So, you say the CWE should turn into a highly elite fleet?
By all this: what keeps this mind set from giving longer ranged weapons to Eldar?
Because: the farther away you are from the enemy the better for a Dying Race.
Right?
I ask the question, why shouldn't they?
Points to consider
-Eldar are limited in numbers and excell in technology. They should specialise in whatever they choose.
-Eldar are specialists according to the fluff.
-Cosair Eldar are specialist raiders (so good they can end a game in one turn).
-Why limit CW Eldar to a pirates role?
-Why should they be tin foil? Aren't Eldar meant to be hard to kill? I'm not suggesting 6+ all round or even the equivalent of the IN.
When it comes to long range weaponary I am not closed to it. I would resist it due to the fact that it would negate the need for armour 6 on the front, it would completely change the feel of the CW eldar, eldar already have the initiative due to speed and so most importantly they don't need the extra range.
Possible rules additions I would include are things like...
-Armour 6/4/5 at a speed of 10/15/20
-Their shields and holofields combine and require a 6+ to be rolled in order to place a blast marker regardless of the armour of that facing. This could be an Eldar brace rule but I think their shields should be better than Imperial. This would affect lances however the power of the lance would be that it places 2 blast markers if a 6 is rolled. Roll dice equal to the current shields until they drop. Ordinance ignores shields.
Ie. A Slaughter class chaos cruiser attacks a moving away Dragonship CWE BC at close range. 6 wb shots come in on rear. It's an armour 5 facing with 2 shields intact. Roll these WB's in groups of 2. All 6 WBs fail to roll a 6. Now 2 lances come in from the slaughter. Roll each separately as they will drop the shields if one of them hits. The first rolls a 6 and hits dropping both shields and allowing the second to roll for damage on a 4+.
-Give them decoys. A type of ordinance that gets a unit of torps to attack it. Armour 2,3 or 4+. Ideas for these are they may be deployed during the ordinance phase or fire them whenever enemy torps come within 10cm. Cap ships only.
-Craftworld attack craft. Counts as a fighter with resilience with 30cm movement. May attack enemy vessels, remove as normal. For every full three that get through to attack the ship, the attack craft fire 1 pulsar lance shot and like all ordinance. No shields. 1-2 fighters, no shots, 3-5 one pulsar lance shot, 6-8 two shots etc. They do not get assault boats or bombers. Turrets re-roll successful hits (Taus' ability would just cancel each other out. roll as normal) or the current, you need 6's to hit them.
-Craftworld attack craft. Any squadrons that did not engage the enemy in this ordinance phase may move to join another squad that has not engaged the enemy. No further movement of either of these squadrons is possible until the next ordinance phase.
-Drop weapon arrays to take extra shielding.
-Sensor Probe. A type of torpedo for Eldar. Each sensor probe counts as a salvo of 3 torps. They may each move 20cm in any direction during the ordinance phase. Any Eldar ship firing at an enemy vessel with a sensor probe within 10 cm will receive the close range column shift for shooting purposes (another idea for this is +1 to all dice rolled against enemy vessels within 10 of a sensor probe). When firing these torpedoes you divide the salvo into 3. Each full number you get is the number of sensor probes fired.
Ie. A Wraithship fires its 4 torps as a sensor probe salvo it would only get one. If 3 Wraithships fire their 12 torps as sensor probes, they would get 4 sensor probes. These four could move away in opposite directions in the ordinance phase.
-Defenders. If CWE ships disengage, opponent gets 20% VP's for the fleet rather than the usual 10%.
-Dying race. Reroll any failed disengage check. In addition to the optional rules in the MMS 1.9
In short I would evolve them to be a completely separate fleet from any other with their own nifty little rules. I would not build them to resemble an existing fleet, else whats the point in building them?
This is what I have come up with in about an hour of tinkering. What can you come up with?
