Iyanden Eldar - First Impressions

Okay, now I've played 4 test games (excluding a 1v1v1 game) and I've gotten 4 wins so far, so I'm pretty satisfied with it. I decided to write up what I've noticed in the games that could improve myself and anyone who reads, without leaking too much strategic information to my friends ;).

HQ:

Iyanna Arienal (count as Eldrad):
The best farseer you can get. You simply cannot go wrong with Eldrad in your foot slogging army, as he's able to fortune two units and guide or whatever another. Combining him with the wraithwall is amazing as the Avatar is  much more durable with fortune, in a game he took rapid fire from approx 30 chaos marines and didn't take a wound.

The wargear on Eldrad is also amazing and if you plan on playing higher point games its almost a must have.

Regular Farseer with Fortune:

Just a basic farseer with no other upgrades than fortune. This is really a hard question as you can only fortune one squad per turn and might have problems passing psychic tests etc. In one game he was worth it, in another totally useless. I really think RoWarding & RoWitnessing are great and shouldn't be left home unless really tight on points.



Avatar of Khaine:
This guy made triple his points back in one game, by using fortune. And died to rapid fire from a SoB squad, only managing to destroy their rhino in another game. So the lesson here is to keep him fortuned up. 3+ armor save 4++ invul save is amazing when rerolled, and T:6 will only get you so far. But I have a haaaaard time not taking him anymore, due to the game he single handedly took down like 1 rhino, 20 chaos marine, obliterator etc etc.

Yriel of Iyanden (Theory):
As I haven't been able to play with this character yet, I have a hard time saying how he will work. But in a squad of harlequins he should be amazing. Being able to run up solo to a whole squad of MEQ units and wipe them out whilst the harlequins assault something else. The str:6, AP3 pie plate should shred through any 3+ or worse armor save units. I'll have to try him out soon.


Troops:


Wraithguard (10 Man + Spiritseer):
Alright, these guys are tough, but only in masses and with a fortune 'seer. You can be sure that they will hold the objective and even if they'd manage  to get into close combat, you have time to bring backup as they will be hard to kill for a normal enemy (terminators and the likes are an exception).

Their guns are really short ranged but if they get in range, most things vaporize. Thankfully they are assault weapons meaning you can move 6" and still fire 12", giving you a range of 18" which isn't all that bad, considering rapid fire weapons.

But the main problem is their cost and I dont really recommend taking a full squad unless your playing 1500p or more. And smaller squads just aren't as intimidating and lacks the punch 10 of these will do.


Pathfinders:
Nothing much to say really, a decent choice for objective camping and they are hard to kill from a distance. However if something gets close they are as good as dead. They are the main guys i keep for protecting my home objectives whilst the wraithguards march over towards the enemies objective.



Elites:


Harlequins:

I really enjoy playing with these models. They look slick, are immune against most shooting (shadowseer) and have a nasty amount of attacks. I still haven't tried my death jester but theres been several times where I've had to wait for the perfect counter attack moment and could have used them to fire instead of just wait for the charge.

I honestly thought they would be mediocre as they are really expensive. And I haven't actually yet used more than a 5-6 man squad of them. But even when half their squad is dead, they keep on killing more.

Against the Adepta Sororitas the two remaining harlequins (with harl. kisses) got assaulted by the Canonness but managed to survive, and got one wound off her. After that they used Hit and run and managed to run up to a retributor squad killing all of them whilst only losing one harly. The last harly ran up to the Canonness and rended her to death.

And in the battle against the chaos space marines they managed to run up and kill a squad of raptors but they got killed by the lord they were with. The lord as lucky to survive though as he made most of his invul saves, so I dont blame the harlies for that.

Against the orks they ran ahead and killed off a boy squad on the charge, without even getting attacked back. However they didn't consolidate far enough and got toasted by lootas. Maybe too effective that time around.


Heavy Support:


Wraithlords:
These monstrous creatures have proven very resistant to enemy fire. They do lack the melee capability of some other monstrous creatures, but they can still pack a punch. Against the chaos a greater daemon managed to kill one of them but died soon later in close combat against another wraithlord. Whilst the avatar was being overrun by smaller targets, trying to keep him from slaying daemon.

They have also been okay against tanks with their brightlances, but you really need two brightlance wielding wraithlords for them to have any chance. One just isn't enough as one shot can easily miss, but two have a higher chance of doing some good.

Taking 3 of these guys insures that you have a lot of high toughness targets and as far as I've seen the enemies don't really know how to bring them all down, at least if they also have a fortuned Avatar in the mix.


Overall:
I'm really happy on how my testing have started with 4 wins and the only 'loss' I have is the 1on1on1 but that doesn't really count as people gank you, hehe.
Some people might think my "fluffy" army is way too competitive, but I think it'll pass when they get used to the units and know how to kill them. It will be a sad day for me :(.

But in any case, as I almost tabled the enemy in two of the games, I think they are above average and can be a good all around army. I have yet to test the Swooping Hawks so I can't comment on how they will perform. I'll take them in the next test game.