One of the first ideas I had when 6th came out was that everyone would be bringing a Farseer with Runes of Warding. This guy can be had pretty cheap, and since Eldar will team up with nearly anyone (sorry, Nids!) I see the Farseer on a jetbike with jetbike guardians to be a staple of “net lists”.
I myself even playtested (one game…ha!) a DE list using a Farseer ally, with some success in shutting down enemy Psy powers and doing good things for me with the Divination Primaris power.
So while I like the Psy Defense of the Farseer, I'm really bummed about the requirement to pay the "Farseer tax." I can't help but wonder if I really need to spend nearly 10% of my points on Psy defense...not to mention the outrageous $$$ cost of Eldar bike models!
Is it really needed in a tournament-style meta? Those new Psy Powers are pretty cool, and letting them go uncontested seems like potential disaster, but really is it worth paying 186 points to stop?
I'm on the fence still, as only real experiences will tell. I talk myself in to it then out of it...some folks will build lists around getting a cool psy power (note Sean's attempts to leverage invisibility in to a DE list), and spending 186 points to shut down something integral (note that Sean's invisibility is not integral) could be worth it...but how many folks that I'll fight will be doing that? What will the ‘tournament meta’ evolve to? Will everyone pay the Farseer Tax, thus nullifying everyone’s cool psyker toys, then invalidating the need to pay the Farseer tax?
The more I think about it and consider planning for it, the less I like the idea of changing things up drastically. I liked the way my Kabal worked in 5th, and think it will work very much the same in 6th with two major differences: my vehicles will be dead faster; and the enemies vehicles will be dead faster.
But, there are some not so major (but not too minor) changes too. Reavers get better (can turbo in/out of terrain; auto-pass dangerous terrain tests; get impact hits; move farther; maintain their 3+ cover when turbo-boosting, bladevane after shooting so vehicle occupants are targets), so I think maximizing the amount of those guys I have is a priority. In fact I'd like to increase up to three units of 9, but the $$$ scared me. (I blew too much money on Orky goodness this month already!)
While Reavers got better, I think Hellions got a bit worse...at least for how I used them. I would typically jump them up mid-table where they could threaten charges or shooting anywhere, with emphasis on multi-charging enemy vehicles: with my Pain Point Shenanigans (PPS) they'd be hitting with S5 on the charge, doing a nice number on enemy armor (against combat speed every 2 guys got a roll on the damage chart) or stomping through all but the most dedicated enemy CC units. Before (and even after) being engaged, I would rely on their resilience from fire granted by Stealth giving a 3+ cover and FNP giving a 4+ save…math-hammer says that makes them as tough as terminators, and if I were to go to ground with them, they’re even worse, failing only 1 in 12 saves (against weapons that allowed FNP anyway).
Now that resilience is gone. Cover almost universally got “one point” worse, and FNP got a point worse as well. That 3+/4+ went to a 4+/5+. They go from failing 1 in 6 saves to 1 in 3….yes, twice as many of them will die to shooting now. The effect on FNP in melee is double-edged, as they’ll get FNP against most power weapons, but it’s only 5+ instead of 4+.
Also, the ability to multi-charge vehicles is hugely reduced. Losing an attack AND losing FC when multi-charging is brutal. This is somewhat mitigated by ability to hit vehicles easier (moving vehicles regardless of speed are WS1), and the ease with which glances can wreck vehicles, but overall I think is a big loss in ability for how I liked to use my Hellions. Math-hammer to support:
In 5th each Hellion would have 3 attacks on the charge, getting 1.5 hits on a vehicle. 1/3 of those hits would get a Glance or Pen (ie a Roll on Damage Table) for .5 rolls per model attacking.
In 6th if multi-assaulting each Hellion would have 2 attacks, getting 1.33 hits. 1/6 of those Glance (he’s only S4 even with FC), .22 glances per model attacking: almost 5 attacking models are required for each Glance. With vehicles having 3 Hull Points, that means a full 15 have to attack one vehicle to expect to kill it. So, if I do PPS to get FC, I’m not gaining anything: whether I have it or not I can only kill 1 vehicle in assault. So why pay for FC? Yeah, it helps vs. infantry…but vs. infantry for the most part I’d rather just shoot!
So if I don’t need that second Pain Point, the next question is do I really need the first? A 1/3 reduction in deaths from FNP isn’t bad, sure…but is it worth the “Pain Point Tax” of a 50 point Haemonculus? I don’t know, I don’t like not having him, but it frees up points…
If I drop my “PPS Tax” (3 Wracks, Venom, Haemo = 155) that frees up points I can use to do something fun!
See, my original “working” DE list had 3 ‘layers’, like an onion (or parfait…everybody loves parfait!). There was my ‘backfield’: the Ravagers and troop Venoms that just pelted fire at things; the ‘midfield’: primarily the Hellions, the warrior Venoms might move up here if the warrior firepower is needed or to prepare to zip to objectives; and the fun part…the ‘in your face’ stuff: the Incubi and Reavers.
The idea was to immediately on turn 1 make my whole army full of un-ignorable threats such that the enemy had to choose what to prioritize, and giving him no easy choices: Hard Choices is my mantra, right? There’s a Raider full of Incubi floating right in front of something squishable, and you don’t want them running amok; there’s three units of Reavers that just flew over your foot troops and slaughtered them, ready to unload Heat Lances on your vehicles; there’s a giant herd of hard-as-nails (remember the terminator-esque saves?) ready to jump on you; there’s mountains of splinter fire and lance fire coming from soft-ish vehicles on my side of the table. Most of these threats have some ‘trick’ that makes them a lot tougher than they at first appear: the Reavers have their 3+ cover; the hellions have the 3+/FNP; the Incubi have to get blown out of the raider first, then have their 3+ armor and crater cover (or no LOS hiding behind the wreck). The vehicles in the backfield either have good cover from being ‘hull down’ so 3+ cover or at least a Flickerfield.
Somewhere along the way I talked myself out of Incubi, despite the super sexy models. I replaced them (and reduced Hellion size) to fit in two Venoms with Trueborn with Blasters for more midfield presence. It splits up to more targets, all of which need killing and all of them adhering to the MSU principles that shooting at these little units borders on wasteful overkill…more Bad Choices.
I think the overall theory for this list is still sound. Yeah, my vehicles will die faster, but the enemies will too (no more penning 10 times with only shakes and stuns, right?). My Hellions will die faster (especially if I don’t pay the “PPS Tax”), but his infantry will be dying faster too. My Hellions can’t do the mass assaults they used to, but they won’t need to. My Reavers got far better for how I use them, as I can zip farther first turn and land in terrain, meaning folks assaulting me have to go thru cover.
But the “Blasterborn” units, though WILDLY effective, are really quite boring. I miss having the ‘in your face’ Incubi unit that everyone was terrified of and unloaded buckets of fire in to…and if they didn’t they were just mean enough against the things I wanted them to be mean against (MEQ) that they’d get the job done.
What I’m trying to do now is stop paying the “PPS Tax”, and not yet committing to paying the “Farseer Tax” and using point saved to get back my ‘in your face’ beatstick unit while keeping the boring but effective “Blasterborn”. I really want to like Incubi and include them, but some changes in 6th have made them less appealing (and they were generally thought of us very inefficient anyway)…the way difficult terrain works now makes it nearly impossible to arrange a charge that will not go through terrain, taking away their I5; AP3 Klaives leave them ineffective vs. Terminators (one of their prime targets before); and their Klaives won’t take away FNP.
So, I have the concept of how I want my list to evolve, it’s time to get the pieces together and see how the points work out.
Baron Sathonyx – 105
3 Trueborn (3 Blasters) – 146
Venom (Splinter Cannon Upgrade)
3 Trueborn (3 Blasters) – 146
Venom (Splinter Cannon Upgrade)
5 Warriors (1 Blaster) – 125
Venom (Splinter Cannon Upgrade)
5 Warriors (1 Blaster) – 125
Venom (Splinter Cannon Upgrade)
5 Warriors (1 Blaster) – 125
Venom (Splinter Cannon Upgrade)
15 Hellions - 240
6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances) – 156
6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances) – 156
6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances) – 156
And of course, the Ubiquitous Three Ravagers – 315
Total: - 1795
Some things I’ve done slightly different than previously:
-No more Pain Point Shenanigan tax…no Wracks and no Haemonculus. I miss the wracks, as a nice cheap scoring unit with the solid fire from a Venom. This does have the disadvantage of dropping me to 4 Troops, 3 of which are pretty small and fragile.
-No Flickerfields on Ravagers. With Jink, they get the cover save anyway. This will only be noticed when in melee (and with getting hit on 3s, it won’t help anyway) and if Immobilized.
-Reduced Hellions. I think they’re still a really solid and dependable unit with the Baron along, but they’re not going to be the super-unit they were before. I’m going to have to learn to use them a different way, more of a reaction unit (that’s right, Tordek, I’ll be using them as a reaction unit! :P )
So this leaves 205 points. I think this will be the ‘core’ of my army, unless I learn that vehicles really are disastrous and things just don’t work.
I’ve also not included a flier. I really want to like the fliers, but can’t seem to justify the cost. I think every army will bring at the least an Aegis Line with Quad Gun to shoot them down as soon as they show up, or will have 3 fliers of their own and it will just get blown up right away. The Voidbomber might be decent against other fliers, but is very expensive, especially if you include some missiles to allow him to engage infantry targets too. The Razorwing has a nice mix of weapons, but that leaves him with an identity crisis, unable to effectively use all his weapons on any one target (Splinter at Vehicles? Lances at Infantry?). I just can’t get past the point cost for those fliers, so will stick with the UTR.
So what can I do with these other 200 points? Well, I can do a lot really.
-I could pay the “Farseer Tax” of 186 points and throw in another Hellion or something. This may be the way tournament meta pushes me to go if it becomes clear that Psy Defense is a must-have.
Farseer – 120
(Runes of Warding, Jetbike, 20pts for a power from BRB)
3 Guadrian Jetbikes - 66
Pro: This of course gives stout Psyker defense and a cheap mobile scoring unit, as well as a psy power (I’m fond of the divination primaris on Hellions).
Con: Eldar Bikes are crazy expensive $$$, and I don’t want to pay real money for Farseer tax too. And really this is boring, and not my style at all. I’m down on allies in general. Finding a home for the Farseer is tricky too, I may switch the Reavers to 2x9 so the Farseer can ride with one of them.
-I could add more Reavers…maybe increasing two of the units to 9 to get more Heat Lances while adding in Champions to bolster their LD and give them some melee potency (I’ve had some success with Venom Blade Champions in the past)
9 Reavers – 249
(3 Heat Lances; Arena Champion with Venom Blade)
9 Reavers – 249
(3 Heat Lances; Arena Champion with Venom Blade)
6 Reavers – 171
(2 Heat Lances; Arena Champion with Venom Blade)
Pro: More Heat Lances, a super-powerful weapon in this edition. More anti-infantry with Bladevanes and more melee-ability. More Impact Hits on the charge.
Con: Bigger footprint might make it harder to get units behind enemy on turn 1; another two boxes of Reavers to buy and paint.
-I could add in a unit of Incubi. I think I could fit 6 in a Raider and play like I always have, with the understanding that they’ll not be as effective if ignored but that they’ll still cut swathes thru MEQ. (Note that as Raiders are open-topped, their occupants can assault the turn after their vehicle is destroyed.)
6 Incubi – 197
Raider (Enhanced Aethersails)
Pro: An ‘in your face’ unit that will demand and attract attention. With new Fast Skimmer Flat-outs + Aethersails I should be able to put this thing wherever I want it to maximize the threat and minimize the potential damage coming at them. Great at killing MEQ out of the box, with a few Pain Points they get REALLY nasty. Already painted and ready for the table.
Con: Mentioned above, but Incubi got mildly worse in 6th. No Grenades + random charge = swing last; AP3 = terminator-bait. If enemy non-MEQ, role is minimal (ie many less than perfect match-ups).
-Or I could go back to my years-old DE roots and dust off some Wyches in a Raider.
9 Wyches – 204
(Haywire Grenades; Hekatrix with Agonizer; Raider with Enhanced Aethersails)
Pro: Also ‘in your face’ with the super-fast Raider. Huge melee threat to vehicles, my favorite target would be combo-charging GK Dreadnoughts. Able to go after combat-squads pretty well. Hekatrix can challenge out MEQ Sergeants. Perhaps not as super killy vs. MEQ as the Incubi, but better able to deal with wider range of threats. Higher Ld than Incubi unit. Troops! Painted and ready, but will need some touchups…old metal models don’t do well in a shoe-box.
Con: Die to ranged firepower super-easy, Overwatch may be problematic. Not particularly ‘killy’.
Of all those, the Wyches seem to add the most in terms of being a viable threat that demands attention, diverting it from other things that are probably just as much a threat.
That makes the total list look like this:
Baron Sathonyx – 105
3 Trueborn (3 Blasters) – 146
Venom (Splinter Cannon Upgrade)
3 Trueborn (3 Blasters) – 146
Venom (Splinter Cannon Upgrade)
9 Wyches – 204
(Haywire Grenades; Hekatrix with Agonizer; Raider with Enhanced Aethersails)
5 Warriors (1 Blaster) – 125
Venom (Splinter Cannon Upgrade)
5 Warriors (1 Blaster) – 125
Venom (Splinter Cannon Upgrade)
5 Warriors (1 Blaster) – 125
Venom (Splinter Cannon Upgrade)
15 Hellions - 240
6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances) – 156
6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances) – 156
6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances) – 156
And of course, the Ubiquitous Three Ravagers – 315
Total: - 1998
As always I’d love to hear feedback and conversation!
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