Eldar and Imperial Titans

The following is an article on Eldar Titans by Matt Plonski, who runs the Apoc-Eclipse Apocalypse gaming group in North Carolina.

There was a great deal of disappointment with the Eldar datasheets in the Bell of Lost Souls "Lords of Battle" supplement.  If you are playing against Imperial titans you need to do yourself a favor and use the datasheets that Apoc-Eclipse and Siegeworld made together.    You can download them at http://www.apoc-eclipse.com/datasheetEldarPhantomTitan.pdf"]Phantom and http://www.apoc-eclipse.com/datasheetEldarWarlockTitan.pdf"]Warlock.  If you use the BoLS ones you will be very disappointed.  The Imperial titans have such superior range, armor, and shields that they are not much fun to play against.
 

I don't want to beat a dead horse, as we talked about the differences between Imperial and Eldar titans exhaustively when designing the datasheets, so simply consider the Apocalypse Launcher.  The Apocalypse Launcher is great at downing shields from up to 360" away but once the shields are down it is useless against Imperial titans.  The Eldar don't have anything that can do those things.  Against an Eldar titan the Apocalypse Launcher and Vulcan Mega Bolter never lose their ability because they can always damage the 12 front armor.  While a Reaver or Warlord is usually safe in the first turn unless a lot of firepower is poured into them a Phantom can take damage from the first S6 or better gun shot at it.  If you fire an Apocalypse Launcher at a Phantom titan you can expect that you'll see a couple of Gun Crew Shaken results at least.  It is NEVER a bad idea to shoot at an Eldar titan since any shot has the potential to do harm.
 

So, what is my strategy?  Overwhelming power.  I have six super heavy tanks that move up in front of the titans (they have even worse ranges than the titans, so you have to move up) and some of the smaller class titans.  Turn 1, the Phantom and Warlock usually get shot at, as they are the most frightening.  Usually they don't do all that much damage to them.  Once the super heavy tanks start shooting, they then become the priority since no one realized that they almost exclusively shoot Destroyer templates.  The better to take out something that actually has a chance to be taken out then to waste your shots against a titan.  In turn 3, by this time the Towering Destroyer Knight has reached the enemy lines and lays into an enemy super heavy with its two close combat weapons.  Four or five Wraithlords will also help.

What do I support my Eldar titans with?  As I said above, they have such small range that I usually keep them with the bulk of my army.  Their priority targets are anything with high strength and multiple shots.

If you are talking about Imperial titans, it is a completely different story.  Deck them out either with long range guns or with short ranged ones.  Keep them at their optimal range and use them in concert with other units to destroy whatever target type they are the best at.  It is usually good to keep a Warhound around the feet of a Reaver or Warlord to use to keep the neighborhood clear.  If you are going to use infantry just make sure that they are able to react fast since any enemy will likely try to clear out a landing zone before coming in.

It is a viable tactic to put an isolated long range titan off in the corner of the battlefield to rain death down from afar (I like the combination of Apocalypse Launchers and Volcano Cannons) and just gamble that the opponent won't want to bother trying to take it out.  It might work once or twice but eventually a Valkyrie with a Demolitions Veteran Squad will swoop into range and you won't have anything to stop them.

Hope this helps!

Matt Plonski