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Right, fellow dakkaites, the decision is solid, smurfy is going for eldar.

My general idea is to have a heap of footsloggers, and have many different aspects. However I do not have much knowledge of the pro's and cons of different aspects.

Thus here the ultimate question: who can help me achieve proper space-elfness, with some pointers?

P.S.: Im definately bringing some warp spiders allready. These bounce-around arachnamaniacs any good?

Come on you guys, 40 views and not a single answer? At least some of you must know something about aspect warriors...

Well, play a hammer and anvil army. With Eldrad and Avatar in the center supported by Dire Avengers in the Avatar's fearless bubble. Harlies are good for counter strike. Add some mobile shooty or counter strike units, like Fire Dragons in Serpents and throw some Wraithlords in the mix.

ok, my first look and im a veteran eldar player, im here to help.

1. if your going foot slogging, take lots of flexible units and top of the list is guardians with EML or scatter laser [these are cheap and real killers, mine always earnt its points back double, usually taking out a tank or two]

2. either 1 = the avatar or farseer to support troops is a must, if you like assualt then avatar, if you like shooty go farseer

3. if you are taking warp spiders [which by the sound you are, theyare awsome, i always take some] think about an autarch with warp pack and fusion blaster [flexible and a real killer in assualt]

4. for aspects, by the sounds you like fast attack, swooping hawks are leathal when a full squad deep strikes with sunrifle, that kills. howling banshees are really good aslong as they are kept in cover until they assualt, try to be the one launching the assualts as the banshee masks are fantastic and power weapons.

5. dont take fire dragons if you are foot slogging as they disappear in the first one or two turns.

6. war walkers are cheap and can really pour alot of fire power into the enemy.

7. if you are taking a wraithlord [which are super preformers, wraithsword and brightlance] make sure that a seer or some sort is within 6"

8. striking scorpions are going at infiltration and are good in the first turn of assualt but thats it and dont have fleet.

9. Eldar artilary is awsome, d-cannons or vibro cannons are leathal and non-expensive

10. dark reapers excel at taking down MEQ's but need to be well covered or will take alot of fire

Squigherder, my pointy-eared hero (in a non-sexual way)!

Well, I've heard some nagging and bitching about warp spiders at my local gaming club, but I don't care, I won a warp spider exarch at my first tournament as a bad-luck trophee (finished last because of truely horrendous dice and cheese-galore on the other side of the board..),
so spiders are a sentimental value, and will definately make an appearance in my army as a fixed choice. I really like the warpspider-autarch thing, definately going to experiment with that.

Furthermore, I've goth two outstanding bids on ebay, one for a box of banshees, and one of scorpions, so you bet your behind they'll be there too. Plus, the girlfriend likes the banshees models a lot, and my starsign is scorpion, so it kinda works out .
Also, a wraithlord will definately be in there, probably converted from the old metal one, I'm still churning out ideas by the dozen.
Swooping hawks, hmm, gonna get me some of those as well, see how they do.
Dark reapers, I dont know, I've seen them shot to splinters on the first turn too often, they tend to see prodigious ammounts of fire, and methinks they aint cheap...

So how am I looking right now, and how do these units actually perform?
Any advice on farseer loadout and usage?
Guardians, havent really thought about these guys, they that good?

Guardians, havent really thought about these guys, they that good?

In large numbers yes, usually I take two squads of ten and sit them back on my objective with a brightlance or or scatterlaser. Cheap units that can still touch things from afar.

If you're building around mobile, heavy Warp Spiders, then you'll probably want

- Infiltrating Striking Scorpions for Assault
- Guardian Jetbikes as Scoring support
- Rangers or AGPs for rearguard
- Reapers for fire support

PanzerSmurf wrote:
So how am I looking right now, and how do these units actually perform?

Your off to a flying start and your enjoying it which is the main part

PanzerSmurf wrote:
Any advice on farseer loadout and usage?

I personally take a minium of a singing spear, stones of witnessingand the powers mind war and fortune[i play very aggressively] i think if you know that your enemy uses psychic powers alot then it would be good to take runes of warding. if you are playing a cities of death battle then swap out the mind war of eldrich storm as it doesnt require a line of site and uses the large blast template [it has saved me backside a few times, bloody nids fry] and if you feel like play defensive then swap the fortune for guide.

PanzerSmurf wrote:
Guardians, havent really thought about these guys, they that good?

A ten man squad can hold an objective and still fire at over 36" a turn at anyone, i personlly either take EML for small anti-troop and anti-tank or scatter laser for just straight anti-horde/troop, plusb they are cheap and can still fire if they move

HEAVY SUPPORT
Eldar armies main difficulties is choosing Heavy Support. You can generally have whay you want from the list getting just about everything you would wish to have and have twice as many decent HS choices as you can take.

I design Eldar armies heavies first as this generates your theme.

As you have started with Warp Spiders and want footsloggers let us hold there and go straight to Heavy Support.

Footslogger Eldar have five decent choices:

D Cannon
Vibro Cannon
Dark Reapers
War Walkers
Wraithlord

I would choose at least two fast attack.

As horde armies are a growing menace a squadron of War Walkers is a good buy. Give them either scatter lasers for anti ork, or missile launchers for long range multi role. You can also get good mileage from dirt cheap shuricannon armed walkers. But you will then need at least six.

Wraithlord are good but again need to work in pairs. Two wraithlords and three War Walkers would work.

Otherwise leave them and take a single D-Cannon. This is a cheap option, one you can hide and is devastatingly effective, if it hits.

FAST ATTACK
You need a counterassault backstop, and this frankly is best supplied with a squadron of Shining Spears. Always get an exarch, star lance and if you want to control events Hit and Run.

Your Warp Spiders of course. Do you want two units?

TROOPS

Spolit for choice.

Take one or two Jetbike squadrons for objective grabs, they need not be big.

Next take at least one unit of Pathfinders, not Rangers. If you can spare the points get a second.

Hold there, if points remain go back and get some Guardians to bulk up, otherwise head to Elite.

ELITES
Fire Dragons. Good if you can hide them. With decent HS support choices you wont need them, otherwise they are mandatory.

Howling Banshes and Striking Scorpions. I would go for Banshees as they can fight horde but do a much better job agaisnt armoured troops. Warp Spiders and Pathfinders are good anti horde.

HQ.
I would avoid the Autarch in this list

Avatar is good if you have pointsto burn for Guardians

Otherwise take a Farseer. Forget Fortune, in a footslogger list your opponent will just shoot sometihng else. Doom or Guide are good powers here, Doom if you have lots of small units, Guide if you made the killer War Walker unit as recommended. Mind War is a good second choice for character killing.

Good luck, enjoy your eldar.

@ johnwangdd: forgive me for my ignorance, bit what are agl's?

SO, I've sent a buddy to pick up the codex for me, so expect an army list to appear somewhere around here soon...

The general layout ( aiming at 1500 points here) will be something as follows:

farseer with singing spear, perhaps stick some warlocks on there, I'll see. If I've got a lot of points left, perhaps I'll take along Eldrad...
Autarch with the fusion gun and warp pack, lets see how this guy turns out, might be fun.

A unit of scorpions with exarch and claw.
A unit of banshees, with exarch amd goodies.
A somewhat large unit of spiders with exarch and autarch.
A small unit of rangers (pathfinders? the hell? aint that tau?)
rwo units of guardians, with scatter lasers or brightlances (go magnetisation).
Unit of three warwalkers (think I'm gonna call them doomchickens, hehe) with scatter lasers.
A battery of D-cannon.
A wraithlord
...I'm sure I'm missing things, cant put my fingers on it...

Opinions and critiques?
And another thing... How are wraithguard?

PanzerSmurf wrote:@ johnwangdd: forgive me for my ignorance, bit what are agl's?

AGP = Anti-Grav Platform, taken by Guardian Defenders. Did they change the name?

PanzerSmurf wrote:
farseer with singing spear, perhaps stick some warlocks on there, I'll see. If I've got a lot of points left, perhaps I'll take along Eldrad...
Autarch with the fusion gun and warp pack, lets see how this guy turns out, might be fun.

A unit of scorpions with exarch and claw.
A unit of banshees, with exarch amd goodies.

A small unit of rangers (pathfinders? the hell? aint that tau?)
rwo units of guardians, with scatter lasers or brightlances (go magnetisation).

A somewhat large unit of spiders with exarch and autarch.

Unit of three warwalkers (think I'm gonna call them doomchickens, hehe) with scatter lasers.
A battery of D-cannon.
A wraithlord

And another thing... How are wraithguard?

Wraithguard are horribly overcosted - both in points and pennies - avoid!

Otherwise, the list looks fine.

The Banshees will want a Wave Serpent, so you'd generally be better off taking a unit (or two) of Guardian Jetbikes for Scoring Troops.

As you're heavy on Aspects, I'd suggest you not take Warwalkers or Dcannon until you have a least 1 big unit of Dark Reapers. Reapers invariably earn their points back in a big way. Take Reapers!

Wraithlords are big and cool models, so I'd keep it.

Dark reapers? Hmmm, I'll wait until I have the codex to decide on those guys... Hate the models, too.

So wraithguard are to be avoid, that's a shame, really like the fluff behind them.

Also, I would like to overall avoid any skimmers, although I do like the idea of some jetbikes, I'll include those I guess.

Any other ideas?
And oh, what is the difference between rangers and pathfinders?

ok first, the difference is with the two is that pathfinders when rolling to hit, on a 5+ count as having AP:1 weapons, where as the rangers have to get a 6 and pathfinders also benefit from 2+ mod to terrain [eg, hill 5+ becomes 3+ cover] they are really good.

My experience with wraithguard is that they are really good when there are 10 in a squad plus warlock but then cost almost 400pts

You may also want to have 2 or 3 d-cannons in the battery as they are really good, and really effective. also a wraithsword is great if you are thinking of running the wraithlord at the enemy, i personally go wraithsword and bright lance as i can prang tanks on the way in and sqwish elite troops when i hit the lines ^^

But that just IMHO ^^
dark reaper are expensive points wise but are or if you catch people out in the open ^^

I like what I see so far.

Your Farseer.

What is his power? Dont take a spear and a shooting power. Eldrad is a good choice.

Autarch

Autrarchs need either Reaper launcher or jetbike and lance. The former is a low cost sit back leader that also gets some good shooting in. The latter costs nearly twice as much and is lethal on the attack. I dont recommend either here.
Other Autarchs need not apply.

Scorpions and Banshees

This works. Unless you infiltrate your Scorpions theyt will act as a counterassault. This works however it means you will want a very shooty army the enemy will need to close with. This effects a lot of your choices.

Pathfinders & Guardians

As you really need a shooty army you need more Pathfinders. Guardians are ok to boost your model count and for the heavy weapon, Pathfinders give you a 36" reach with your gun line, this cannot be ignored. I would dump points into this.

Warp Spiders

Ok, this is what you want. However why not take two smaller units of six with exarchs. You get your theme and your keep your models but you will get more out in the end.
I am thinking that this list wants no other fast attack.

Heavy Support

I think this is more of less correct, give your Wraithlord a bright lance, you are lacking anti-tank.

One D-Cannon will help, two ups your odds of a hit dramatically, three is a waste.

I am torn between scatter lasers and missile launchers for War Walkers. You can get good mileage from the extra range, sometimes, and will get good mileage from multi rolke, always. Magnetise if you can. However scatter lasers are cheap and 24 Guided (or Doomed) S6 shots will deal with just about everything except a heavy tank in more or less the same way lootas do.

an autarch with a reaper launcher is a waste, 2 shots and everyone now hugs cover and totally removes the AP:3 on the gun, plus it is heavy and doesnt help the assualt power of the autarch, hes a leader not a cowardly grot with a gun.

The leadership you want is for Reserve rolls and rallying. Neither of which he can be used for once he is dead.

If you want a cheap Autarch leader you are best off giving him the Reaper Launcher.

Leadership does not equal close combat power, the two are seperate roles.

Also where do you get the idea that *everything* will be in cover. If nothing else the first rank usually isnt, I dont see any shortage in targets, just maybe they are not the targets one would prefer to shoot at. This is everyones problem, why is it suddenly only unsurmountable or Autarchs?

Right, no bickering about who is the better autarch please, I'll experiment with that and provide my own opinion on that later on...

So, I'll have the codex probably by tonight, so expect an army list popping up here somewhere around here within a day or so at the most...
After that, I'll get me some models, and start some 500 pts trial-by-fire-learning how eldar plays.

Sorry guys, I know I'm kinda overdue with my list, just had one hell of a weekend, But just to let you know I'm working on it, list will be up probably by tonight.

Also, reading the codex, I'm really starting to like eldar, and warpspiders even more! Perhaps I'll also put up a little fluff, who knows. It's all bouncing around in my head...

All eldar lists need speed, because you can't win long range slugfests. Warpspiders, Spears, Scorpions and Pathfinders and reapers are your best units for this. Spiders and Spears are fast and can strike and fade quickly.

Scorpions don't need tanks to get behind enemy lines and mess with heavy weapons teams or contest objectives. Pathfinders can sit on objectives and absorb hideous amounts of shooting. Reapers have the range and crack shot + tempest launcher lets you hurt units in cover.

Farseers are good to put with a core of guardians or Dire avengers accompanied by a wraithlord. Autarchs are best on a bike with the spears. The Avatar doesn't work as well on his own since he will attract all your opponents anti-tank.

Banshees dont have the all-round capability, thier glass mini-hammers @ str 3.. a full squad of SS with all the trimmings can infiltrate (making up for the lack of fleet and encouraging pistol use), MEQ and enough str4 hits to kane most things with the exarchs scorpain claw for small 2+ units and the biting blade for front AV walkers.

Plus I like green

It is odd that you don't like the reaper models. Regardless, the Dark Reapers can be the back bone of the Eldar. Consider 5 Reapers in the very back(48" range) with a Farseer casting guide(re-roll misses) and/or doom(re-roll to wound) with 4 models at str 5 ap3 and one exarch(eldar missile launcher) bs 5 str4 blast, pinning or str8 ap3 and fast shot. Reaper launcher heavy2 and eldar missile launcher heavy1 with fast shot(+1 shots from each weapon). This, possibly means, 8 str5 ap3 shots with 2 str8 ap3 shots or two blast templates str4 ap4 with nearly 100% effectiveness! Very brutal! This would be at 217 pts. Also public enemy no.1

D- cannons with a range of 24 and the new terrain rules are almost usless. At least before you had a chance to hide them at which point they are only ok at best. Sure if get your pentration rolls thats nice but they will die in the first couple turns and more than likely not get your points back.

I would start off with wraithlords/reapers and walkers first and than progress to the other options if you want mobility like falcons and Prisms. AT the very least the first group gets you some stand off range.