Understanding IG vs Eldar match up
Posted: Sat 21 May, 2016 10:52 pm
This is the follow up post from IG VS SM match up. My friend wishes to know how much meta has moved on in Elite compared to retribution.
IG vs Eldar
IG is considered to have an upper hand against Eldar in 1 v 1 but since all its advantage comes from sentinel, IG player should preserve it no matter the cost. Inq and LG are recommended but not LC. This is because LC specializes in large scale combats and it doesn't occur so often in vs Eldar match up. Also he goes down way to fast under enemy fire. In comparison, LG's ability to break suppression on demand and to buff firepower and health of IG units in various ways is really effective vs Eldar. In case of Inq, she is very good at countering Eldar guerrilla warfare. So don't go for LC.
Tier 1
Sentinels are quite resistant to fire from Dire Avengers and shurikens thanks to their heavy infantry armor. Also, they are fast unlike SM units so they are in no danger of getting chased down by banshees with their power melee. This is probably the only time having heavy infantry armor actually benefits a unit properly. All Eldar player has to counter sentinels in T1 are Rangers and Plasma nades. This means Sentinels are a hard counter to DAs. Ork shootas are very dangerous to sentinels if they are equipped with big shootas but its not the case for Eldar DAs. Dire Avengers are a unit that relies on shield and plasma nade. Sentinel can dodge nades and crush shields or even flank easily so it will bleed DAs crazily.
Las turrets GM field also can give IG an advantage early on. Although its health is quite low compared to SM or Chaos turrets, dps wise its on par with them. Eldar does not have anything that can take buildings down reliably in T1 except Warlock's flame sword. Thus, if you put one around a VP, you can keep it for free until about mid T2. Eldar can try to take turret down with WSE mass teleport and banshees but it is too cost inefficient method so its in your favor even if they do so. Moreover, if you are confident that you can bait Warlock to keep using that flaming ground skill on other units like GM instead of the turret, you can use turret even against Warlock.
As I have mentioned earlier, all that IG player has to watch out for in T1 vs Eldar is shuriken, ranger and Warlock. WSE is nothing more than a fast capper and not much else in this match up. It can try to bleed GM but if he doesn't manage to wipe out a squad, its not worth it either. In case of Farseer, she doesn't have anything to do until Wraithguard comes out. She will put guide on Shuriken and will tank some damage but that is about it. Rest of the things would be easy since all an IG player has to care about at this point is managing sentinels well so they don't go down to Ranger fire. You need to know that Eldar player produced Ranger just to keep sentinel from running amok and its your fault if Sent gets killed from it since Ranger's fire rate is quite slow although it has good damage. As long as you start running away after first or second shot, it will survive. You must remember that getting 3 or 4 shots from rangers is entirely your fault.
Sometimes Eldar will try to melee GM with DA in the very first engagement. Surprisingly enough, DA with no upgrade has three times the dps of GM with no upgrade and will win that engagement. Since there is no actual danger of getting wiped, Eldar player will willingly send DA in for melee. So in this case, bring Sent or hero for assistance, using GM rashly before having squad leader upgrade is not in your favor. When Eldar player attempts to stop your hero or GM using shuriken, flank with sent or blow it away with ol'reliable. Also, purchasing a shrui means there is no ranger so exploit that fact by using sent more aggressively around the map. However, don't try to force your way through 2 shuri or 1 shur + 1 ranger because its not in your favor. Having set up teams is always a minus in terms of mobility anyways so don't fight it. Remember that IG has the initiative in T1. If you are so desperate to deal with 2 shuri, try to force your opponent to spread them out. You always can manage to somehow force off 1 shuri using things like sentinel, cata or Hammer of the witch from your Inq. In case of LG, he can just use anti suppression buff and shoot the crap out of shuri in the front while blowing away the one in behind with Cata.
It will be a great T1 as long as you harass the crap out of DA and bash some gens with flamer GM. This may doesn't sound like much but even though its quite hard to wipe squads, that harassment from Sent really bleeds DA like crazy in T1. DA cost as much as 2 GM without a Sgt upgrade so keep on bleeding them. Recommended build would be 1 sent, 3 GM, 1 cata. Cata is the king of small engagements and will win most of such fights so its good vs Eldar. Eldar can't win against Cata without upgraded Banshees but the very fact that you forced a Banshee out from Eldar gives you massive advantage in terms of economy lead because Banshee is always cost inefficient VS IG unless it is meleeing Ogryn or ST. The thing that really matters is destructor, immolate combo from Warlock. Just make sure to keep Warlock in check with your hero and sent for he will do massive damage to your GM if you don't do so. All in all, do not use your GM too carelessly before they get squad leaders.
Tier 2
Once both players reach T2, the fight becomes quite even. DAs start to have their squad leaders which allows them to stand their ground vs Sents and that dreaded WG comes out in the field. WG just absolutely destroy GM which are slow and Falcon is very efficient. However, WL is a very bad choice for Eldar. WL is not that cost efficient vs IG and the match will be lost if Eldar player somehow misplays and lose his WL to IG AV. Despite that, WL can be very dangerous if combined with autarch who can disrupt your las cannon HWT. In that case, you need to face them as if you are facing Assault Termy. They are not that efficient in killing GM quickly so just run around and round and delay them until you have other AV out. The more proper usage of WL would be to guard WG against Ogryns. Since Ogryns cost a lot too, Eldar player can also safely invest in WL. It is very difficult to face both WL and WG running around together so try to separate them by doing guerrilla warfare or go T3 or keep on poking at WL with las cannon HWT. If you are gonna stay in T2 and spend more resource as Inq, just do Crossbow or excruciator into manti combo and it will send it off instantly. LC can put inspire terror on WG warlock to stun it and make it less effective at killing GM.
T2 is all about how IG picks off enemy units and commanders who are trying to guard WG and how you exploit that slow mobility of WG to keep up in capping war while preserving chimera and Manti. WG is way too strong in terms of firepower and health to be tackled in ranged fights so chimera is a must to keep your GM alive and stay active on the field. Even though GM are really cheap to reinforce, you will lose the map control totally if your GM has to run back and forth from the base so frequently. In case of LG, he can fight head on with WG cost efficiently with various buffs as long as he has chimera so keep it alive. Manticore can be used to put some pressure on slow WG but it must not be hunted down. Things like powerblade WSE, webway gate ambushes can hunt down mantis pretty quickly so use catas to plant IED everywhere around the map and get some vision. This way you can see them coming beforehand and move manti to safe place. Heroes should mark Warlock as much as they can. T2 Warlock spells are powerful and he can go full jedi build as well. Therefore keep him in check. To sum it up, do not get your GM wiped, preserve your vehicles and focus on forcing off other guys beside WG in engagements.
If you have chosen Inq, you can make Eldar suffer like hell. She can infiltrate Ogryns to sneak up on Falcons and WG and Eldar can't do anything about it cost efficiently but don't do this and purchase Banewolf if Eldar possess banshees. Ogryn will win in 1 v 1 vs Banshees but most likely Eldar player will bring up hero as well. ST can hunt Falcon with melta or get Assault Kit to do infiltrate and harass cappers. Inq can summon ST cheaply anywhere around the map with some vision and their guerrilla warfare is really annoying for Eldar to deal with since Eldar has given up on mobility by purchasing set up team and WG. Sent + AT ST guarding a side line VP far away from main line of defense is very hard to force off and they can even do some guerrilla warfare to make matters worse for set up team oriented Eldar. And that damned Banewolf is so much effective vs Eldar if it is well managed. Eldar infantry just melts before it and that slowing down ability makes chasing by AV units so difficult. Eldar doesn't have any reliable snare beside Warp Spiders' haywire grenade so well managed Banewolf will do massive damage to Eldar.
There is also a possibility that Eldar will field Warp Spiders. This means your opponent is trying to use distort field or fortune on WS to throw haywire nade safely but there it no reason to worry about it. It is way too costly investment compared to what it gives Eldar as it only fills up pop cap while not being that useful of a combat unit which weakens Eldar army as a whole. Moreover, even though WS has scary dps, it will bleed so much when they try to tackle GM squad supported by Chimera. GM vs WS is always in favor of IG economy wise. In case of autarch running amok among your GM, you need to exploit the fact that now your opponent has to field only 1 WG instead of 2 which matters a lot in terms of firepower you have to counter. Also, autarch can't win against Cata despite its high cost. Just get into Chimera and autarch will have to leave.
Tier 3
There is not much to be wary of in T3 except D cannons and commander wargears from Eldar. However, you will be in trouble if Eldar gets Seer Council as Farseer when you were relying heavily in Ogryns. Seer Council reaps through Ogryn and GM alike and is not so slow like Assault Termy either and also quite tanky. Expert usage of chimera is needed in this case. Good thing is Inq can cc the crap out of Seer council and LC can buff Cata and fight alongside with them to force off Seer Council. Moreover, Eldar will just get second WG anyways so it doesn't really matter. Well, it is easier said than done. WG is such a powerful unit that it can effectively punish your misplays and cost you a game anytime during the match. IG is strong vs Eldar but it is like that under the condition that you are able to multi task your key units such as Sentinel, Cata, ST along side main army consisted of chimera and GM. But if you can do that properly, you will definitely have an advantage over Eldar.
IG vs Eldar
IG is considered to have an upper hand against Eldar in 1 v 1 but since all its advantage comes from sentinel, IG player should preserve it no matter the cost. Inq and LG are recommended but not LC. This is because LC specializes in large scale combats and it doesn't occur so often in vs Eldar match up. Also he goes down way to fast under enemy fire. In comparison, LG's ability to break suppression on demand and to buff firepower and health of IG units in various ways is really effective vs Eldar. In case of Inq, she is very good at countering Eldar guerrilla warfare. So don't go for LC.
Tier 1
Sentinels are quite resistant to fire from Dire Avengers and shurikens thanks to their heavy infantry armor. Also, they are fast unlike SM units so they are in no danger of getting chased down by banshees with their power melee. This is probably the only time having heavy infantry armor actually benefits a unit properly. All Eldar player has to counter sentinels in T1 are Rangers and Plasma nades. This means Sentinels are a hard counter to DAs. Ork shootas are very dangerous to sentinels if they are equipped with big shootas but its not the case for Eldar DAs. Dire Avengers are a unit that relies on shield and plasma nade. Sentinel can dodge nades and crush shields or even flank easily so it will bleed DAs crazily.
Las turrets GM field also can give IG an advantage early on. Although its health is quite low compared to SM or Chaos turrets, dps wise its on par with them. Eldar does not have anything that can take buildings down reliably in T1 except Warlock's flame sword. Thus, if you put one around a VP, you can keep it for free until about mid T2. Eldar can try to take turret down with WSE mass teleport and banshees but it is too cost inefficient method so its in your favor even if they do so. Moreover, if you are confident that you can bait Warlock to keep using that flaming ground skill on other units like GM instead of the turret, you can use turret even against Warlock.
As I have mentioned earlier, all that IG player has to watch out for in T1 vs Eldar is shuriken, ranger and Warlock. WSE is nothing more than a fast capper and not much else in this match up. It can try to bleed GM but if he doesn't manage to wipe out a squad, its not worth it either. In case of Farseer, she doesn't have anything to do until Wraithguard comes out. She will put guide on Shuriken and will tank some damage but that is about it. Rest of the things would be easy since all an IG player has to care about at this point is managing sentinels well so they don't go down to Ranger fire. You need to know that Eldar player produced Ranger just to keep sentinel from running amok and its your fault if Sent gets killed from it since Ranger's fire rate is quite slow although it has good damage. As long as you start running away after first or second shot, it will survive. You must remember that getting 3 or 4 shots from rangers is entirely your fault.
Sometimes Eldar will try to melee GM with DA in the very first engagement. Surprisingly enough, DA with no upgrade has three times the dps of GM with no upgrade and will win that engagement. Since there is no actual danger of getting wiped, Eldar player will willingly send DA in for melee. So in this case, bring Sent or hero for assistance, using GM rashly before having squad leader upgrade is not in your favor. When Eldar player attempts to stop your hero or GM using shuriken, flank with sent or blow it away with ol'reliable. Also, purchasing a shrui means there is no ranger so exploit that fact by using sent more aggressively around the map. However, don't try to force your way through 2 shuri or 1 shur + 1 ranger because its not in your favor. Having set up teams is always a minus in terms of mobility anyways so don't fight it. Remember that IG has the initiative in T1. If you are so desperate to deal with 2 shuri, try to force your opponent to spread them out. You always can manage to somehow force off 1 shuri using things like sentinel, cata or Hammer of the witch from your Inq. In case of LG, he can just use anti suppression buff and shoot the crap out of shuri in the front while blowing away the one in behind with Cata.
It will be a great T1 as long as you harass the crap out of DA and bash some gens with flamer GM. This may doesn't sound like much but even though its quite hard to wipe squads, that harassment from Sent really bleeds DA like crazy in T1. DA cost as much as 2 GM without a Sgt upgrade so keep on bleeding them. Recommended build would be 1 sent, 3 GM, 1 cata. Cata is the king of small engagements and will win most of such fights so its good vs Eldar. Eldar can't win against Cata without upgraded Banshees but the very fact that you forced a Banshee out from Eldar gives you massive advantage in terms of economy lead because Banshee is always cost inefficient VS IG unless it is meleeing Ogryn or ST. The thing that really matters is destructor, immolate combo from Warlock. Just make sure to keep Warlock in check with your hero and sent for he will do massive damage to your GM if you don't do so. All in all, do not use your GM too carelessly before they get squad leaders.
Tier 2
Once both players reach T2, the fight becomes quite even. DAs start to have their squad leaders which allows them to stand their ground vs Sents and that dreaded WG comes out in the field. WG just absolutely destroy GM which are slow and Falcon is very efficient. However, WL is a very bad choice for Eldar. WL is not that cost efficient vs IG and the match will be lost if Eldar player somehow misplays and lose his WL to IG AV. Despite that, WL can be very dangerous if combined with autarch who can disrupt your las cannon HWT. In that case, you need to face them as if you are facing Assault Termy. They are not that efficient in killing GM quickly so just run around and round and delay them until you have other AV out. The more proper usage of WL would be to guard WG against Ogryns. Since Ogryns cost a lot too, Eldar player can also safely invest in WL. It is very difficult to face both WL and WG running around together so try to separate them by doing guerrilla warfare or go T3 or keep on poking at WL with las cannon HWT. If you are gonna stay in T2 and spend more resource as Inq, just do Crossbow or excruciator into manti combo and it will send it off instantly. LC can put inspire terror on WG warlock to stun it and make it less effective at killing GM.
T2 is all about how IG picks off enemy units and commanders who are trying to guard WG and how you exploit that slow mobility of WG to keep up in capping war while preserving chimera and Manti. WG is way too strong in terms of firepower and health to be tackled in ranged fights so chimera is a must to keep your GM alive and stay active on the field. Even though GM are really cheap to reinforce, you will lose the map control totally if your GM has to run back and forth from the base so frequently. In case of LG, he can fight head on with WG cost efficiently with various buffs as long as he has chimera so keep it alive. Manticore can be used to put some pressure on slow WG but it must not be hunted down. Things like powerblade WSE, webway gate ambushes can hunt down mantis pretty quickly so use catas to plant IED everywhere around the map and get some vision. This way you can see them coming beforehand and move manti to safe place. Heroes should mark Warlock as much as they can. T2 Warlock spells are powerful and he can go full jedi build as well. Therefore keep him in check. To sum it up, do not get your GM wiped, preserve your vehicles and focus on forcing off other guys beside WG in engagements.
If you have chosen Inq, you can make Eldar suffer like hell. She can infiltrate Ogryns to sneak up on Falcons and WG and Eldar can't do anything about it cost efficiently but don't do this and purchase Banewolf if Eldar possess banshees. Ogryn will win in 1 v 1 vs Banshees but most likely Eldar player will bring up hero as well. ST can hunt Falcon with melta or get Assault Kit to do infiltrate and harass cappers. Inq can summon ST cheaply anywhere around the map with some vision and their guerrilla warfare is really annoying for Eldar to deal with since Eldar has given up on mobility by purchasing set up team and WG. Sent + AT ST guarding a side line VP far away from main line of defense is very hard to force off and they can even do some guerrilla warfare to make matters worse for set up team oriented Eldar. And that damned Banewolf is so much effective vs Eldar if it is well managed. Eldar infantry just melts before it and that slowing down ability makes chasing by AV units so difficult. Eldar doesn't have any reliable snare beside Warp Spiders' haywire grenade so well managed Banewolf will do massive damage to Eldar.
There is also a possibility that Eldar will field Warp Spiders. This means your opponent is trying to use distort field or fortune on WS to throw haywire nade safely but there it no reason to worry about it. It is way too costly investment compared to what it gives Eldar as it only fills up pop cap while not being that useful of a combat unit which weakens Eldar army as a whole. Moreover, even though WS has scary dps, it will bleed so much when they try to tackle GM squad supported by Chimera. GM vs WS is always in favor of IG economy wise. In case of autarch running amok among your GM, you need to exploit the fact that now your opponent has to field only 1 WG instead of 2 which matters a lot in terms of firepower you have to counter. Also, autarch can't win against Cata despite its high cost. Just get into Chimera and autarch will have to leave.
Tier 3
There is not much to be wary of in T3 except D cannons and commander wargears from Eldar. However, you will be in trouble if Eldar gets Seer Council as Farseer when you were relying heavily in Ogryns. Seer Council reaps through Ogryn and GM alike and is not so slow like Assault Termy either and also quite tanky. Expert usage of chimera is needed in this case. Good thing is Inq can cc the crap out of Seer council and LC can buff Cata and fight alongside with them to force off Seer Council. Moreover, Eldar will just get second WG anyways so it doesn't really matter. Well, it is easier said than done. WG is such a powerful unit that it can effectively punish your misplays and cost you a game anytime during the match. IG is strong vs Eldar but it is like that under the condition that you are able to multi task your key units such as Sentinel, Cata, ST along side main army consisted of chimera and GM. But if you can do that properly, you will definitely have an advantage over Eldar.
