Getting ahead of the Meta: how to beat the new Eldar

I thought I'd write up some thoughts on how to beat the new Eldar codex before I rage-quit. I'm so upset by this Codex. It's already cost GW $150 odd dollars because my insecurity about whether I would keep playing meant I declined to buy the new Assassins game. I've put all my purchases on hold for the next 2 months until I get some games in against this codex. This codex is so busted I can't even imagine having fun casual games against it. I would need to bring a very powerful marines list to combat just about anything the Eldar Dex can put out. I basically can't play Deathwing against it, weak Ob-sec spam will get beat by better ob-sec spam jetbikes, and anything remotely social will get totally dominated by aspect warrior builds or the guardian host. That leaves drop pods and bikes, which aren't exactly social. I won't be buying Knights anytime soon because of D, which also means I won't be starting a Skitarii army anytime soon.

Just to put things into perspective, a Jetbike,  which trades 1 point of strength and toughness for 1 point of initiative, ignore terrain and a gigantic turbo boost, as well as a default gun that has rending, compared to a regular space marine bike, can now be fitted with a scatter laser (essentially an assault cannon) and costs only 27 points i.e. 6 points more than an SM bike. They pay 10 points to get those assault cannons. Marines pay 20 and can't get more than 1 per unit, nor can they get them on something fast other than the otherwise awful land speeder, which is about as durable as a jetbike but costs 70 points. Nice. This reminds of Wraiths, which are better on all fronts that Terminators but cost 32 points less. I'm all for making amazingly powerful units, just make them cost a lost of points!

The Wraithknight has higher initiative, more attacks and better movement than an Imperial Knight, plus D on its long range guns, can deep strike, and costs 75 points less. It should probably clock in somewhere around 450-500 points, at least.

Guardian platforms get access to D for 32 points, or for free with one of the formations. Crimson hunters are now busted, dropping strength D blasts (!) anywhere on the table the turn they arrive from reserve. Eldar should have no difficulty bringing 5-15 items of D strength weaponry to a game without compromising the breadth of what they can handle, their ability to objective secure or their ability to handle hordes. The fabulously fluffy (though undercosted) new aspect warriors won't even get a look in.

I would expect something like to the following to be the intial 'to-beat' list:

1 Wraithknight LOW with 2 D guns
2 farseers leading a seer-council (this is a detachment)
A humonculous with a web-way portal leading a squad of Wraithguard in a raider
Some kabalite warriors in a Venom to make up the troops choice for allies
Jetbikes as far as the eye can see with scatter lasers, perhaps with some Vypers if that unlocks the Sain Hamm formation.

Ugh, that is so fucking nasty. The Wraithguard will delete a unit the turn they arrive with no scatter from reserve. And they have FNP (from Deldar HQ), T6 and a 3+! The joy. Why bother with the also overpowered fire dragons when you have D strength flamers to work with. The Seer council is a wrecking ball throwing buffs out at a ridiculous rate and harnessing warp charge on a 3+. They can also deny other psychic builds (e.g. Centurion star) without compromising the effective of this list.  The Wraithknight blows up anything big and nasty your opponent has (Knights, Land Raiders, lone Chapter Masters on bikes, tyrannid Monstrous creatures etc) without fearing death in the return fire. Then he dances over to the opponents side of the table and starts stomping and AP2 STR10 attacking everything he might want to engage in assault. Meanwhile, the real threat (yes, all that was just a prelude), the jetbikes, are killing all your infantry regardless of how heavy they are, all your transports, all your light and medium tanks and all your other monstrous creatures while casually collecting Maelstrom points. Delightful isn't it? Maybe someone will throw in some warp spiders that now jump when they get shot at so they don't take casualties, or some haywire grenade throwing swooping hawks which now seem to be the best anti-air unit in the game (and a bargain). They're not so good against flyrants though, so maybe instead we'll see Crimson hunters with D guns that kill them in one shot instead!

Marines have to go grav-spam against that - it's the only way. If you pod down you might do well for a few turns but enough jetbikes will survive to beat you off the objectives. Hell, your opponent can just reserve most of his list and beat you in turns 4-6. With bikes you will probably want to go back to minimum sized squads of grav to max out the number of grav guns you have access to and avoid losing too much every time one of your opponent's squads opens fire. I think you still want the Chapter Master and Khan but the Death Star is a risky proposition if your opponent can drop some Wraithguard next to it and wipe out your 600+ point squad in one volley from a unit than costs <300 points (yeah, that's right). This approach mitigates the Wraithlord because he has nothing to shoot at efficiently, though fear his stomp assault. You can kill him fairly effectively if necessary but you might just want to avoid him for the most part. Your bikes can hurt his jetbikes quite well while you at least get a save against him (though wound on 2+ is pretty rough). He is faster than you and the Seer-council will be pretty much impossible to kill. Without a wolf style Death Star (which the Wraithguard D drop rules out) you can't handle them in assault, and now that Rune Priests can't deny you don't have any strong options for preventing their buffs. If you get first turn you can do a scout bum rush, but he can counter by reserving most of his list, or bringing that scouting thing that forgeworld produces, which basically makes it such that if he wins the roll to scout you lose right there. In the later turns its your 6 grav shots against his 12+ scatter laser shots, squad on squad. I don't know how it will go but I don't fancy your chances unless you are an awesome player, and keep in mind that grav-lists die horribly to daemons, horribly to hordes, horribly to Knights (especially now that you can't take your own Knight as a rock because you fear the D) and horribly to flyrant lists, while this Eldar list does not.

Great fun for everyone!

As a footnote, while I prefer to play pretty competitively, I want to say that I also enjoy social games. I enjoy campaigns (I am playing through one I designed with my gaming group right now). I like to forge the narrative. When nasty things come out you can usually just have a gentlemen's agreement not to use it, or at least tip your opponent off before hand so they bring appropriate things to play against your doom item. Or you can play highlander or some such. The Eldar Dex is so broken that you basically can't get away from its dominance even if you try. Consider the following highlander list

Wraithknight
Farseer + Seer Council Formation
Dire Avengers in Falcon or Wave Serpent
Guardian Squad in Wave Serpent
Full size Jetbike squad all with scatter lasers
Fire dragon squad in Wave serpent
Swooping Hawks
Note that you have now unlocked the aspect warrior formation, which makes avenger amazing
D-cannon battery

That is fucking nasty, and with a few more points you could probably unlock the Guardian host formation. Might just be better to buy a squad of warp spiders, a second squad of jetbikes, or a seer council. Jesus. How is anything going to stand up to that besides full power lists with 40 flesh hounds of Khorne or some such?