No.

However, a formation of 4 Shining Spears and 4 Dire Avengers only needs two Wave Serpents to stay mobile, reducing the cost of the formation by 100pt versus straight Avengers. This can be useful to keep from having multiple BTS formations, or to seperate the SC from the BTS.

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SG

Ghost's Paint Blog, where everything goes that isn't something else.

I think he was referring to just the exarchs in the wave serpent, so they can keep pace with the bikes, that way you only need to buy a single wave serpent rather than 4

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Just some guy

My hobby/painting threads

Army Forge List Co-ordinator

Yup. That's what I meant. It's the one thing that stands out to me about Shining Spears. That you can mechanize the formation on the cheap.

Morgan Vening

Spears and spiders are definitely my last choices for aspects
Spears as they are too specialised only being good against RA targets like russ+warhounds and too vulnerable being mounted
Spiders as they just don't have enough assault power. Aspects need to be able to wipe out/kill lots of the enemy in an assault as they will take casulaties back. 1 4+ attack each, even first strike, doesn't do enough damage.

Avengers. dragons, scorpions, reapers are my general picks as they do damage and aren't overly specialised.

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It has. The official FAQ is that the Dragon MW is on the weapon stat line, and therefore other weapons, i.e. the Exarch Weapon, do not benefit from the ability. That's not a "how it would be in a perfect universe" ruling. It's strictly rules-as-written.

EUK has ruled that they FD Dragons do gain the MW on the Exarch Weapon as well.

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The Eldar player I used to play against took Spears regularly, often with his Autarch in the formation.

They were his only CC formation. While specialized, they are much faster than any other CC options and can come through gates, which makes them much more likely to actually reach CC than other options. They have decent FF for supporting other formations' assaults and, of course the speed/FF combo for rolling assaults. While no one trait is tops for Aspect options, they are solid all around.

Overall, I found the Spears to be pretty effective. And, of course, if you happen to get them onto a prime target like Leman Russ, they are potentially devastating.


I find this a bit curious. Their strength is that they often don't take very many casualties in return. First strike limits the casualties the enemy can inflict and Spiders have one of the better aspect saves. Against a soft target 5 FS hits (with the exarch attacks) will make a dent in the enemy's ability to shoot at them. Ditto for a clipping assault.

The Spiders may not inflict as much total damage as Dire Avengers or Fire Dragons in an assault, but they still win. The target formation may have a better chance of coming back to be combat effective, but the Spiders stay strong as well.

Speaking of Aspect Warriors...

Is anyone remotely thinking about the new shadow aspect coming in the new FW Book? Looks nifty to me.

Here are the provisional stats fron this thread:

Eldar Shadow Spectre
Type Speed Armour CloseCombat Firefight
Infantry 25cm 5+ 6+ 5+
Weapon Range Firepower Notes
Prism rifles (15cm) Small Arms -
Ghostlight 45cm AT4+ Lance

Notes: Jumppacks, Invulnerable Save

As far as I know, this is far as the conversation got.

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SG

Ghost's Paint Blog, where everything goes that isn't something else.

Warp Spiders do most of their damage on the resolution roll and with careful positioning/ delivery can start 3 to 4 up. Against soft targets they're lethal, against hard targets (like LR or guardsmen in cover) they're still good but become less of a sure thing. They also have a very good threat range even once they've assaulted and consolidated, due to their infiltrate and FS on CC and FF, whereas Dire Avengers/ Striking Scorpions tend to be more of a one shot deal once they've been delivered.

Shining Spears are my favorite. The darned things are fast as a whip, crush reinforced armor, and do decent in a firefight as well. Get them all into BtB with a formation of primed Leman Russ (with a single Blast Marker) and you'll have even odds at an assault win. Add two exarchs and you'll likely take the day. There aren't too many formations out there that can do that, especially for 350 points.

They also gobble scout titans and sometimes larger ones.

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

The only ones I don't use, either mixed or pure, are Howling Banshees... yes, that's sad, but every other Aspect has a job I can give it and it can do it well...

Should I open Yet Another Howling Banshees thread?

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Last time I saw the Banshees in play, my opponent used them and I laughed at him as I removed the casulaties from the ones in contact with his exarch, depriving him of the exarch attacks.

Maybe the Exarches could get an upgrade overall? Dragons, Banshees, maybe Avengers?

I think we need to accept they're a casualty of the engage rules. With no distinction between vehicles and infantry in engage, there isn't a good way to represent heavy infantry hunters. They either become bad scorpions, like they currently are, or they become brutal tank hunters, which isn't background representative.

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SG

Ghost's Paint Blog, where everything goes that isn't something else.

Screw it, give 'em 4+MW. At least it'd give them a role, even if it isn't quite representative.

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http://www.troublemakergames.co.uk/
Epic: Hive Development Thread

Why not a special weapon rule?

"Power Weapons - (base contact) - MW against Infantry units only"

We Eldar do love special rules just for us

I guess we could revive the debate on Banshees. My recommendation would be to widen the debate by considering a wider set of potential solutions including

1. Revising their armour to 4+ (their agility and speed make them harder to hit)
2. Making their assault "Ignore cover" to lean them towards infantry targets
3. Possibly giving them Infiltrate
4. Perhaps revising their assault to make the Banshee mask First strike, EA +1 and revising the stats down slightly

That said however, SG is correct that they are highly specialised which by definition means that other formations will generally give better all-round value.