Planetstrike! Early thoughts on Attack and Defense for the Eldar.

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...

Work in Progress...Large Eldar Wraithgate

Wraith Gate, Warp Gate, Way Gate...I've heard it called all of these.

Here is my work in progress of a large Wraithgate. Inspired by the Dawn of War pc game. I'm sure we will find a use for this in Apoc games or some scenarios.



I wanted it to be big enough to warp in Falcons and Wave Serpents. Hopefully the new Planetstrike book will have some rules for a Wraithgate in it.

Random Eldar Thoughts...

I won't deny it. My focus has been on my guard army over the last month or so. I've been caught up in the wave of excitement along with most everyone else who owns an Imperial Guard army. But I have not forgotten my primary force.

Over the last few months I have been slowly teaching my friend Fabby the game. We have played a few games of (old codex) Guard vs. Marines, and Eldar vs. Marines, with Fabby playin the Vanilla Marines each time. We have gone over some of the rumored releases with the new Codex and he wants to give the guard a try.

What does any of this Have to do with the Eldar? Well I've been mulling over an eldar force in my head that I would use to face a Horde army. My Primary Eldar army is designed to take the dice out of my opponents hands and deny a saving throw whenever possible. Banshees, Wraithguard, Fire Dragons, Pathfinders, Wraithlords, Falcon, Avatar... I've played this force so much I have fogotten how the other half lives. So here is my "Anti-Horde" force that i will pit against Fabby the next time we play. The idea was for me to try units that I don't normally play with.

HQ: Autarch (Wings, Fusion Gun, Power weapon, MandiBlasters)
HQ: Baharroth (Swooping Hawks Phoenix Lord)

Elite: Scorpions (Full squad w/Exarch, both powers, biting blade)

Troops: Pathfinders (5 in the group)
Troops: Jetbikes (10 with 3 cannons)
Troops: Dire Avengers (full squad w/Exarch Bladestorm, Wave Serp w/ BLance)

Fast Attack: Warp Spiders (4 with Exarch, dual spinners and blades, withdraw)
Fast Attack: Swooping Hawks (5 With Exarch, both powers)
Fast Attack: Swooping Hawks (5 to fly with Baharroth)

Heavy: 3 War Walkers (Scatter Laser X6)
Heavy: Falcon (Holofield, BLance)

The idea is to Reserve, Deep Strike, and Outflank with almost everything. Pathfinders might set up depending on the mission. Yoyo with the hawks, mostly cause I have yet to try it. Break the Autarch away to pop a Leman Russ. Falcon is a Russ hunter, with the BL for when I lose a weapon. Hawks will hunt tanks only if needed.

Will let you know how it turns out.

Next random Eldar thought was after I saw the pics of the French Games Day. I found my next Eldar purchase.


I have always thought of the Wraithsword as a waste. I would rather have my Wraithlords equipped with two heavy weapons and trust my dice to hit in close combat. The Re-Roll the sword gives just is not worth it to me...until now. The idea of a Banshee Wraithlord appeals to me. one Wraithlord kit and a ton of Greenstuff. Somehow model the two flamers into the "Banshee mask" so it would still gets the "Scream". Pistol grip the other weapon...probably a Shuriken Cannon to keep the points lower, but maybe a Brightlance to keep the versitilty.

Thats all for now...