The Farseer is good.

In fact, the Farseer is REALLY good. He’s so good that you should be sticking him in just about every Eldar army, and in any army where you’re taking Eldar as allies and you’re Battle Brothers.

But when you’re not, he loses a lot of his effectiveness. He can’t cast on allies of convenience or lower, and while he can get some offensive psychic powers, he really is mostly just a buff machine.

And so, there are those scenarios where the Autarch starts to become a more attractive choice. Unfortunately, you can’t build an Autarch in a ton of different ways. Very fortunately, there is one way which is very effective. I’m talking about the Solitaire.

For those of you who didn’t catch it in my last article, a Solitaire is an Eldar Autarch that has purchased the Mantle of the Laughing God, a Jetbike, and a Laser Lance. That means that (as long as he moved or is touching cover) he has a 2+ cover save that he gets to reroll, he has 5 WS6 S6 AP3 attacks on the charge, and he has Hit and Run. Of course, he gets all the goodness for that comes with having a jetbike as well. He does, however, lose his IC status, and he is stuck with terrible S3 AP- attacks outside of the charge. (I like him with the Banshee mask as well, for reasons I’ll go into later.)

That adds up to a unit that has to be used as a scalpel, in support of a larger force. While he’s not going to break armies on his own, he’s an invaluable asset not only to many Eldar forces, but as an ally.

First up:

Weaknesses

You die to things that ignore cover. Actually, it’s not that bad, because most things that ignore cover you can still largely ignore. (Flamers are not terribly effective, as a rule, as they only hit you once, they’re only S4, and they don’t ignore armor.) The only faction that really has to potential to mess you up is Tau.

First: Seeker Missiles. One markerlight hit means you’re probably taking an ignores-cover Instant Death hit. That sucks, but at least most Tau armies don’t have a lot of throwaway markerlights, so you might be saving something else from a bad tag. You do have a 4+ invulnerable save as well, don’t forget it. (Avoid by staying out of LOS, if possible, until you have a lot of stuff engaging. Confused target priority is your best friend.)

The second category is what I’ll call “Other Tau Stuff”. Two markerlight hits will let anyone ignore your cover, and Smart Missile Systems also outright ignore it. (Though you do get your armor, so it takes 4-5 of them shooting at you to ultimately down you.)

Contrary to what you’ll hear from many people, the Heldrake will not stop you. ID this edition is calculated AFTER modifiers, so the T4 given by your bike will make you immune to a one-shot from him. Just don’t hang out close to other juicy targets so you can’t be easily incidentially tagged by the template.

Now that we understand that, let’s talk strategy, so we can understand what we’re trying to accomplish. First off, always remember to:

Use Your Speed

You are an Eldar Jetbike. You move 12” in the movement phase, and can flat out up to 36” MORE, for a total of 48” of movement. You are never more than a turn away from threat range. Don’t fear terrain, either, in this edition you have your armor save against it, so if you need to start or end in it, take the chance. If you don’t flat out and don’t assault, you get a second 2d6” move in the assault phase, which is more useful for other Eldar bikes, but is nice to have nonetheless.

What that means is not only that you have an ENORMOUS threat range, but that you can be in places that the enemy can’t react to. Out of LOS, or even in reserve are fine places for your Solitare to hang out, he doesn’t need to be rocketing forward every turn. What’s most important to realize is that he’s so fast that he can hide most of the game and still threaten the entire board- there’s no escaping him. In fact, the longer you keep him alive, even if that means some inactivity, the more of a problem he’s going to be- he’s nice versus a large army, but absolutely brutal against a force that’s been engaging for a couple turns.

Remember, as well, that you can premeasure. Use. This. You ignore terrain, not only when moving, but also on the charge- and the Solitaire is a Jetbike with fleet. You can park yourself exactly far enough away from enemy troops that you are well within assault range, but a counterassult would require a miracle roll. Remember, as well, that you can pretty reliably count on a 19” threat range from your Solitaire. That’s huge.

In addition, his speed and combat ability make him an excellent late-turn objective contestor. He can reach out to just about anywhere, and many troops units will absolutely crumble to him. Actually, let’s talk about…

How to Engage

What should you fight? Simply put- things you can beat.

The Solitaire will mop up a lot of units in 40k, because a lot of units are simply not very good in combat- and because he’s so fast, he can pick his battles. If, for instance, you’re fighting Chaos, you can kill a unit of cultists per turn until he deals with you. Tau Firewarriors, most Necron squads, guardsmen- anything that isn’t marines is in trouble, as you can start bullying their scoring and demand a response.

Even marines have a bad time if they’re not a large squad, as you can kill a few and be comfortable knowing that they won’t likely be able to kill you back. And you can always hit-and-run out to charge again.

Challenges are something, however, that you’ll have to manage. If you are challenged, you have to accept- you’ll always be on your own, unless you’re engaging in tandem with an allied unit. That’s not really a bad thing, since you’ll almost certainly win the challenge without your opponent even having a chance to swing, and force a morale test. On a lot of units that’s still really bad for them, as you can force a morale check, and your high initiative means that you’re extremely likely to sweep most units.

Obviously, if their unit leader is equipped with a powerful melee weapon, you want to put forward a challenge of your own- better to kill him before he can swing. Otherwise, if your opponent doesn’t challenge you, it’s time to do some quick math-hammer. Figure out about how many wounds you’d expect to take from enemies, and plan your challenge accordingly. Here’s some basic number to keep in mind:

9 S3 attacks: ~0-1 wound.

9 S4 attacks (normal marine squad, with sarge): ~0-1 wound, with 1 wound more likely.

18 S4 attacks (charged by marines! Sarge is dead or you would have challenged.): ~1-2 wounds

24 S4 attacks (damn space wolves!): ~2 wounds.

As you can see, you’re not in that much danger from standard squads. Even a full Space Wolves squad is unlikely to take you out in a turn. (Though obviously, there are some factors, like a Wolf Standard etc. that can bend results, you can figure out what is and isn’t a good deal.)

In any case, your goal is always the same- hit the unit, cause a morale test.

Do not be fooled into thinking you’re a flying Hive Tyrant or Daemon prince. You don’t have to go after the big, bad things in the opponent’s army (though you are surprisingly good at killing most tanks). Instead, bully their soft units: their troops and support. Killing deathstars is flashy, but killing troops and contesting objectives wins games. Just in case you don’t understand, I made it bold.

Remember, also, that you have Hit-and-Run. You can use this to stay locked with the enemy during their turn (as they likely don’t pose much of a threat to you) and avoid any annoying shooting that might ignore your cover, or you can use it to break immediately after the charge, in case you want to gain a better position. Note, also, that Jetbikes are allowed to land on Impassible Terrain, as long as the model can balance on it. That can be an excellent way to avoid a counter-assault.

That all may sound pretty good, however, there’s one more piece to the Solitaire puzzle-

Use Him to Support Your Army

This is more important that having him engage. The Solitaire is an AMAZING support piece, and he isn’t half as good as he could be if you just blindly charge him at the enemy.

First, consider his cover save. A 2+ save with a reroll is as close as anyone in 40k comes to invulnerability, albeit only against most ranged attacks.

Which means that, for the most part, the Solitaire is effectively immune to overwatch. He can charge units before you engage them with another squad, eating the overwatch fire effortlessly, or engaging them so that they can’t fire.

I also like the Banshee mask with him, mostly if he’s in an allied force. It’s because of the ability to tandem charge- if he charges into combat, all enemy units drop their initiative by 5. That’s a ticket to I1 for most of the units in the game, which means that even allied Tau get to strike first against nearly any enemy. Not bad for 5 points.

(Do note that it’s ALL enemy units in the combat, so it will affect all units along the chain in a large combat, as well as any allies of Convenience or Desperation. However, that’s not a terrible thing in all cases, as you can charge in to a combat that your allies were already striking last in anyway, and ensure instead that everyone is striking simultaneously except of course the Solitaire.)

Finally, and I can’t stress this enough, use your positioning. Positioning, positioning, positioning. You do NOT have to simply throw him in front of the enemy army. You do NOT have to hang out around units that can charge and kill you- you are fast, so USE IT.

That means putting yourself behind units that want to move forward. (A favorite of mine is charging a unit, killing the Sergent, and then using Hit-and-Run that same turn to get BEHIND them. They now have to choose whether they want to pursue me back towards their own edge, or be left sitting in the wind, with the rest of my force too far away to assault.) It means hiding if you don’t have a good target at the moment. It means smashing small units, one by one, all game long. It means jumping into combats to save that guardian squad that’s just hanging on, and it means finishing off those last few annoying enemies from that assault unit you shot to hell.

Remember, if you can’t get a good position to assault with him, because your enemy knows it’s coming and he’s bunched up, USE THAT. Take the field. If he does spread out, punish him for it. If your opponent is trying to bait you into standing right next to a unit full of flamers, play mind games and make him chase you until they make a mistake. Just because you’re not rolling dice and making things die doesn’t mean he’s not useful. It’s like a blast weapon: sure, your opponent can spread out all their infantry to avoid damage, but you can use that reaction to your advantage in your manuvering.

Two More Things…



It’s a bit unclear if you can take more than one Remnant of Glory on a character, but if you can then The Pheonix Gem is kind of awesome on the Solitaire, given that he often meets his end in combat.

This may be errata’d, but at the moment the Autarch ability The Path of Strategy allows all allies, regardless of type, to benefit. It simply states that if your army includes and Autarch, then you can add +1/-1 to your reserve rolls. (After you roll them, individually.)

That makes him an awesome choice for armies that like to play with a lot in reserve- Drop Pod and BA jump lists come to mind. Thanks puppy for pointing out that this doesn’t work in the comments.

It also means that you can have an awesome Eldar support element without bemoaning that the Farseer can’t cast his powers on you:

Ally Template

Autarch (Jetbike, Mantle, Laser Lance, Banshee Mask)

9x Jetbikes, (3x Cannon)

9x Jetbikes, (3x Cannon)

That’s an nice 506 points that will slot well into just about ANY build- it’s so fast, and brings such nice benefits and firepower, that it will be a boon to just about any list. (If the Jetbike Squads are only 6xbike2xcannon, it’s 384 points, 3x1x is 262, and still excellent. Of course, you can also save 5 points, if you don’t like the Banshee Mask like I do.)

You can use this not only to harass the enemy, but to bring some extremely fast scoring and contesting units. It is frankly a little crazy good. It’s also a solid foundation in which you can season to taste with other ally units: a Fire Prism, perhaps, or some Warp Spiders. Maybe go all-out on the bikes and bring some Shining Spears. Keep that speed mojo going.

Thoughts?