Unit coherency is a very, very big deal in 9th. So much of eighth edition, Eldar revolved around buffing up large squads of Shining Spears, Guardians, Harlequin Troupes, or, if you were a real hipster, Wraithblades.
Gone are the days of stringing a unit out to tag multiple enemy units on combat or hold multiple objectives, so it only stands to reason that we are going to take multiple small units going forward to hold the board, and not be threatened by unit coherency and morale. Of course, those 9 man Spear units will still exist, and we have access to fearless bubbles from Will of Asuryan and the Avatars, but the real kicker for those units is that they will need to stay bunched up to avoid coherency casualties. In reality, morale, and the new attrition rule, aren’t nearly as impactful as coherency checks and is even less deadly than morale was in 8th ed. You could just not roll any ones.
I’ve always really enjoyed footdar over mechdar, and with some of the new terrain rules I think that a footdar army will still be playable and strong in 9th edition. The real test will be the terrain rules, and how much terrain on tables that infantry will be able to easily interact with.
A build I believe most Eldar players have toyed with or theory crafted is the fabled 40 Dire Avengers and Asurmen. Asurmen gives all of those guys a 4++, and since they are only 5 man units they don’t have to worry about morale. They also don’t really string out, since they want to be bubbled around Asurmen’s 6 inch 4++ aura, so this build may have some legs going forward. One downside is that you can only get 30 Dire Avengers in units of five out of a battalion, which almost requires another detachment to reach a solid number of Dire Avengers. And, of course, we have no idea what the points will be on these units.
On the Harlequin side, you could just say screw it and run a few big units of Troupe with some complementary Skyweavers. Sure, you can’t string these guys out anymore, or string them back to a Troupe Master who is more than a couple of inches away, but they still hit pretty hard by themselves, and the Twilight Encore stratagem to prevent units from falling back is even more powerful now that Tri-pointing has become more difficult.
Personally, I plan to pair my Dire Avengers with some Wraithlords for CC support and a bit of ranged shooting (AMLs equipped) and then a few close combat characters to make it messy for my opponent to just charge them in close combat. Asurmen is, of course, awesome, and a patrol with some Harlequin characters can help me balance it out. Not much of my Craftworld component needs command points, so I can use all my CP to fuel the Harlequin character. Not to mention, I’ll get a CP every turn of the game!
Superior Shurikens and Masterful Shots
- Farseer
- Warlock Skyrunner
- 5 Dire Avengers (Exarch w/ two catapults)
- 5 Dire Avengers (Exarch w/ two catapults)
- 5 Dire Avengers (Exarch w/ two catapults)
- 5 Dire Avengers (Exarch w/ two catapults)
- 5 Dire Avengers (Exarch w/ two catapults)
- 5 Dire Avengers (Exarch w/ two catapults)
Midnight Sorrow Patrol
- Troupe Master ( Fang)
- Troupe
- Death Jester (Warlord)
- Solitaire
Expert Crafter and Masterful Shots
- Avatar of Khaine
- Asurmen
- Wraithlord with AML and 2 Flamers
- Wraithlord with AML and 2 Flamers
- Wraithlord with AML and 2 Flamers
- 3x Dark Reapers (Exarch w/tempest and Long-Ranged Firearms)
- 3x Dark Reapers (Exarch w/tempest and Long-Ranged Firearms)
- 3x Dark Reapers (Exarch w/tempest and Long-Ranged Firearms)
A cool detail of strategic reserves is that the outflank style ability Is based on power level, so I can outflank two of the reaper squads for 1 CP!
What are you cooking up for 9th edition?
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