This
is part 2 of my look at the Eldar Craftworld Formations, for those of you who missed the first one click here. Its half review, half my opinion on them.
Aspect
Host
If you
like Aspect warriors, or want to use a couple of them in your army
there is no reason not to take an Aspect host. You need to take 3
units of aspect warriors in any combination. There is no restriction
on how many people you have in a unit but each unit must take an
exarch. The benefits of this formation are that you can choose +1 BS
or +1 WS and each model in the formation gets this benefit, also each
model can re-roll failed moral, pinning and fear tests.
Every
aspect warrior can benefit from this formation, but the obvious ones
are the shooting aspects. While +1 WS is great, you will use +1 BS
far more often. With each warriors hitting on 2+ with shooting they
will just move down what ever they shoot at. Personally I believe
that fire dragons and warp spiders are likely to gain a great
advantage from this. As fire dragons can explode vehicles with ease,
the 2+ to hit will mean they can strip hull points off a super heavy
with ease. Warp spiders as well will wound most people on a 2+ or 3+
so the number of hits will help kill a unit.
Now as
the only restriction is you must take an exarch, that means they can
take a wave serpent transport to help out those warriors get to where
they need to go. I am not sure, but if you take a wave serpent as a
transport they should also gain the benefit of +1BS if you choose
that, as the rules states all units, not all aspect warriors. This
makes the wave serpents shield a lot better as it almost grantees you
will hit with all shots when you eventually pop it. Personally I
wouldn't play it that was as its defiantly not how this formation is
meant to work. I'm surprised that their isn't a restriction saying
they can't take transports. But if you want to play it that way, I
can't argue.
Either
way this is a great formation and suggest you try it at least once.
Dire
Avenger Shrine
This is a
more specific version of the Aspect host, where you have to take 3
units of Dire avengers, and one unit must take an exarch. The
benefits from this are +1 BS, re-rolling the same tests as before and
once per game all the units can make their weapons assault 3 for a
turn. So this is another solid choice if you need some effective
anti-infantry shooting.
Again
they can take wave serpents so that they can be given protection so
they don't die before they can use their killing strike ability to
kill a unit. And again you can argue that the serpents will gain +1
BS as this formation has a different wording, instead of 'units' it
states that each model which will include the wave serpent how ever
you argue it.
While I
don't believe this is as useful as an Aspect host I can see its uses,
and from a fluff perspective it could be really cool to have in an
army. If they all had objective secured like if they had been taken
as a CAD it would be amazing, but then if they did there would be no
point taking a CAD now would there.
Crimson
Death
A
formation of 3 Crimson hunters, and 1 must be an exarch. Do you ever
feel that you don't have enough anti-air? Well this is the formation
for you. Each hunter Is separate, no no worries about having a large
single unit. The benefits for taking this are preferred enemy
(flyers, flying monstrous creatures) meaning that you will very
likely hit and wound everything. With the regular hunters you will
only miss on a roll of a 2, and the exarch will re-roll all of his
misses. As they already re-roll failed armour penetrating results on
flyers, they now can re-roll failed to wounds of 1 vs flying
monstrous creatures. Most of the time this will mean all of your
failed to wounds as their weapons are strength 8 vs most t 6 flying
creatures. Unless you take star cannons on the exarch, in which case
it still helps.
Now
that's not all you get, in addition, all the models gain a 4+ cover
save as standard. If you then decide to jink with a crimson hunter
you can re-roll failed cover saves. This gives this glass canon some
form of survivability which they have desperately needed since the
last codex when they were introduced.
I think
this formation is very good, but still a lot of points to put into 3
fliers. If your local meta has an issue with many fliers this is a
great way to deal with them, but if not, half of the special rules
are wasted. They still become more survivable, but if your not
fighting flying models you might as well just put the points else
where.
Wraith
host
This is
the formation that I have heard a lot of people complaining about,
and with good reason really, but mainly when its part of a warhost
(more on that next). You need to take a spiritseer, wraithlord,
wraithknight and 3 units of wraithguard/blades in any combo. This is
all very expensive so in games 1500 points you wont have much else.
However the benefits they gain are rather good.
The big
down side of wraith units are rather slow, but not any more, now they
gain Battle Focus. Also with no restrictions they can take transports
to help with getting the D where it needs to be. A second special
rules is that all of your wraith units (it specifies which, so no
wave serpent shenanigans) gets to re-roll failed to Hit rolls against
enemy units within 18 of the spiritseer. So effectively if he is at
the front all your D weapons are twin-linked, while still gaining a
benefit in close combat.
So what
does this all let you do? Take a wave serpent for your wraithguard,
move 6, disembark 6, run up to 6, then use your 12 inch D weapons
(with a re-roll to hit) to alpha strike what ever the hell you want.
Wraith units shouldn't be that fast! If you take it take more wraith
blade units, this is a lot more fair. Wraithlord really need this
formation to be more useful, as otherwise they are rather slow,
battle focus really helps them keep up.
I have
played again this formation (battle report next week) and it really
depends on what kind of army composition you have as to how
devastating this formation is to face. Using mostly infantry in my
force, it meant that this formation was faster than usual but nothing
really happened which I would call unfair. However a friend of mine
faced the same list with a dread mob and got annihilated in two
turns, as the D weapon got into position turn 1 and just stripped
hull points like it was going out of fashion.
I am a
little divided on this formation as it all depends on what you are
facing with it. Personally I would talk to your opponent before
taking it in friendly games, but knock yourself out in competitive
environments.
Craftworld
Warhost
While not
strictly a formation and more of a detachment, it is for all intents
and purposes built up from formations, so I though I would add it in
here. While I'm sure most of you know about this from the rumours
from before the codex came out, I will go over it still.
To build
a Craftworld Warhost, you need to take a Guardian host as a core
element (see the previous article on formations for these) which will
allow you to take up to 3 command elements and 1 to 12 auxiliary. The
command sections are either special characters, the avatar, or a seer
council. The auxiliary are the other formations, a unit of rangers, a
wraith construct (lord, knight, fighter) or an engine of vaul
(tanks).
By
selecting your force this way you gain the command benefit Matchless
Agility, which allows a unit to count as rolling a 6 for its run
roll. So every one runs 6 inches every turn... because that's needed
you see.
As you
will have noticed in my last article on formation I didn't rate the
guardian hosts, and said you would likely only take them if you were
using this warhost, which I stick with, but it does make the
battlehost and storm host a lot better with an instant run of 6.
Another thing which greatly benefits from this auto run of 6 is the
wraithhost who as discussed before become very fast and deadly when
you KNOW you will be moving 12 inches a turn before you shoot, or if
you want to get 6 away after you have. This benefit will still help
the other formations but not as much, as the Aspect Warriors
generally have the range to shoot and the combat ones have their own
little tricks to get into combat.
The
crimson death, windrider host and other vehicle formations have no
benefit from this but still the army on a whole will be dangerous.
And you still get all of the special rules of the other formations
anyway, so you have a lot of special rules to keep track of.
This is
very powerful but still the guardians tax is quite high. But it does
allow you to just take the guardian host then 12 wraithknights if you
are so inclined (aka a douchbag). But it does give you interesting
options when creating your force.
For fun,
you could have Jain Zar as your warlord, add her to a unit of
banshees and with Matchless Agility have her and a banshee unit move
6 then run 12. a good old 18 inch move from a foot slogging unit.
They will need to get into cover or get blown off the table, but its
a fun little thing to do.
Over all
with all of the formations I have gone over, like the rest of the
Craftworld book, it does have some rather power full options, and if
you are going to go to a tournament knock your self out. The way the
other books have come out recently (skitarii, knights) you will
likely need all your dirty tricks to win. But if you are just having
a friendly game against your friends or just some guy at the club,
don't be a dick, your both playing for fun remember. If your list if
fluffy, then great, if your taking some of these things to power
game... not cool, not cool at all.
That Dire Avenger formation sounds fun as hell, though redundant when combined with the guardian hosts. I wonder how many eldar players will now be looking for three flyers in almost every list.
ReplyDeleteNice read.
ReplyDeleteJust a note the Dire shrine says "may" only take one Exarch