Feast of Blades is coming up this October 11-13 and I am gearing up my Eldar army. This post will cover the lists I am thinking of bringing so any and all comments/feedback is very welcome!
So having play tested my list that I took to the Golden Throne quite a bit and coming out with a 6-0 record from the GT itself, I am pretty comfortable with how certain elements of my army functioned. To see what list I took and how it performed, take a look here. In short, the real core of the army was:
-The Farseer/Spiritseer, Dark Reaper combo with Tau Commander buff-o-matic support really went a long way to help me win all of my games-that unit just puts out so much potent firepower.
-The D-Scythe Wraithguard are strong, durable while having the potential to lay down a crazy amount of damage with their S4 AP2 templates-and best of all, they are a scoring unit to boot.
-The Warp Spiders came in handy denying key objectives in many of my games or at the very least helped throw my opponent's plans into disarray.
-The Riptide was a great fire magnet and did some decent damage to my opponent's forces.
-The Jetbikes were a clutch unit for denying/claiming objectives and picking up Line-Breaker.
-The Icarus was instrumental in taking out Helldrakes and providing some 4+ (2+ thanks to conceal) cover saves.
Putting it all together, this forms a pretty solid core of an army coming out to about 1,131 points. Anything else that was in the list that isn't listed above simply did not perform well enough to deserve further play or I don't think I will have points for the unit in an upcoming list. After playing around a bit, I think a Wraithknight and some Wraithcannon armed Wraithguard in a serpent will be a good addition to the army so after juggling some ideas around, there are essentially 3 lists with some wiggle room I came up with. Feel free to check them out and tell me what you think is better and why!
Missions:
Before going over any lists, the tournament format and missions should be considered. The Feast of Blades invitational will have a similar format to the Golden Throne GT where it's simple book missions and w/l/d. The missions are (1) Purge the Alien; (2) The Relic; (3) The Scouring; (4) Emperor's Will; (5) Crusade (5 objectives); (6) Big Guns Never Tire (5 objectives); (7) Scouring.
List 1:
Eldar Primary: 1086
HQ: 170
-Farseer: 100
-Spiritseer: 70
Explanation: Farseer casts Guide/Prescience on Reapers/Riptide while Spiritseer grants Conceal to the Reapers for a 2+ cover save behind the Aegis. These models are here to buff the rest of the army and to maximize offense/defense of the Reapers.
Troops:432
-Wraithguard: 32(base)*5=160+50(D-Scythes)=
Wave Serpent: 115(base)+5(scatter laser)=120
-Windriders: 17(base)*3=51
-Windriders: 17(base)*3=51
Explanation: The Wraithguard are a utility unit to respond to any 2+ save units that get near my army or that need to be taken out since Reapers are only AP3. The Serpent adds some nice Firepower and mobility for the Wraithguard and I think that if I face overwhelming firepower, keeping them in reserves is the way to go. The Jetbikes are just there for late game objective grabbing/denying and Line Breaker and boy are they good at what they do.
Fast Attack: 152
-Warp Spiders: 19(base)*8=152
Explanation: Warp Spiders are solid firepower and have the mobility to hit units the rest of the army might be hard pressed to get to. They score in The Scouring and at the very least are a great Denial unit in their own right. What's not to love?
Heavy Support: 332
-Dark Reapers: 30(base)*5=150+32(Starshot)+
Wave Serpent: 115(base)+5(scatter laser)=120
Explanation: This is the workhorse of the list. It practically kills one thing a turn and is especially lethal to anything without a 2+ save, which is most things in the game. Tank/Monster Hunter with Hit & Run and Ignores Cover are amazing buffs to have thank's to the Tau Commander and that combo makes this unit a point-click death machine. Bonus that they score in Big Guns.
Fortification: 85
-Aegis: 50(base)+35(Icarus)=85
Explanation: A solid fortification that gives me something to hide behind if terrain is bad. Also, the Icarus effectively gets 2 shots with the Dark Reaper Exarch (Fast Shot) and with Tank Hunter/Ignoring Jink saves, it really does put the hurt on enemy flyers. Essentially, my only real anti-air and I mainly have it here for taking out Hell Drakes or potentially putting the hurt on Flying MCs.
Tau Allies: 678
-Commander: 85(base)+15(MSS)+20(PTENC)+25(
-Riptide: 180(base)+5(ion accelerator)+5(interceptor)+
-Kroot: 6(base)*10=60
-Broadsides: 65(base)+5(interceptor)=70*3=2
Explanation: The Commander is the O'Rly'Yarly'srsly buff-o-matic machine that hands out useful USRs to the army as needed. This guy tanks with the best of them and makes the Dark Reapers what they are.
The Riptide is just a nice utility piece that can threaten anything that comes in from reserves and has some decent shooting in it's own right. Worst case scenario, I throw him at an objective and distract the opponent with him.
The Broadsides are solid firepower and with Intercepter (skyfire proved useless for me) they can threaten enemy reserves. I like them for the S7 spam that helps against Av10-12 and taking out infantry.
The Kroot are there because I have to take a troops choice from the Tau dex, still a solid scoring unit to just hide somewhere.
Total: 1849
So yeah, I can always move some units around here and there but ultimately, I think the list puts out a lot of shooting and has enough scoring to claim just the right amount of objectives to pull out a win.
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List 2:
Eldar Primary: 1338
HQ: 170
Farseer: 100
Spiritseer: 70
Troops:956
-Wraithguard: 32(base)*5=160+50(D-Scythes)=
Wave Serpent: 115(base)+5(scatter laser)+15(holofields)=135
-Wraithguard: 32(base)*5=160
Wave Serpent: 115(base)+5(scatter laser)=120
-Wraithguard: 32(base)*5=160
Wave Serpent: 115(base)+5(scatter laser)=120
-Windriders: 17(base)*3=51
Heavy Support: 212
-Dark Reapers: 30(base)*5=150+32(Starshot)+
Fortification: 85
-aegis: 50(base)+85(Icarus)=85
Tau Allies: 424
-Commander:174
85(base)+15(MSS)+15+20(PTENC)+
-Riptide:190
180(base)+5(Ion Accelerator)+5(interceptor)=
-Kroot:60
6(base)*10=60
Total: 1847
Explanation: This list sees the addition of 2 Wraithguard in Serpents but drops the Broadsides, Warp Spiders and Dark Reaper Serpent. Ultimately, the goal was to add some more Serpents and a mobile threat in the form of the Wraithguard-S10 is very scary to anything and everything in the game, after all. The Broadsides were dropped because they ultimately hardly did anything for me except die horribly in my tournament games at the GT and the Warp Spiders were dropped to make room as well as they tend to break anytime I roll for them and I roll terribly for their saves, usually...But is it worth it?
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List 3:
Eldar Primary: 1316
HQ: 70
Spiritseer: 70
Troops:661
-Wraithguard: 32(base)*5=160+50(D-Scythes)=
Wave Serpent: 115(base)+5(scatter laser)=120
-Wraithguard: 32(base)*5=160
Wave Serpent: 115(base)+5(scatter laser)=120
-Windriders: 17(base)*3=51
Fast Attack: 133
-Warp Spiders: 19(base)*7=133
Heavy Support: 452
-Dark Reapers: 30(base)*5=150+32(Starshot)+
-Wraithknight: 240
Fortification: 85
-aegis: 50(base)+85(Icarus)=85
Tau Allies: 439
-Commander:174
85(base)+15(C&C node)+15(MSS)+15+20(PTENC)+
-Riptide:190
180(base)+5(Ion Accelerator)+5(interceptor)=
-Kroot:60
6(base)*10=60
Total: 1840
Explanation: This list drops the Farseer, Reaper Serpent, Broadsides. To make up for the missing Farseer, it picks up a C&C node on the Commander (which essentially twin-links the shooting of whatever unit the Commander has joined-usually the Reapers) so Guide/Prescience isn't too needed. I may miss Prescience, however, on the Wraithknight should I charge him into combat but that is the price I paid to have him in there. I think the addition of the Wraithknight and Wraithguard add a lot of threats I can throw at my opponent and hopefully their S10 shots will do me proud.
So there you have it, what do you guys think of each list and why? Ultimately, I am leaning towards list 3 as I like the idea of having a Wraithknight and some Wraithcannons to throw at my opponent but I wonder if it is worth losing a Farseer and Broadsides for?