I see a lot of people drooling all over the Wave Serpent and…well the Wave Serpent but quite a lot of confusion over the Warp Spiders and Jetbikes; most recent tournament included. So let’s have a look at them as although the Wave Serpent may be the mainstay and workhorse of Eldar, everything else around it is what makes the Eldar army really work.

The first part of Eldar is all about mobility (and that’s tactics people). People like the point at this and blather stupidity like “finesse” army or “you’re using it wrong” but it simply comes down to having a greater understanding of the game allows you to greater utilise that movement advantage. As clever handle has recently pointed out, it’s not the army you generally point the first timer to given that it’s not as robust or generalistic as your normal Marine/IG army but it doesn’t take some special super secret skill to use; just basic fundamentals of the game.

Digressing… Jetbikes and Warp Spiders are two of the most nimble and mobile units Eldar have access to. Warp Spiders don’t have raw speed but they have three movement opportunities which are all relatively reliable (2D6″ or re-roll) whilst still being able to shoot. Jetbikes have two movement opportunities along with a third which is insanely long but forgoes shooting. The number of opportunities you get to move here is really important and why Battle Focus has become such an integral rule for Eldar (again, not “finesse”). I’m sure many of you understand the advantages of being able to move, shoot and then move again.

With Warp Spiders you move 6+2D6″ in the movement phase. It’s not as awesome as a straight 12″ move as sometimes you can get less but the average generally sees you making that movement and more plus any extra lost can be made up for with Battle Focus + Fleet. The combination of rolling 6+2D6 for your movement averages out the extremes a bit more along with a re-rollable D6 to give you more than enough to be moving at 12″ like most “fast” units (you’re generally moving more). There are sometimes when you’re just going to move in that 12″ range band but those aren’t too common but with Battle Focus and the initial 6+2D6″ movement option, you have more options available to you. Roll well and go 13″+ initially and get in range of what you want to be, use Battle Focus to scurry away a little bit or put more pressure on after shooting. And then, see what the rest of your shooting does and go a further 2D6″ to further facilitate this. Maybe you needed Battle Focus to get that extra inch or so into range and then need the 2nd jump to hide or get somewhere more secure/supported/put more pressure on opponent, etc. Maybe Battle Focus took you to a great spot but you rolled a 18″ and can get to an even better one, etc. Three movement opportunities without any loss of shooting when most units have one.

HELLO????????????

It’s good but you still need to be able to do something with that movement to really garner some shine. So here, have basically rending autocannons. And you can be 19 points per model. This means they’re pretty cheap and they put out damage. Calling them rending autocannons is a stretch but it adds to the effect… The main issue with Spiders is they are 12″ range so even though the new Rapid Fire rules helped Rapid Fire weapons, Spiders get no bonuses there at all. You’re in 12″ or you’re not shooting (but luckily you have two movement options to take before you shoot giving you an effective threat range of 36″…that’s solid if unreliable [average is ~29″]) but you’re getting a decent amount of shots which wound most infantry on 2’s, packs S7 against vehicles and for added effect, has rending. That’s very solid given the movement bouncing they can do and given their cheapness if you’re ever in need of some S7 shooting, Spiders can be a really easy port of call initially. They have the usual Aspect statline as well to back it up so they’re going to hit, have lovely Eldar initiative and leadership and have a 3+ save so can pass off some of the wounds they take as T3 ninnies. Their best defense though is using their movement options to hide and minimise opposing threats.

Oh and they have Hit & Run – so get in there to protect yourself son!

Now Jetbikes. Jetbikes are scoring naturally, same as last codex so we still <3 that move as much as before but now they’re just better. Shuriken can just be annoying en masse against any infantry with pseudo rending but as most people have figured out, incidental anti-infantry firepower adds up and Jetbikes are now BS4 along with their twin-linked so they put out a decent anti-infantry firepower. Chuck in 10 point Shuriken Cannons for more shots and higher strength to threaten lower AVs. As above, they have the double movement options as well without impacting their shooting. Given the shorter ranges of their weapons, this is again very handy to get them in range and then either put further pressure on the opponent or get into a better defensive position. Shorter gun ranges oten leave you in a position to get screwed over by your opponent next turn but all of Eldar have the option to minimise this and both Warp Spiders and Jetbikes do this at a much better rate however its the new turbo-boost that really throws these guys into great territory.

The ability to move 48″ in a given turn is insane. You can have one Jetbike left and it can do the old vehicle adage of contesting objectives in the blink of an eye or grab Linebreaker for you. That’s massive in 6th edition and although your opponent has protections against this, it’s a great ace up your sleeve. I’m not a fan of getting Jetbikes just for this purpose but sometimes (Tau), it’s what they are there for. Otherwise with their Marine-like statline they are a decently durable scoring unit given their mobility and in-built cover save. All of this for +3 points on a Tactical Marine?

Again – it’s not hard to see why they are used particularly when they are a great location for Farseers on bikes and give Eldar some more durable scoring outside of squishy Dire Avengers or Guardians inside Wave Serpents which will sooner or later die.

In the end, both of these units rely on their movement to be very effective and given they have multiple movement options which happen in each phase of the game, hopefully you can see why this makes these units so good and why movement is also so important. It’s the phase you have the most control over it – these guys give you two or three bites at that apple. Use. It.