ard boyz 2nd round

[drupif]

ok eldar players out there, tweaking my list a bit from round one and seeking some advice. i did very well in the first round, massacred good nid and tau players and got a minor victory against a very good ig player for first place. my list was:
eldrad
yriel
3 waves w/ 10 bladestorm dires waves had bl and stones
2 waves of 7 dragons, waves with scatters
1 wave of banshees w/ executioner exarch wave w/ scatter
1 wave of storm guardians w/ double flamers and enhance warlock wave w/ scatter
1 wraith lord w/ bl and scatter

the wraithlord didn't quite cut the mustard (due to poor rolling, i must admit) but he didn't quite fit w/ the fully mobilized army and i didn't want to keep eldrad back to not risk the wraith sight roll. the guardians didn't have much utility either as a mobile unit. the scatters also were a let down, as i was expecting more nid players, and didn't see them.

changes i'm considering. dropping the wraithlord and exchanging him for another wave of bladestorm avengers. i'll get the points by pulling the storms out of their wave and putting them in reserve for late game objective charging and horde clearing. i'm also looking to change all the scatters to missile launchers for point saving and dual purpose shooting.

this will give me 7 waves full of shootie death and one with yriel and the banshees to beat up on anything that needs a good does of power weapon lovin', backed by a troop unit running on the board late in the game to grab an objective as needed.

thoughts?

[DarkLink]

Looks solid to me. You've got a bit of something to deal with pretty much anything. I do agree that the wraithlord doesn't quite fit in with all the vehicles, but I've used a single Dreadnought walking up behind my Land Raiders similarly to great effect, so it the wraithlord works, keep it.

[drupif]

thanks. the other problem w/ the wraithlord is the number of poison attacks out there. his 3+ save just doesn't stand up to even a 10 strong gaunt assault. just too many attacks. i think the guardians may be a more solid choice and can hold an objective as well. not to mention they are guardians and will be largely ignored, and having 7 waves creates some great cover and support in the backfield if needed.

[Tynskel]

what about fireprisms?

If you drop one Dire Avenger Squad and the Wraithlord, you can get 3 Fireprisms with some points (~85) left over for upgrades. You can probably up with some stuff.

Or something like 2 Fire Prisms and a Falcon.

Or hack a Dire Avenger Squad down to size and use a falcon + fireprisms, ect ect.

Overall, I think there are a lot of things that you can do to solve your wraithlord issue.

[Splug]

If you swap the wraithlord, two wave serpents, and one fire dragon from each squad you could instead put the dragons into holofield/bright lance falcons with spirit stones, and still have plenty points left over to flip all the scatter lasers to missile launchers. The whole army remains mounted, and you've gained a good chunk of anti-tank (which doubles as a small-blast anti-infantry shot). You should have enough anti-infantry from the guys inside the tanks, even if everything in the serpents is anti-tank.

[drupif]

i've never been sold on fire prisms or fire prisms. both can pump out some serious firepower. however, all someone has to do is glance them and they don't fire. seems like quite the point sink for something which may not get to shoot the majority of the game.

i may play test with them a bit and see what i can come up with. good advice, thanks.

[Tynskel]

i've never been sold on fire prisms or fire prisms. both can pump out some serious firepower. however, all someone has to do is glance them and they don't fire. seems like quite the point sink for something which may not get to shoot the majority of the game.

i may play test with them a bit and see what i can come up with. good advice, thanks.

It is possible that the Prisms can be shaken. However, you have a BUNCH of other flying machines. So if they are shooting your Fire Prisms, they are not shooting the wave serpents as much.

Last year at 'Ard Boyz, I went as tank heavy marines-- occasionally, the hv tanks would get shaken- but I never had all of them shaken at once. Part of the reason is due to the range-- Predators are 48"- they have to be shooting back with those range guns, or get in close, generally nothing got close to them- the rest of my army would destroy the opponent trying to.

[drupif]

that's a good point. the thing i've seen in our local metagame is a change in the way the game is played. speed, outflanking and enemies generally in my backfield quickly is the norm.

i'm going to play around with the prisms and see what happens, and hopefully, folks will be shooting at them instead of my waves full of dragons and avengers.

[Pil]

Don't assault a Deathleaper in the woods with the Storm Guardian Enhance Warlock unit. After a gazillion games against Eldar vs Drupif, and our other resident uber Eldar player Marky Mark, I would say the Fire Prism and Falcon just are not much of a threat to anything. A TL bright lance wave serpent full of blade storm goodness is far more deadly.

[drupif]

haha well played Pil. good thing we were just play testing stuff out that game. i know better than to do that, i'll just have to get him with the banshees next time.
i'm curious to try out the prisms. i still think falcons are too big a point sink for what they can do, but they do provide a pretty tough fire base/mobile bunker for a troop choice...