Eldar Review….Avatar

Let’s take a look at the Avatar in the new codex…
 
I’ve been really curious about this guy, and what place he might have in the “new” Eldar since personally he had no place in my previous Eldar lists- if you couldn’t ride a jetbike, you were either Eldrad and another generic seer OR Maugan-Ra. Just how I rolled, and I know many of you have had good success with the Avatar.
SO, being a new ‘dex I need to look at everything from ground zero…
First thing I notice is WS 10 and BS 10 putting him up there with hive tyrants, and slannesh daemon princes- interesting, but the high stats are only good if we can deliver them effective in shooting something that is important to die, or kill off in the assault.
S6 and T6 is “OK”, but I wish it was pumped up a bit higher- fine for bolters, but what about all the plasma out there that will bypass T6? Can’t we get this guy some wraithbone undies to push it up to T8- T8 is something I can get behind! S6, is well S6- good for beating on the little guys, but not so much on the big MC type guys.
Next set of stats is what gets my attention…
5 wounds puts him up there, but why not 6- heck Tyranids get them stock? I 10 and 5 attacks points me in the direction of close combat.
First though is that he is pretty good in terms of being specialized with the skills, and will outclass most of what he goes up against, but for a god of war he is not as tough as I would first like and I wonder how you would protect him on the table to get him into a place where you can use those high front and back end stats…


Let’s look at the wargear and special space elf powers, maybe there is something there?
Awakened gives you a fearless bubble within 12” which hasn’t changed, so does that mean he is a guardian anchor in a foot based list?
Perhaps.

Molten body is fluff only, as the odds of getting hit by a “flame” type weapon are kind of small, and then there are the odds of actually remembering this rule. On that note I personally find soul blaze really annoying, perhaps because I’m always getting hit by it from all the dudes running multiple hell drakes, but then again you are going to soul blaze my guardians and bikes and not the avatar.
The final thing that catches my eye is the inclusion of exarch power which offer some nice options.
All that said, why would I take him and in what kind of list would he fit in?
Obviously no room for him in my Saim-Hann list- everything in that kind of space elf build needs to be fast and capable of keeping up- anybody left behind will quickly be overwhelmed.
This leaves us with a food based list.
I can see him used much like the wraithlords in my foot list- hanging back in the mid field or my deployment zone with the mass of guardians and adding some minor shooting support, until something of my opponent’s breaks through and I have to try and intercept it to stop my guardians from getting thumped.
Works for the wraithlords, but not so much for the avatar- yes the fearless bubble is nice, but go back to WS/BS 10 and the other stats- sitting around babysitting guardians means we paid the points for those stats and are not using them.

I’d want to use the avatar aggressively- getting him up there thumping stuff- but running a single model up won’t work…
So I’m kind of seeing him in a three wraithknight list anchored by large groups of wraithguard- march all that “stuff” forward, and who are you going to shoot at? Something with the “stats” will get through and start cracking heads.
What are you guys seeing with the avatar?


by Fritz