Starting Eldar Knight army

[Mainman_99]

So Im waiting for the 3 Asuryani Bladehost I got myself for Christmas. The plan is to build a 2K army with 3 Wraith-Knights but I dont know what to with the rest of the points. sugestions?

[Brother Tyler]

Are you building around a particular theme, or are you building for competitiveness (not that the Asuryani have a problem being competitive)? Are you limited by models/units currently on hand?

[Karhedron]

You will probably need some Troops firstly. The CA 2018 missions emphasize the importance of Troop units as scoring is done at the end of each battle round rather than the end of the game. You will need Troops on Objectives early on and you will need to find ways to keep them alive there. You will also need the CPs you get from a Battalion as Eldar need CPs to feed their hungry stratagems.

 

All the Troop options in the Codex have some value. Guardians are cheap bodies (particularly the storm variant) but are rather weedy. 20 Guardians with shurican catapults emerging from the Webway and benefiting from Guide and Doom can lay down a great deal of hurt on anything T7 or below. Rangers are cheap and sneaky. Their ability to deploy outside your deployment zone (or from T2 onwards if you are playing the Beta Reserves rules) makes them very flexible. Don't expect wonders from their guns but they are reasonably resilient against shooting, especially if you take the Alaitoc Craftworld Trait. Dire Avengers are the closest we get to tactically flexible Troops but are still basically improved Guardians. I usually run 2 squads, often with 1 in a Wave Serpent.

 

You will also need 2 or 3 HQs for a Battalion. I love the combo of Farseer and Autarch for cheaply buffing my units. With 3 Wraithknights, you could either add a Spiritseer or get a 2nd Farseer and dedicate him to buffing the Wraithknights with Fortune. Jetbikes are a worthwhile upgrade for all these characters. You can only cast crucial powers like Guide once per turn so an Autarch hiding just behind your Wraithknights to give them rerolls of all 1s to-Hit is really powerful. Path of Command is also a handy ability for recycling CPs and usually kicks in once or twice per game.

 

Wraithknights are powerful but you will likely need some extra firpower. Dark Reapers and Fire Prisms are some of the best shooty units in our arsenal. I normally run 1 squad of Reapers and 2 Prisms (to make use of the Linked Fire stratagem). Reapers are useful for ignoring all the to-Hit modifiers cluttering up the meta while Fire prisms provide flexible long-ranged firepower and will often be ignored if your opponents are panicking about the Wraithknights barrelling towards their lines.

 

Melee is not an area where Eldar are particularly strong in this edition. Banshees, Scorpions, Wraithblades and Shining Spears all have some value but tend to need a lot of support to get the mileage out of. Your Wraithknights will probably cover most of your melee needs by stomping on the enemy.

 

Our flyers are very good and either the Hemlock or Crimson Hunter Exarch are well worth a look if you have any points left. The Hemlock also provides a little extra psychic muscle.

 

The 3 Wraithknights will probably weigh in a little over 1200 points. Once you have added HQs, Troops and Heavies, I don't imagine you will have many points left.

[Spiritual Liege]

I have been brewing the same kibd of list but with 4 Knights and a cheap battalion with some Farseers. I would run one with the melee loadout, and the rest with weaithcannons or suncannons. The Farseer would cast fortune on the sword Knight and he would run straight up the field, causing havoc among the enemy lines and probably drawing so much fire he would die. The Rangers would camp objectives, and the shooty Knights would sit back and fire with some HQ support.

[Karhedron]

I would actually recommend using the Suncannon Knight to follow up the Sword Knight. He still has a 5++ against both shooting and assault and 90% of the time, it will be the Titanic feet doing the damage. Only T8 targets benefit from being sliced rather than stomped. Against T7 and below, the triple attacks from the feet will deal more damage than the sword, even taking into account AP and damage output. Use the Suncannon knight as a slightly less choppy version of the sword Knight with a bonus shooting attack. Only the Wraithcannon Knight should hang back and snipe at targets (preferably with the Alatitoc trait and behind some cover).

[Spiritual Liege]

Fair enough. I wish the sword was better than it currently is, it just looks so much cooler than the rest of the options.

[Marshal Wolfhart]

I think what we would need is a kind of slice attack for the sword, similar to what imperial Armiger Warglaives get. The Sword should be better at dealing with both kinds of threats in melee than the feet, small and large. Say an extra attack over the stomp, or maybe d6 to make it dicey. If you face Knights a lot the sword is golden though.

[Karhedron]

I see your point but Armigers get the Slash attack because their feet do not get a stomp attack. Giving the Glaive such a rule would be redundant as it would just duplicate the WK's feet attacks. I agree that a Glaive is worth having to help deal with enemy Knights. I would rather see the Glaive given some sort of boost since it is already a marginal weapon. Rerolls to hit or an extra attack would be nice.

[Slasher956]

Going off fluff... either give it a re-roll 1s to hit (cant be all to hits as it would then get better the more damaged the WK) or give it re-roll 1s to wound / failed wounds against Titanic units

[Brother Tyler]

The discussion about improving the Wraithknight should be taken to a different discussion, probably starting a new discussion specifically for that purpose (since I don't recall it being discussed previously).

 

This discussion should remain focused on helping Mainman_99 with starting an Asuryani army.