Avengers Or Banshees?

Help! I am going to an upcoming tournament, and im not sure whether to take 6 banshees w/ exarch or 10 DA's with exarch and bladestorm. I tend to run a saim hann list (2 medium sized jetbike squads, 5-6 vypers, a fire prism and waveserpent + small seer council), and with the banshees i'd have some real assult punch, but with the DA's id have the option of the old waveserpent + bladestorm combo, plus obj capturing power. Also, would it be worth it to take holo-fields off my waveserpent in the name of a few more banshees? This is a 1500 point tournament with some sick loot and id appreciate any feedback.

Thanks!

Reply Out:

This is a tough call and comes down to play style. I’ve run both DA’s and banshees in my serpent and currently I am going with the banshees for this reason. The bonus of using DA’s is that the transport they are in, and the unit itself is “scoring” vs. banshees which are not. I find in the majority of my games I use my wave serpent to contest objectives so I don’t need a scoring unit in it. Added to the fact that in my local club it is mostly marines- banshees dice marines vs. marines just laughing off blade storm. That is the reason I’ve gone with the banshees. Also, you can’t have holo-fields on a wave serpent- did you mean a falcon? If so, I’d probably keep the holo-fields, they have saved the day for me so many time. That is the problem with eldar- so many cool upgrades and toys and so few points! Good luck at the tourney!

-Fritz

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Sucks!

So right now I should be crossing into PA with Jawaballs on our way to the Mechanicon 40K tournament in search of loot and glory. Instead I'm down and out with the flu here at home! Sucks! Sorry I'm going to miss hanging out with you guys and playing...

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Bladestorm Vs. Banshee Bomb?

Bladestorm Vs. Banshee Bomb?

I've been wondering, ever since you helped me with my list. Why don't you use Dire Avengers in your list? Is it for fluff reasons? I saw your banshee bomb but that only seemed to succeed on small troops; however DA's seem to have that fire power that have been lacking. When I blade storm I take out at least half a squad. When guided, (I use two farseers now, one council one w/ the DA's) it is fantastic for wiping out troops. Maybe this isn't the type of fire power you were looking for but I just was wondering why you didn't use them, when so many mechdar players do.

Sphe

P.S. The changes you had me make to the list were very worthwhile. I won the first game I played with it!

Reply Out:

I used to have ten fire avengers in my wave serpent and they performed without flaw both in shooting and as turning my serpent into a scoring unit for objectives. Switching over to banshees was more of a local adaptation to deal with the guys in the club. They are putting out some mean units that my council can’t handle alone. Council + banshee bomb wipes them out. On a side note, what is working even better is the psychological edge I get when my banshees hit space marines. Marine players get really upset when they don’t get to make an armor save, like somehow they are being cheated.

Awesome on the win, keep building on it!

-Fritz

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Space Marine Bike List Ideas

So I read on your blog a bit ago about an email from another visitor to your site. He mentioned converting your Saim-Hann List into a Space Marine Bike list. You gave an excellent response but didn't really write up a list or anything. I even though you might have put one together on your other site The Emperor Protects but I have noticed that the site is no longer on your profile. I can only assume you scrapped it to focus on WOSH and Return. Anywho the point is I would love to see a list written up to get my and other marine players creative juices flowing. As much as I love your Eldar list for speed and such I cannot afford to purchase another new army and thus must turn to trying to make it out of my beloved space marines. So your help and expertise in the area of speed would be much appreciated. Hope to hear from you soon on the subject!

Bedwyr

Reply Out:
Bedwyr, thanks for emailing. So much to do, so little time. I did have to archive my space marine blog as I found I just don’t have the time to run more then my elder blog- at least to the level that I want to support it and still play games, etc.

That said, I know a space marine bike list could replicate my elder tactics and probably do them better since you have the same mobility but are T5, etc. I’ve been putting together a Dark Angels Raven wing list and am going to borrow the army from a dude at the club to get in a few games of it in action. My list is:

1 Master of the Ravenwing Land Speeder
1 Command Bike Unit W/ Chaplain
2 X3 Speeder Squadrons- Heavy Bolters/Assault Cannons
Fill out the rest with bike units + melta gun.

Command with the chaplain is like my seer council- go out and cause trouble. They will die, but if they buy me a few turns good. Speeders support like my vypers- not being open topped will be heaven! I don’t have melta guns on them since even with the multi-melta _ have to et 12” to use it and when I pop the transport the guys inside get out and rock my speeder. Better to keep them back at 24+ to shoot multiple shots.

Bikes work like bikes. Now as for the MORW speeder- an AV 14 speeder collecting cover saves is just to good to ignore when contesting objectives or using it as a mobile cover wall- better then the jetbike model.

-Fritz

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1500 Points? 1750 Points? 2000 Points?

For the most part around where I play standard pickup games are 1750 points. Nobody can really say why we play at that number other then perhaps it is because a lot of the guys used to go to GW tourneys and they played at 1750 points. I’m used to playing 1750 and my army is “optimized” for that level.

One or two guys at the club play at 1500 and when I drop a few units to scale down my list is a little more sluggish. On the opposite end a few dudes play at 2K and 2.5K which I really don’t like. Personally, I don’t gain anything more with my Eldar while marine players get to have all their toys- three raiders, melta spam, 2 HQ’s etc. What is the optimal point level to play 40K?

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Saim-Hann Vs. Dark Angels Battle Report

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Wave Serpent Walls!

Hey Fritz,

After going up against a 40k ork veteran and barely failing to pull off a draw in a capture and hold mission I thought about how to stop a mass of 130+ orks from contesting an objective. The only solution I could come up with was to stop them from being able to get near it; but how can you stop something that can cover a third of the field from getting to something? It dawned on me to think outside of the usual "tank make good explodey maker" thought process.

A wave serpent is a pretty large object when on the field. It makes a great piece of "impassable terrain" or tool for LOS, and it can basically arrive anywhere you want it to before it will be destroyed. Now 3 wave serpents can make alot of this terrain. When you place them around an objective it completely stops anyone from reaching it, or even coming within 3 inches, EVEN IF they assault the vehichles to come into hull contact. Even if they become wrecked, they still block the objective as they truly become impssable terrain. Maybe they destroy all 3 serpents (or any of the 3 grave tank types for instance) leaving me no longer holding the objective, chances are, a large portion of their army is at that unreachable point, leaving you to wipe up whats left of the army at the second objective. (I only wish I had thought of this while I fought the orks for the objectives...)

This strategy is kinda rushed and hasn't been actually tested, (and it can be stopped if they manage to blow up aa tank, but thats why I have a fire prism to take it's place!) so feel free to pick through it or dismiss it altogether, but I just figured it might help our grav tank heavy ally craftworlds in their fight for survival.

May the Runes of Fate guide you to victory,
Lynch

Reply Out:

Lynch, this is an awesome tactic and I use it all the time vs. mass infantry army- rarer and rarer these days. I’ll also use my vypers with jetbikes in the center to get an objective. As you also mentioned having a second wave ready is also key.

Something else to think about- tank shocking with your skimmers as a “wall” pushing forward to group your opponent for a seer council run with destructor…

Your picture is classic!

-Fritz

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