Eldar Tactica

[Defenestratus]

I think that the problem with all this theory hammer is that we're not talking specifics, and I blame myself for that for not staging my initial comments clearly.

I think that the problem that Eldar are going to have with new IG is that they have a lot of ways to counter our defenses, which are cover and jink saves. Between orders, wyverns, and divination spam, there's just a lot of room in that book to take away our first line of defense.

I'd like to think that I'm not using cover as a crutch but when the majority of your dudes atr T3 with mediocre armor saves, you have to use every ounce of the field to your defensive advantage.

Tyrendian, You seem to really favor the nightspinner. I have had no success with it whatsoever. I've tried using it as a torrent and as a barrage and neither have really performed that admirably for me in the past.

[Tyrendian]

Night Spinners aren't the most reliable thing out there - being single-shot, there is always the possibility to have it fail utterly by scattering, even with twin-linking provided by a Farseer. But when it hits it hurts, being S8 against their entire codex with a barrage weapon - and thus potentially sniping out the important buffs and/or heavy weapons or always hitting the weak side armour of their vehicles while being able to stay safe from most of their retaliation; in-codex pretty much only a Manticore or a Vendetta should be threatening them. I'd say IG is probably the codex that Night Spinners are best against...

[Charon]

The Nightspinner has a strong standing against the IGs Wyvern spam. As they get no cover (barrage) and get hit by S8 it has good chances to hurt one or even 2 tanks. If you mix them with 3 Serpents (I would probably stick 10 guardians into them, stormies with 2 Flamers also seem tempting) he has to put out a good amout of shooting to either get rid of the barrage (which can become torrent later) or the D6+1 shots killing his command squads and heavy weapon teams.
If he plays a gunline you cant have a footdar army... you will just get shot for no reason.
If he decides to play an unfun army (thats what a divination spamming gunline is) I cant see why you should just take the kick in the balls and restict yourself.

[Defenestratus]

Night Spinners aren't the most reliable thing out there - being single-shot, there is always the possibility to have it fail utterly by scattering, even with twin-linking provided by a Farseer. But when it hits it hurts, being S8 against their entire codex with a barrage weapon - and thus potentially sniping out the important buffs and/or heavy weapons or always hitting the weak side armour of their vehicles while being able to stay safe from most of their retaliation; in-codex pretty much only a Manticore or a Vendetta should be threatening them. I'd say IG is probably the codex that Night Spinners are best against...

Again you make strong points. I keep forgetting about that Str buff for low initiative units and vehicles.

I think that the only buffs I'd take for them is maybe the Ghostwalk matrix to help it stay out of LOS around terrain... or do you run them naked usually?

[Tyrendian]

Again you make strong points. I keep forgetting about that Str buff for low initiative units and vehicles.

I think that the only buffs I'd take for them is maybe the Ghostwalk matrix to help it stay out of LOS around terrain... or do you run them naked usually?

the Crystal Targeting Matrix can be fun - by no means an auto-take, but Nightspinners are more or less the only vehicle that I ever use them on, for those occasions when you really want to see that Command Squad, Heavy Weapon Squad or even Veterans that are hiding behind that Aegis or in that ruin processed into minced meat, pronto. With that kind of mobility, you often can even kinda simulate barrage sniping by just moving into a position from where the models you most want to see dead are the closest to you when you use the torrent.
Other than that I usually don't bother - since most of our big buildings that I hide behind don't have much in the way of a rubble "footprint" around them, I don't worry overmuch about getting stuck in terrain, and Holofields aren't mandatory either, especially against the new Guard - although they can certainly help when a Vendetta or Manticore comes hunting for you! When you jump out of hiding to Torrent something, you at least accept the risk of losing the Spinner, if not actually calculate on your opponent devoting his attention to it to stop it from killing another valuable squad next turn...
Another nice thing about Spinners is that they are not going to get you accused of a) cheese like Serpent-spam might and b) tailoring your list since they are rather nice against Tau (S8 Rending against Broadsides and Crisis Teams is mean, as is Barrage against... well anything behind an Aegis, like those pesky Pathfinders or Sniper Drones) as well as sniping out any T3/4 HQs one might come across, which are still plenty

[Defenestratus]

I've used the Spinner with the CTM before. It was a nice trick but I felt rather expensive for what ultimately ended up being a sacrificial unit ... but I'm going to go ahead and give it another whirl.

[Dave Mcturk]

im thinking that spinners are more survivable than prisms as they can hide if necessary. but if you end up playing short table edge and the terrain is unfavourable the ghostmatrix is a useful tool.

our group has houseruled the serpents to a ONCE only use of the shield which brings them down to earth with a bang!

never played an opponent who has fallen for the crystal matrix trick. - if you deploy first they know where to go to avoid serious damage, and if they deploy first they just hide even more!

ive found that putting sneaky scorpions into wave serpents gets them infiltrate and that can be really effective if you are a little lucky - three infiltrating serpents can cause some serious damage and if they are blocked you can always outflank them!

[Defenestratus]

So reading some stuff about 7th edition from the leaked WD... we're going to have a lot less reliable psychics, our tanks will be a bit more resilient but I've also read that jink is going to be a 4+ but cause the next turn to be snapshots. This means that keeping our vehicles in cover is going to be a huge deal. Serpents will no longer be huge offensive powerhouses if you're trying to actually use them as transports.


What else is going to change for the Eldar with the new edition that we can glean from the confirmed WD pics?

[davel]

Over watch is going to be minus two to bs. No word yet on weather snap shot will have the same treatment. If it does the guardian bs increase plus access to twin linkedness may not be as bad. How ever we have to see book to know for sure. If current 40k trends continue then the new shiny and competive codex don't stay that way for as long as they used to

Davel

[Captain Bubonicus]

The Ghosthelm is sure gonna be handy under the new psychic rules though, eh?