Greetings Princes, Commanders, Warlords and Bosses, Rather than try to enter the fray of discussing the value or ineffectiveness of myself or my suggestions; rather than defend what I have already stated and posted; rather than clutter the list with more pointless discussion about my title (which was presented to me, I did not pick it); instead, I'm going to fill you in on some detail which I considered to be blatantly obvious to even the most casual observer. But, apparently, I was wrong.
Firstly, Imperial players *know* how to kill Eldar and they do it quite effectively. The battles that I have seen between Eldar and Imperial players are almost exclusively won by Imperials. Seasoned Imperial and Chaos players know how to exploit the weaknesses of their opponents. If you say to a friend, "hey, wanna play a 1500 point battle?" and he says he would, so you ask, "what kind of fleet do you have?" He says "Eldar". So, you pick Tyrants, you upgrade the range of their weapons, you load up on Dictators, you have a Mars or (better still) an Overlord, you fill up on Swords--you might even grab a Dominator--and you leave your Gothic at home.
Secondly, everyone knows that the "typical" Eldar attack profile is to move into range, shoot, move away. Move into range, shoot, move away. Yada yada yada. You set yourself up into an Iron Box or a Victorius Wedge and go to town blowing Eldar ships to kingdom come.
And then I saw something that amazed me. An Eldar player who not only challenged and defeated Imperial players with impunity--he often did it by luring them to battles with phrases like... "I'll take 200 points fewer than you, if you'll play."
So I watched this Prince's tactics. And what I found surprised me. He did NOT use classic Eldar tactics. After watching several battles then playing against him and soundly losing, I penned my article outlining his techniques.
Let me illustrate his reasoning on his choices more clearly.
No Bomber Waves: Imagine that you have two Eclipses and you want to keep them out of range of the weapons batteries on an Overlord and two upgraded Tyrants. You can't fly into range to even hit him with weapons without giving him a shot on your cruiser (the Overlord has 60cm guns and the Tyrants have 45 cm guns). So you launch your bombers "at range"--far down range from him. They will take the battle to him.
Bombers travel 20cms per ordnance phase. This means the most they can travel before he draws bead and fires on them is 50cms (Eclipse moves 30, bombers move 20--then it's his turn.) And that is assuming you have the best angle of attack and that the Eclipse is in an ideal position. So, your Eclipse is no longer a valid target and he moves his Overlord and Tyrant closer to you. There sits that nice, juicy bomber wave. A single hit from his weapons will destroy the WHOLE WAVE. He needs to roll a 6. The same number that his turrets need to roll to shoot them down. Consider it a "free shot". By placing them in a wave, you make them much more vulnerable to his longer ranged weapons--he may even get two shots on them if the situation is less than ideal. (In fact, I have seen players able to take three shots on bomber waves on approach.) However, if they are not waved, he has to target each, individual bomber--and if he splits targets, he reduces his effective firepower (assuming he passes the LD test). Then, when the bombers reach his base, he can STILL fire at them with turrets. Yes, not waving your bombers gives him 3 more chances to hit a single bomber--but it far reduces his chances to hit you with his longer ranged, ship to ship weapons.
Fighter Screens: By placing a row of fighters 10cms closer than the bombers, you have effectively performed the ultimate fighter screen. 1) A leadership test must be passed by the attacking ship to fire on the bombers. 2) a ship which possesses a 50% chance of destroying incoming fighters and remaining in play must be encountered before those fighters can shoot down his bombers. Do not place them in a wave and you have greater opportunity. The only time you should ever place Eldar bombers in a wave is when you know they will reach their target before he can fire on them.
Mixing Nightshades and a single Aconite: 5 Nightshades are able to fire 10 torps and 5 weapons batteries. By adding a single Aconite, you DOUBLE the available weapons batteries. This allows you to fire on two separate targets in a single attack phase with a potent mix of weapons. There you are, finishing out your fleet list and you realize that you have 65 points left... You could add a 6th Nightshade to your squadron giving you 12 torps and 6 weapons batteries or you could add an Aconite and make it 10 torps and 10 weapons batteries. What fool would fire weapon batteries and torpedoes at the same target? This is a pointless argument.
Until I had seen this unit operate, I had always been of the same thoughts--Eldar shouldn't mix ships in their squadrons. Until I saw an Eldar tactical genius beyond compare. The man who developed this tactic was the best I had ever seen.
My article wasn't about theoretical Eldar tactics. My article was about *observed* battle tactics that destroyed hardened, seasoned Imperials, Chaos and Eldar who knew how to blow Eldar ships out of the sky--and did it routinely.
If you want to go on with your "standard" Eldar tactics. Do so. You don't have to follow my suggestions.
Varon Castle
Fleet Tactics Master
Gothic Sector