Falcon punching a Falcon

Chain-swords are generally useless against a Daemon Prince.
Instead opt for the traditional FALCON PUNCH!!!!
-Captain Titus of the Ultramarines

Falcon punching a Falcon:

Edit: I was so caught up in what I thought was such a clever name for this post, I ended up calling wave serpents as Falcons. This has been changed, but the title is no longer relevant.

Lets face it. Eldar skimmers are damned annoying. They have good armour. They are fast. They have good guns, they can jink, they have stupid rules which stop penetrating hits being so devastating and are just overall difficult to deal with. Oh and Wave Serpents are the dedicated transport for Eldar.

Now any eldar player, who isnt paying their parents the rent they owe them, worth his salt is going to be turning up with a few of these bad boys just waiting to unleash them upon your army and completely dominate you. In fact even a brand new player who has been given an army list, but forgot to tell his parents that 30 year olds shouldnt be living in their parents basement, can bring a bunch of these and just wreck you if you are unprepared. However here are a few things to remember.

1 ) Jink is now before you roll to hit dice. Just in case your Opp tries anything after seeing that snap shot melta accidentally pens. Jink also makes them Snap Shot you back. Dont let them use full BS on you.

2 ) The serpent shield, which downgrades pens to glances on a 2+, powers down if they shoot with it. Watch which of them "fire their shield" it should be obvious as they will roll d6 to determine hits. Punish them for trying to be aggressive.

3 ) The serpent shield is directional, hit them in the rear armour = gg. Bonus, rear armour is 10.

4 ) The serpent shield, like the rest of the guns, are only strength 6.

5 ) The serpent shield attacks ignores cover but not armour. it might wreck a rhino or those cultists but even power armour is usually tough enough to weather it.

6 ) Its fast, but then loses its ability to do much else in a turn. Including dropping off its cargo. 

7) explosions are strength 4 on the inside. Most eldar are tough 3. 

8) They have only a single access point. This means if you charge it and wreck it in combat, the dudes inside either have to emergency disembark or die. They also cant jink combat attacks

9) Vector strike ignores cover. Youre running Heldrakes anyway right. Their balefire also glances on a 4 and pens on a 5+

10) they have 3 hull points. Downgrading pens to glances doesnt stop glances from killing them.

So CSM counters for them include

Nurgle obliterators 

*your increased toughness and 2+ armour 2W makes you a nightmare to kill. S8 doesnt insta-kill

*You can deep strike to get rear armour ignoring both the shield and the armour 12 front. 

*you have plenty of heavy weaponary to shoot. Even twinlinked plasmas hurt the rear armour. 

*You are S8 Ap2 in combat against rear armour 10

* All for just over 75 points a model

Chaos spawn

*Fast enough to either catch them or force them to flat out and therefore be useless for a turn.

*Heaps of attacks at S5 means you can even get a few penetrating hits through.

*Tough enough for their points to weather their shooting.

*Mark of nurgle makes them wound on 4+.

*Can be used to escort a chaos lord on a bike with a power fist.

* Have large bases which can be spread out to force emergency disembarking.

Chaos space marines with melta guns in a rhino.

* Troops choice (objective secured too)

*Cheap (120 points for the whole squad)

*Armour 11 shrugs off a fair number of their s6 shots

*Can take a melta bomb too.

* Easy enough to spam while still being some what competitive with the rest of your list

* Both rhino and Sgt can get combi meltas.

* Can maneuver to see rear armour

*Dont need to be in melta range to hit rear armour.

Plague marines

*See above

* 2 meltas in 5 man squad and still under 200 points

* still tough to remove if they blow up your transport

*You probably have a nurlge lord on a bike so they are troops. (objective secured).

* Poisoned weapons, 3 attacks on charge could potentially threaten wraithknight (unlikely)

* Fearless

Maulerfiends

*Armour 12 means have to be glances to death

*5++ against their anti armour

*Fast

*Will annihilate the tank then move to chew on the inside (provided they werent firedragons)

* Unexpected by the enemy

Forgefields

*Armour 12, 5++

*Lots of dakka

*Lots more dakka

*Strength 8 means glancing on 4+

*Glance them to death, eat the dudes who have to walk.

Chaos terminator suicide squad

*Deep striking means always seeing rear armour

*place them where you need them

*cant be killed by 90% of interceptor weapons eldar have access too.

* still a threat even after they pop combi meltas

* can take a chainfist for if you survive the initial shooting.

* look bad ass, much cooler than loyalist ones.

* Can take free power mace for s6 or axe for s5ap2 to chop it in combat.

* Just a little over 100 points

*draws fire from the rest of your army

*can have any mark of chaos and still be effective.

I have taken them down with other units, from CSM codex, and even used psychic powers to my advantage but the above are probably the easiest to integrate into your current list.

I kind of like writing tactics, I learn a lot while writing them too. Send me a message if you have tactics you would like to share/discuss/have me discuss.