MrSolitaire's Eldar Strategy to counter 2ASM Opener and Alternative Starting Build

Yncognito

Thoughts: I hate playing with dire avengers, they literally bore me to tears and I find the Eldar infantry to be one of the strongest points of its army. I've had a lot of success fighting ASM and Dire Avenger Builds without utilizing Tier 1 Webway Proxies. I figured id share what I learned. This guide will be mostly focused on countering the 2 ASM opener, but this strategy can apply to most starting builds.

Elites:

Striking Scorpions (First)

Striking Scorpions are the strongest 2 point elite in the game at the moment, even when they tone down their true damage criticals I still expect to see them regularly. Your key use for these guys will be to hunt with your banshees, which will improve their movement speed make them go invisible and open with a critical hit. I commonly use these guys to damage things and keep my Banshees invisible essentially fishing for ASM with them.

Autarch Kyre (Second) When Kyre hits the field your enemy must be teched up or he will just lose. Kyre turns the threat of ASM into a trivial matter. I usually do not push into a base turret until Kyre is on the field, as he is exceptionally good at dodging the turrets blast. Kyre can kill Land Speeders if the enemy is not microing them hard, in addition he can solo whirlwinds pretty quickly as all his attacks do True Damage. He is also excellent at stopping orbital bombardments and rocks.

Macha (Late Game if needed) or Taldeer in order to save a doctrine slot. Macha is more of a luxury, but in my opinion she does not start to shine until late game where Stasis is critical. If I dont intend for late game to be reached I choose Taldeer to save a Doctrine slot. This allows me to use Storm earlier.

YOUR ULTIMATE: Psychic Storm. If your storm looks like a cloud YOU ARE WRONG! When you summon your storm, summon it on your units. Highlight it, press Q and choose a squad. It creates a core, and your storm then becomes REDICULOUS. With huge AOE radius slow, and true damage lighting bolts that strike units from the sky. THIS is your ultimate.

Doctrines: Taldeers Reflecting Strike - (makes quick strike reflect projectiles and makes banshees invincible while quick striking. This is great for escaping/master swording (or swording for short more on this later)

OR

Replace with Webway Holofield if you take Taldeer.

Banshee Rage - After killing 6 guys Banshees will regenerate their shield. This is clutch, because you will be close to attaining this after your quick strike ambushes.

Improved Scream - Silences/Blinds enemies on charge.

Striking Scorpions Doctrine: Make Banshees invis with hunt (I need to find the name)

Autarch Kyre Doctrine: Improved Skimming.

Macha: Last Stand

Steps:

1) With your first builder send it to the point you wish to keep, and start building an aspect shrine.

2) Build another worker immediately and start building a soul shrine.

3) Pump out a dire avenger and send it to meet and greet the enemy.

4) Build a howling banshee squad (and keep it hidden)

5) Build another howling banshee squad, or upgrade to quick strike. (try to keep it hidden too unless you are forced to reveal)

6) Get the quick strike upgrade from the soul shrine.

7) Bait the enemy using your dire avengers in order to setup a double quick strike opener. Once hit with this the enemy will become a lot less aggressive. If your enemy has not burned his standard, flee or bait his standard/jumps and punish him for it.

8) Build your final Banshee squad and around now Striking Scorpions should be hitting the field.

9) Depending on game flow you will want to start unlocking shadow spectres, as this build will slow down your tech to tier 2, but usually grant you map control. This is to counter an ASM player who is teching straight to land speeders.

Banshee Technique: Master Swording (or Swording for short) Banshees can reflect projectiles with their quick strike upgrade, and this is greatly effective against two types of units. Wraith Guard, and Killa Kans. The Idea is that you micro a Banshee squad, baiting for Wraithguard shots or Killa Kan shots then reflect them back at the enemy. This is DEVASTATING versus both if you can land it. I have wiped Wraithguard blobs off the map just by throwing a banshee squad in one at a time reflecting their projectiles. It is super satisfying. This can also work against killa kans, harder to do, but just as effective!

Shield Timing Push: This is more of a generalized Eldar strategy. If you time your attack with a few seconds until your infantry health upgrade hits, it will regenerate a large portion of your shield. When you attack, try to time your attack for this welcome boon in the middle of combat. The unexpected health can really screw with people. It also synergizes very well with the Doctrine Banshee Rage.

Solomon

@Yncognito said:

Elites:

Striking Scorpions (First)

Striking Scorpions are the strongest 2 point elite in the game at the moment, even when they tone down their true damage criticals I still expect to see them regularly. Your key use for these guys will be to hunt with your banshees, which will improve their movement speed make them go invisible and open with a critical hit. I commonly use these guys to damage things and keep my Banshees invisible essentially fishing for ASM with them.

Autarch Kyre (Second) When Kyre hits the field your enemy must be teched up or he will just lose. Kyre turns the threat of ASM into a trivial matter. I usually do not push into a base turret until Kyre is on the field, as he is exceptionally good at dodging the turrets blast. Kyre can kill Land Speeders if the enemy is not microing them hard, in addition he can solo whirlwinds pretty quickly as all his attacks do True Damage. He is also excellent at stopping orbital bombardments and rocks.

Macha (Late Game if needed) or Taldeer in order to save a doctrine slot. Macha is more of a luxury, but in my opinion she does not start to shine until late game where Stasis is critical. If I dont intend for late game to be reached I choose Taldeer to save a Doctrine slot. This allows me to use Storm earlier.

YOUR ULTIMATE: Psychic Storm. If your storm looks like a cloud YOU ARE WRONG! When you summon your storm, summon it on your units. Highlight it, press Q and choose a squad. It creates a core, and your storm then becomes REDICULOUS. With huge AOE radius slow, and true damage lighting bolts that strike units from the sky. THIS is your ultimate.

Doctrines: Taldeers Reflecting Strike - (makes quick strike reflect projectiles and makes banshees invincible while quick striking. This is great for escaping/master swording (or swording for short more on this later)

OR

Replace with Webway Holofield if you take Taldeer.

Banshee Rage - After killing 6 guys Banshees will regenerate their shield. This is clutch, because you will be close to attaining this after your quick strike ambushes.

Improved Scream - Silences/Blinds enemies on charge.

Striking Scorpions Doctrine: Make Banshees invis with hunt (I need to find the name)

Autarch Kyre Doctrine: Improved Skimming.

Macha: Last Stand

Steps:

1) With your first builder send it to the point you wish to keep, and start building an aspect shrine.

2) Build another worker immediately and start building a soul shrine.

3) Pump out a dire avenger and send it to meet and greet the enemy.

4) Build a howling banshee squad (and keep it hidden)

5) Build another howling banshee squad, or upgrade to quick strike. (try to keep it hidden too unless you are forced to reveal)

6) Get the quick strike upgrade from the soul shrine.

7) Bait the enemy using your dire avengers in order to setup a double quick strike opener. Once hit with this the enemy will become a lot less aggressive. If your enemy has not burned his standard, flee or bait his standard/jumps and punish him for it.

8) Build your final Banshee squad and around now Striking Scorpions should be hitting the field.

9) Depending on game flow you will want to start unlocking shadow spectres, as this build will slow down your tech to tier 2, but usually grant you map control. This is to counter an ASM player who is teching straight to land speeders.

Banshee Technique: Master Swording (or Swording for short) Banshees can reflect projectiles with their quick strike upgrade, and this is greatly effective against two types of units. Wraith Guard, and Killa Kans. The Idea is that you micro a Banshee squad, baiting for Wraithguard shots or Killa Kan shots then reflect them back at the enemy. This is DEVASTATING versus both if you can land it. I have wiped Wraithguard blobs off the map just by throwing a banshee squad in one at a time reflecting their projectiles. It is super satisfying. This can also work against killa kans, harder to do, but just as effective!

Shield Timing Push: This is more of a generalized Eldar strategy. If you time your attack with a few seconds until your infantry health upgrade hits, it will regenerate a large portion of your shield. When you attack, try to time your attack for this welcome boon in the middle of combat. The unexpected health can really screw with people. It also synergizes very well with the Doctrine Banshee Rage.

What about combating orks?
https://community.dawnofwar.com/discussion/12892/how-do-you-counter-ork-stun-lock/p1?new=1