Let’s not beat around the bush, the Eldar codex is a strong one. We are very fortunate to have gotten such a decent book especially if you compare it to the treatment of the Chaos Space Marine players with their sub-par book. Few as they may be, the Eldar codex is not without its weaknesses. I must say that nearly all units in the codex got a boost with our new army wide special rules and updated rules to some of our weapons and not to forget the nice boost to our basic infantry, the humble guardian.
Some units were not “fixed” though and the most infamous of
these is the Howling Banshees. Probably my favourite infantry model in the
codex bar none but just like the Mandrakes of the Dark Eldar, it just doesn’t
have rules to match. Admittedly Mandrakes are worse rules wise than Howling
Banshees so we are lucky in that respect but is there any way to effectively
use the Howling Banshees?
The short answer is no. They have no grenades and Eldar have
no assault vehicle, so putting them in a Wave Serpent is not going to make them
do their primary job any better. They still have to disembark from the Wave
Serpent and stand there for a round of shooting. One way you could “maybe” get
this to work is if you turbo boost that Wave Serpent with Holo Fields and targeting
Matrix across the board to near a nice bit of terrain and hope it survives a
round of shooting. On your next turn disembark the Howling Banshees into the
cover and go from there. Not a very effective strategy and not the best use of
250+pts of models in my opinion.
The next way to use them is to field them on foot. It spells
a swift and painful death for the Banshees since they are so fragile they will
die faster than you can pick them up off the table. However I have been
wondering if you provide your opponent with a good amount of high priority
dangerous targets will the Howling Banshees get ignored long enough to be able
to make it to combat. Of course if that target unit is in cover the Banshees
will be striking the same time as them (Banshee Mask) but are likely to suffer a
lot of casualties due to their low toughness and armor save.
I am playing Erik’s Imperial Fists this Thursday and I plan
to field a squad of Howling Banshees for the first time ever. My plan is to
give Erik enough threats to worry about rather than Howling Banshees that
hopefully they will manage to get some action and who knows might prove to be
very useful. Regarding the Exarch, I will equip her with an Executioner which is
a 2 handed power weapon that also gives the Exarch +2 strength. I have also
decided to take “Disarming Strike” Exarch power which on the first turn of a
challenge has the potential to remove a models melee weapon and makes them
strike at just their basic hand to hand weapon. So in other words a power fist
is changed to just a fist for that turn. I will take lots of pics and give you
guys a battle report on how it goes.
So here is my 2000pts list for Thursday:
HQ
Avatar – Fast shot
Farseer – Runes of
Warding
Troops
10x Dire Avengers –
Exarch with Shimmershield and Power Sword
10x Dire Avengers –
Exarch with Shimmershield and Power Sword
10 x Guardians –
Bright Lance
10 x Guardians –
Bright Lance
20 x Guardians
Fortification
Aegis Defence Line –
Quad Gun
Elites
6 x Howling Banshees –
Exarch with an Executioner & Disarming Strike
5 x Wraith Guard – D-Scythes
Transport
Wraith Guard Wave
Serpent – Holo Fields, Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon
Heavy Support
Warwalker – Twin Scatter
Lasers
Warwalker – Twin Scatter
Lasers
Wraith Knight – Heavy
Wraith Cannons
