So I got the chance to play with these in the new edition and have them used against me as well.
For those who don't know, the Eldar Jetbike can now be mounted with Scatter lasers on every single bike. Not just one scatter laser for each three bikes you take!
Clearly one of the things this does is picks up the slack of the now nerfed Wave Serpents. While Wave Serpents are very far from terrible, they did get the treatment in this new codex and the power has been replaced by the Eldar Jetbikes.
I will say this: The firepower coming from them is very good if they don't get tied up in close combat. A LOT of extra points get flushed when they lose in close combat.
Now on the plus side, the Jetbikes can be objective secured. This was always their strength anyways, but now you have a tougher choice don't you? Because as soon as you put those Scatter lasers on the bikes, you suddenly don't want to reserve them. So before the game even starts you have to decide if the reserve gambit will be worth it. An Autarch will make it worth it but then, you may or may not want to give up the Farseer for him. Or you may. But it's something you'll definitely have to ponder now.
If the enemy isn't particularly fast, put them on the table and fire away. There will be enough terrain and/or jinking saves to protect them. You really will like the added firepower.
If the enemy is exceptionally fast it's a another matter. Dark Eldar, Necron Canoptek Harvests, and several other forces can be on you extremely quickly and with enough AV 13 or better armor in the way, the enemy could put you in very poor position to take advantage of all the points you spent.
One thing that is always true of Eldar Jetbikes is that their speed is the truest and most reliable weapon they possess. I'll be honest, I will be VERY closely monitoring the mileage I get from the Scatterbikes. I have a feeling that they will requires strong Psyker support to maximize their impact and at that point, you have to look at the overall points expenditures and ask yourself if the TOTAL price of fielding them correctly offsets the potential of AV 13 spam or of uber fast armies. I haven't made up my mind yet if those points, however tantalizing they may be, won't ultimately cost me more than they are worth in other areas.
As an example, I rewrote the Eldar Airforce list I posted some time ago, for 7th Edition. I found that with the Scatterbikes, I gave up an entire other unit to get them. Given that most of the missions are objective oriented, I have to ask myself, will I care more about the damage dealing of those bikes or their freedom to stay mobile by replacing their shooting with another unit? I think its a worthy debate. In my list I spent about 120 points in Scatterlasers. that will get you a nice bit of shooting elsewhere for sure. So the question becomes: what KIND of shooting is better. Is volume better or is perhaps more AP shots better? Hmm...
Your thoughts?
Scat bikes are truly the best troop in the game. Threat bubble, OBSEC, and amount of shots per turn , make the unit worth taking in my opinion. It applies pressure to your opponent to deal knowing you have that unit in your list. The cool thing is Eldar Craftworlds have so many good toys to explore that replacing scat bikes with something else is a reasonable question.
ReplyDeleteI think it is reasonable, yes. I think that the glamour of the ScattterBikes will make some players very complacent. I get it. As in all things, something that truly IS awesome is not very likely to unseat things that are kinda awesome, even if they are cheaper.
ReplyDeleteWhich goes to show that cost ISN'T the only thing we need to look at on ANY unit and all the kill ratio calculations in the world dont begin to tell you the measure of a units usefulness except in comparison to the very narrow band of their nigh identical counterparts. Those are very few. So maybe i will post up some thoughts on alternatives to the Scatter Bikes.
One thing i do feel for certainty is that if someone has Scatter Bikes they are just going to have to become the priority targets. their movement is just TOO crazy to allow it free rein.
Keep up the good work mate i really enjoy reading your articles. Been following you for a couple of years now.
ReplyDeleteWell thank you! Tell a friend and link often. I'll do my best to live up to the praise. =) Thanks for posting.
ReplyDelete