I picked up Planetstrike last weekend. After going through the book I'm eager to get a game in. I've come up with a few ideas for the Eldar to tryout when I do play.
When Attacking:
Take Swooping Hawks. Before you laugh too loud hear me out.
There is a strategem that grants d3 units Attack grenades, defensive grenades and Meltabombs. All infantry can deepstrike in Planetstrike, and any unit that already has the deepstrike ability can assault the turn it deepstrikes. There is also an Eldar only when attacking strategem that allows for the re-roll of deepstrikes.
So taking Both the Metlabomb and the re-roll deepstrikes strategems...pretty much locks in that you will be hitting one of the bastions the first turn with 5 meltabombs. Could you also do this with Warp Spiders? Yeah, but they don't have fleet, so you have a greater chance of deviating out of assault range.
As the attacker you can take 6 Fast Attacks, so that's plenty of room to add to your current build, if you run with a maxed Fast attack build.
The downside is after you drop the building, there is a good chance your Hawks will be standing right next to the unit that was just in the building. So the following when your opponent goes, your hawks will be taking fire or assaulted. Just hope that unit gets Pinned when the Bastion blows up. Actually once your opponent sees what the Hawks can do, they won't be around for another turn anyway. But then, he will be shooting at your Hawks and not any really valuable units. ;)
Other armies will have this ability, but how many units in the game have Deepstrike and Fleet? Two, Three? Loosing a bastion on the first turn might just rattle your opponent for the rest of the game.
On Defense:
Six Heavys...oh my. Reapers in your Bastions (or whatever the eldar call their big Bunkers). Wraithlords on the perimeter. Everything else I would leave in reserve or at home. Tanks are too fragile if they are not moving, and the bombardment would just wreck them and any war walkers you may have.
House Rules
Eventually GW will comeout with some rules for the Eldar Wraith/Warp gate to be used in Planetstrike. Until then I've been thinking about how to tie mine in should the Eldar be on Defense. Tweeking the rules of the Landing Pad, came up with the following.
Eldar Wraithgate: AV 14, One Eldar unit per turn may enter the table through the Wraithgate. The unit must be entering from Reserves and counts as Deepstriking with No deviation roll needed. The initial Deepstriking model placed must be placed within 6" of the front edge of the Wraithgate, and in the front 180 degree arc of the wraithgate. (No warping in on the back side of the wraithgate). Units warping in recieve a 4+ cover save until the start of the next Eldar turn.
I figure this fits the Eldar fluff, not having the numbers to crew defensive posts, they will quickly warp in defenders when they are needed. Each Wraithgate should count as an objective. I'll be using my terrain piece seen in the last entry as three seperate Wraithgates. Now I just need to make up some Eldar themed Bastions and Defense Lines...and finish painting the Wraithgate. Sorry to the regular readers of this Blog, My Guard army has taken priority for the moment.
Thats all for now...
