Farseers, you can get away with dropping the second RoWard. Not ideal, perhaps, but oft necessary to scrounge points.

So far, just dropping the superfluous upgrades nets us 270 points. We will also swap the Spirit Stones on the Fire Prisms for Cannons, for that back-up punch, and for anti-Horde, light vehicle and MC duty. Benefits all round. Note that you are happy not to use them in 75%+ of games, as being unshot is better than being in range to administer a full barrage. So, with the points banked, we look at what we are lacking in the list...

No CC element:

Given the mobility and multiple Scoring Units, this may be something that does not require attention. Gloss over this flaw for now, to look at later.

Non-Optimal Survivability in Jetbike Squadrons:

Addressed above. Will be corrected in suggested list below.

No serious anti-tank threat:

This is a serious issue. While those 60" S10 AP1 hits from a Fire Prism are delightful, you can only have one such shot per turn...this makes killing massed armour a serious problem for the list. The Witchblades/Singing Spear are very good at it, but too few in number and short of range to really be adequate for this role alone (Prisms not withstanding) - while the mass of S6 from the Bikes also contributes to Light and Meduim Armour's death, it is inadequate against AV13+, and too sparse to mean that you won't be shooting the same target with multiple units of your own. The best solution is, as always, Fire Dragons. Seer Councils are adequate for the job, but far from ideal, to my mind, given the disparity in cost between these options. Unfortunately, only one unit of Draogns would be easily neutralised by the foe, forcing us to 'double-up' on them in order to maintain and indeed enhance effectiveness. The bare minimum for this unit is 180 points, so 2 of them is 360...a mite over our budget. Hmmmm.

Perhaps there's a way around this issue? Especially given that adding 2 Wave Serpents, while a positive step, only takes the total Grav Tanks to 5, which is not nearly enough to present the wall of armour that is so appealing. With only two different things for the foe to shoot, it would also pose less of a Target Priority headache for the foe - though we will assume a competent player who makes his primary judgement on what is likely to lead to a better excecutin of his battle plan, instead of someone driven purely by vendettas over prior games, or somesuch.

Anyway, in order to overcome this issue, we have to take a step back, and look for other ways to introduce Transport Capacity to the list. The easiest/best way to wangle this is simply to replace the Prisms. Since we need to mount-up two units, 2 Falcons are subbed in for Prisms. A Falcon with Scatter Laser and Shuriken Cannon is neatly cheap...but if being used to deliver Dragons the Holo-Fields are once again necessary...taking cost to 165 points. Being 40 points more than the Prisms at this juncture means we are left on 80 less than original budget, down from 260 to...180. Awesome. More than enough to add the Dragons to ride inside.

SO, the list we have at the minute looks like this;

Farseer;

Doom, Fortune, Guide, Jetbike, RoWard, RoWit, Spirit Stones. - 205

Farseer;

Doom, Fortune, Guide, Jetbike, RoWit, Sirit Stones. - 190

GJB Squadron;

10 Guardian Jetbikes; 3 Shuriken Cannons, Warlock:Embolden, Singing Spear. - 303

GJB Squadron;

10 Guardian Jetbikes; 3 Shuriken Cannons, Warlock:Embolden, Singing Spear. - 303

Fire Prism;

Prism Cannon, Shuriken Cannon. - 125

Falcon;

Shuriken Cannon, Scatter Laser, Pulse Laser, Holo-Fields, Spirit Stones. - 185

Falcon;

Shuriken Cannon, Scatter Laser, Pulse Laser, Holo-Fields, Spirit Stones. - 185

Fire Dragons Squad;

5 Fire Dragons: Fusion Guns, Melta Bombs. - 80

Fire Dragons Squad;

5 Fire Dragons: Fusion Guns, Melta Bombs. - 80

So far, 1496, and not a terrible 1500 point list. However, we have an additional 500 points to fill, and no CC element, as well as the GJB squads we want to put back in.

6 Guardian Jetbikes;

2 Shuriken Cannons. - 152

6 Guardian Jetbikes;

2 Shuriken Cannons. - 152

That's 1798, and leaves us room for 8 Harlequins, Troupe Master (with Power Weapon), Shadowseer, and 6 Harlequins' Kisses - exactly 200 points.

Only deploying 8 threats isn't ideal, but is fine, despite the fact you had ten before, because now we have the additional threats in the Dragons, and the much more potent GJB Squads. The Harlequins also add a different dimension to the play that you could have struggled with before. Despite their Rending attacks and Hit and Run, their main use will be to target larger units (Ork Boyz etc) that they can overwhelm with their great number of attacks, instead of relying upon the Armour Ignoring properties they possess.

Spellcheck refuses to work I'm afraid. Friend's computer, blame him. lol

EDITORS NOTE: - Finally fixed the spelling.  In December 2010.  Lol