Hello EA fans out there! I've been watching this site now for about 3 months and I've decided to sign up and start gabbing...or at least try.

This question is for all you Eldar vets out there. Now I know the importance of BM on formations, but is the Void Spinner really the end-all-be-all of SH Tanks for the Eldar? What's not to like about the Scorpion? Wouldn't it be more devastating to your opponent to wipe out units and put blast markers on him/her as opposed to just blast markers? I'd like to think the Scorpion could put a little more hurt on my opponent through attrition rather than psychology. Maybe I'm wrong...

Oh and as for my experience in EA, I haven't played since the release of Epic 40K, but I have played a couple games as of late (all losses, but awesome anyway) and the Eldar are new to me. I like challenges and I've been away from EPIC waaaaaaay too long!

The Scorpion is a fine choice. It's just on a downswing at the moment in terms of the normal up and down of popularity. 2x2+MW, 60cm range on a popup, 3DC war engine that moves 25cm is a pretty darn sweet "shoot and scoot" formation.

And the Void Spinner is only available to Biel-Tan craftworld lists.
So, the Scorpion is still a interesting option.

I think the Scorpion's quite good, not at all underpowered, but it's overshadowed by the Void Spinner which is very good.

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Agree with Rug.

Of the 4 super heavys available to the Eldar the Scorpion is bottom of the pile. It simply just doesn't offer anything that can't be found elsewhere in the list wheras the other 3 can. Cobras are a mean little fm, full of BP TK goodness and come with limited AA, Void spinners are artillery and disrupt goodness and the Storm serpent is a portable webway portal and an annoying anti-tank/objective grabber in it's own right.

For the same cost as a Scorpion, you can get either a Falcon fm, or fireprisms both of which are faster and come with Decent AA, as well as a roughly equivelant amount of firepower to the Scorpion.

25cm + 60cm is longer than 35+40 on a normal move or hit-and-run double, and it's equal on a straight-line double. The Falcons arguably have an advantage for positioning for pop-ups or moving to get LoS around cover, but on the whole it balances out in terms of viable target selection.


Also applicable to the Falcons you compare it to.


That's not the preferred target for Scorpions, so there is a certain amount of cherry-picking in this comparison. The best thing for Scorpions to attack is high-value, non-RA units. As far as volume, they should select targets so they get 2x as many kills per hit as normal fire. It's also flexible in target selection and can hit high value infantry if desired. Scorpions are murder against forces like Space Marines and CSM.

2+ shots are extremely useful if you are playing a hit and run style. The -1 for double move only drops their effectiveness by 20%. On a double move, a Scorpion will actually do more damage to 4+RA as Falcons (4 Falcons/1 Firestorm) because the to-hit mods affect the Falcons so much more strongly. That's also true for other AT-focused formations in the same point range, like Pred Annihilators.

Because of the superior quality of the hits, the volume differential is offset. Only when Falcons are close enough for secondary weapons do they really get an appreciably larger number of kills (more hits, sure, but not more kills).

Despite all that, I would probably agree those firepower comparisons still favor Falcons. However, this is all "out of the gate" comparisons of untouched formations. Once the formations come under fire, the comparisons shift towards the Scorpions. Falcons can be suppressed. Scorpions cannot. One AT hit can only stop a Scorpion on a critical (~7% chance). Against the Falcons that single AT hit suppresses at least 20% of the formation for the BM, and on a failed save (67% of the time) the Falcons lose 60% of their firepower.

Disagreed on the changes to pulse. I'd say that's a flat boost to the Scorpion, under basically any circumstance except sustaining, and IIRC someone crunched the numbers to prove that a while ago.

Agreed on the second two. I still say the Scorpion is an "okay" choice in the same braket as a bunch of other really good units. :-)

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Depends on the to-hit mods. At no to-hit mods, it's a loss for the Scorps. At -1 it's about a wash. At -2 it's a slight benefit.

Huh I thought even at -1 it was getting a benefit. Oh, it sucks then. :-)

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I think the main problem with the Scorpion (when compared against the other EOV) is that the Eldar list has other formations that do the same/similar job but usually have other benefits too (as a few have already pointed out).

The other EOV all have their own niche in the list,
Storm Serpent is a players choice of how to play the list (webway) and there are no other formations that can be used instead of it, the wraithgate aids the SS as a choice.

Cobra is the only TK unit in the main part of the list without bringing/adding a big Titan (points sink) or space craft (one shot/no objective claiming) into the army.

Void Spinner is a great stalling action as it can hit the opposing deployment zone without putting itself in danger.

In a straight comparison I don't think the Scorpion is too far behind the other 3 but the list has better choices for what the Scorpion can do.
So what tiny tweak would make the Scorpion on par with the others and a viable army choice.

A 50pt points drop. :-)

As EpicUK are currently working on their Eldar lists I'd be interested to hear what they're trialing.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter