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Taking on Eldar?


Wassa

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Hi all,

 

I have an upcoming 2vs2 1k points each (2k per side) game.

 

2 Astra Militarum vs Harlequins and Drukari.

 

 

 

I have never played against them before. How do they work? I hear Eldar have a -1 to hit penalty and a lot of quick attackers and fliers.

 

I mainly have Cadians and Catachans, what would be necessary to take with me?

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Burn them. Hellhounds and flamers don’t care about negative hit modifiers; only problem is you need to heavily invest in this strategy. If you have one or two they’ll just blow up the flamer sources or outrun them. Catachans synergize better with flamers than Cadians.

 

If you were playing CWE I’d recommend a psyker for deny, but with DE and Harlequins you may be ok without one.

 

The knife ears move very fast, in multiple phases. They tend to have strong magic, except the dark Eldar who have combat drugs and pain tables. These grant several different modifiers and benefits depending on which is taken and what turn it is.

 

Eldar shooting is typically devastating, with high volume and high strength capabilities, and poison weapons for dark Eldar. Generally drukhari and harlequin assaults are scarier than craftworld, unless the craftworld gears specifically for it.

 

In short, good luck. You’ll soon discover why Eldar of all types are hated throughout the galaxy.

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Just take nothing but bulgryns. You may not win but the enemy will spend the entire game running away.

 

The problem is that Eldar can kill you while running away.

 

You kill Eldar the same way you kill a fly that is constantly flying away. You don't try to target it directly. You nuke the whole district. A'ight, a bit overly exaggerated, but my point is that you can't deal with Eldar by doing precision strikes with high-value units. You need redundancy and extreme ranged firepower. We are talking Mortars, Basilisks and Manticores to kill hiding unit, Leman Russes to combard them from 72" away with Battle Cannons and so on. While Scions are alright at taking on hiding units, Eldar have the best Intercept in the game and your dudes will never get a shot off. My suggestion? Go classic. Battle Tanks, bit of Artillery, Mortars and infantry squads. The other guy can also bring a Baneblade variant or something with even more infantry, while you focus on the tanks. That might also work well.

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I know its a cliche but massed las guns actually really are good as eldar T3.

 

Meta of both Harlequins and Drukahri is fast but lightly armoured transports. They tend to get in face T1 and then drop troops T2. They have quiet small area however so can be surrounded at 1.5" away and nuked - if you get a kill transport disembark rules means the troops inside are auto-killed. Another reason why infantry squads good.

 

Hellhounds are current go to counter for -1 tstuff but be aware they are consequently number one target.

 

This is well worth a quick read - (guard v Drukhari) https://snbattlereports.com/2018/10/13/battle-report-drukhari-vs-death-korps-of-krieg/

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++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium - Astra Militarum) ++
 
Regimental Doctrine: Catachan
 
+ HQ +
 
Colonel 'Iron Hand' Straken: Lead From the Front, Warlord
 
Company Commander: Chainsword, Kurov's Aquila, Laspistol
 
+ Troops +
 
2x Infantry Squad
8x Guardsman, Plasma gun, Sergeant.
 

3x Infantry Squad
8x Guardsman, Flamer gun, Sergeant.
 
+ Elites +
 
Astropath: Laspistol, Nightshroud
 
Ministorum Priest: Chainsword, Laspistol
 
Sergeant Harker
 
+ Fast Attack +
 
Hellhounds
Hellhound: Heavy Flamer, Track guards, Turret-mounted Inferno Cannon
 
Scout Sentinels
Scout Sentinel: Heavy Flamer
 
+ Heavy Support +
 
Heavy Weapons Squad
3x Heavy Weapon Team: Mortar
 
Leman Russ Conqueror
Lascannon, Plasma Cannons, Turret-mounted Conqueror Battle Cannon
 
Manticore: Heavy Bolter

 

 


I think I may have too much anti infantry and not enough anti flier, but I don't have a hydra/wyvern.

 

Should I get rid of something and add more lascannons or autocannons?

 

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Ubik had a similar topic recently here, will be worth a read for a general approach :) The Harlequin and Dark varieties of pointy ears are basically glassier and hammier versions of bog standard Eldar. Against this, responding with more units for more redundancy and dice to throw isn't a bad starting point :tu:

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The manticore seems a bit tacked on, and if you’re using mortars you should really have more; they’re better in larger numbers and with order babysitting. I’d maybe consider swapping the manticore for another mortar squad. They’re not world breakers though so the choice is obviously up to you.

 

Flamers on the squads may be disappointing. Their range is so small and Eldar so fast you may never get worth out of them.

 

If you swap the manticore for the mortars and put in some heavier weapons into the current flamer infantry squads you may have better synergy. Hellhounds and flamer sentinels are more effective sources of ignoring modifiers than squad flamers because they can go out and get the enemy easier.

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So we played the Relic mission.

 

Harlequins were as expected, fast, -1 to hit the vehicles, but -1 to wound on the infantry.

 

However, the Drukari brought about 20 Grotesques and buffed them to a toughness of 6, with a 4++ save, 4 wounds each, and a secondary 6+ save per wound.

 

The harlequins quickly took out our artillery and vehicles, while the grotesques murdered us in close combat.

 

Flamers did surprisingly well, but we didn't have enough fire power to stop the grotesques.

 

 

We were down to about 20 men left by the end and they were mostly unscathed and they advanced very far into our zone.

We only had time for 3 rounds, but they had left the relic behind and advanced towards us.

Fortunately, a sneaky Move Move Move order meant be ended up with the relic at the end of the game so technically we won... but we would have been tabled in another turn.

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My friend won an ITC game by 1 pt with 71 pts on the table (vs more than 1000, including 2 knights) with a well-timed move move move. It’s golden.

 

Grots are tough. I might recommend Battle cannon tank commanders - they have pretty good chances even against flat -1 eldar army.

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I found that punishers work wonders against eldars, also the harlequins/drukhari transports are only T5 so even flashlights have a chance against them, also Mordia is good when overwatching against all those charges, throw grenadiers strat in for extra fun. Another thought is that since you can't match their quality bring quantity isntead, battalion after battalion of 60 guards

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