Choices

So it has been a while since my last post.  I've gotten a few more games of 6th in, including my first tournament which the eldar actually won thanks to 2+ rerollable saves.  I meant to post a recap her but apparently only posted it on the fightclub.  I still think Eldar are weak, especially with just base codex, but they do have some tricks.  The edition of Forgeworld and fortifications however help mitigate this a lot.  The two FW flyers are both pretty solid, gaining a 3+ save thanks to shrouded when evading.  I haven't played with the phoenix yet but BS5 vs. ground targets is probably a fair trade for not being able to shoot all the weapons anymore.

However the purpose of this post is to hopefully figure out a problem I am having.  AFK games is hosting an 1850 tournament on September 1st.  This would be really cool except they aren't allowing any fortifications or forgeworld, so the eldar have 0 anti-aircraft options.  I'm not cool with this as my main goal when building an army is to ensure that I have a tool for every problem.  If the tool is good enough and whether or not I get to use the tool is the point of the game.  Going into a battle knowing I can't deal with something is just not good.  For example in my last game vs. Cvinton he had 4 flyers,  He wisely took out the fire dragons manning the AA gun turn 1 leaving me with just a nightwing (aka not enough) to deal with 4 flyers.  He won the battle for the air but at least he had to fight for it.  If I go to this tournament, flyers would have total freedom which isn't cool.

Fortunately I have another option, Evolution Games is also hosting a tournament on September 1st.  This is a 2000 point affair that does allow fortifications and FW, however it also opens the door to 2 force org charts.  This isn't bad in and of itself, although players that are willing to spam units certainly have an advantage.  A quick 2000 point list I could play would be 18 war walkers, 3 broad sides, defense line with quad gun, defense line with lascannon, 4 units of 5 dire avengers, 1 unit of tau warriors, deep striking tau commander and 2 farseers with improved guide.  (Please note I don't advocate playing this type of list at all).  I'm sure other armies can come up with nastier lists.  I don't know the Evolution Games crowd well enough to know if this type of list is something I have to deal with or not.  My guess is not but who knows.  The other factor causing me to lean towards going to the AFK tournament is that I have an 1850 list that I think could be interesting.

It goes something like this

Barroth

Eldrad

5 harlequins with seer and jester

10 Wraithguard with warlock

2 units of rangers

3 units of bikers

3 war walkers

2 wraithlords

This list plays off one key rule change in 6th.  In order for a unit to leave combat with hit and run, only 1 model needs the rule.  Guess what Barroth has the rule.  So those slow non-fleeting wraithguard can jump out of combat, shoot with their big guns and charge right back in to avoid being shot at again.  In combat they are still fairly bad at hurting this (Barraoth isn't a combat monster) but with majority toughness 6 they still tarpit effectively (at least until they jump out and shoot you down).  If fortification were allowed I would drop a wraithlord for a defense line for at least token anti-air.  The thing that makes me giggle about this list is it is possible for the wraithguard to touch both long board edges in a given turn and be on the opposing board edge turn 1.  Not likely or meaningful in a game but funny.