Thursday, January 13, 2011

Not quite final apparently. (the internet's going to laugh at me)

...ok, so maybe not.

I thought that the version 7 was going to be the final version of my list and that I just would have to fear Da MaCHiNE's Daemon list during the course of the tournament. With 8 games during the course of the day, it's likely that I will see this list. Kirby from 3++ gave me some pointers on how to handle the list (more on that in a bit) and Noah (who has no blog for shame) suggested adding Banshees. I *heart* Howling Banshees despite what you say internet, and they are fluffy for Iybraesil being matriarchal and all. When I build a list they always seem to come out with a tinge of fluff, I just can't help it. It's what happens.

So after Noah smashed my army with his 2 Prism / Falcon / 2xFire-Dragons-in-Serpents list, I decided to try out the Banshees. Dropping a Farseer, Wraithlord and downgrading the DA Exarch, I was able to put 8 Banshees in a Wave Serpent into my army. This changed the target spread from 2 tanks to 3 and I was able to put cannons under my Falcons. Something else lacking in Version 7. Well I went 50/50 with Noah after that, and I think it came down to deployment. I felt like we were pretty evenly matched. Still lost 7 - 1 against the Daemons despite Kirby's telling me to stay far away. The Banshees just want to go kill so it's tough to make them run. (Yes I DO listen to the little voices, why do you ask?)

Looking again at my list I wondered how I could go faster. I caved in and asked the 3++ chatters what they thought of my list. Amidst the expected "get more fire dragons", were "banshees suck" and "the only thing worse than banshees are shining spears / swooping hawks". I actually had two or three people offer constructive help. Breaking down my list they said I had enough anti-tank (which I was worried about) but they didn't know if the Banshees would be enough to stop the not-so-squishy centers of those tanks that came splling out after I brightlance them open.

While I respect Fire Dragons, I only own the one squad and have no plans to own any more. It's not fluffy to me. Autarch Ry'hanna says if they learned how to ride bikes that would be a different story. I took the internets' collective advice and soundly went against it. I dropped the Banshees and Rangers. Added another squad of Avengers to put the Farseer on a bike and added a Vyper and Shining Spears (cue laugh track). Say what you will, and I know the mathhammer on it, but my Spears have been very effective whenever I've run them. So effective that whenever I put them on the table they get target priority from my usual opponents.

I think that some Eldar units look bad on paper on their own, but once given proper support from other units perform well. My Spears have done quite well when accompanied by Guardian bikers as a screen / combat support. I've also enjoyed running an Autarch with them but cant' decide on a lance or power weapon for her. I just made a scorpion chainsword arm for her so once painted we'll see how that goes. This time though, I'm supporting them with Tanks and the Farseer. Out of 3 test games I won 2. I lost 3-1 to the Daemon list and would have kept it to 2-1 had I remembered to NOT attatch the Farseer to the spears. The 'thirster caught them after a bad sweep and they couldn't Hit & Run. He tried a variant of that list replacing the Bloodthirster with Beasts of Nurgle and I won.

I'm very happy with the 'Version 9' list as it were, and though I will finish basing my Banshees, am thinking seriously of running this list. I'm scared but more research will be done first. I know that Spears are hit or miss, literally. They do get that chance TWICE though. Lances get to shoot, THEN charge. Farseer ties up the combat, then they Hit & Run. It's all about picking your fights.

HQ: Farseer (1#, 173 pts)
1 Farseer, Doom ; Fortune ; Runes of Witnessing; Spirit Stones; Eldar Jetbike; Singing Spear

Elite: Fire Dragons (5#, 100 pts)
4 Fire Dragons
    1 Fire Dragon Exarch, Firepike

Troops: Dire Avengers (5#, 60 pts)
5 Dire Avengers

Troops: Dire Avengers (5#, 60 pts)
5 Dire Avengers

Heavy Support: Falcon (1#, 165 pts)
1 Falcon, Spirit Stones; Bright Lance; Shuriken Cannon; Pulse Laser

Heavy Support: Falcon (1#, 145 pts)
1 Falcon, Spirit Stones; Missile Launcher; TL Shuriken Catapults; Pulse Laser

Fast Attack: Vyper Squadron (1#, 70 pts)
1 Vyper (Scatter Laser; Shuriken Cannon)

Fast Attack: Shining Spears (5#, 227 pts)
4 Shining Spears,
    1 Shining Spears Exarch, Withdraw; Star Lance
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5 comments:

  1. Warhammer39999January 13, 2011 at 6:22 PM

    Constructive criticism on the internet is a rare thing indeed. Pay no attention to the average "powergaming netlisters" who insist that you can't win if you're not running three squads of fire dragons.

    Every unit has a purpose. Granted, some (*cough swooping hawks*) are a little difficult to justify in their purpose, but they do have advantages. Harrassing tanks, rear guard, peppering small units with long ranged firepower, objective snatching, and big templates (oh boy, do I love big templates).

    Sure, Shining Spears aren't at the top of the power curve, but I'm sure you can use them effectively. I dare say, using a "sub-optimal" list like this will make you a better tactican because of it (quotes used because I don't think there is an optimal list).

    My concerns with your current list:
    - Only two scoring units, both of which are small and vulnerable. I presume they'll hide in the Falcons to make them scoring.
    - You have a ton of fast moving units, and one that will be left foot-slogging. I'm not anti-foot, but what's the point of the one in back? To hold your own side in objective games?
    - It seems that you have alot of anti-tank, but not a whole lot of anti-infantry. What do you do against horde armies? I'm not saying you can't win--but do you have a plan?

    Seeing as I vary my lists with every game I play, I don't see why this particular list is bad. EVERY list has it's weakness, you just have to know what yours is and how you can work around it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJanuary 13, 2011 at 11:01 PM

    The entire tounament is Kill Points (they wanted something different) and the games are an hour long. It's going to be fast & furious 40k and the meta sounds like a lot of tank heavy lists. There are one or two horde-ish armies that I've heard are coming, and that's why I'm considering the Banshees, but the Spears should be able to contend with some of that with enough fire support going in.

    ReplyDelete
  3. VT2January 15, 2011 at 11:30 AM

    I got linked to this, so I might as well post a little list for your viewing pleasure.

    Autarch: fusion gun - 80
    Autarch: fusion gun - 80

    5 scorpions: exarch; biting blade, shadowstrike - 117
    5 scorpions: exarch; biting blade, shadowstrike - 117

    5 dires - 60
    5 dires - 60

    Vyper: 2 shuriken cannon - 60
    Vyper: 2 shuriken cannon - 60
    Vyper: 2 shuriken cannon - 60

    Falcon: 2 shuriken cannon, spiritstones - 140
    Falcon: 2 shuriken cannon, spiritstones - 140

    More dakka, better combat, and more dudes. You're not likely to ever see more than a single land raider at this points level, anyway, and can reserve you entire army with great reliability, if you want to.
    It even has 26 points for bling and upgrades.

    ReplyDelete
  4. noahwoodJanuary 16, 2011 at 9:22 PM

    Surprisingly enough, we played a fellow who brought two landraiders in his 1000 point list. The tournament was fun, but long, and by the end I was exhausted and ready for sleeps.

    We faced some really oddball lists... I think the two Abaddon lists were the most bizarre. One had two 5 man chaos marine squads, with Abaddon palling around with 10 termies. The other had 5 bikes, Abaddon and a 10 and 15 man hoard of chaos marines.

    Hurricane Girl will have to give the recap, but interestingly enough, she diminished the second list to Abaddon only, and he came back to kill the majority of her list by himself. It was a Kill Points tourney, as HG mentioned in her comment.

    Some of the strongest lists had only 4 KP. Despite my cheese, my list still offered 9, so that was a bit of a disadvantage.

    All in all, good times were had!

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownJanuary 16, 2011 at 9:40 PM

    Indeed. Tournament Report forthcoming. Today was recovery day. 8 games in one day is almost too much for any human.

    ReplyDelete

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