1000pts Iyanden Eldar Army

[Aspiring executioner]

Hey guys, i'm starting an Iyanden force and this is what I was thinking I should have for 1000pts.
HQ Farseer, Doom, Guide, Runes of Witnessing, Spirit Stones and Singing Spear 133pts
HQ Prince Yriel 155pts
Troops 9 Dire Avengers, Exarch, Bladestorm, PW & Shimmershield 150pts
Troops 8 Dire Avengers, Exarch, Bladestorm, PW & Shimmershield 138pts
Elites 6 Harlequins, Shadowseer, Troupe Master w/ PW, 4 Harlequin Kisses 174pts
Heavy Support Wraithlord, ELM, Wraithsword 125pts
Heavy Support Wraithlord, ELM, Wraithsword 125pts

Total 1000pts

Ok a little on tactics. I worry about my extremely low model count but I hope Yriel's awesomeness and the Wraithlords toughness will kick in there. The Avengers will deal with big horde units with the Farseer's help if needs be while holding objectives. Harlies will sit back as a counter-assault unit to anything that threatens the Avengers. Wraithlords will go on the flanks blowing up tanks or tieing up units or killing characters and elite units and whatever else Wraithlords are good at.

Any suggestions are welcome, however it will take a good argument for me to replace my units with the exception of maybe the Harlequins. Main thing for me is tactics, armies I go up against reguarly are Tyranids, Orks, Daemonhunters/Grey Knights, Ravenwing, Space Marines and I reckon Imperial Guard will become popular too.

[Mr. anderson]

Let me start off with a note on formatting. Posting a whole list without any spaces, paragraphs and the likes makes them rather unpleasant to read. I'd suggest you reformat that a bit to make comments more likely (i.e. putting elites, troops and heavy support into different paragraphs, perhaps making a bold heading for each paragraph and so forth).

Problems with the list:

- You have painfully little ranged anti-tank weaponry (a missile launcher cannot really be considered anti-tank for that matter).

- Your only two scoring units are under-strength (they're not 10 strong each) and consist of T3 AS4+ models. And they have no transport, thus will take a long time to get to objectives further away from your deployment zone, which will likely expose them to enemy fire while they try to reach the objectives.

- Harlequins are nice models, but without being able to consolidate into new opponents they have become an awful lot harder to use, and most of the time they'll get shot down after killing something.

Solutions:

- For long-ranged anti-tank weaponry eldar only have fire prisms and bright lances at their disposal, everything else either isn't strong enough or doesn't have special rule(s) helping out. You might want to consider swapping the missile launchers for bright lances on the wraithlords. If you concentrate their fire they should be able to take out the tougher tanks (stay away from land raiders though) in a turn or two.

- To get a more resilient troops choice, I'd suggest you drop one of the dire avenger units for a squad of pathfinders, as they are very tough to move from an objective. On top of that, I'd drop the harlequins for a wave serpent and another dire avenger so as to make your remaining squad 10 strong, and get defend for them (it is very useful, believe me. I always take it on my "fighty" dire avengers and it's saved their bottoms more times than I care to count. Only one power fist attack from that marine sergeant makes it much more likely that the other one, should it hit and wound, will be saved by the shimmershield).

That way you still only have two scoring units, but now those scoring units are either highly mobile (DA in wave serpent) or tough as nails to remove (pathfinders).

A few little tweaks: doom is not that useful in your list due to your lack of dedicated combat units (the wraithlords won't benefit much from re-rolling to wound rolls, and Yriel will probably be off somewhere on his own, out of range) at least nowhere near as useful as fortune (what good is it if you can re-roll to-wound rolls if you squad is dead?). If you get fortune on the farseer instead and then put the bugger with the pathfinders you'll instantaneously have a tough to remove scoring unit that has to be assaulted in close combat or be flamed from where they are, both of which will require your opponent to come close. To counteract that, you will have the wraithlords (they'll have to stay close to the farseer anyway in order to reliably remain functional throughout the game).

I presume the wraithlords both have twin flamers even though you didn't mention it?

If so, there is all the anti-horde potential you need - flame those orks/tyranid mobs and then assault them. Most of their attacks won't even be able to harm the wraithlords.

HUZZAH!

[Dalamar]

I see no wraithguard, it's not Iyanden without Wraithguard.

[Zakath the slaughterer]

I see no wraithguard, it's not Iyanden without Wraithguard.

Agreed. And Wraithlords are supposed to be rare - dropping the other one for some Wraithguard would make the list a lot more themed. Have a Warlock with Enhance go with them and you have some serious anti-horde and anti-elite unit that can take punishment.

I worry about my extremely low model count but I hope Yriel's awesomeness

Yriel's what?

I'd swap the Harlequins for Rangers (not Pathfinders for Iyanden army) and possibly some Guardians... The more scoring units, the better!

[Aspiring executioner]

Ok new revised list, I took some suggestions on board but didn't take rangers as I want to be different from other people and I don't particularly like paying 95 points for 5 shots and I get really unlucky with my rolls anyway for 40k. Also my Wraithlords do indeed have twin flamers. Doom was not meant for combat, it's main purpose was for the Avengers and the Wraithlords to re-roll wounds against hordes to make sure they are dead but I swapped it for Fortune anyway because I do fail a lot more saves than any other roll (poor Ultramarines... ). Instead of the Rangers I have Guardian Jetbikes as they are incredibly quick and can get a 3+ cover save when they want to while also putting out some good firepower.

Ok here it is:

HQ Farseer, Fortune, Guide, Runes of Witnessing, Spirit Stones and Singing Spear 138pts

HQ Prince Yriel 155pts

Troops 10 Dire Avengers, Exarch, Bladestorm, Defend and PW & Shimmershield 177pts

Troops 8 Dire Avengers, Exarch, Bladestorm and PW & Shimmershield 138pts

Troops 5 Guardian Jetbikes, Shuriken Cannon 120pts

Elites 3 Wraithguard, Warlock, Enhance 145pts

Heavy Support Wraithlord, EML, Wraithsword, 2 Flamers 125pts

Total 998 points

Yriel will join the Wraithguard to benefit from Enhance and also provide some ignoring armour save relief in combat. Farseer will join one of the Avengers probably the under-strength one to boost them a bit while having the Wraithlord near them to support and be able to ignore wraithsight.

So how does this look?

[Mr. anderson]

The list looks better now, but I'd still consider a few changes:

3 Wraithguard with Yriel and Warlock means that if you only take one casualty (which presumably will be a wraithguard), the whole squad is down to T3 - poor wraithguard. I would add two more to make something a little more solid of the squad.

I still don't like your lack of long-ranged armour hunting capability. A brightlance would help a lot on the wraithlord (not only against vehicles - a brightlance also has low enough AP to get through the save of a carnifex/hive tyrant and their likes, and it instazapps space marines (the ones worth instazapping all have a 2+ AS, so AP3 from the EML is no good).

The wraithlord being the only target for lascannons and their unpleasant consorts will be downed rather quickly (and you don't want to be using fortune on him all the time because that'll get your dire avengers killed).

The jetbikes don't seem to fit into this list at all. They are the only fast-moving element in this army (on top of that they are scoring), and as such they'll get singled out quickly and shot down (they still technically have no more staying power than a squad of 5 space marines - and 3+ CS or AS, pulse rifles don't care when they gun you down).

I would much rather get a wave serpent for one of the dire avenger squads (in 1000 points games 2 scoring units might just be enough). With the wave serpent in the army, the high-S shots will have to be split up between two targets that, most of the time, will have a 4+ cover save. Also with the wave serpent you will not only have a fast moving scoring unit, but once you have dropped the avengers off, you can go pick up another unit, or use the wave serpent as fast moving contesting unit (which will take pressure off the rest of your army as many a gun shall be pointed at the bothersome tank, and with fortune they'll need a lot of luck to get to it).

HUZZAH!

[Aspiring executioner]

Ok thanks Mr. Anderson. I should've said this earlier but i'm not a big fan of Bright Lances as they are incredibly expensive and can never find enough points for them so I'll stick with my missile launchers. Anyway added a Wave Serpent and took off Runes of Witnessing and the Singing Spear on the Farseer to add in an extra Wratihguard.

HQ Farseer, Fortune, Guide, Spirit Stones 125pts

HQ Prince Yriel 155pts

Troops 10 Dire Avengers, Exarch, Bladestorm, Defend and PW & Shimmershield w/ Wave Serpent w/ Twin-Linked Shuriken Cannons 277pts

Troops 8 Dire Avengers, Exarch, Bladestorm and PW & Shimmershield 138pts

Elites 4 Wraithguard, Warlock, Enhance 180pts

Heavy Support Wraithlord, EML, Wraithsword, 2 Flamers 125pts

Total 1000 points

The only tanks I fear are Exorcists, all other mech armies at my store have tanks that are short ranged like the Land Raider Redeemer or made for close combat as well as shooting like the Defiler and Soul Grinder and that's where the Wraithlord steps in with its wraithsword pointed at the unfortunate tank or my witchblades/singing spear or wraithcannons if needs be.

Thanks for the advice so far.

[Demetrius]

To be honest, you dont need both characters. Take out the Farseer and put in more avengers, which is also another scoring unit.

[Kuanor]

Never! Do never drop the farseer, even more if you have only one! Put him into your wraithguard and let them reroll saves.

Ehm... what does enhance? I don't know all the English names. In any case the 5+ cover save is what they need.

[Mr. anderson]

In any case the 5+ cover save is what they need.

Not really, no. In the new edition, if you are a little careful, you'll have a better cover save anyway, seeing as the usual CS you get is 4+ now. At any rate, enhance is +1WS and +1I, which is better if you ask me (not least because it will make Yriel a killing machine - more than he is already).

If you want to save yourself some points, I would suggest dropping shimmershield and power weapon on the smaller DA unit and only take double AC for the exarch. That's a cheap dakka unit (served me very well in the past) - and while you're at it, you could also drop defence because they don't want to end up in combat anyway (which is how I use my dakka DA unit), that way you can get a 5th wraithguard or, depending on what you feel like, TL missile launchers on the wave serpent.

TL missile launchers are a brilliant thing - they hit well, the wave serpent has high enough speed to get to side/rear armour (a pain for marine players fielding predators and vindicators), and TL template weapons with AP 4 eat through guard armies like little else (S4, ignoring their armour, improved template rules and re-roll to wound is just beautiful) - I always use TL EML on my wave serpents and they have never disappointed me.

HUZZAH!

[Kuanor]

Hm... maybe you are right about the warlock. I have played very little since 5th ed. But the farseer should as good as before.

Silly question: What does "TL" stand for? I know the missle luncher but... ^^

[Hali]

Twin Linked.