Thread: Eldar, cutting down to 1850

I've been running the following at 2000 points the last couple weeks, and it's been treating me well:

HQ:
(210) Eldrad
(155) Avatar
Elite:
(192) 10 Howling Banshees: Exarch w/ Executioner, Acrobatic, War Shout
Troops:
(386) 10 Wraithguard: Warlock w/ Spiritseer upgrade, Embolden
(100) 10 Guardians w/ Eldar Missile Launcher
(100) 10 Guardians w/ Eldar Missile Launcher
(152) 10 Dire Avengers: Exarch w/ Dual ASC's, Bladestorm
FA:
(174) 6 Warp Spiders: Exarch w/ Dual Deathspinners, Powerblades, Withdraw
HS:
(217) 5 Dark Reapers: Exarch w/ Tempest Launcher, Crack Shot
(155) Wraithlord: 2x Flamers, Eldar Missile Launcher, Bright Lance
(155) Wraithlord: 2x Flamers, Eldar Missile Launcher, Bright Lance

The biggest problem I have currently is breaking open vehicles, particularly light transports. There are a total of 6 long-range S8 shots, one meltagun, and the 10 wraithcannons. The only reliable way I have to get at vehicles is at extremely short range, often by punching them with a wraithlord. So while dropping a wraithlord is the easiest way to cut out 150 points to get down to 1850, it's also making a weak area even weaker... which I don't like. One option is to drop the wraithguard down to a 5-6 man squad and add a third guardian team, but then my expendable cover saves become more important than the squad they're protecting. I could pull the dire avengers, but similarly going down to 3 scoring units (two of which are prone to suiciding for the wraithguard) is problematic again. Anyone have suggestions on a way to tone things down somewhat evenly through the list, rather than just taking one full squad, since they all have a fairly key inter-locked role to fill currently?

Why not just shrink all the squads by 1? There's no "need 10 to get the special weapon" requirement like Marines. Granted some are at the minimum already, but 1 Reaper plus 1 Warp Spider plus Avenger plus 1 Wraithguard plus 1 Banshee should get you close.

Maybe change the Reaper Exarch over to a EML to get another S8?

Ahh, Crazy Red Praetorean, that acronym took me too long to process.

Yeah... it's hard to pull the reapers, but I really don't see any good options to lose the points from either. The warp spiders are about the only low-hanging fruit, but the problem is that I need something that actually has the ability to get to the other side of the board and contest an objective.

from what ive seen, the Dark Reaper exarch is about the only one who ever does anything in the unit so you might consider dropping the other two dudes if they remain in your army. I would also advise against the warwalkers. To me they only seem good at outflanking with scatter lasers to ensure side shots. If you are looking to pop transports early on, then you have to set them up in your deployment zone and they are just too easy to kill. Especially when your whole army is getting cover saves, your opponent gets a lot more bang for their buck by shooting them, so they are a prime target.

Why not drop the Avengers and call it good? Admittedly you're down to two fairly fragile troops choices for holding objectives, and your screen gets smaller. But you retain every element of your army that gives me the willies. Sure blade storm will dump 2 or three wounds on terminators (if you roll like I do), or kill 3 to 5 tac marines (and of course do a number on more squishy targets) but you have other elements that are just as effective.

Another option is to drop one dark reaper and cut the wraithguard squad down to 5, then take a fourth guardian squad. The list actually gains killing power that way (getting more than about 7 WG into range of something without assuming the "get raped by blast templates formation" is unlikely), but the WG become non-scoring then. It also gets harder to keep the wraithlords awake without a spiritseer, but that's realistically not a huge risk - they should be within counter-assault range of Eldrad anyway. List ends up looking like this:

HQ:
(210) Eldrad
(155) Avatar
Elite:
(192) 10 Howling Banshees: Exarch w/ Executioner, Acrobatic, War Shout
(175) 5 Wraithguard
Troops:
(100) 10 Guardians w/ Eldar Missile Launcher
(100) 10 Guardians w/ Eldar Missile Launcher
(100) 10 Guardians w/ Eldar Missile Launcher
(152) 10 Dire Avengers: Exarch w/ Dual ASC's, Bladestorm
FA:
(174) 6 Warp Spiders: Exarch w/ Dual Deathspinners, Powerblades, Withdraw
HS:
(182) 4 Dark Reapers: Exarch w/ Tempest Launcher, Crack Shot
(155) Wraithlord: 2x Flamers, Eldar Missile Launcher, Bright Lance
(155) Wraithlord: 2x Flamers, Eldar Missile Launcher, Bright Lance

I guess the question is, am I better off with 4 very squishy scoring units, or one absurdly durable scoring unit and 2 squishy ones?