Mech Eldar w/ Seer Council Updated

It would technically be v1.something, but it's been a few months since I've touched the Seer Council, so yeah.

1850 Mech Seer Council List
HQ
Farseer w/ Bike, Runes of Warding, Fortune, Doom, Spirit Stones [175]

Warlock Unit [420]
8x 'locks on bikes
4x Destructor
1x Enhance
1x Embolden

Elites
5 Fire Dragons [80]
Wave Serpent w/ TL Lance, Shuriken Cannon [145]

5 Fire Dragons [80]
Wave Serpent w/ TL Lance, Shuriken Cannon [145]

Troops
5 Dire Avengers [60]

5 Dire Avengers [60]

10 Storm Guardians w/ 2x Flamers [92]
Wave Serpent w/ TL Lance, Shuriken Cannon [145]

Heavy Support
Fire Prism w/ Shuriken Cannon [125]

Falcon w/ Holofields, Shuriken Cannon, Scatter Laser [175]

Falcon w/ Holofields, Shuriken Cannon, Scatter Laser [175]

Total: 1847/1850

With the three points remaining, I'm tempted to put a Singing Spear into the hands of one of the schmuck-locks, just to give me more distinct units. Or, hand it to a Destructor-lock. Cheers for wound allocation shenanigans, right? Right.

The only element I'm not certain about is the Storm Guardian unit. I feel like the flamers might be overkill, or they might just be backup. I feel like I've got a decent torrent of fire and the anti-tank covered with lances; at this point I figured I'd just get more troops. The Storm Guardians aren't bad, as they've a distinct use.

On the field, it's a half-dozen nasty, durable grav tanks and the Seer Council.

I'm reminded of the burden set on the Seer Council; they have to do a lot of the work. Even more ironic is that in this test game, one Fire Dragon serpent got KO'ed, and the other ended up stunned for about 3 turns straight (....man, talk about long odds) so the Seer Council shanked itself a Russ and sentinel squad, after notching itself two large guardsmen squads.

The short version is that in a Dawn of War match, the other guy fielded...
2x Large Melee Guard Squads (30 men w/ 3x meltagun, 3x power weapons, commissar) though one traded the meltaguns for autocannons. 'toon command with them, of course.
Command Squad w/ Straken
Priest in the meltagun squad
2x Russ w/ Lascannon, HB sponsons
Demolisher
2x Hellhound w/ hull MM, smoke launchers
3-sentinel squad w/ autocannons.

End of the game, what was left?
1 Immobilized Hellhound
1 Hellhouned Hull (needed one more damage result to KILL it)
1 Immobilized Demolisher
Straken and a meltagun in his squad

1/2 the Seer Council
Farseer
Storm Guardians in immobilized serpent
DAs in a Falcon
Fire Dragons and their Serpent

In part, he got a bit too aggressive with one of the melee squads and ended up only committing half the forces, so...the Seer Council BBQed it down to the power weapons on the first turn, and then moved to assault it without moving through cover.

I also managed to draw off the Demolisher towards the Prism and a Falcon.

Also, 1's did a LOT of damage to the forces. 1's in Dangerous Terrain effected:
1 immobilized Hellhound early one
1 immobilized Demolisher late game
1 DEAD Falcon (flat out + limiting my own movement options + 1 = Dire Avengers out of a wreck, in front of Straken. Guess how that rolled?)

Also, multi-assaults against armor with Witchblades is soooo fun. For me. One assault phase saw off two sentinels (only shot one to death previously) and a Russ.

It also reminds me of the problems with a Seer Council; if it folds you're screwed. It's just a lot of points and a lot of eggs in a basket. At least it was an excuse for me to strip them and re-do the symbols; I think my GS skills are getting better, and using tools helps.

Eldar Update, More Testing

I've made some changes to my Eldar lineup, and gotten a couple rounds in. The 1850 list was as follows:

1850 Mech Test
HQ
Eldrad [210]

Elite
6 Fire Dragons; one is Exarch w/ DB Flamer and Crack Shot [113]
Wave Serpent w/ TL Lance, Shuriken Cannon [145]

6 Fire Dragons; one is Exarch w/ DB Flamer and Crack Shot [113]
Wave Serpent w/ TL Lance, Shuriken Cannon [145]

8 Howling Banshees; one is Exarch w/ Executioner, War Shout, Acrobatic [160]
Wave Serpent w/ TL Lance, Shuriken Cannon [145]

Troops
5 Dire Avengers [60]

5 Dire Avengers [60]

7 Guardian Jetbikes, 2 Shuriken Cannons, 1 Warlock on Bike w/ Embolden [224]

Heavy Support
Falcon w/ Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon, Holo-Fields [175]

Falcon w/ Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon, Holo-Fields [175]

Fire Prism w/ Shuriken Cannon [125]

1850 Total

Thoughts on the List and units
On the Fire Dragons
I'm sold on the twin-linked heavy flamers in the Fire Dragon squad. It gives them some duality, even if the heavy flamer is a bit to get in there. Crack Shot helps further by alleviating the need to Doom the unit, though Doom helps if there's going to be more fire directed at the unit.

On the Banshees
Well, one game, they kind of got their transport blown up on turn one, so...yeah. They managed to hide for the duration of the game. There's certainly some challenge associated with fielding Banshees and getting them into assault. Once in assault, they need doom, but I'm beginning to still see the utility of having some melee in there. However, they're a bit pricey to use, so...yeah.

I like having some melee support, but I'm not sure Banshees will fit the bill.

On the Guardian Jetbikes
Well, there was that one time that on turn one, I decided to get them into cover from Guard Battlecannons, and they rolled three '1s' and promptly failed the resulting morale test, and ran off the board in Dawn of War. Truthfully, I should've played it a bit different (and maybe even reserved those things, since I'm not sure I would've missed the two Shuriken Cannons for a couple turns...).

I do like that they can't be nailed down, but there's certainly an art to using them. Mostly some intelligence in placement.

Melee Solutions
Well, it's Eldar, so I have one of four options for a real assault unit:
1) Banshees
2) Scorpions
3) Harlequins
4) Seer Council

I categorically refuse to run a foot-based Seer Council, and I'd tweak a Seer-Council based build if I wanted them.

The outright substitute would be some flamer-toting Storm Guardians, but that's a suicide unit that's really only good for nuking light infantry with Doom support. Otherwise, it's Fire Dragons, which also tend to be single-use.

I'd rather have power weapon wounds, so Scorps are out.

If I DID get Scorps, I could get their Exarch w/ Biting Blade, Claw, and then 7 other guys. I fail to be convinced I really want this over the Banshees.

That leaves Harlequins as my substitute. Thing is, they can't take a Designated Transport. Well, that's not a major problem; I can get a Wave Serpent off a Dire Avenger squad, and the Harlies can borrow out. So, what can I get for 160 in Harlies? Or thereabouts.

I can get a Troupe Master and 5 Harlies with Kisses for 148. They pretty much require Doom support, and there's always the issue of the potential need for Fortune, plus the unit's not really that durable.

For the record, the 10 Storm Guardians with double-flamers would be 92. It would open up points, but...yeah. I dunno. It's MUCH less durable support, and no melee ability to speak of. I mean, ok, they have lots of attacks, but no real lethality.

Thoughts from Eldar regulars?

Eldar Mech Test Bed, Hybrid v Something-or-Other

Not long ago, I finally got around to painting that squad of Howling Banshees I'd acquired a while ago. So, it's about time to slap a list together for them, I think. It's patterned more or less off the latest Mech V3 list. I'm also working on re-doing my Fire Dragons; I didn't clear cout 'em enough, and used it as an excuse to cobble together flame-toting Exarchs. I mean, I got a dozen of the things, might as well get 'em together.

Eldar Mech Test Bed
HQ
Farseer
-Jetbike
-Guide, Fortune, Spirit Stones
155

Farseer
-Spirit Stunes, Runes of Warding
-Guide, Fortune
140

Elites
5 Fire Dragons (92)
-Exarch w/ Heavy Flamer
Wave Serpent (145)
-Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon

5 Fire Dragons (92)
-Exarch w/ Heavy Flamer
Wave Serpent (145)
-Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon

7 Howling Banshees (139)
-Exarch w/ War Shout, Executioner
Wave Serpent (145)
-Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon

Troops
5 Dire Avengers (60)

5 Dire Avengers (60)

6 Guardian Jetbikes (202)
-2 Shuriken Cannons, Warlock w/ Embolden

Heavy Support
Falcon (175)
-Holo-Field, Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon

Falcon (175)
-Holo-Field, Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon

Fire Prism (125)
-Shuriken Cannon

Total: 1850

The 'test' part refers to heavy flamers in the fire dragons, and the inclusion of Howling Banshees. The Dragon exarchs give the squad some duality; they can always burn troops down if there isn't a lot of armor on the field.

The Banshees? War Shout is a 5pt filler. They're my cutty-cutty squad.

This is also, in part, a draft. I should probably get some Doom in there. The Double-Seer was meant to fortune up a couple transports and ram them down the other guy's throat. I also had to cut down the Guardian Jetbikes to 6 from 9 to make the points.

I'm looking for some tweaks/advice. Offhand, I can think of...

1) Add Doom.
Which one do I lose? Probably give it to the Jet-Seer, though I'll miss his Guide. I suppose I could consolidate them into Eldrad, but...

2) More Troops?
Not sure where to get the points. I could drop the Prism, but that cuts down on the mech amount.

3) Something else I missed?

Mech Eldar v2.5 update

Mostly, the 'epic fail' talks about the dice today. I pulled off a win against Jon's Traitor Guard today with the Mech Eldar v2.5 (and the edit was dropping the Storm Guardian Serpent's Lance for an EML, then giving the foot-Seer Runes of Witnessing to bring it to 1850 even).

The comedy was generally in the dice today, though Jon's bad luck started when he knocked his Vendetta off the table (and promptly broke it. At least it was all clean breaks.) during setup. It was cringe-worthy, but I'm glad it wasn't ME doing the breaking, as I'd be forced by guilt and courtesy to do something to compensate, and...I don't have a ton of money.

So, I managed to get first turn again as usual after we rolled up Kill Points and Spearhead.

Jon's list involved something like:

Company Command in Chimera (Astropath, Lascannon HW team, ML/HF Chimera)

Rambo

1 Chimera-vet squads (triple-melta)

1 Chimera-vet squad w/ Harker (outflankalicious)

1 Vet Squad w/ Lascannon, grenade launchers, camo cloaks

Vet squad w/ 2 melta, 1 heavy flamer

Platoon

-Command w/ flamers in Chimera

-2 Infantry Squads w/ autocannon teams, and one vox-caster)

-heavy weapon team w/ mortars

2 Devil Dogs (as seperate, one w/ HF, one w/ MM)

Vendetta w/ HB Sponsons

2 Russes (w/ hull heavy flamers)

So, I got first, and grabbed cover. He realized his DZ had crap for cover, so...he threw it all in reserve. Admittedly, this is kind of a 'wtf?' moment, since I'm used to inflicting it on others. So, I maneuver on my first turn, then spend turn two turbo-boosting everything, and fortuning the wave serpents with the dragons in them.

His reserves start the dice fail-fest when the platoon refuses to engage (...until turn 4.). He gets a vet-chimera, the russes, Harker's boys, a Devil Dog, and the Vendetta. He stuns the Fire Prism, and knocks the missile launcher off the burny guardians.

I threaten him with the Fire Dragon serpent (Turbo Boost + Fortune = 4+ re-rollable save versus your hits for Supah Doopa Durable Serpent!) and he responds by moving a squad into place to deny me 6" shots on the Russ, and then...shoots the thing with three meltas, and I promptly flub two of the fortuned cover saves. The Serpent explodes with the first shots pumped into it. FAIL SERPENT.

He whittles the fire Dragons down to two guys who break...and then next turn, they blow up the chimera-vet's ride.

His other Vendetta-vets (...whose ride has been summarily immobilized and lost a lascannon after eating 4 twin-linked S8 shots and 14 twin-linked S6 shots from Falcons) epic-fail to kill the stunned Fire Prism at point-blank with 2 meltas, and Harker's boys have to do it for them. Good job, guys.

His dice-fail contiues with his infantry-borne weapons failing to do a thing.

I unload 5 fire dragons into his other Devil Dog, and...stun it. Their Wave Serpent promptly blows it up with a single lance shot, then I realize I made a dumb mistake and watch his platoon command chimera show up and burn the dragons down.

On the other hand, the last two dragons nuked a Vet Chimera on their own. Four vets died, they flubbed a morale check, ran back, regrouped, and failed to play a role in the game. The other highlight was a damaged Wave Serpent blasting his Platoon Command, exploding it, and taking the command squad out in the resulting inferno.

By the end of the game, the score was 5-4, me.

Jon aced:

Fire Prism, Wave Serpent, 2 Fire Dragon squads

I killed:

2 Chimeras, Rambo, Devil Dog, Company Command.

And, of course, the result of the roll for more turns? 1. (this is far from the only one we saw; he had a set of four 1's when he cranked twin-linked autocannon shots into an immobilized Wave Serpent). On the other hand, Rambo ended up in assault with my Jetbikes, and I had to smack 7 wounds on him to freaking kill him. It took a couple turns; he actually got a damned Hit and Run off. On the flip side, his demo charge did precisely dick, but he's freaking annoying.

When we did it VP, though, he had 1300ish remaining to my 1039, which would be a solid win for him. It goes to show you that VP might be a bit more accurate of a score-keeper. Of course, I'd lost 75 points to a Farseer periling himself, and he had another 75ish points tied up in ONE VET that refused to run.

Thoughts on the new stuff I tried

I...have to re-think holo-fields. They saved my Falcons when massed meltaguns would've seen them dead a few times over, and in turn they saved their Dire Avengers from gruesome death. Holo-fields are worth it. I've updated my Grav Tank Primer to reflect this change of heart.

The whole 'battle cannon' thing made me nervous about the bikes, but the number of lances and fire dragons kind of kept the Russes nervous in their turn. Still, 3 shuriken cannons isn't a bad heap of shots, even if they tend to FAIL at killing things. In retrospect, I think I flubbed on the number of shots, but it works out as Jon blanked on the heavy bolters on his Vendetta. Still, the bikers impressed me this time. I'll have to give 'em another shot and see how they do.

The Storm Guardians...didn't get a good set of shots, but that's in part getting used to playing them.

The list is a change-up for me, but I think I liked some of the changes.

On the Guard Stuff

Outflanking stuff's annoying, and outflanking melta gives me a little pause, but it's more of a distraction than a necessarily reliable tactic. Outflanking Vendettas are a pain, but that's just truth.

Rambo is...interesting. He jumps out, says 'boo!' and whips a demo charge. Thing is, after that he's not necessarily a high-priority target BUT he can still harass/annoy you, and tie up non-assault-oriented units reasonably well. With luck, at least. Failing that, he screams something about a melta-bomb, and you probably ought to shoot him anyway.

Mech Eldar v2.5 (I think)

And, Arrgh, 5 points over. I'm going to have give a shout out to Dverning, Stelek, and probably King Elessar as well (just to be safe). Hell, even possibly Fritz just because I'm thinking about Jet Bikes in addition to Falcons and even Holo-Fields on them.

So, here comes the latest potential mutation of my Mech Eldar.

Mech Eldar v2.5
HQ
Farseer
-Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Guide, Fortune
140

Farseer
-Jetbike, Spirit Stones, Guide, Fortune
155

Elites
5 Fire Dragons
80
Wave Serpent w/ TL Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
145

5 Fire Dragons
80
Wave Serpent w/ TL Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
145

Troops
5 Dire Avengers
60

5 Dire Avengers
60

10 Storm Guardians w/ 2 Flamers
92
Wave Serpent w/ TL Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
145

9 Guardian Jetbikes w/ 3 Shuriken Cannons
Warlock w/ Embolden
278

Heavy Support
Falcon
-Holo-fields, Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon
175

Falcon
-Holo-fields, Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon
175

Fire Prism w/ Shuriken Cannon
125

Total: 1855/1850

How's it work? I'M GLAD YOU ASKED!

First, it works 5 points less, and I need to knock something out. The Fire Dragons are generally self-explanatory. The Dire Avengers sit in the Falcons and make them scoring. The Falcons in turn sit in the back, hide, and crank out a torrent of generally-twin-linked fire. Need to burn infantry and/or light armor? Eat 7 twin-linked S6 shots and a pair of S8 shots. Dakka-falcons are a legit threat to anything you point them at short of AV13-14; twin-linking it just makes it worse.

The Storm Guardians are a burnination unit, pure and simple. I kind of don't expect them to live.

The Jetbike Guardians are the other scoring unit. They grab cover and Fortune and, hey, we're as durable as (you guessed it) a Seer Council. Though, they sit back and plink away with Shuriken Cannons instead of running up and burning/shanking you.

And, why two Farseers? If I have to, I'm going to shove Fire Dragons down the other guy's throat on turn one. Two tastes of Fortune on two turbo-boosted transports in one turn gets 'em there. Then, one round of fortune always goes on the Jetbikes, and the other can get on a grav tank that's in the most exposed position. The bike-seer hangs with (you guessed it) the Jetbikes, and the other one hangs with one of the Score-Falcons.

What I'm asking my 'loyal readers' is where I should knock out the 5 points? I can't cut the units down other than the Guardian Jet bikes; they're minimal as-is. If I cut a Guardian jetbike, I lose one of the shuriken cannons. I could drop Embolden, but that buffs the Farseer and keeps me from losing a Seer and scoring unit on a crappy morale roll.

The other thought is dropping a gun. I think if I drop any gun, it's probably a cannon off one of the Wave Serpents, just because they're all carrying stuff that gets rammed in the enemy's throat.

Thoughts?

Mech Eldar v2.4

This is the latest Mech Eldar I've been rolling with, though it is like as not to change soon.

HQ
Farseer w/ Runes of Warding, Runes of Witnessing, Spirit Stones, Guide, Doom
145

Autarch w/ power weapon, fusion gun
90

Elites
5 Fire Dragons
80
Wave Serpent w/ TL Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
145

5 Fire Dragons
80
Wave Serpent w/ TL Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
145

Troops
9 Dire Avengers
98
Wave Serpent w/ TL Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
145

9 Dire Avengers
98
Wave Serpent w/ TL Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
145

8 Rangers
152

Fast Attack
Vyper w/ 2 Shuriken Cannons
60

Vyper w/ 2 Shuriken Cannons
60

Heavy Support
Falcon w/ Pulse Laser, 2 Shuriken Cannons
130

Falcon w/ Pulse Laser, 2 Shuriken Cannons
130

Fire Prism w/ Shuriken Cannon
125

Total: 1848/1850

What I like about the list
Anti-tank is pretty well covered with four lances, 2 fire dragon units, and then a heap of pulse lasers and shuriken cannons for heavy to light-weight duty, respectively.

Anti-infantry feels a little lighter, with the Dire Avengers having to do most of the work, and the Falcons and Vypers have to pull double-duty here. If anything, I think I'm likely to try to fit some Storm Guardians in there for the flamers.

What I don't like
I feel light on anti-infantry, as mentioned above.

I think I'm probably going to kick the Autarch; I'm fond of my conversion but I'm just not getting a ton of mileage out of her and I'd rather have the psychic support.

Likely Changes
Probably dropping the Rangers. Likely to consider a small unit of Avengers to sit in a Falcon near the 'home objective', and then look into shoe-horning some Storm Guardians into the mix.

June 20, Games by Gamers 1850 RTT

I need to get a link for Games by Gamers to plug 'em; they're some locals that are throwing up an interweb storefront and this is one of their tournies. I'm a big fan of the local Hobbytown USA; Greg's an awesome guy but the HT store just doesn't have a lot of room inside. We can cram two tables in the back, and that's just not always enough.

Thus, the guys at Games by Gamers threw together an 1850 for us at the local UAH Bevil Center.

I ran Mech Eldar v1.something-or-other.

Autarch w/ Fusion Blaster, Banshee Mask, Power Weapon

Farseer w/ Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Guide, Doom, Jetbike
Seer Council; 6 warlocks. 4 Destructor, 1 Enhance, 1 Embolden

2x 5-man Fire Dragon squads in Lance/Shurikannon Wave Serpent

3x 8-man Dire Avenger squads in Bright Lance/Shuricannon Serpents

Fire Prism w/ Shurikcannon

1846 totalish.

Round 1

This was round one's opponent; daemons.
Bloodthirster
Keeper of Secrets
2x Bloodletter units w/ Icons
2x Horrors w/ Icons, one w/ changeling
Daemonettes
Plaguebearers w/ Icons
2x Phlegm-Grinders

Mission One: "ONE MAN GETS ZE RIFLE, THE OTHER GETS ZE BULLETS"
Primary: Meat Grinder. One objective in the middle. (8 BP)
Secondary: Head of the Snake (kill highest leadership/most expensive HQ in a tie)
Tertiary: Table Quarters (4 BP)
Fourth: 'Vast Resources, not Endless' (2BP) Kill Points

I opt to hold all in reserve but the Seer Council. Naturally, I get to go first. I fortune the council and move it to the left. He gets 'letters, a Grinder, plaguebearers, and horrors. He forgets the Seer Council has the Destructor spam, and I knock out a Bloodletter squad. However, we've also got Meat Grinder special rules on, which means any dead non-vehicle Troops choice moves in from the table edge next turn.

Seeing that, I figure I'll have a tough time getting the middle, but I figure I have enough lances and melta to take out his two grinders and his MCs.

Nooooot so much.


So, just WTH happened? Well, see that blue soul grinder? He laughed off a crap-ton of Bright Lances. I glanced it a lot, and then penned it about 3-4 times and never got better than a '2' on the pens, and Soul Grinders eat lower-level hits for breakfast. I also slammed the Fire Dragons, Autarch, and several Bright Lances into the Bloodthirster; it ate 8 invulnerable saves and passed 7.

From there, Soul Grinder blue tears down TWO grav tanks, and ends the game eating an Avenger squad. Oh, and the Seer Council? Flubs Fortuned armor saves, gets cut down to two folks, then fails to shoot three horrors to death, then can't consolidate away from them far enough to avoid an assault from Bloodletters nearby in cover.

The opponent was a great guy to play, and ultimately took first.

The dice? ARRRRGH. One of them dice games. I never disembarked by choice (other than the Fire dragons, which DID manage to kill a Soul Grinder) as there'd be a Soul Grinder feeding me pie, or I'd be looking at a charge soon.

End result? See that Wave Serpent in the middle? That's me denying him the primary objective, and not getting anything else for myself. Minor moral victory, and while the game was fun? I could've done without the dice...

Round 2: The Serious Mission...sort of
Deployment: Table Quarters
Primary: Operation Greased Pig (objective markers in each DZ that randomly move d6" each turn, off the table = other guy gets it)
Secondary: Set Weapons to 'War Crimes' (Kill Points)
Third: 'Operation: Kill that man' (kill most expensive HQ)
Fourth: 'Dine 'n' dash' Table Quarters

This opponent? Tyranids.
Hive Tyrant w/ some melee upgrades, Scything talons, venom cannon
2 Warrior Squads (leaping, talons, couple guns he didn't use much)
Rippers (x4, leaping)
8 Genestealers w/ Scuttlers, 4+ saves
6 Stealers w/ Scuttlers, 4+ saves, and scything talons? Dunno.
16 Gaunts w/o Number
16ish Hormagaunts (lots of upgrades; +WS, +I, +S)
2 Melee-fex (T7, extra wound, melee kit, regeneration)
3 Zoanthropes (Synapse critter, warp blast)

He rolls to go first, sets up near the middle. His shooting is largely ineffectual. I have to stop him a couple times to get him to actually measure his runs instead of just hopping the guy forward a few inches on a 2" run. He's also overly confident in his melee-fexes, and confident in general while not being wholly knowledgeable of the rules. He also forgets about his genestealers 'til turn four, which is kind of strange to me, but oh well. No big deal in the long run.


So, what do I do? Backpedal and fire. By turn three, I've nuked one carnifex by shooting, nuked his hive tyrant with Fire Dragons, and the Seer Council just ate the other beat-up fex. They put something like 17 wounds on the guy when he had two left.

You see one genestealer squad having trouble with Avengers, and the other? Epic Fail on the outflank roll. I'm sorry, did you want to participate in the match? Too bad. Note that the Serpents had been moving 12" each; one actually ate a partial charge from Warriors and they did nothing.

It looks about like this at the end, 'cept I beat his warriors down. He had the gaunts left, pretty much, and the stealers that got whittled down. He said I was making a mistake when I got out to shoot the stealers, but it kept 'em off my objective.

...then I had a brain fart and moved the loaded Dire Avengers OFF it in the last turn, though I had the presence of mind to slap a beat-up Serpent on his objective.

End result? Neither of us on primary; I have secondary and third, he gets fourth barely.

Not a difficult match, but the opponent was a bit 'eh' with having to explain crap left and right to him.

Round 3: Space Wolves

Deployment: Pitched Battle

Primary Objective: Hold Objectives (3 in either drop zone)

Secondary: Kill Most Expensive HQ

Third: Control the most terrain features

Fourth: KP

Space Wolves:

Ven Dread (Assault Cannon/Heavy Flamer)

Rune Priest

double-autocannon Dread

Wolf Scouts (x5)

Grey Hunters in Razorback

Grey Hunters in Rhino w/ Battle Leader

Grey Hunters

Land Speeder Squad (2 Speeders; Heavy Bolter/assault cannon)

Land Raider (with Hunters, Rune Priest)
Long Fangs; 2x Missile, 2x Lascannon

He got first.

I'll let the picture do the talking for how the dice luck went. Two Wave Serpents, down on turn one.

Turn 2: move up, lance the raider for nothing. Note the avengers moving for cover. Note the Fire Dragons and Autarch without a ride.

Note the FIRE DRAGONS OF FAIL, whereupon getting 5 melta shots at point blank, they hit 3 times and do no damage.

I'd kind of hoped to assault something else with the Seer Council, but by Khaine, THAT LAND RAIDER WILL DIE. At least it hadn't moved, and we explode it, lose no one in the fireball, and kill two marines. Who promptly stay to fight. At least the Rune Priest blew his brains out trying to keep a 5+ save up against lances, which did save it from a pen.

This is about the final. His scouts come in on the last turn in time to pull me off an objective; I get avengers on to one, and we tie objectives. He kind of gets the rest.

Thus ends a terrible dice day. You also see the Seer Council's last stand over there, but once the 5 Fire Dragons had failed to kill the Raider? Eh. Between that, the first turn, and the way my Grav Tanks dropped to a single pen each? (other than the Fire Dragons of Fail; their ride survived-ish).

Nasty dice day.

Good opponent, though, and enjoyable game.

Overall

Oh dear lord the dice hated me today. I mean, I honestly feel like my dice were pretty frigid in games one and three, and the other guy's dice were rolling well. Lost grav tanks rapidly in games one and three; he made good saves in one and three....

In part, it's been a couple months since the Seer Council has come out to play. I think I need to be a bit more aggressive, and not roll lots of 1's and 2's.

Still, I'd do it again and for a $15 entry fee? Not bad at all.

Overall, despite craptastic battle score, I was 6th out of 12, I think. Might've cinched 5th if I'd not fallen off an objective by stupidity in game two. I feel like I should've won game 1 if I'd been able to pass saves worth a damn and get better than a 1 or 2 on a penetrating hit. Game 3? Ugh. When grav tanks drop like that, it's just a bad day.

Mech Eldar HQs

So, after some time I finally got around to touching up the fusion gun/power weapon autarch, and the jetbike farseer.

I can't take credit for the boob job on the autarch; as I got that from Xardian when he lost his will to be a space-elf and slather himself in 'cheddar.'

I freely admit that the autarch is me giving in to an impulse towards the absurd. I was thinking about '...ok, what do I need to do to communicate thati t's armed with a fusion gun?' I could've just modded up one of my Fire Dragons, but I tend to run a dozen from time to time. Plus, I had the sweet power weapon/shuriken pistol autarch from Xardian. Now, I'm never going to slap the Swooping Hawk wings on it, so those are out...and I just glued the flags on. Xard's freehand, not mine. He's good at painting.

The fusion blaster (combined with a jetbiker's hand and GS to mount it) is me giving in to that impulse for the absurd.

Why? Because the autarch is all about BIG GUNS.

Sorry. Had to do it.

The Farseer's just sliiightly borrowing from the Banshees; she's an Exarch and the remainder of my Seer Council is made of older banshees modified with the legs of jetbikers.

Falcon Punt

Oh, the Falcon grav tank.

To be honest, I'm seriously beginning to wonder why I run the blasted things.

For 135, I get AV12/12/10, an S8 AP2 2-shot gun, and the Eldar Missile Launcher (S8 AP3, or S4 AP4 Pinning) on a BS3 platform.

For 135, I get a Wave Serpent with the same armor, an S8 AP2 Lance that's twin-linked, and a Shuriken Cannon (for three S6 AP4 shots) on a BS3 platform. I get more seats (Big whoop, as I'm pondering here the Fire Dragon ride, not the Dire Avengers' ride) and I get the almighty Energy Field. (I get good-natured ribbing on that being cheese, but considering all the melta and lascannon and ordnance death I see out there? Eh. I LIKE my cheddar-shield and it would only be REAL cheese if it stopped autocannons. Right, Jon? Fething Hydras...)

I mean, don't get me wrong. I've had some good runs with the falcons (like Falcon Red making 5 cover saves against penetrating hits in a turn, and then Falcon Red just recently dodging the crap out of heavy fire AGAIN, laughing in the face of point-blank meltagun shots...) but I'm really beginning to think that the Falcon's got no real use.

The holo-field? 35 points a head, 45 total to get the extra armor and always move. BUT. But, vs. meltaguns and autocannons, they can produce the quality and quantity of hits needed to just batter through the fields anyway. I mean, back in the 'glory days' of 4th, the holo-field combined with the '6's to hit on melee' and 'moving fast means glances only' nature of the game to make Falcons the (usually not shooting) scourge of the battlefield. (Well, only in the sense of points-denial, and killing something with their cargo).

In all seriousness, though, I'm about to convert one of my falcons to a Wave Serpent (...somehow) and then try to get me another Serpent in a trade. Still gonna keep two of my 3 falcon bodies intact to use as Fire Prisms, but this whole 'falcon' thing is really winding itself down. I'm just not SEEING it any more in a mech list.

Mech Eldar v2 test, and Warp Spiders

I got in a couple more tests of Mech Eldar v2.2. One round was against Jon's Guard, and the other Xardian's foot Chaos.

Vs Guard
Table Quarters, Dawn of War. (Whoops. Braindeath in memories.)

He got first turn, so...I promptly held everything in reserve. Most of it came in on round two; the rest on round three.

He was running a Manticore, a pair of two-Russ squads (one with heavy bolters, one with hull heavy flamers), some melta vets in Chimeras, Bastonne with melta-vets in a Vendetta, objective-sitter vets, and Company Command in a Chimera.

Losing all my bright lances in the space of two turns was a bit of a downer, let me tell you.

At the end of a bloody brawl, I'd thrown Yriel's Wave Serpent at the far objective and cleaned his troops mostly off it, but he'd gotten a couple of dismounted vet squads towards mine and finally slammed enough ordnance onto it, and polished 'em off with an assault.

Had it ended in turn 5, I would've eked out the win. Yriel did EXACTLY what he's meant to do; he hopped out of a Wave Serpent, moved up, drew everyone around him, and promptly detonated the Eye of Wrath. Too bad he missed one, and the Brother-Captain with a hood cut him in half with a Nemesis Force Weapon. I did manage to clear his troops off the objective, and had a Wave Serpent in position to score, except...the Brother-Captain blew it up, and the Avengers promptly pinned themselves when they spilled out the back.

Thoughts on Guard
...I hate the Manticore. It cranks out a LOT of pie. Saving Grace is that it gets four shots.

Immobilized results when Russ squads move through terrain are highly amusing when it's not your tank killing itself.

Hull Heavy Flamers on guard tanks are priceless when you need to defend yourself. My Warp Spiders survived a bit longer because of that. Infantry WILL get to your lines.

Move Move Move! cost me the game, in part, because a couple Vet squads got a guaranteed 6" run off it. Highly annoying.

the Brother-Captain is an interesting choice for the psychic hood. Cheaper, gives you a gun worth shooting and a slight surprise in assault, but is just one wound.

Versus Chaos on Foot
Xardian's army. A sorcerer w/ wings. A 10-man plague marine squad w/ fist and plasma; 3 12-man CSM squads w/ Fist, Chaos Glory (1 w/ 2x flamers, 2 w/ 2x melta). 10-man Fist/Lascannon/GLory babysitters. Daemons, and 2 4-man termie squads (3x combi-plas, one fist/heavy flamer). Havocs w/ 2x autocannons, 2x missile.

Table Quarters, Kill Points.

In the end, I won 3-2. He killed a unit of Fire Dragons and the Warp Spiders; I killed both Termie Squads and one of the units. He immobilized a Wave Serpent and a Falcon, but didn't finish 'em off.

I owe him a cookie, though, for trying a ballzy deep strike and not killing the termies. apparently the cookie strategem. They did immobilize a Wave Seprent, but out of the line of fire of the Havocs.

Yriel and the dead Fire Dragons get the cookie of honor. The Fire Dragons that survived the game hit the nearby termies 6 times...and killed three of them with some fierce 1's on the shooting. Yriel proceeded to move over and stab that last one in the face. Yriel proceeded to wander over to a nearby CSM squad, assault, and kill them all with the Eye of Wrath. Then he dodged lascannon fire.

The other Fire Dragons went down swinging. They claimed 3 termies with shooting, and killed the last one in assault. Apparently one of them got pissed off and slammed a meltabomb into the Termie's face. They then dropped a handful of Plague Marines.

I would've splatted the Plague Marines if they hadn't made so many #$*#ing cover saves. They apparently learned to dodge krak missile, pulse lasers, and bright lances.

Oh, and the Warp Spiders? Came in turn 2, forced a lot of wounds on the Havocs...didn't drop any heavy weapons. They proceeded to get caught in assault by Daemons and the HQ, pass a ld6 test, and then flub their hit 'n' run. Good job, guys.

On Chaos
I think when Xardian moves it over to two havoc squads, it'll be nastier. The problem his army has is range; the Havocs are it and the Termies tend to get splatted after getting one volley off.

On the Warp Spiders
Acetone and E-bay it is. Against infantry, they're not bad. They can dump scads of wounds onto them, and then get into melee.

Against vehicles, though? AP- is a big problem. S6 is decent enough vs. AV10-11, but in two rounds of shooting against the rear of a Chimera they managed to stun and shake it several times, knock off the multi-laser and immobilize it.

They would've died in game 1 had Jon chosen to fire on them much, or advance and torch 'em if he'd had hull heavy flamers on them in lieu of heavy bolters.

I want to like them; I really do. They just don't do enough for me.

New Thoughts on Mech Eldar

Based on comments from Dverning (Fellow should join our 40k blogging...interesting constructive feedback is always a win) here's a thought on what I guess I could call Mech Eldar v3.

Since we're hitting up on my version numbers, I suppose I'll split up the nomenclature and say it goes something like this...

V1.x
Based off Stelek's ideas; Seer Council, triple mounted Avengers in Serpents, mounted Fire Dragons, Fire Prism

V2.x
V1, minus the Seer Council

And, Mech Eldar V3

HQ
Autarch
Fusion Gun, Power Weapon, Banshee Mask
93 points

Farseer
Doom, Guide, Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Jet Bike
175

Seer Council
6 Warlocks on Jetbikes
4 Destructor
Embolden
Enhance
330

Elites
8 Fire Dragons
Exarch w/ Dragon's Breath heavy flamer
140
Wave Serpent
Twin-linked shuriken cannon
Spirit Stones
110

8 Fire Dragons
Exarch w/ Dragon's Breath heavy flamer
140
Wave Serpent
Twin-linked shuriken cannon
Spirit Stones
110

Troops
5 Dire Avengers
60

5 Dire Avengers
60

5 Dire Avengers
60

Heavy Support
Falcon Grav Tank
Pulse Laser, Bright Lance, Spirit Stones, Holo-fields
190

Falcon Grav Tank
Pulse Laser, Bright Lance, Spirit Stones, Holo-fields
190

Falcon Grav Tank
Pulse Laser, Bright Lance, Spirit Stones, Holo-fields
190

Total: 1948

Strategy
Falcons stay at range and on objectives, and throw S8 fire down the field. They try not to explode.

Dire Avengers ride in the Falcons and make them scoring.

Fire Dragons ride in the stripped-down Wave Serpents, and attempt to blow stuff up. If it's a power armor squad, it's a tough nut to crack, but if it's not? Doom + Heavy Flamers = BBQ on most everything, since against most Xenos or guard-equivalent S5, AP4, No Cover Saves translates to 'dies on a 2.'

Autarch rolls with one of the Fire Dragon squads to add another meltagun, and he gives the army some deployment options based on what I face.

The Seer Council...provides psychic support, and a smashy unit. Failing that, it delivers lots of heavy flamers, or the dice hate me and I lose 500 points without it making much of an impact.

Army Pros
Compared to my previous mech-dar builds, the Fire Dragons are more versatile and deadly.

The Falcons are theoretically much more durable against a smaller volume of fire.

Deployment options via the Autarch.

A Seer Council IS its own pro.

Army Cons
The anti-tank is a bit more limited. Two BS3 bright lances as opposed to three BS3 twin-linked lances. The anti-tank is much more focused into the Fire Dragons.

The Fire Dragons have a lot of weight to pull. They're half of my anti-infantry and the bulk of the anti-tank in the army as it is. The Falcons can contribute some lighter anti-tank fire.

Fewer wave serpents.

More Falcons. Falcons rely heavily on holo-fields to not die.

Troops are heavily reliant on the Falcons not blowing up.

Gut says...
Should be interesting. I need to finally FINISH the Seer Council (the Farseer is getting painted again, finally...) and I just finished the 12 Fire Dragons...if this goes off, it's time to get four more Fire Dragons. Or think about it.

Eldar Grav Tank Primer

Identifying Eldar Grav Tanks
This post is intended to acquaint you with the vagaries of the Eldar Grav Tank force. There are three types of Eldar Grav tanks: the Falcon (top left), the Wave Serpent (top right), and the Fire Prism (bottom).

Common Features of Eldar Grav Tanks
The grav tanks share some degree of common ground with each other.

Unit Type
All three are Fast Skimmer Tanks. This means they can move 6" and fire everything, or move 12" and fire one main + all defensive weapons. They may move flat-out at 18-24" and gain a 4+ cover save. They may also move over terrain with impunity. Finally, they may tank-shock and ram, as they are tanks.

Armor
All three grav tank chassis have an armor profile of 12/12/10.

Basic Chassis
All three kits are built along the same lines; a Wave Serpent chassis is just a falcon/fire prism body with an extended butt, energy field gubbins, and a smaller turret. The chief difference between a fire prism and a falcon is that the prism has a (gasp! Shock!) giant prism stuck on the turret where a Falcon has a slender gun.

Chin Gun Options
All three tanks have a twin-linked shuriken catapult (12", Assault 2, S4 AP5) mounted under the cockpit, and they may spend 10 points to upgrade it to a shuriken cannon (24", Assault 3, S6, AP5).

Differences
Obviously, something sets each tank apart in the field. The Wave Serpent is a high-capacity transport with nasty defensive upgrades and the capability to mount accurate weaponry. The Falcon dumps the defensive upgrade and downsizes the carrying capacity in order to mount two heavy weapons. The Fire Prism has no carrying capacity, and instead packs a versatile long-range gun.

The Wave Serpent
The only way to take a Wave Serpent is as a designated transport, though just about any Eldar unit CAN take one unless it's jump infantry or mounted on jetbikes. Of course, you don't have to use the folks that called for it in the thing.

Carrying Capacity
The Wave Serpent can carry 12 models, or 5 Wraithguard + 2 characters. It has a single ramp on the back.

The Energy Field
This is by far the most annoying thing a number of opponents face on the Wave Serpent. The energy field is a nasty, nasty piece of kit. Its 'cheese' is denying your opponent their 'cheese', as it were. The energy field covers the front and sides of the Wave Serpent, and has no effect against melee attacks.

Effects of the energy field:
-All incoming fire is capped at S8; so lascannons, rail guns, and venom cannons are reduced to S8
-No incoming fire ever rolls more than 1d6 penetration; meltaguns within half-range and ordnance still only get Strength + 1d6

As you can see, the energy field hampers a number of anti-armor properties of weapons. However, it's still on an AV12/12/10 tank. Additionally, it does nothing to autocannons; S7 shooting can be had in volumes sufficient to overwhelm the tank (IE: Lootas, massed Guard autocannon, even Havocs if you run into those).

Weaponry
The Wave Serpent must mount a single twin-linked weapon system in the turret, and it may exchange its twin-linked shuriken catapult for a shuriken cannon under the nose. The Wave Serpent is BS3. As such, each shot from the turret has a 75% chance to hit, and if you take the shuriken cannon on the nose, each shot has a 50% chance to hit.

Suggested Loadout
Wave Serpent, twin-linked bright lance, shuriken cannon upgrade = 145
This variant sits back and holds shooty troops.

Wave Serpent, Twin-linked shuriken cannon, Spirit Stones = 110
This model is solely for getting a target to a location. Splurge on a second shuriken cannon if you find the points.

The Logic of the Weapons Loadout
The Wave Serpent and Falcon have a turret hardpoint, and may fill it with a variety of weapons. The question that needs to be answered is why pick a given weapon for the hardpoint? In particular, many of you will note that the bright lance is an expensive piece of kit; it's 45 points.

Shuriken Cannon
10 points for three S6 shots out to 24". It's the cheapest option, but it's also the shortest-ranged option. If you're going for heaps of S6 shots, get a scatter laser.

However, as a chin gun, it means your tank has an extra weapon of consequence. Loss of the turret weapon certainly harms the tank, but if you still have an S6 gun, you can still dump wounds on most anything and you can still threaten lighter vehicles. As such, I find 10 points for the gun a small price to pay to keep my tanks relevant. Additionally, if they move 6", then they get more annoying shots. If your main weapon is anti-tank like a bright lance, you can score some more S6 hits on the tank, or potshot some infantry. For the versatility you get over the amazing twin-linked Shuriken Catapult, it's not a bad buy for 10 points.

Scatter Laser
Four S6 shots out to 36", albeit with a mighty AP of 6. If you had to choose between this and a shuriken cannon, you best find the points for this. It's capable of wounding monstrous creatures and threatening light armor, though of course AV12 and above just kind of laugh at it.

Eldar Missile Launcher
It's a measure of versatility: S8 AP3 krak missile, or S4, AP4 small blast, pinning plasma missile? You pick. The problem is that it's just one shot, and S8 is so-so at taking out tanks. It also has a solid range of 48".

Starcannon
S6, AP2, and two shots. It's got the AP you desire and the ability to negate Feel No Pain. However, there's plenty of cover, and you have fewer shots. Unless you absolutely need to negate FNP, then I'd take a Scatter Laser over this, since it's twice the shots at 36".

Bright Lance
It's invariably the most expensive gun you can slap on your tank, and it's only useful for splatting tanks and monstrous creatures. It's S8, AP2, and most importantly it's a Lance. The 'lance' special rule means that AV13 and AV14 count as AV12 to the Bright Lance, so it is capable of penetrating Predators, Soul Grinders, Land Raiders, and Leman Russes with the same ease it has against AV12, which is to say 50% of the time.

Why the Bright Lance on the Wave Serpent?
It's the most accurate place for a Bright Lance in your army; twin-linked BS3 hits 75% of the time. BS4 bright lances hit 66% of the time, and I suppose you COULD give a Wraithlord a twin-linked bright lance (and he'd also cost 170 points...) but I wouldn't do it. Still, Wraithlords can mount BS4 heavy weapons, but they're another matter in building.

Additionally, at range, it's one of your two ways of really killing heavier tanks with Grav Tanks.. The Fire Prism is the other. Otherwise, your army has to bring Fire Dragons to reliably drop armor, and their fusion guns are considerably shorter-ranged. Note that I equate 'reliable armor killing' with 'AP1 hits' and will always do so.

The Falcon
The Falcon is a mixed-role tank. It has a carrying capacity of six infantry, and cannot carry Wraithlords. It is also solely a Heavy Support choice. The Falcon effectively trades carrying capacity and the energy field for more guns.

Arming the Falcon
The Falcon's 'special' gun is the Pulse Laser. It is an S8, AP2, Heavy 2 gun. It's effectively a two-shot krak missile launcher; technically it's derived from a Bright Lance but they traded the Lance option for an extra shot.

You'll want that extra shot, since the Falcon has an almighty BS of 3. If you've got Guide laying around, the Falcon certainly won't protest.

The Falcon must take a weapon from the same list I've gone over. Basically, the Falcon is more of a gunboat that wants Guide than anything else, though it can pull double-duty hiding a scoring unit with the holo-field.

S8 Gun-Falcon
Falcon w/ Pulse Laser, Eldar Missile Launcher, twin-linked shuriken catapult.
Cost: 135 points.
It sits in the back, gets Guide, and hunts medium-weight armor. It has a better volume of S8 fire than the Serpent, and I've foregone the Shuriken Cannon here to save points. You can always put it back on in order to get another gun, but you've got a 48" standoff. Your call, as points dictate.

Dakka-Falcon
Pulse Laser, Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon
Cost: 140
It's the light show. Give it guide, watch stuff eat lead. It can do medium-weight armor (kind of), but will heap wounds on monstrous creatures and infantry. Downgrade the turret scatter laser to a shuriken cannon if you want to, to save yourself some points (...and a shot, and a foot of range.)

Dverning's Defensive Falcon
This is an idea I'm willing to test out, and I'll mention it here so you don't need to sift through comments.

Falcon, Holo-fields, spirit stones, Bright Lance = 190
It sits back, is annoying, and holds Dire Avengers to be scoring. Five Avengers as troops cost 60 points, so the Score-Falcon really costs you 250, a troops slot and a heavy support slot. I suppose it's comparable in tactical role to a standard Land Raider with a troops unit inside.

Score-Falcon
Pulse laser, scatter laser, shuriken cannon, holo-fields
Cost: 175
It sits in the back, holds a minimal Dire Avenger unit, recieves Guide, and generally tries to shoot things to death. If possible, it grabs cover and Fortune as well.

But wait, you're forgetting defensive options!
It's true, there are other options that the tanks can take. I tend not to take them.

Spirit Stones
10 points to turn 'stunned' results to 'shaken.' I would take this more if there wasn't a 1/6 chance of being 'stunned' on both a glance (shaken on a result of 1-3, thanks to the glance's -2; stunned on a 4) and a penetrating hit (stunned on a '2' only).

You just won't get a lot of mileage out of this upgrade. You'll be annoyed when it happens, but it doesn't happen that often.

Star Engines
The tank may move 12" in the shooting phase in lieu of shooting. They cost 15 points. It's not necessarily a BAD upgrade, but it's more a question of how often you'll need 36" instead of 24". There are some guys who like 'em and use 'em, but I've usually done fine without them.

One use could be last-minute objective grabs, but the problem with last-minute grabs is that you don't always know if it's the last minute or not: random game length means that sometimes, it's safe to run that transport up on an objective near meltagunners (or in the line of fire of some nasty anti-tank) if you had second turn, and sometimes...it'll cost you.

The other option is if you want REALLY rapid re-deployment. I'm not much acquainted with the need for it, but I'll concede that it's possible.

Vectored Engines
If you moved flat-out and would die from an immobilized result, the vehicle instead is immobilized. This is a 20pt upgrade. It will protect you 1/6 of the time against penetrating hits and 1/6 of glances when moving fast. You DO have a 50/50 shot of biting it on a penetrating hit when moving flat-out, as you're immobilized on a 4 (which destroys you in that case) and just plain killed on a 5 or 6.

Bottom line? It benefits you 1/6 of the time in a certain situation. I don't think I'd take it.

Holo-Fields
This piece of kit LOOKS sick. It's 35 points, but it forces the enemy to roll two dice on the damage table and take the lower one.

To be honest, this kit was a lot cooler back in 4th when Eldar tanks carried Spirit Stones and always moved 12" and could only be glanced; it pretty much guaranteed that any Eldar tank would only ever get glanced. There are horror stories of a Falcon rolling up to an Imperial army gunline, taking all their gunfire, and losing a gun and being shaken. It promptly crapped out Harlequins and ran way while the Harlies proceeded to maul the Imperials.

Now, in 5th? It's not as cool as it used to be. This fellow has a neat little table of 2d6 odds.

On a glance...a 1-3 is shaken, 4 is stunned, 5 is weapon-destroyed, 6 is immobilized.
That's normally a 50% chance to shake, and 16.67% chance of stun/weapon destroy/immobilized.

With the holo-field, glances look like...
75% chance of shaken.
13.8% chance of stun
8.3% chance of weapon loss
2.7% chance of immobilized.

So a holo-field means that most of the time a glance will be a 'shaken' result. If you're inclined to take Spirit Stones, then it means that 88.8% of glances are shaken results. Ok, you kept your tank moving most of the time for 45 points.

Let's say your tank is penetrated and didn't go flat out. There's a 33% chance you'll get killed (5-6 means wrecked or exploded), a 33% chance to get damaged (3-4 = weapon destroyed or immobilized) and a 33% chance to get annoyed (1-2 = shaken or stunned).

What does the holo-field do to that?

30.5% chance of getting shaken.
25% chance of getting stunned
19.4% chance of getting a weapon-destroyed result
13.8% chance of getting immobilized
8.3% chance of wrecking.
2.7% chance of exploding

So, you go from a 33% chance of dying to an 11% chance of dying on a pen. You've a 33.2% chance of getting damaged, and a 55.5% chance of getting annoyed.

Well...partially. Holo-fields are truly nasty against low volume-of-fire, non-AP1 shots. Autocannons can come in enough volume (IE: Lootas) to overwhelm your holo-fields. AP1 on holo-fields means you've got a 25% chance of killing the tank outright rather than 33%. It means there's a 72% chance of maiming up the tank (weapon destroyed/immobilized).

EDIT: I have to say that I've changed my mind on Holo-fields. They have their place on the falcon in some builds.

Final Thoughts on Vehicle Upgrades
The real reason I don't take a lot of the Eldar vehicle upgrades is what they do to the cost of a tank.

Consider the Wave Serpent. At 145 in the aforementioned twin-bright-lance + shuriken cannon build, it's a reasonably survivable tank. I can dump 10 points into Spirit Stones, 20 into vectored engines, and 25 into star engines to have a supremely mobile tank...and make it cost 200 points. Wave Serpents will never be 200 points of cool.

Consider the Falcon...I dump all four vehicle upgrades into it and it suddenly costs 200+ points.

Really...would you rather get a marginal quality increase, or take more vehicles? I'd rather get more vehicles. Spirit Stones and Vectored Engines only come into play 1/6 of the time. Star Engines....take 'em if you really want to sack some shooting and go 12" more, for when 24" a turn just isn't enough.

Take the fewest upgrades you really need. Spirit Stones and Vectored Engines can usually be left off the tank. Turbo Boost + Fortune = durability, and fortune on a seer isn't hard to wrangle. Star Engines...some people swear by them. I am not one of them. Know that you might not use them that often, but some like Fritz swear on them over their firstborn.


So, on to our final happy little tank...

The Fire Prism
You take a Fire Prism for one reason: the prism cannon. The tank can't carry any infantry, and can't take any additional guns, but it CAN take the chin-mounted shuriken cannon.

Amazingly, the Fire Prism is BS4. Someone learned to work the targeting controls, apparently...

The Prism Cannon
60" range, and two modes of fire. There's the Focused Shot, which is S9, AP2 on a small blast template. Then there's the Dispersed Shot, which is S5, AP4 on a large blast template.

The Focused Shot means you can go tank-hunting, though it's not AP1. It also means that if someone drops something like Terminators near you, well...you can drop this on them and make them cry if you hit. It's kind of painful...and amusing.

The Dispersed Shot lets you punish infantry in the open, and make them sweat a bit in cover. It's especially fun if your enemy has failed to spread out infantry, or if you spill them out of a transport into the 'group hug' formation.

Fire Prisms may also buddy up and shoot: they have some wonky contributing-fire rules. Essentially, if one Prism can see another, it can choose not to shoot its prism cannon to increase the strength and AP of a fellow Prism's shot (IE: Focused at S10 AP1, or Dispersed at S6 AP3).

In short, the Prism Canon gives the Fire Prism some solid versatility, and the 60" range means you can sit back and pop shots out of range of a lot of enemy anti-tank fire. Taking one keeps the other guy honest with infantry 'til he takes care of the Prism Cannon; taking two gives you redundancy and the ability to combine fire. Taking three makes you no friends.

Equipping the Fire Prism
There's really not a lot of rocket science to this. I highly recommend going with the underslung Shuriken Cannon so a single weapon-destroyed result doesn't render you irrelevant as a shooting threat, and at BS4 you might hit some shots. It makes the Fire Prism cost 125 points.

It must be noted that you do NOT want Holo-fields on the Fire Prism, since it makes it more likely that you'll lose your Prism Cannon. Ordinarily it's a 1/6 shot, but the 160pt holo-fielded Prism has a 19.4% chance of losing it. Plus, honestly, the strength of the Fire Prism is that it's cheap, long-ranged, and multi-purpose.

Grav Tanks in your builds
I've done a decent amount of tinkering and playing with mechanized Eldar, and found that they're in general a pretty solid build. I have to give a nod to Stelek for piquing my interest in 'em with some of his comments and notes; my original foray into the dreaded mech-dar involved a mutation of one of his lists.

Wave Serpents
You will be able to get Wave Serpents on your troops easily. Anyone but Rangers can be mounted in them. I bring twin-bright-lance serpents (with underslung shuriken cannons) loaded with Dire Avengers. Why?

Wave Serpents can threaten any armor on the field with their Bright Lances. Dire Avengers can do their work at 18", which means I don't have to get my serpents TOO close to the enemy. Furthermore, Wave Serpents can sit near objectives, and can be quite nasty to dislodge.

Additionally, you can screen your non-Serpents with Serpents to grant them cover saves. This doesn't work well against Vendettas or heavy weapons at height, but it is an option to consider vs. tanks and infantry on ground level floors.

Falcons (edit)
Falcons have their place in a full mech army. A Falcon with some gun upgrades, holo-fields and a 5-man Dire Avenger squad (and perhaps even a farseer) can sit in the backfield on/near an objective, absorb some fire, and claim/contest objectives in a pinch.

If you want a Score-Falcon, splurge on durability. Holo-fields are well worth it, and then go with either a missile launcher (if you want guided S8 fire) or Scatter Laser (if you want torrent) and the shuriken cannon. It runs you about 175, but these things can frustrate your opponent with Holo-Fields.

If you want Dakka-Falcons, keep 'em cheaper. A couple shuriken cannons, or a shuriken cannon and scatter laser provide you with plenty of gunfire and cost 130-140. Give 'em guide, and it's basically a Marine Predator with more strength and speed in lieu of BS and armor. (but, better flanks.)

Falcons could theoretically fight with Wave Serpents as Fire Dragon delivery systems. Both should get a fortuned cover save from the Farseer + Turbo Boost move, and then it's a question of AV12 Energy Field vs. AV12 Holo-Field. The Energy Field beats out melta, and I usually expect folks to bring melta. Thus, Falcons for me have become Score-Falcons.

Fire Prisms
Fire prisms are arguably the simplest tanks to use: sit back and slam something with a Prism Cannon. Hide when stunned.

When both weapons are blown off, ram someone. At range, a Fire Prism can easily crank out an S10 ram (+1 for tank, +2 for AV in the front above 10, and +1 for each full 3" you move, and you can easily move 21-24 inches...). It's highly amusing to pull off, but not necessarily what I'd chose to do with my tank. (Unless someone blows off the weapons.)

Eldar Grav Tanks in summary
All Eldar grav tanks are fast skimmers with armor 12/12/10.

Wave Serpents can carry accurate Bright Lances and infantry, and their Energy Field can be highly annoying to deal with.

Falcons can be optimized to hunt lighter armor and infantry. They compete with Wave Serpents as transports, and Wave Serpents beat them for getting close to melta weaponry. Alternatively, Falcons are better holding small troop squads and claiming/contesting objectives.

Fire Prisms can threaten anything on the field from a solid 60" away.

All grav tanks really kind of hate autocannons en masse.

Acknowledgements to Stelek, Dverning and King Elessar, as I must cite them as influences in my Eldar stuff in general. Edits in general

Mech Eldar V2s; Contemplating Changes

I've tweaked the layout a bit; if you're a regular (...I have those? A few, perhaps) then you're not actually going nuts.

I've been kicking around a change of pace for the Mech Eldar build. Mostly, I'm seeing that the Seer Council is a major cost, and while it's killy it folds under lots of fire.

As such, I'm kicking around other options. Dropping the Seer Council and the Farseer's jetbike nets me 360 points.

Then, the question is...what capabilities do I lose, and what capabilities should I add?

Losses
The army is now minus its one meaningful melee unit. No one else is going to take an assault; it's as simple as that. The army also loses its sledgehammer. I also lose my massed flamer templates, and in the Eldar army? We're kind of low on those.

Also, I'm out my psychic support. Then again, a Farseer in a Wave Serpent is potentially more survivable than a mounted one, since S6+ weapons can nuke them to death if they breach fortune.

So, ultimately, I lost my melee support and a beating stick. I gain 360 points to play with.

Capabilities and Units
Farseer
Obviously, I'm going to keep a Farseer in the list. However, without a Seer Council, there's not really a point in Fortune. Still, there's also no point in taking a Farseer with a single power. I'm going to keep Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, and Doom, of course. Now, the psychic powers I've got access to are Eldritch Storm, Mind War, and Guide.

Eldritch Storm and Mind War mean the Farseer has to dismount from the transport. I can take Guide, and use Guide on the Falcons, the Serpent-mounted Cannons, the Fire Prism....or, I can slap dismounted troops with it, such as they are.

Guide also is more difficult to use on tanks, as the Fire Prism is best served by sitting back at extreme range and popping off Prism Shots (or, in that one game, acting as a guided missile and ramming). The Falcons hang with the tanks until there's a reason to split them off and deliver Fire Dragons, and the Falcons are the big ones worth Guiding, since it's more S8 hits.

However, Doom + Storm in a dismounted squad means a lot of firepower in the unit. With Doom, assuming 6 hits on T4 enemies, that's another 2-3 wounds potentially. It's something, at least.

I think that I'll try Guide for starters, which means the Farseer runs me 135. At this points level, I can get Eldritch Storm or Mind War without changing the price.

Another HQ?
-Farseer #2
A second Farseer lets me buff a second tank, or doom a second unit. I'm a little dubious about the value of a second Doom cast. However, a second Farseer does give me some redundancy, since there happen to be psychic hoods out there and people who might kill a Farseer. (Funny story, people who play me start seeing the value of psychic hoods.)

-Prince Yriel of Iyanden
For 155, he's not a bad choice at all. Autarchs are normally 70 points, and really will never be that special in melee (4-5 S3 power weapon attacks. Woo. Big freakin' deal.). The real reason to bring any Autarch is for the +1 to reserves via Master Strategist.

Yriel has two major melee threats. There's the Spear of Twilight; a singing spear that ignores armor saves. In other words, Yriel has 4 base attacks at WS6, I7 that wound on 2+ and ignore armor saves. He also brings out the Eye of Wrath, which places the large blast template over him and all those under it eat an S6, AP3 blast.

This means Yriel can detach and go tackle a number of melee threats; he can probably beat down a monster that's been weakened, or detonate the Eye of Wrath and take out a squad of just about anything other than Terminators or Nob Bikers. He'd roll with some of the Avengers, likely.

-Phoenix Lord Fuegan
205 points. However, he's T4, 2+ armor, 3 wounds, and has Feel No Pain, so unless you brought power weapons he's in good shape. He has a BS7 Fire Pike (18" meltagun), and hits at S5 with the Fire Axe, rolling 2d6 for armor penetration. He also has Fleet of Foot.

I would attach him to one of the Fire Dragon units, naturally. He can drop out and nuke something by himself, or he can try to wade into a squad. If it's not a melee-oriented squad, Fuegan can probably beat 'em down.

-Rangers
I can drop an objective-sitting squad into the army. 8 of them run 152 points, and free up a mechanized squad to advance and fire. That's also about half of what I've freed up, and it's not very killy at all.

-Warp Spiders
In part, I'm sitting on a set of Warp Spiders and I'd like a chance to use them. The Spiders have the speed to generally keep up with the transports, and can screen behind them. Each spider cranks out a pair of S6, AP- shots. They can glance up vehicles, or drop a heap of wounds on lots of targets.

With an Exarch, the price goes up (Exarch + Power Blades + Dual Death Spinners + Withdraw = 42pt upgrade). However, the capabilities improve a bit. They can go into melee against non-melee units, and either polish them off, or hide for a turn and then use Withdraw to get out of there.

A 7-man squad with upgrades is 196.

-Vypers
A Vyper with scatter laser is 60 points. It's no Land Speeder, but I could bring a few squads for extra shooting power at range.

Mech Eldar v2, Option 1: Plus Rangers, Warp Spiders
HQ
Farseer
Runes of Warding, Guide, Doom, Spirit Stones
135

Elite
6 Fire Dragons
96

6 Fire Dragons
96

Troops
9 Dire Avengers
108
Wave Serpent w/ Twin-linked Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
135

10 Dire Avengers
120
Wave Serpent w/ Twin-linked Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
135

10 Dire Avengers
120
Wave Serpent w/ Twin-linked Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
135

8 Rangers
152

Fast Attack
8 Warp Spiders
Exarch w/ Powerblades, Dual Death Spinners, Withdraw
218

Heavy Support
Falcon w/ Eldar Missile Launcher
135

Falcon w/ Eldar Missile Launcher
135

Fire Prism w/ Shuriken Cannon
125

Total: 1845

Mech Eldar V2, Option 2: Yriel, Warp Spiders
HQ
Farseer
Runes of Warding, Guide, Doom, Spirit Stones
135

Prince Yriel of Iyanden
155

Elite
6 Fire Dragons
96

6 Fire Dragons
96

Troops
9 Dire Avengers
108
Wave Serpent w/ Twin-linked Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
135

10 Dire Avengers
120
Wave Serpent w/ Twin-linked Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
135

10 Dire Avengers
120
Wave Serpent w/ Twin-linked Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
135

Fast Attack
8 Warp Spiders
Exarch w/ Powerblades, Dual Death Spinners, Withdraw
218

Heavy Support
Falcon w/ Eldar Missile Launcher
135

Falcon w/ Eldar Missile Launcher
135

Fire Prism w/ Shuriken Cannon
125

Total: 1848

Mech Eldar v2, Option 3: Vypers
HQ
Farseer
Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Doom, Guide
135

Prince Yriel of Iyanden
155

Elites
6 Fire Dragons
96

6 Fire Dragons
96

Troops
9 Dire Avengers
108
Wave Serpent w/ twin-linked Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
135

9 Dire Avengers
108
Wave Serpent w/ twin-linked Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
135

9 Dire Avengers
108
Wave Serpent w/ twin-linked Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon
135

Fast Attack
Vyper Squadron
2 Vypers w/ Scatter Lasers
120

Vyper Squadron
2 Vypers w/ Scatter Lasers
120

Heavy Support
Falcon w/ Eldar Missile Launcher
135

Falcon w/ Eldar Missile Launcher
135

Fire Prism w/ Shuriken Cannon
125

Total: 1846
As a note, I could free up 20 points and give all the Vypers Shuriken Cannons as well.

Anyone got thoughts, feedback, notes on which seems the worst to face?

The common theme is that there's more S6 dakka. There's less melee support, but I'm thinking about Yriel more and more, and liking the idea.

Mech Eldar v1.3

This is the third iteration of the mech-dar list I've worked at.

HQ
Farseer
Jetbike
Spirit Stones
Runes of Warding
Doom
Fortune
175

Seer Council
6 Warlocks on Jetbikes
4 Destructor
Embolden
Enhance
330

Elites
6 Fire Dragons
96

6 Fire Dragons
96

Troops
10 Dire Avengers
120
Wave Serpent w/ Twin-linked bright lance, shuriken cannon
135

10 Dire Avengers
120
Wave Serpent w/ Twin-linked bright lance, shuriken cannon
135

9 Dire Avengers
108
Wave Serpent w/ Twin-linked bright lance, shuriken cannon
135

Heavy Support
Falcon
Eldar Missile Launcher
125

Falcon
Eldar Missile Launcher
125

Fire Prism w/ Shuriken Cannon
135

Total: 1845

Tweaks: dropped the Dire Avenger exarchs. There are too many times I've wished I had another volley after a bladestorm. 8 guys w/ Exarch crank out 14 BS4 and 4 BS5, or Storm for 21 BS4 and 5 BS5. Or, I can just crank out 20 shots two turns in a row, and once you look at it over multiple turns, I'd rather just slam two squads into the target.

Dropping the exarchs netted me ~50-60 points. I bumped two Avenger squads up to ten, the third to nine, and went to six Fire Dragons.

I'm still five under, after dumping 5 points into Embolden. Schmucklock is a Schmuck no longer, but he's still going to be the first one to bite it if my enemy is WS4 or better. If it's not, then Enhancelock is superflous, since his main role in life is to make me go first and hit on 3's.

On Fire Dragons...
For a dying species, they sure as hell crank out a LOT of Fire Dragons. I know that any time they get out of the transport (and they usually DO, because there's stuff I need nuked here and now...) they die. Simple as that.

They die at point-blank range, though there was one time they managed to pack it back in and would've bagged a Russ if the game had gone on...but still. I mean, come on, dying species, suicide troops? WTF, guys?

Victory at last!

Finally pulled out a win with the mech-dar, though it was due in part to terrain placement and enemy deployment.

Mech-Dar

Faseer (Bike, Runes of Warding, Doom, Fortune)

6-man Seer Council (4x Destructor, Enhance, Schmuck-lock)

3x 8-man DA squads w/ Bladestorm, twin shuriken catapult

3x Bright Lance/Shuriken Cannon Wave Serpents

2x 5 Fire Dragons

2x Falcons w/ Eldar Missile Launchers

Fire Prism w/ Shuriken Cannon

Mech Orks

Warboss (PK, the usual, and combi-skorcha?)

Big Mek (KFF, Burna)

2x 19-man Slugga Mobs

2x 12 Trukk Slugga Mobs

3x Lootas

2x Battlewagons

19 Grots (Wall of Grots)

30-man Shoota Boy Mob w/ PK Nob, 3x Rokkits

Scenario: Dawn of War

Objective: Annihilation

Final Score: 4-1, Eldar

Turn 1

Largely uneventful. He deploys his Grots centrally; I deploy my Seer Council in central cover. He comes in, and makes his one error: Wagons and Trukks over in the far left corner.

I go second. First thing I do? Flub the Fortune roll for the Seer council. They rabbit into cover, and I grav-tank castle up.

Please forgive the shoddy paint thing; I forgot the camera but want to add visual aids. Note that the big figure-eight blob in the lower right is actually fairly large; it's rocky terrain that is see-through in the middle. The square gubbins are buildings, all with some holes in the front and a second story suitable for sniping.

Legend:

G = Grots

L = Lootas

B = Battle Wagon

SB = Shoota Boyz

W = Wave Serpent

F = Falcon

P = Fire Prism

SC = Seer Council

End of Turn 1:

Ork Turn 2

Trukks advance. Lootas in the middle and far side open up. Trukks and Battlewagon advance.

Damage results: the falcon that covered the Seer council breathes a sigh of relief as Ork shooting is ineffectual. The Seer Council breathes a sigh of relief as the Falcon blocks them, AND doesn't die. He stuns one Wave Serpent.

Eldar Turn 2

Two wave serpents move up and unload Dire Avengers into Bladestorm position. Seer Council passed its fortune test, AND managed to be in range to doom the Shoota Boys. The Shoota Boys die to the Nob, despite the falcons moving up and adding in gunfire. Prism fire claims a single Loota off the far right squad. I have to do some fancy, cramped maneuvering in that little area, but it keeps most of my people safe. I have to kick my Dire Avengers out, then move the Serpents, then move the avengers into position, but it paid off by killing the Mob. Well, it didn't get the Nob; the Nob bosspoled himself to death trying to pass his lead check.

Score: Orks 0, Eldar 1

Ork Turn 3

The far left lootas managed to KO a Wave Serpent. Lootas on far right...blow away all of 3 Dire Avengers in one squad. They pass the resulting morale check. Trukks advance.

Sadly, he pops the wave serpent that still has people in it. Those Avengers fall out and promptly fail their pinning check.

Eldar Turn 3
A Bright Lance splats a trukk, which promptly careens 12 inches back. One squad of avengers reboard. Around turn 4-5, I stun up one Battlewagon and blast the other trukk, and he can never quite get his army to bear.

Game Summary:

From here, you can pretty much see how it goes. He spends the bulk of the rest of the game maneuvering after I crater his Lootas on the right flank. He will get a couple more Loota volleys off before the game ends on turn 5.

Final Score:

Eldar 4 (2 Trukks, Lootas, Shoota Boy mob)

Orks 1 (that wave serpent)

I immobilize one battlewagon, and he manages to knock the Prism Cannon off the Fire Prism.

Overall, it's a bit of me getting the right amount of aggression, his deployment error, and the terrain giving me the ability to deny shots.

There were NO assaults in the game. It lasted all of about 2 hours, including table setup.

As to why the terrain was so wonky? We placed the terrain, then rolled 2d6+scatter to see where it went. It's a refreshing break from the 'dice off, then try to screw each other' approach.

Overall

I feel I'm getting the hang of the army a bit more. I'm still waffling over 8 DA w/ Bladestorm Exarch vs 10 DA, but I think the Autarch is definitely a 'bring only in 2000' guy at this point.

It also hurt my opponent that he deployed the transports last; putting them over in the far left corner meant I more or less ran to the opposite end; if I can avoid his assaults, deny him some shooting and fight him piecemal I win.

I somehow suspect he's going to do his best to make the week after next nasty, since I'm stuck going out of town that Friday for a wedding. Yay. 'nother story, that.

What's Next?

Fighting new Guard this Tuesday.

Mech Eldar and Aggression, and also: Seer Council

More games under the belt, and more lessons. One vs. Sisters + Guard, one vs. Foot Chaos. The big lesson from the Sisters/Guard v. me is aggression: when the Fire Dragons are ending up 36+ inches from the enemy because I didn't close with them, I'm doing something wrong.

Aggression
It's something I haven't done as well. I've been caught up in the fact I can move 12" and pop off Bright Lance shots at 36", or a pulse laser/missile launcher rounds at 48". However, doing that and staying at range means I'm also not using the Dire Avengers (18" range) or the Fire Dragons (12" range, ideally 6" against armor).

Today's lesson was in part that 5 Fire Dragons > 2 falcons in terms of killing Oblits. Fire Dragons and a follow-up Bright Lance pasted a unit in a turn, whereas the whole army's long-range shooting isn't always sufficient.

It also helped (I mean, actually helped ) in a sense that my Falcons couldn't hit to save their skins. It means I really SHOULd rely on the meltaguns, and get the real damage in. Of course, that also means signing off on the Fire Dragons, but it DOES mean he has to deal with them: No one, in their right mind, is going to let me get a second drop 'n' melt out of the Dragons.

The same aggression goes for the Dire Avengers. At current, I've got them kitted out to 8 Avengers + Exarch (Bladestorm + Twin Shuriken Catapults). That's 4 BS5 shots and 14 BS4 shots, or 5 BS5 and 21 BS4 shots. Nice firepower, though for the points I could get up to 10 avengers, or 20 shots a turn. No real leadership difference. The only downside is financial, since I'd have to pick up another kit.

The big argument for going to 10 regular Avengers is surviving that second turn. I'm figuring out (with some help) that the proper use is putting 2-3 Avenger units into a unit a turn.

The Alpha Strike
If I can pull it off, and the army's got the speed, I should be able to take out 2-3 units a turn. Seer Council nukes one, the Dire Avengers and/or the Fire Dragons can do the damage. Add in some Doom support, and it should be able to work.

The Seer Council
I've been giving these guys lots of playtime, and lots of thought. I think I'm beginning to understand all too well their limitations, and they're most durable with Fortune and limited fire.

A slight no-brainer, but it goes in with that 'BE AGGRESSIVE' thing.

It also doesn't help when 9 bolt pistol shots result in 3 dead Seers.

Still, with the flamer templates (which I should ALWAYS use, because I can then back up if I break them out of assault range) and Witch Blades and WS5, I should be able to seriously dent a unit even without Doom. With Doom? I should nuke the shit out of them, unless they have power armor.

Still, I am pondering alternate uses for the point. They are about 500 points, including Farseer.

My problem? Melee in mech Eldar.

Anything else is coming in a Wave Serpent. That's 135, and has its issues with unit delivery. It has to get close and not move. Lucikly, the two melee units I'd think of bringing would be Fleet-capable, so they can get 2" + 6" + d6 + 6" assault range, but the measure is decieving because it's coming out of the back of a transport. I'd have to move it out of the way, or something.

So, the three options:

Striking Scorpions
16 a unit
27+ points for Exarch w/ S6 powerfist
Basic unit cranks out 3 WS4, S4 attacks at I5, and can pull off cover assaults with plasma grenades and move through cover (MtC for +5 points). 3+ armor saves.

So, about 200pts for 10 guys with a heap of regular attacks at I5. On the charge, that's 36 regular attacks, and 4 powerfist attacks (at WS5, at least). That means, against the average WS4, T4 melee opponent you're doing 9 wounds that allow armor saves, and gimping 2-3 with the powerfist.

Howling Banshees
16 a unit
+17 points to give leader an S5, two-handed power weapon
Each good for 2 base S3 power weapons. Have Fleet. Have the mask of 'always goes first.'

187 for a 10-woman squad. On the attack, that's 27 WS4, S3 power weapons, and 3 WS5, S5 power weapon attacks. That translates to two S5 hits and 14 S3 hits. That's 1-2 dead from the Executioner, and 4-5 dead from the Banshees.

Obviously, Banshees are good at taking down armor-dependent units. However, they need Doom to be a bit more competitive at nailing larger targets. With Doom, that's 2 dead from the Executioner, and 6-8 dead from the charge.

So, Banshees can nail down a weakened squad.

Harlequins
22 a head with Rending.
WS5, I6 base
Furious charge
3 base attacks (2 + extra CCW)
5+ invulnerable
Ignores cover saves, has plasma grenades.

A squad of ten Harlies is obviously pretty pricy. Cost-wise, we'd go down to 8 to keep it mostly on par with the others. 32 attacks, hit on 3's. 22 hits. Wound on 4+; so that's 7-8 wounds and about 3-4 dead to rending. With the full ten, it's 40 swings > 27 hits > 4.5 rends, 9 wounds

Harlies are the glassiest of all of them. However, they're probably better at KO'ing higher-toughness targets because of massed rendings.

Overall
I'd probably default to Wave Serpent Harlies. I'd then drop a squad of Rangers in lieu of the now-unhorsed Dire Avengers, since I have to give up a Wave Serpent. That frees up about 100ish or so points, all told.

However, none of them compare to the lethality of the 4 heavy flamers, and there's the issue of losing the transport.