So, the marines have been nerfed a bit; but they will not disappear from the meta. You’re still going to need a plan to kill marines, so you’ve got to build your army lists accordingly. Today, we’re going to take a look at 10 ways the Eldar Superfaction can kill Space Marines.
- Shining Spears: These guys are probably the pinnacle of killing Space Marines as an Eldar player. They can hide from Marine shooting and quickly move to get into attack range. Laser Lances are Strength 6 AP 4, so each wound kills an Intercessor (provided they’re not getting an invlun.) Every two wounds kill a Centurion (provided they don’t roll any 6s) Their Shuriken catapults are decent at killing Marines with their AP 3 on sixes to wound. Spears are absolute winners vs Marines.
2. Smites and Smite Variants: Smite and Executioner are a great way to clear out Marine bodies. Mortal wounds don’t let them use their armor saves, and while they do get Feel No Pain if they’re Iron Hands, that’s just tough cookies for you. The way you’re going to want to set this up is smite first. Odds are you’ll do two mortals and kill one Intercessor, but if you hit that three mortal sweet spot, or the one mortal sad-pit, you’ll set up for Executioner. Executioner is a smite power that does d3 mortal wounds, and another d3 if you kill a model. I like to keep a couple of psykers in my lists who can pump out mortal wounds in a pinch. Eldrad and a Farseer can tag team well for this, and they more casters the merrier.
3. Drazhar: He’s got a killer profile for killing marines, with both of his weapons doing 2 damage, and one giving him two bonus attacks, bringing him up to six. This lil’ guy also gets +1 to wound at strength four, so he’s forcing 5+ saves on Marines and wounding on threes. To top off this delicious cake, Drazhar also gets to fight twice! He’s great for clearing a squad of dudes off an objective and not dying in the process, because he has a 2+ armor save and a 6+ Feel No Pain. He fits nicely into a venom spam army, or a footslogging Talos build. And the model is gorgeous. He is a legit reason I would personally foray into Dark Eldar (I usually play Craftworlds and Harlequins)
4. Skyweavers: These bikes are bae. Take them as Frozen Stars (4 attacks each on the charge,) and watch them go to work. I take them with Zephyrglaives. Strength Four is pretty good vs. Marines, AP2 is great, and two damage is fantastic. The real sauce here is The +1 to wound against Infantry Stratagem. That will really up your numbers if you’re chewing through Intercessor squads or even Centurions or Agressors. Their Haywire cannons (which you should always take) will help you deal with pesky Thunderfire Cannons, Impulsors, and Dreadnoughts now that you can kill them thanks to the Marine nerfs a couple days ago. They’re also fast as hell, and pretty durable. Skyweavers are big winners vs Marines.
5. Talos: These monstrosities have always been a really solid choice, and pair well with Skyweavers. Neither need a lot of psychic support (Skyweavers just need the move twice power,) and have haywire if you run into any vehicles. Talos are tough to kill, don’t care if Lascannons are AP 3 or AP4. In combat, their most effective profile vs Marines is STR 7 (8 with Urien nearby) AP2 damage 2. Damage 2 and AP 2 or 3 Is where you want to be when fighting in combat. You can also get a preroll to wound Strat for 2cp, and since Talos come in units, you can send a unit of three into combat and get 15 attacks, which should handle most Marine targets, from Intercessors, to Centurions or Dreadnoughts. Not to mention on turn three, you’re hitting on 2s!
6. Dark Reapers: Here, we continue the theme of decent Ap and two damage. Str 5, AP2, 2 damage is good vs Marines. Take Ignore cover as a Craftworld trait and you’ll be forcing 5+ saves on everything but Centurions. You’ll want to send a unit of Shining Spears into the enemy line and kill their indirect firearms firearms (TFCs, Whirlwinds) so your Reapers can safely Fire and Fade for the entire game.
7. Star Cannons: These wound all the Marine bodies on threes, and can be fixed to solid platforms (Hornets, Crimson Hunter Exarchs, Wraithlords, Wraithknights [just kidding on that one.]) AP3 is fantastic vs 3+ armor, and the only drawback here is d3 damage. Rolling ones really sucks, but Starcannons can do some good work.
8. Harlequin Players: The bread and butter of the Harlequin codex! Not really. It’s usually the bikes, but some good players have made this unit work at LVO. Jack Harpster went 5-1 at the big dance with two big units of these guys, with half of the unit loaded out with Harlequin Kisses and Caresses. They have a lot of attacks as Frozen Stars (5) and access to two key stratagems and a character. First, they can get +1 to wound, so they wound on threes with the Kisses and 2s with the Caresses. They also have access to fight twice, so they can clear out a couple of squads and secure a wrap against something that won’t hit them back to hard, like a Leviathan Dreadnought. And throughout all of these swings they get re-roll to wound from a nearby Troupe Master. Harlequin Troupes have a place in the fight against the bullies in power armor.
9. Wraithseer/Wraithlord: Wraithlords have a very solid profile melee profile (4 attacks, strength 8, ap3, 3 damage) and can have Starcannons mounted on them. Wraithseers have a sweet glaive that is strength 9, ap4, d6 damage, cutting right through all but he toughest armor and chopping whole Centurions in half. When paired with Talos I think these units have some serious play.
10. Doom and Jinx: This is the ultimate ability Eldar have to fight Marines, and really, anything in the game. All the units I mentioned above have a decent ability to kill a Marine unit on their own. Spear shooting and charging a unit of Centurions will just about kill the Cents, no buffs, outside of Guide, needed. There will be situations where you want to kill multiple units in a turn, one of them being something big and scary, like a unit of Centurions. Doom and Jinx cranks everything Craftworld can do up to 11, so you will absolutely be using it. It lets you all but ensure one unit dies while spreading out some of your other firepower.
Honorable Mentions
Table Flipping: When all else fails, channel your inner petulant child and demolish the table
Hacking BCP and making all the Marine Lists Illegal: Nuff’ said.
Playing Marines Yourself: This was a trick. If you, a standup Eldar player, converts to Marines, don’t speak to me or my son ever again. You should be ashamed of yourself.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
Correct article for the correct addition ? AP is positive in the article, but negative in our current version.
Where are the flyers ? They are the bane of many SM players lives, including me.
Where is the synergy between psychic powers, shooting and melee ?
The flyer die horribly to marine, which is a big problem.
Imagine being in a faction that has multiple ways to get +1 to hit on various units, full rerolls in a constant aura, half a dozen different ways to autohit with strong weapons, and half a dozen more ways to get +1 to hit against Fly targets, and then think “man, these things really are the bane of my army.”
Not sure what you mean by your first sentence, could you elaborate? This isn’t meant as a be all end all comprehensive list, it’s just 10 ways, mostly based off of units I would take. Flyers are certainly a good option, although the commenter below has a good point. The negative hit mods aren’t nearly as useful versus marines. That being said, solid players like Colin Sherman have use CHE’s to great effect.
Forgot Night Spinners doing flat 2 damage at strength 6 all while hiding out of line of sight. To a lesser extent, Vibro Cannons are super cheap now and also do flat 2 damage.
Nightspinner are definitely a great choice.