kyussinchains wrote:
I think the problem with the list is that if you want the eldar trickery like the double-retain and avatar, you need to bring the quite expensive guardian formation for the farseer, if you want a supreme commander, it's a minimum of 475 points.....
This is my beef with the list - it essentially forces you to take lots of stuff you wouldn't otherwise necessarily take, which aren't "core" to the spirit of the list. I mean force not literally of course, but...
- Supreme commander is very important to eldar, you need an autarch which means you need aspects. They have to be mounted, so bam, 475 points, and it's your BTS...
- If you want the free Avatar, you need guardians. They're not allowed to be on foot, so bam, 325 points.
- All of a sudden you have two fair engagement formations. You might want that anyway, but you didn't get much choice in the matter.
- You need AA, and support slots, and falcons are more expensive here, so bam 600 points
- Obviously EoVs are mandatory - that's OK, it's a tank list - but bam, another 425 points
- Now you've spent 1825 points and your average activation cost is 365 points. It's impossible to hit 12 activations because the list has lost the cheap activations from BT, i.e. rangers. To hit 11 you are forced to spend the rest on the cheap night spinners or warp hunters, maybe 1x hornets or vypers. If you do this you give up the ability to hit the deployment zone. If you want to be able to hit deployment zone you need bombers (300) or a gate (100 non-activating points) and storm serpents, which brings you down to 10 activations.
It's really hard to have freedom to build a list unless you give up something really major, like the SC (in an all-2+ army) or the eldar special rules and avatar. It just feels a bit unfair compared to the other lists, which have good tradeoffs and don't have to give up so much.
With a few tweaks we could completely change the list selection and make it a lot nicer, like:
- move the SC into the EoV
- allow a slightly cheaper guardian formation (e.g. without the falcons)
- give access to the singleton EoV
Of course other tweaks are possible too, like what about a 4-unit spinner formation? Or 2-unit bombers? Or adding fire prisms to falcon hosts? Hornets as upgrades for vypers - maybe in a 5-strong formation for 175 with replacements costing 25 points for 2 or 50 points for 5?