Sunday, October 25, 2009

Fire Prisms... Major Disappointment

I just added two fire prisms to my eldar forces, and after two games, I'm pretty disappointed. They do fine against infantry... it's tough to miss with the big pie plate. But against tanks, I'm struggling to hit anything.

Both of my last two games have been against my brother's tau, and I never seem able to pop his hammerhead until turn three or four. And I really hate that hammerhead. It is growing to be a huge pain in the rear. In the first of our last two games, I never did kill the stupid thing, but I did manage to destroy the rail gun around turn 3 and ignore it the rest of the game. In the second game, my prisms wasted a squad of fire warriors on turn one and then fired at the hammerhead three turns in a row with no better than a glancing hit (shaken). I was finally able to take it out with a flurry of singing spears from the seer council when they got close enough. But in both cases, the prisms have disappointed.

I realize that this has a lot to do with the dice hating me. Dice usually spend the majority of the game working in my favor, but they have certainly liked my brother's hammerhead better than they've liked my prisms of late. I'll give the fire prisms a few more runs before I put the trusty old wraithlord back in their place.

This is my current list:
HQ
Farseer (Jetbike, Fortune, Singing Spear) 118
3x Warlocks (Jetbikes, Singing Spears, 1x Embolden) 149
Farseer (Fortune) 85 [joins the dire avengers in the wave serpent]

Troops
10x Dire Avengers 120 [in wave serpent]
8x Dire Avengers 96

Elites
5x Fire Dragons 80 [in falcon]

Fast Attack
5x Warp Spiders (Exarch, Powerblades, Extra Death Spinner) 137

Heavy Support
Falcon (EML) 135
Fire Prism 115
Fire Prism 115

Dedicated Transport
Wave Serpent (Twin-Linked Shuriken Cannons) 100

Total: 1250

Side Note: I really need another wave serpent. That second set of dire avengers just kind of sits back in cover most of the game. Marching them across the field is just handing my brother another kill point. In all honesty, I think I'd rather be running rangers, though. If something is going to sit around in cover, I might as well be running something that gets bonuses from sitting there. My budget will be the deciding factor...
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6 comments:

  1. That's a bit of a low points total, but I wouldn't totally hate on the fire Prism.

    I find it useful for keeping the other guy honest; make sure he spreads out. That being said, in larger games I usuaully prefer a Falcon w/ Scatter Laser, underslung Shuriken Cannon, and Holo-fields. It's probably pricy for this points level.

    Since it looks like you've got the tanks, here's a 1250 suggestion:

    Eldrad Ulthuan [210]

    5 Fire Dragons [80]
    Wave Serpent w/ TL Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon [145]

    5 Dire Avengers [60]
    5 Dire Avengers [60]

    8 Warp Spiders, including Exarch w/ Extra Spinner, Powerblades, Withdraw [218]

    Fire Prism w/ Shuricannon [125]

    Falcon w/ Scatter laser, Shuriken cannon, holofield [175]

    Falcon w/ Scatter laser, Shuriken cannon, holofield [175]

    Total: 1248

    Suggestions like so:
    While a Seer Council on bikes can be absurdly deadly, you really want something like 6-8 of them with several Destructors, and then a smattering of other powers. The Farseer dooms stuff, then you burn it and assault it.

    The Dire Avengers sit in the Falcons and make them scoring, as they're troops. Eldrad sits in one of them.

    Holofields make Falcons hard to kill. It's pricy, but worth it.

    The most you'll have to do is proxy a few spare Avengers as Warp Spiders. They picked up Withdraw to get the benefit of HIt 'n' Run; if necessary/prudent they can assault an enemy unit they shot up, then withdraw at the end of the enemy turn so they can move freely during your next turn.

    Your force sits back, and Eldrad guides both Falcons, and if necessary fortunes something. In a pinch, Fortune the Fire Dragon's (now longer-ranged) Wave Serpent, and turbo-boost it at the enemy thing you need dead; you collect a 4+ cover save from turbo-boosting and get a re-roll on it from fortune.

    Bear in mind, though, that 1250 is a bit low; once you hit 1500 it's about time to fit in a balanced army in terms of capabilities. This current build pretty much sits back, shoots, and relocates if necessary. Don't deploy your Dire Avengers unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARy, or if your Falcon gets blown up. Usually, it's only absolutely necessary if the falcon dies.

    Good luck.
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  2. Welcome and thanks for the advice!

    I guess I should have clarified that the army itself has worked out extremely well for me. My brother, cousin, and I just started the game back in August and have been growing our forces in increments of 250 ever since. In that time, I haven't had any losses with my Eldar at all. I've had a few draws, though.

    In any case, the only thing that is irritating me is that my prisms seem incompetent when it comes to killing tanks. I thought a strength 10 twin linked blast would work well, but my rolling has been pathetic. I was doing a ton better with my EML/BL Wraithlord.

    My list feels pretty balanced right now. Each time we've increased by 250 points, I've tried to fill a gap. As I said in my post, I think my next purchases will be another wave serpent and a squad or two of rangers.

    We've been playing all annihilation games so far, and when we start picking up objective missions I'm sure I'll need more scoring units.

    But back to the prisms... the big template is awesome for blasting infantry units. Maybe I shouldn't worry about them killing tanks and just focus on their strength?
    ReplyDelete
  3. Two Prisms are a staple in my list, with my 3rd Heavy choice fluctuating between a Falcon (with Avengers inside for scoring purposes) or another Prism. In my experience, you'll get far more value from the Prisms if you do keep them mainly for anti-infantry purposes. Additionally, I always upgrade the shuriken catapult to a shuriken cannon, so that it is not relegated to strictly tank shocking once the cannon gets destroyed.

    For anti-tank, really dragons are probably the best way to go for that job. Worse case, you could always assault vehicles with the Seer Council, although I would suggest giving Withcblades a shot as that would give you 1 extra attack in the assault.
    ReplyDelete
  4. So far, my council has done quite well killing tanks with the singing spears. They technically don't even lose an attack, because firing a shuriken pistol at a tank is useless but I can still shoot the tank with the spears (1 attack) and then assault (for the second attack) if that doesn't work.

    I'll need to look into upgrading the shuriken cannons. I don't remember that option coming in the box, though. I hope it isn't something I have to convert. It took a lot of convincing to try out a seer council just because I avoid conversions like the plague.

    Thanks for the advice. I think I'll switch some things around so that I have more brightlances next game and just focus on killing infantry with the prisms.
    ReplyDelete
  5. Sorry, I should have been more clear. I actually meant Witchblades over spears for the Council for assault in general, not specifically to hitting a vehicle. In my experience, one of the major drawbacks to the Council in assault is a lack of power weapons. I compensate for a lack of power weapons by increasing my number of attacks, thereby forcing my opponent to roll more dice and hopefully failing saves in that process.

    As far as the Shuriken Cannon goes, I think there are only two choices in getting them, off the Wave Serpent sprue, or from buying Shrieker Jetbikes. To be honest, I really haven't researched that myself.
    ReplyDelete
  6. As it turns out, you were right about all three points. Prisms are great for infantry killing, wave serpent kits have the shuriken cannon upgrade sprue, and witchblades work better.

    http://www.outsydergaming.com/2009/11/sigh-revuk-was-right.html
    ReplyDelete

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