Cohort Cybernetica

There is a lad that uses this formation and basically castles in a building. He usually fields the following:

Cohort Cybernetica
Tech Priest Dominus
Info Slave & Autoduceous of Arkhan Land
Data Smith - Anzionz Pseudogenitor
2 x Kastellan Robots TL Phosper Blasters & Carapace mounted Phosphor Blaster
Data Smith -
2 x Kastellan Robots Power Fists & Carapace mounted Phospor Blaster

Dunecrawler with Neutron Laser & Cognis Heavy Stubber.

He's never used the extra points to make up the full thousand.

So with the special rules on his Battle Protocols and the Canticles et-al, he is difficult to kill with shooting and dangerous with assault.

I have two lists of 1000 points, both use D-Cannon and either 2 x Spiritseers Dark Reapers, Guardians, Rangers and WG with D-scythes, or a Spiritseer, a Wraithseer 2 Wraithlords, Wind riders with Warlocks, two Warlocks to accompany the Spiritseer and WG with D-scythes.

A wraith heavy army seemed the way to go because they are Fearless, tougher and have better initiative than the Kastellans. It is all a bit slow moving, though I fancy getting one squad of Wind Riders into assault on the Dunecrawler second turn.

He did rather irritate me when he complained that no one used bound army lists anymore and technically both of these are still bound.

Any pointers?

Just a couple of quick asides.

That is not a battleforged list. The Onager Dunecrawler is a heavy support choice for an army with the skitarii faction and has no formation that lets you take one on its own. The Cohort cybernetica is a formation with the Cult Mechanicus faction. So unless you've omitted some units from the list here his force is unbound.

AS for reccommended tactics I'd say go heavy with jetbikes or an aspect shrine of warp spiders, and play for objectives. His army consists of an entire 2 units (the dominus can't leave the robots) and thus will never be able to claim more than 2 objectives. You on the other hand can play hide and seek until near the end of the game and then swoop onto objectives. If you have the final turn and brought a combined arms detachment then your jetbikes can also swoop onto any of his claimed objectives and take them, and score from them thus leaving him with few options for victory.

Barring that, a battery of D-cannons barraging him from out of line of sight can also be fun, albeit one requiring you to close the distance. Remember that Kastellans can't reflect those barrage weapons.

Grav or D really is the best way to deal with the Cohort, because majority T 7 is just rough. I'd recommend Many Small Units, with minimum Scat/Cannon Bike Squads, maybe ally in some Raiders, and as many mid-long range D sources as possible. I'd also prioritize D-Cannon, 'Knights, and/or Hemlocks over 'Guard, due to better mobility and range.

Attachment 18235

So big surprise. I bumped into the lad I was talking about and he invited me to play an 1850 point game. I had a 1500 point list and added a couple of items to it and we had at it. But there were 3 big surprises for me during this game. The first was my opponent had totally turned around in his attitude. All of a sudden it was friendly and interactive instead of surly and win at all costs. I think he asked me to play him because the point size was a tournament list and he was likely to meet Eldar a lot.

Second surprise was for all his experience his basic layout carried a tactical error and I even spotted it, though maybe it was obvious. He deployed first and all of his heavy stuff was laid down on his right flank but one of his objectives, (we had two each) was on the opposit flank held by two Ranger type squads.

The third surprise was just how much of a limitation a Cohort can be. It has to operate as a single unit though its components include heavy and HQ. This became vital at the end of the game when I held 3 of the 4 objectives and his Cohort held only one. Suddenly the game for me was about squeezing his other objective and taking out his infantry. I used a Wraithlord and 3 Warlocks on Jet bikes to tie up his right flank and managed to immobilise his dune stalker to stop him taking my objective on my left flank. In the end it was held by a lone Jet biker hidden behind a wall. He gave me some trouble with flanking rust stalkers and, a second rust stalker unit tied up my wraith guard in CC for 3 turns, the combined lousy rolling of both sides.

The picture above is what I fielded which was effectively, 3 HQ plus Warlock Covern, 3 heavies, 2 Troops & a transport which equates now as fast attack, 1790 points with my Spirit Seer holding the Shard of Anaris. Unfortunately he is not well positioned in the picture.

Ultimately, with his change in attitude, and a tight battlefield, 48" x 48" the game could have gone either way until it ended on turn 6. But it was fun from turn 1 even when I thought I was going to lose. By the way if your objective is a mysterious object that tends to explode, holding it with a wraithlord is the way to go.

I thought this post might read better posted separately.

I created my Jet-locks before they brought out the new kits. Just a few standard Eldar bikes with Eldar cavalry from the Fantasy set. I also used the runes from the cavalry set to make each bike unique so that I could keep track of what psych power each warlock had. There is no way markers are going to stay with the bikes in the hurly burly of battle. I mean we both knocked over a building during the game.

Also, for the first time ever, my rangers influenced the game. With no other target I shot at his Kastellans and got 3 AP2 wounds leaving him to rely on inv & FNP to save which he failed. So he was repairing robots with his data smiths instead of selecting protocols and canticles.

I also forgot that D weapons deny FNP which could have had me wiping out a squad a lot earlier and saved my Spiritseer. Still being excited is better than being clinical.

It would appear that bigger is better for the Eldar with my units soaking up lots of wounds and being leathal in CC. It took my Avatar to get into CC and take out the Rust Stalkers in one round of assault, saving my guns and a jet bike in the process. And the Wraithseer casting fleet on itself resulted in a 10" charge into the rangers who thought they were safe.