[TipTop1987]

Hello. I'm relitively new to playing Eldar, and I want to try an army that has only one psycher, and that's a Warlock with Wraithguard. I know, strange. But any hoo. I want to take an Autarch as my HQ choice, but don't know what to equip him with. All I know is a Fusion Gun would be nice. Any sugestions?

[tierdar]

Unlike HQ choices from other armies, the Eldar choices are mainly support characters for whatever you need in your list.

To answer that question for you, we'd need to know what other units you are fielding - and what you have available.

[Omeganus]

As previously said it really depends on what the rest of your army is like.

Anyway, I was writing an article on equipping autarchs so I might as well post it here.



Meditations on the art of death: The serpent’s head

Autarchs are not briliant when used on their own but when used with a squad with a similar purpose they can be devastating.

First of all combat:

For combat you have two sets of three options, banshee mask, mandiblasters or go without and power weapon, scorpion chainsword or go without (we'll ignore laser lances).

We'll compare these with in this case a scorpion chainsword as the autarch's only weapon. Point for point the Banshee mask will kill 1.165 marines for each wound suffered, mandiblasters will kill 1.2 for each wound suffered and going without will kill 1.1363636 for each wound suffered point for point. From this we can see that mandiblasters are the best choice point for point.

Now we'll compare power weapons, scorpion chainswords or without whilst also using mandiblasters (because they're the best):

Power weapon (point for point) will kill 2.571 MEQs for each wound suffered, the chainsword will slay 1.2 for each wound suffered and the autarch forced to use his own hands will cut down only 0.818181818181818181818 marines for each wound suffered point for point.

Because of this, the best combat set-up (unless mounted on a jetbike) is mandiblasters and power weapon for 83 points. This will on average scythe down about one and a third marines each turn. If you're going to use your autarch to back up a combat squad (harlequins, scorps, banshees or even storm guardians) will use an autarch with mandiblasters and power weapon.



Ranged weapons are a bit more complicated but it is generally not a good idea to mix ranges too much (so don't put an autarch with an a death spinner in with your reapers because he isn't going to be getting many shots off).

For a ranged autarch the main thing is to make sure his range is similar to that of the unit he's in, if possible the same.

So for fire dragons you want a 12" gun so a fusion gun (duh), death spinner or his standard pistol will work.

Point for point (as always) the fusion gun will kill 0.505 marines for each unsaved wound he suffers, the death spinner will kill 0.327 marines for each wound he suffers and the shuriken pistol will inflict a pathetic 0.207 deaths on the marines for each wound they inflict on him.

As such we can see that his best 12” weapon is the fusion gun although even this is half as effective point for point as a marine and so is unadvisable.

A unit of wraithguard would work as fire dragons as far as autarchs are concerned.

For dire avengers you want an 18” weapon of which there is only one, the avenger catapult which is therefore the most suitable and will kill 0.415 marines for each wound the autarch suffers point for point.

For rangers, you will want a reaper launcher as it is better for your best man to have the better range rather than the worst men having the better men. This will kill 1.1111 marines a turn and will be out of range of the marines for many turns.

Guardians have 12” range and so should take a fusion gun. Jetbikes should take a fusion gun as well although a reaper launcher wouldn’t be so stupid as you can move and fire heavy weapons on a bike and the launcher has a very long range.

For warp spiders take a fusion gun.

For swooping hawks you have a few options, the weak lasblaster (only killing only 0.275 marines for each wound inflicted on the autarch) and the short-ranged avenger catapult killing 0.415 marines per wound. I would say go for the avenger catapult as if he is with a hawk squad he’ll probably be fast and so clipping the range a little won’t matter too much.

Lastly for reapers take a reaper launcher to match range which will kill 1.111 marines a turn and has a much longer range than a bolter.





So for combat squads take mandiblasters and a power weapon and for shooty squads try to match the range but for short range (12”-) use a fusion gun, for medium range (18”-24”) use an avenger catapult and for long range (36”+) use a reaper launcher.

Also do not mix roles so do not take an avenger catapult for a banshee autarch, also, it is generally better to take a combat autarch than a shooty 'tarch as the shooty one will be less effective than the equivalent pointsworth of marines (or for that matter DAs who are better than marines at shooting) whilst a combat 'tarch will be better than the same pointsworth of marines or DAs.