We’re continuing our rview of the Imperial Armor Apocalypse Second Edition units this week with Eldar! Sorry for the delay since our last update, things got a bit crazy there with Vampire Counts and 6th Ed rumors.
Eldar got some absolutely smashing units! There are some real winner in here, and I will definitely be adding a few to my collection.
The Fire Storm is a Falcon chassis vehicle (12/12/10) with the standard wargear options but weighs in at 180pts. The Fire Storm Scatter Lasers are Heavy 6, 60″ str6 Ap6 twin linked with an AA mount.It also has a Twin Shuriken Catapult. Heavy Support Choice. BS3 = bummer.
This is honestly the weakest offering in the book. The vehicle is grossly over-costed for what it does. I don’t see the point of the 180pt price tag. Even with the AA mount on the tank it is still weak for what it offers.
If it cost 30-50 points less, then yeah, I would say this tank wouldn’t be bad. But unless fliers become incredibly powerful in 6th ed, this price tag makes this guy a good looking, but not competitive choice.
I LOVE this unit! As a long time Footdar player, this model just resonates with me. It is clearly designed to run with a Ghost Army, and it is a big time force multiplier, as many Eldar HQ’s are. At 185 points, he is a bargain, in my mind.
It has a Wraithlord profile, with WS5, and extra wound (4) and attack (3). He comes standard with a Wraithspear (reroll missed hits in combat and +1 on damage chart) and Wraithshield (5++).This means he is pretty boss-like in combat and will absolutely wreck vehicles.
He can take the usual weapons for his long ranged choice (although he doesn’t have to take anything), including a D-Cannon! Sweet, I miss putting D cannons on my Wraithlords. A 10pt Scatter Laser is not a bad choice either, though.
He also has a latent 12″ bubble that ignores Wraithsight and worsens the cover save of enemy units hit by Wraith units shooting by 1. What is interesting to note (and pointed out to us by reader Ryan) is that it uses the example of 5+ cover going to 6+, not a 4+. That, and lots of other little things throughout the book correlate with the 6th ed rules we’re hearing. But, back on topic, that is a GREAT ability. Wraith units have heavy anit tank weapons that are often single shot, therefore, to increase their efficiency is a really big boost.
He also has several, awesome, Psychic powers.
Foreboding is an 18″ range Leadership Test at -2 check on an enemy unit. That is awesome, and in the context of 6th ed, is even more powerful. In 5th ed, it’s still great as it means non fearless, non stubborn units are going to to have good odds of breaking.
Enliven is a 12″ range power that gives one Wraith unit Fleet of Foot. Wow! Fleeting Wraithlords? Yeah, all day. That is really fantastic to increase the threat radius of Wraith units and means they can catch units that could otherwise back away form you.
Deliverance give one Wraith unit within 6″ feel no pain. Again, holy crap. For Wraithlords it means missiles are a lot less frightening, for Wraithguard it means you are effectively immune to small arms.
On the whole, I love this unit. It’s only drawback is that you can’t take it as your primary HQ, meaning you can’t take 2. In a Footdar list with a squad of Wraithguard as troops with Eldard, and 2-3 Wraithlords as your Heavies alongside this big guy, you will see a marked improvement in your army’s performance. The Avatar tends to be the go-to secondary HQ choice for Footdar, but I see this as the better choice if you use Wraithguard as troops. He is a Boss, and I will definitely be getting one.Plus, it’s an awesome model.
This is probably the best unit in the line-up, plus it looks sexy. The Hornet is essentially a better War Walker, and War Walkers are the business already.
65pts base, fast skimmer, 11/11/10, comes in squadrons of 1-3 with Scouts and Aerial Assault (6th ed, anyone?), and standard with 2 Shuriken Cannons and Star Engines….and, wait for it, BS4! It’s already hot.
It can take Holo Fields, Vector Engines, and Spirit Stones as options, although I wouldn’t bother as you want to keep these guys cheap.
It has the same weapon options as War Walkers, and as with War Walker, EMLs and Scatter Lasers are the best choices. For 85pts per model, you can have one equipped with 8 str6 shots on a fast skimmer platform. It is all that a Warwalker is but faster, harder to kill, more accurate and not much more expensive. Scouts and Aerial Assault are just icing on the cake at this point.
This unit also takes up a Fast Choice too, which is a dream come true as that is a largely unused slot for Eldar.
An absolutely brutal list for Eldar would be 9 of these and 9 Warwalkers. If you go first, you Alhpa strike with massive firepower, if you go second you outflank, preferably with Autarch support, and you still Alhpa Strike.
These are fantastic little units, and I give them two very enthusiastic thumbs up.
Another great unit for Eldar! BS4, Heavy Choice, Falcon Chassis, twin ShuriCat and a super D-Cannon.
You can kit this Fast Skimmer out with the normal upgrades and at the very reasonable price of 125pts, throwing Holo Fields on it isn’t at all a bad choice.
So the question is, why would you take this over a Fire Prims or Falcon in a Mechdar list? The answer is that it provides a pretty unique set of weapons. The D-Cannon has two firing modes, the first is a large blast, 36″ D-Cannon blast (wounds anything on a 2+, instant death on a 6, ignores armor. Glances on a 2-4, punches on a 5-6). That alone is pretty dang powerful, and can really ruin the day of an IG parking lot, or anything, really.
The second firing mode is awesome, too. It is a template weapon that fires 6″ out from the weapon and uses the D-Cannon rules, but with the added benefit of ignoring cover and not needing to roll to hit.
I give this unit a thumbs up, for sure. I think a nice mix in a Mechdar army would be one of these and two fire prisms. It’s weapon fills gaps and allows you to have an answer to heavy armor and heavy infantry that the Fire Prisms may not be best equipped to handle. You can run Prisms cheap, but due to the shorter range of this platform’s weaponry and how scary it’s gun is, I would think that a holo field would be a smart investment so that it lives long enough to actually fire it. On the whole, this is a solid choice and I definitely would run it in a competitive list.