Are you playing with the official Epic 2008 Errata, because popping-up doesn't allow that anymore:

A skimmer that has popped up is assumed to be flying high enough that nearby intervening terrain that is closer to the skimmer than the target does not block the line of fire. To check if the line of fire is blocked, simply measure the distance between the skimmer and the terrain, and then measure the distance between the terrain and the target unit. If the skimmer is nearer to the intervening terrain then the line of fire is not blocked. If the skimmer is further from the terrain, then work out the line of fire normally. If the distance is is equal, then both the skimmer and the target unit can fire at each other, but they both count as being in cover and the cover to hit modifier will apply.

So, if you're closer to the terrain than the skimmer, they can't see you.  And this doesn't negate the -1 to hit for the target being *in* cover either.

A barrage weapons wet dream- a super cluster.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

Are you playing with the official Epic 2008 Errata, because popping-up doesn't allow that anymore:

It means you can shoot back at them with overwatch... so, your Dactylis on overwatch could tag any Falcons trying to shoot at them, for example.

They'll just jump forward 25/30cm to be as close, pop up, shoot, jump back.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

Many armies stand up rather well to Eldar. One just has to avoid playing their game and keep shooting back, they lack saves to avoid casualities, lack the numbers to ignore them and the leaders to remove BM from their formations, reducing the effectiveness of any survivors.

Artillery, especially long-ranged IG-stlye, is their great bane. Air assaults and early assaults by drop-pods are deadly as well. If the Eldar player neglects AA or the formations with Firestorms become broken, ground attacks can wreak havoc on support units like Nightspinners. Overwatch, even relatively weaklish by 45cm infantry hvy weapons like IG autocannon or SM/CSM missile launchers can work wonders to deter move-fire-move actions, since those 5 or 6 strong Eldar formations loathe to take even that single "shot-at" BM, kill an attacker with a lucky shot and you´ve more or less broken up their shooting with one enemy down and 2BM placed.

Against Eldar, I´ve found it best to build a solid forward position and fight form there in the later game. If you rush for the kill early, the Eldar will maneuver deadly force on your forward formations and likely destroy them. Some losses are unavoidable, be patient, place BM, occupy cover and put your troops on overwatch when they have reached a suitable position, say with LoF to some objectives or even on top of them.

I can see how fighting a skimmer-centric Eldar force with Nids can be aggravating, but all said and done Eldar are beatable with the right tactics. Just don´t ask me how to do it with Nids as I have no experience with them at all.

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It means you can shoot back at them with overwatch... so, your Dactylis on overwatch could tag any Falcons trying to shoot at them, for example.

My conversion efforts:

Carnifex




Termagants




Tyranid Warriors


Hormagaunts




Genestealers




See if you can guess the model bits. And yes, I'm aware the Hormagaunts look like slugs, and the Genestealers look like turtles.

They do look nice, though it would mean I couldn't use my army in a GW store or event, one of the main places I play.

It'd also cost more than zero that my bits conversions do.

I'll have a look through the site, thanks.

Those look good and nasty, Jeridian!

Looking forward to seeing some Bug battle reports from you soon!  

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

Regarding disrupt and expendable with shooting, there was a recent discussion that covered this here.

In essence, you place a BM for shooting at the formation, then you only place a 'Disrupt' BM if the Warrior is allocated a hit (whereas you would normally get a BM only if he was killed). As the rest of the swarm is "expendable", any units killed do not generate BMs, so consequently they do not suffer the effects of 'Disrupt'.

Note, barrage hits are allocated front-to-back under the template, which must be placed to cover the most units. It is therefore possible to anticipate artillery fire by clumping some part of the swarm together that does not contain any warriors - so you only get a single BM for being shot at irrespective of the number of kills inflicted on the swarm (well at least for the first shot anyway )

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Vitai lampada
Sir Hemry Newbolt

Well if you think it's easier to the conversions, then by all means do them . Just wanted to give an possible choice. Note that I do dig that Carnifex a lot. It's very neat and possibly something that should have a guide on which bits are needed for it.

I am not sure I follow your views on 'sniping'. Placing the templates in such a way as to cover most units will always be subject to discussion, but is intended to avoid sniping as such. However, removal of units killed under the template is important because then a subsequent barrage will not end up covering the same part of the formation. Consequently, even if you have clumped the swarm so that the initial template does not cover one of the warriors, it is likely that a subsequent barrage may do so.

However, if you determine the type of units hit, but then follow the usual shooting rules, the dead units would be removed from the 'front' of the formation, and in the case of a big swarm, this could well result in those units originally under the template not being touched - so a subsequent barrage would hit the same place, if you see what I mean.

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"Play up and play the game"

Vitai lampada
Sir Hemry Newbolt

I am not sure I follow your views on 'sniping'. Placing the templates in such a way as to cover most units will always be subject to discussion, but is intended to avoid sniping as such. However, removal of units killed under the template is important because then a subsequent barrage will not end up covering the same part of the formation. Consequently, even if you have clumped the swarm so that the initial template does not cover one of the warriors, it is likely that a subsequent barrage may do so.

While I understand the abstraction and its appeal, (and lets face it, the E:A system is itself an abstraction), I would caution against changing the mechanics in this way. While it may seem less important for 'Nids even so, removing units from the front of the formation rather than from under the template can have some unintended effects:-
1) Removing different common brood units from the front of a swarm will probably change the makeup of the swarm, which can significantly affect the way the swarm works. (This is also true for Orks and any other race where there are several different unit types within a single formation).

2) Taking off units that can shoot off the front of the formation obviously reduces the effective shooting range of the formation, while removing units from the centre does not.

3) Blasting away units from the edge of the swarm usually has much less impact on the swarm than removing units from the interior because of the rules around coherency and control.

Also there is no real problem with multiple weapons, providing you remember to allocate all the hits before resolving them, allocating the hits under the template first and then all remaining hits as per the rules. In the UK tournaments we quite often use small dice to indicate the units affected when allocating hits, which both speeds up and clarifies the process.

_________________
"Play up and play the game"

Vitai lampada
Sir Hemry Newbolt