We’ve passed the half way point! If you’re just catching up we’ve so far looked at Troops, Heavy Support and Fast Attack.
I’ll also put a quick thank you here to Gary whose helped me out with all these reviews. He’s just started his own painting studio so when you’ve finished reading this check out Wandering Studios.
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Fire Dragons
Fire Dragons really demonstrate the specialist nature of the Eldar Aspect Warriors. They are the ultimate anti-tank infantry armed with Fusion Guns (meltaguns) and Meltabombs. Pop a unit in a Wave Serpent (ideally with Vectored Engines to maximise the distance disembarked without leaving your backside exposed) and you can pretty much guarantee wiping out any single vehicle on the table or most monstrous creatures. Even the new super tough creatures – Wraithknights, Tervigons, Riptides, etc. – will be left with a bloody nose and easy picking to the rest of your army. This will leave Fire Dragons slightly exposed but that’s a worry for the next turn and with a 3+ saving throw they might be around to see it.
Battle Focus also really helps get the extra dice for Melta special rule – this and the armour save increase helps ease the blow from the price increase – from 90 points to 110.
The Exarch’s not a bad upgrade, armed with a Firepike means a longer range than the Fusion Guns and the addition of Fast Shot makes him even better value. BS5 doesn’t hurt either. Not you at least. The Dragon’s Breath Flamer is kind of cool but a flamer in an anti-tank unit seems a bit of a waste.
Wraithguard
Wraithguard fulfil a fairly similar role to Fire Dragons in an Eldar army with a couple of key differences. They are more expensive but come with a better Strength and Toughness. They lose Battle Focus but gain Fearless. This means that they are much tougher to shift once they are in position; they’re effectively baby monstrous creatures.
The Wraithcannon is one of the most powerful weapons of the game – at S10 AP2. It lacks the 2d6 penetration and bonus damage the AP1 Fire Dragons have but is equally effective at any range and is better against Monstrous Creatures as it causes Instant Death on a 6 to wound.
For ten points a model they can take D-Scythes, this is a S4 AP2 Template weapon which causes Instant Death on a 6. It’s not much cop against vehicles but perfect for taking out Terminators and Monstrous Creatures. It’s also a great defensive weapon as it can use the Wall Of Death rule to inflict d3 hits on charging units.
If you take a Spritseer and they’re Troops and perfect for holding objectives, the Spirtseer could add a buff or two but we’ll look at that in a moment…
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Wraithblades
Wraithblades have the same stat lines as Wraithguard and are the same points. The difference is they have close combat weapons over ranged weapons. With the choice of a Power Axe and 4+ Invulnerable save or two Power Weapons they’d be quite tempting were it not that Wraithguard have the best ranged weapon in the game. There are few situations where you’d want a unit of Wraithblades over a unit of Wraithguard.
The addition of a Spiritseer can give them some extra punch and the Runes of Battle tend to make units better in close combat than shooting so Wraithblades might make a good Spiritseer bodyguard. I wouldn’t expect to see a lot of these on the battlefield but they may be a good addition to Iyanden armies.
Harlequins
Not much has changed here but there is one real bugbear; the Shadowseer still has the Veil Of Tears power which means that targets have to test on 2d6x2” to see them – and if they fail can’t shoot. The worry here is it’s now a psychic power and no longer an ability so you have to pass a psychic test to use it. Not bad on Leadership 9 but with only one wound a Perils of the Warp test will wipe your Shadowseer out, leaving your Harlequins stood in the open twiddling their thumbs. The Shadowseer also carries the unit’s grenades so is a real lynchpin.
Bizarrely Harlequins don’t get Battle Focus but they do gain Bladestorm on their Shuriken Pistols.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re still good, they’re quick, ignore terrain, have an invulnerable save and pack one hell of a punch in close combat, just don’t lose the Shadowseer!
Howling Banshees
With power weapons as standard and their masks inflicting a -5 Initiative penalty they seem like a great assault unit. A common complaint about Howling Banshees is that they don’t have grenades and so assaulting in cover is a risk. This is countered slightly by their masks which mean they will lower their opponent’s initiative by five so will be going at the same time unless against initiative 6 models – and all the models with Initiative 6 or more will rip your Banshees apart anyway as they tend to be Daemon Princes or special characters.
The biggest problem they have is that they don’t have a way of getting into combat – Eldar lack any vehicles with Assault Ramps and Banshees don’t have the protection of Veil of Tears that Harlequins have.
If you are playing a gunline, perhaps with Guardian Defenders and War Walkers, then Howling Banshees could see good use in a counter-assault role, running in to push back any units that come close.
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Striking Scorpions
If you want an assault unit these are the ones to take – Infiltrate allows them to get close to the enemy, grenades mean they can assault through cover and have a 3+ armour save. The Scorpion Chainsword gives them S4 and makes them AP5. Mandiblasters now automatically hit and inflict a S3 hit in every fight sub-phase and with three attacks on the Charge they could thin out a big horde.
They now come with Infiltrate, Stealth and Move through Cover as standard while before they were gained through Exarch upgrades.
The Exarch is also one of the better Exarchs. He can take a Scorpion Claw which is a power fist that strikes at initiative with a built in Shuriken Catapult. It’s not cheap at 30 points but it’s a great weapon for a character in challenges.
Conclusions
Elites aren’t exactly the strongest section of the Eldar Army. Fire Dragons and Wraithguard are our favourite choices, even then Wraithguard should probably be chosen as Troops with a Spritseer. The other Elite choices are ok but the Fast Attack, Heavy Support and Troops all offer better choices.
Have you played many games with Eldar? How have you found the Elite choices?