6th Edition 40k – Eldar – How to Make Your Opponent Hate You

by | Nov 15, 2012


So recently I've played around with an army list that I have found to be completely devastating.  The surprise?  It involves Eldar!  Who would have guessed that one of the most overpowered unit/character combos involves a codex that dates from late 4th edition?  Now, I make no claim that I discovered this army selection option. I have used it a couple times now and I plan on using this in a tournament over the weekend.



So everyone knows the 6th edition wound allocation rules, I hope.  They state that wounds must be allocated to the closest model to the firing unit.  A few exceptions to this exist, such as models not within LOS to the firing unit cannot be hit.  In general though, the wound allocation rules allow for a tactic referred to as "character tanking".  What do I mean by this?  Character tanking is taking an extremely durable character and throwing him in the front of a unit.  This means that enemy shots are allocated to him first and, due to his durability, the character soaks up the shots like a pro.  That is the tactic you will see used below.

Now, I should preface this that while I use the Eldar codex as the primary for this tactic, you could just as easily use the Dark Eldar book as the main force and Eldar allies.

This tactic requires three components to work when using Eldar/Dark Eldar.  These are listed below and are the minimum requirements for this tactic.
  • Squad of Harlequins with the Shadowseer upgrade
  • Eldar Farseer with Fortune
  • Dark Eldar Archon with Shadowfield
Now with these minimum required units, place the Farseer and Archon in the unit of Harlequins.  The Archon should be placed out in front so he takes all the hits.  EVERY phase, make sure the farseer casts fortune on the Harlequins.  This means you now have a model taking all the hits with a rerollable 2+ invulnerable save.  If I'm computing the odds correctly that means the archon only fails his save 2.778% of the time.  Now the farseer should be buried in the core of the unit to avoid any flanking manuevers getting a lucky shot at him.  The shadowseer should be placed at the rear of the unit.  I've provided a diagram below for the best possible deployment of models in this tactic.

So what do you end up with?  A 12 model unit that proves extremely durable and deadly.  Every model has a minimum of a 4+ cover save (Shrouding & Stealth) or a 5+ invulnerable (all of which are rerollable thanks to fortune).  Out in front is a model soaking up all the wounds with a rerollable 2+ invulnerable save.  Throw in the Hit & Run and Furious Assault USRs (of which Hit & Run now affects attached characters) and the ability to reroll charge distances and you have a pretty deadly and survivable unit.  This is just the minimum required to perform this tactic.  Other options make them more dangerous in combat, give them more flexibility, etc.



Now the list above is the minimum required to run this sort of tactic.  Listed below are a few options that will aid in pulling this off, expand the role of the unit, or help make the unit more functional in their primary role.
  • Harlequin's Kiss on all Harlequins
  • Haywire Grenades on the Archon
  • Venom Blade/Agoniser on the Archon
  • Farseer upgrades (Runes of Witnessing, Spirit Stones, Guide/Doom, Runes of Warding)
  • Swap the farseer for Eldrad
  • Upgrade one Harlequin to the Troupe Leader
Most of these upgrades provide pretty obvious benefits.  Harlequin's Kisses make the unit more reliable against heavy armored infantry, Haywire Grenades allow the archon to damage vehicles, Venom Blade & agoniser make the Archon more dangerous in combat, the Farseer upgrades (or the Eldrad swap) greatly increase the flexibility of the unit overall.  I do want to discuss the addition of the Troupe Leader.  Most people would think this is for the bonus to the statline.  Actually, this is to ward off challenges.  Avoid the enemy challenging by issuing one of your own with the troupe leader.  Given the expense of Eldrad, the importance of Fortune (if you simply have a farseer) and the archon's role of soaking up damage intended for the unit, the troupe leader can be a very valuable addition.

Now this tactic possesses a number of weak spots.For starters, the units involved, particularly with all the upgrades, can take a large chunk of points away from the main army.  All total it probably runs around 600ish points.  So 1/3 of a standard tournament army which is considerable.  Second, fast moving vehicles and units can put a crimp in your style by outflanking your units and shooting from different targetting vectors.  So be wary of them and use vehicles and cover to make sure that no matter who is firing, the archon is the closest model.  Lastly, blast & template weapons affect the models directly underneath and thus, can be used to snipe the normal harlequins while largely bypassing the archon's shadowfield.  So keep models spread out as much as possible and be especially wary of anything with a large blast template.

So with all that said and done, what do you think of this tactic?  Beardy?  WAAC?  Acceptable?  Would you punch a person putting this list on the table opposite you or just walk away?  Can you think of other ways to mitigate the Archon's shadowfield?

UPDATE:  I tried this tactic at a tournament and while it can work fantastically it definitely needs quite a bit of finesse to work.  My first game I actually lost to a nearly identical unit across the board who had the good luck of making me roll a 1 on my shadowfield before getting into close combat.  The second game my opponent simply ignored the unit and stayed away from it.  This was made easier due to me outflanking the unit (warlord trait).  The last game things worked perfectly and the unit soaked up more firepower than had been thrown at it all day long.