First things first, lets talk about Eldar Heavy Weapons. A lot of people, even here on dakka, don’t seem to realize just how potent strength 6 fire power really is. Shuriken Cannons, and Scatter lasers are actually better than Missile Launchers against av11 and av10 targets. Conveniently this includes most transports in the game. This is why most strong eldar builds focus on bringing huge amounts of s6 fire power, and bringing 2 or 3 squads of fire dragons to handle any larger tanks that the scatters can’t deal with- such as Predators, Russes and Land Raiders. Its also a misconception that dedicated scatter spam *can’t* deal with Land Raiders. These are fast TANKS with a 24 inch turbo boost. Even if you have no guns capable of damaging a certain tank, you can still put your infantry squad on an objective, and turbo boost straight into the offending heavy tank. S10 rams are very capable of causing the damage in a pinch. Its not a perfect solution but hey… Lets do some math hammer!

First generally these numbers are all calculated to determine how likely something is to happen. For instance I want to know the odds of getting at least a certain result against a certain target. This is easy for a missile or bright lance which just has a single shot, and more difficult for a scatter laser which has four.

The general equation to figure out the odds of something happening over multiple tries is as follows.
First : Figure out the odds of it NOT happening, then take that to the power of the number of attempts, and subtract the whole thing from 1.

So lets figure out the odds of a scatter laser wrecking a transport.
To get the odds of figuring out if a s6 shot wrecking an av11 Rhino. First we multiply the odds of it hitting from its twin linked platform (1/2+((1-1/2)*1/2)), then me multiply that by the odds of it penetrating (1/6) and multiply that by the odds of getting at least a wreck (1/3).

(3/4)(1/6)(1/3) = X
Ok so the odds of that *not* happening
(1-X)
Taken to the power of the number of shots
(1-X)^4
And finally subtract it all from one
1-(1-X)^4

So lets look a two tables. The first is showing the odds of at least an immobilized result (so everything immobilized or better) and the other is looking for at least a wrecked result.

As you can see, missile launchers and bright lances are very lacking. The shuri cannon is very respectable- and cheap too. Of course this table is only looking for an immobilized result. If you want to see the chances at wrecking you should look at this table.

So as you can see, when somebody looks at s6 spam and says “you don’t have enough anti tank” they probably don’t know what they are talking about! One thing to note is that the missile and bright lance DO have a 0.5% higher chance to wreck an av11 tank than shuri cannon. Paying nearly 20 points for less than a 1% chance of doing more damage is not worth it. If you know that you will be going up against av11 spam- load up on scatter lasers, and shuri cannons. S6 spam is one of Eldar’s strongest points and you should never underestimate it.
That’s not to say that missiles and lances don’t have their place however. Lots of times in casual games you may find yourself *not* cramming your elites full of Fire Dragons, or you may be playing a foot list where Dragons are less easy to fit in. In these cases Missiles and Bright Lances can fill a valid role by providing you with guns to fire at heavy tanks.
Also if you find yourself with Guardian Jetbikes, it can be worthwhile to consider singing spears, on their warlocks. These are also a decent anti tank option- cheap too since you’ll be taking the warlocks for Embolden anyway. For reference
Bs4 signing spear
Av10 : 18.5% chance
Av11: 14.8%
Av12: 11.1%
Av13: 7.4%
Av14: 3.7%

S9 is still respectable, so as you can see it’s comparable to the scatter laser against av11, and can damage av 12 and 13 more easily. So If you’ve got GJB, Singing Spears are a good place to eek out a bit more anti vehicle in your list.
So now that we’ve covered your basic heavy weapon selection lets talk about why exactly Star Cannons kind of suck. Cover. Cover has killed Star Cannons. So what are the armies where ap2 is wanted? Space Marines variations generally. Starcannons ignore those 3+ saves! But at what cost? These days things are either in cover (really easy to get in 5th edition) or have a 3++ save from a storm shield. This means that in general Marines are either going from a 3+ to a 4+ or a 2+ to a 3++. So you’ve only lowered their save by one, and you have half as many shots as a scatter laser. The scatter laser is also cheaper. This is the problem with star cannons. If Star Cannons are heavy 3 in our next codex update, and cover gets nerfed in 6th, such as being reduced to 5+ or being harder to get, then Star Cannons will be good once again. But currently they have too low volume of fire, and cost too many points to put on the field. Eldar like to kill marines like they like to kill Orks- pure weight of fire. Blood Angels can cause some problems with FnP, but we have other tricks to help deal with that.

Farseer or Eldrad: These are almost mandatory. Doom helps you focus your fire power, and Warding messes up opposing psychers. Eldrad has a ton of neat tricks but costs a lot and many of his benefits are lost on a mech list. It really depends on how many points you are willing to spend on HQ.
Never take more powers than you can cast in a turn, and always take runes of warding. The singing spear is also an option. Its cheap, takes advantage of bs5. You probably won’t use it often but it can be nice for doing solo work. If you have 3 points laying around it may be useful. Farseers suck in close combat anyway, so the loss of attack isn’t terrible.

Warlock squad: Ah, the Eldar death star. These should almost always be mounted on Jetbikes, and run with a fortune seer. That way they have re rolling 3+ saves, 4++ invulnerable saves, and glorious witchblades. Witchblades can scythe through tanks, and force a lot of saves on infantry. Especially since everything is at least ws5 i5 from enhance. Don’t forget the 18 inch assault range, and options for destructors to blast things away. Generally you want witchblades instead of spears. You want to do most of your anti tank damage by multi charging, and the unit in general is better in close combat. The singing spear is a 2 handed weapon and reduces each warlock to 1 attack instead of 2. So you really need to get as many attacks as possible. So don’t take singing spears. If you really want them make sure you have 3 blade locks for every spear lock. And feel free to put on the farseer to take advantage of bs5.

These can work in wave serpents but since they can’t assault out of a wave serpent which has moved, and they lose the 3+ armor save and 1 point of toughness that their jetbiking counter parts have. As a result I don’t recommend running a warlock squad in a wave serpent. Unless you are doing the lolsuper council of Eldrad + Yriel +full council in a Wave Serpent… but that is a huge point sink.

Also the days of councils is starting to fade. Psychic defense is more and more common, and a failed fortune is a dead several hundred point council. Also there are death stars which are just more killy. Wolf star will tear through a council in short order, and blood angels with their fnp will be very difficult to wipe out with witchblades. They are still a damn strong unit and will wipe the floor with a lot of enemies.

Autarch: Useful in larger point games. He’s taken for Master Strategist, and he is very useful for moving in from reserves to deny certain opponents the turn 1 shooting phase or scout moving alpha strikes. CoughVendettascough. Most of his builds are pretty effective, depending on how you are running him.
Lots of people just run him with a fusion gun, he can work with a laser lance in a jetseer council, and he can provide some light cc support with a power weapon and mandiblasters. The Reaper Launcher can be good on a jetbike if hes running with GJB to take advantage of relentless. Really just build him to fit into your list.

Fire Dragons(in a wave serpent): Bar none the best Elite choice in the codex. 80 points for 5 bs4 melta guns is a great deal. And you have one of the most reliable delivery mechanisms out there- the humble wave serpent. There is really no reason not to fill your entire elite selection with them. Some people suggest an exarch and he *can* be ok. He gives you another wound group, and his 3+ save. So he can be used to give the squad a wee bit more durability. He also can take crack shot, which gives the dragon breath flamer re rolls to wound, or lets his fusion gun punch through smoke. I personally don’t like dragon exarchs, as they make the squad cost a lot more for very little difference in performance ymmv.

Banshees(in a wave serpent): These girls are ok. They are fun, and their special rules make Space Marine players go into the fetal position. Doom their target and assault away. Due to the rules for Wave Serpents these function primarily as a deterrent. You keep their wave serpent near the rest of your fleet, and when something nasty comes close, you doom them from the farseer, disembark before the serpent has moved, then move the banshees, fleet or shoot pistols, then charge! I10 power weapons are a lot of fun. They aren’t as good or efficient as fire dragons, so you should only consider them in larger point games, or games which aren’t as competitive. They are too weak to not be protected by a Wave Serpent.

Harlequins Recently, it has come to my attention that Harlequins are every bit as capable as Banshees in the grand majority of situations in a mechanized list. Of course they'll need a wave serpent to play but they can Hijack a 5 Man Dire Avenger squads dedicated Wave Serpent Transport and the Dire Avengers can be put safely in a Falcon.

Anyway, Mathhammer shows that Harlies are slightly less effective point for bloody point than Howling Banshees against fnp marines, terminators and marines with doom support (for both shees and harlies) and more effective against THSS Termies. As well Harlies provide a better answer for engaging Ork boyz and Guard Blob squads. You can also give em a pair of fusion pistols and shoot up a tank while you're at it. In the end, both units are inferior to Fire Dragons for pure competitive reasons, and if you want to take a cc element its pretty much up to taste between the two units.

Scorpions: Not a good choice in a fast list. They don’t have fleet so assaulting from unmoved wave serpents is harder, if they outflank they’ll be stranded by themselves, and their special rules are horribly outclassed these days. Blood Angels have a 3+ save and fnp. Wytches strike first and have 4+ dodge save and fnp. Gene stealers strike first with massive numbers of rending attacks with re rolls to wound (toxin sacs) and Grey Knights strike first with force halberds. Anyway you look at it Striking Scorpions are outclassed.

Dire Avengers (in a wave serpent): 5 man squads to make tanks scoring or full 10 man squads with 2 catapults and bladestorm. The second version is more *fun* while the first is more *competitive* so whatever floats your boat. The second version turns into a veritable meat grinder with doom and guide support from a farseer, but also suffers from being rather expensive, fragile, and bunched together when they have to get out of their wave serpent. Don’t take cc upgrades on them, as they suck in close combat no matter what you do!
One thing to remember is never take an Exarch on 5 man squads. Bladestorm is a force multiplier- you are spending the same 15 points to get 5 more shots out of a 5 man squad that you are to get 10 extra shots out of a 10 man squad. The more Avengers the better Bladestorm is. So keep that in mind when you put things on the field.

Storm Guardians(in a wave serpent): Taken with 2 flamers and a destructor lock, these are the rivals of bladestorming Dire Avengers. The templates they can put out is devastating to horde infantry like orks and guard in cover, and is about the same as a bladestorm against Space Marines. Bladestormers are more effective against Monsterous Creatures, and Terminators simply due to being able to force more saves against those targets, however the Storm Guardians are both cheaper and more effective in close combat. People under estimate Storm Guardians all the time, and they are a solid unit. Whether you take them or bladestorming DA is a personal decision, and I like to have both in casual lists.

Guardian Jetbikes: Generally these will either be in squads of 4 or 7. You want either 3 or 6 guardians because you can take a shuri cannon for every third member, and you always want to accompany them with a warlock for leadership purposes. GJB squads are great in hybrid lists, they are cheap since they don’t need to purchase a transport, have decent fire power, and excellent mobility.

Their mobility is really what makes them better than Pathfinder or Guardian Defender squads on foot. Since they can turbo boost 24 inches, and move right over terrain, they can hide from the enemy very well, and then turbo boost over to an objective on turn 5. As opposed to the foot infantry who have to stay near an objective the whole game, and hope they enemy doesn’t come and kill them. Also the 3+ armor is nice to have, since it protects them from flamers. As long as you are careful about Bane Wolves and flame storm cannons you will be able to take a 3+ save against nearly anything if you turbo boost.

The Eldar codex has a pretty weak fast attack selection over all, but you could feasibly fit all of them into a fast list…

Warp Spiders: I like em, lots of people say they are over costed, and they are probably right. Basically you’ve got a solid gun (s6 ap-), great movement and jump shoot jump ability, 12 + 2d6 assault jump, and a solid armor save of 3+. The downside is they cost 22 points per model. I like to run my autarch with them, and use them to bully back field stuff. 10 power weapons at i6 on the charge isn’t bad, and the 3+ armor lets them stay alive ok. The important thing is that withdraw lets them hop OUT of combat and shoot + assault again in your turn. Fun unit and capable unit, but they are not bleeding edge competitive.

Swooping Hawks: Oh dear… these guys have it rough. 1 point less than a spider, but a worse gun, worse armor, and no assault jump. The only way to run them is in the minimum sized squad, with an exarch with sky leap (and possibly a sun rifle) and an Autarch as your HQ. then you proceed to sky leap repeatedly and bomb the opponent from space without ever actually being on the board during his turn. The models are really cool though- hopefully they’ll be better in our next codex

Shining Spears: GOD NO. these are worse than swooping Hawks! 35 points per model for t4 3+ armor save. They are armed with close combat weapons that are great on the charge, and worthless any other time. They also don’t have pistols so they only get 1 attack base, and 2 on the charge. If they eat a rapid fire from bolters they will be rendered ineffectual, if they get charged by Calvary or other jetbikes they will be worthless. Withdraw helps a bit like this, but unless you are incredibly strategic they are just a colossal waste of points. Warlock squads on jetbikes are better than these in all ways.

Vypers: Vypers are cool I guess. They aren't as cost effective as War Walkers and have to move at the same pace as war walkers to shoot 2 heavy weapons. OTOH, they *can* move very fast, allowing for you to use them to block off your GJB from scary assault units or contest objectives on the last turn.

They have pretty poor ballistic skill, so you are going to want to put high volume weapons on them- most people suggest either shuri turret + underslung shuri, or scatter turret. Both will run you about 60 points.

The advantage of double shuri is that it gets 3 s6 shots while moving 12 inches, and it can opt to get 6 s6 shots if it only moves 6 inches. Further it is a bit more protected from weapon destroyed results, since it has 2 guns.

An alternative to the double shuri vyper, is a shuri turret Vyper with Star Engines. It'll be a bit more expensive but since star engines fire in the shooting phase, you can move them after your jetbikes fire, giving your jetbikes clear line of sight to their target, then blocking with the Vyper to give cover saves to the GJB and block charges from enemy units. Generally if you want to use Star Engine movement blocking shenanigans keep your weapon options as cheap as possible. Since you can't shoot and star in the same turn... 5 point shuri cannons are nice for that. Don't be afraid to flat out Star Engine Vypers a lot, it can be very frustrating for your opponent when his movement lines to your troops are blocked off by a skimmer with a 4+ cover save! Especially since he has to wait all the way until the shooting phase to do something about the skimmer.

The advantage of Scatter Vypers is that they have no penalty for moving 12 inches, and they have a much larger effective range.

Basically it comes down to how you want to use your Vypers. Double Shuri or Shuri Star will be more useful for aggressively using your Vypers to support your Jetbikes at close range by either laying down a hail of fire, or messing with your opponent's movement. And scatter Vypers work better as a longer range support unit, taking pot shots at transports and things then turbo boosting to contest your opponent's objectives.

Never buy holofields for your Vyper, av10 open topped is just too fragile. And holofields are nearly as expensive as another Vyper. Always take more vypers instead of holofields.

Any way you look at it Vypers need to be used strategically. They aren't as pound for pound killy as war walkers, but they can make use of their movement to provide utility to your list.

Falcon: Put a squad of DIRE AVENGERS in one. Put a guide seer with runes of warding, and take holofields and a missile launcher. You’ve now got your HQ and a troop squad in an incredibly difficult to harm tank, which can sit on an objective and provide support from 3 essentially tl s8 shots. Its somewhat expensive, but you aren’t going to get a sturdier way to claim an objective. You should also include a squad of war walkers if you do this, so that your farseer can choose to guide either the falcon or walkers depending on whose shaken / stunned, or which you need shooting more.

Fire Prism: the (since 5th edtion) classical staple choice for Eldar heavy support. The rule is take 2 or more or don’t take any at all. They can combine their beams, or shoot separately depending on the situation, and in general are pretty solid tanks. General rule of thumb is drop 2 s5 sp4 large blasts on ork boyz. 1 tl s6 ap3 large blast on Space Marines, 2 s9 ap 2 shots on light tanks and terminators, and 1 s10 ap1 blast on heavy tanks or t5 models susceptible to instant death like Harpies.

Night Spinners: These are the new black. Their gun is tl s6 rending large blast, doesn’t require line of sight, and causes difficult and dangerous terrain. On a one on one basis it is far better than a single Fire Prism. Many Eldar Players also hold that 2 Spinners > 2 Prisms. It’s a matter of choice, and both are excellent tanks. BlueDagger has posted a lot of really good information about Night Spinners so I’ll recap some of that here.
For dealing with fnp Marines and others remember that you can hit them with doom, then hit them with the night spinner blast. Use Dooms re rolls to re roll anything that isn’t a rend. That way you get more 6s to rend, and if they want to move they will take yet more wounds from dangerous terrain.

BlueDagger wrote:
- Does not rely on another tank to become accurate (nor eat another tank's shot or Farseer's Guide)
- Does not require LoS
- Wounds marines on a 2+ with it's large blast
- Ignores armor on a Rend
- Ignores FNP on a Rend
- Can be combined with Doom to have a whole pile of chances to rend
- Has a 1/6 chance to make the enemy kill themselves except an invuln save
- Slows down a lot of enemies/makes them think twice
- Can place it's special effect on multiple units with a single shot.

Night Spinners. Very competitive choice, and in many players opinions simply better than Fire Prisms.

Just because this comes up often, the Night Spinner rules are official. They were published in White Dwarf and are available for download on the GW website here
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?aId=15100016a

War Walkers: The other awesome heavy support option. 8 s6 shots for 60 points! You can fit 3 of them in a squadron! 24 s6 shots for 180 points is a steal. Then when you consider that you could cast guide on them… they tear stuff up. War Walkers have some movement shenanigans to help them keep up with a mech list, such as outflank or scout move. But in general they are put in Eldar lists because at the end of the day this is the most fire power per point of anything in the dex. They can be effective with missiles, scatter lasers, or shuri cannons.
Missile Walkers- these are decent at shooting at av12 tanks, and against infantry can unload their s4 ap4 pinning blasts, potentially with both doom and guide support. They are somewhat expensive at 70 points per walker, and inferior to scatter laser walkers against most targets, but they can help deal with av12 if you need them too, they have longer operating range, and are still fairly versatile.
Scatter Walkers- this is the most common load out, 180 points for 24 potentially guided shots. They are devastating, and have a 36 inch threat range.
Shuri Walkers- these are incredibly cheap. A shuri cannon costs a measly 5 points, meaning you can put one of these on the table for 40 points. They are great for squeezing in more fire power into a low point list, and are also occasionally used in larger point games on outflanking walkers. These are also cheap enough to throw into cc. Sure they won’t ever kill anything in cc, but they will certainly tie up non dedicated cc units until the end of time, and you are only spending 40 points per walker to do it! Cheap and versatile, while maintaining a respectable number of s6 shots.

Step 1: Choose your Theme!
Pick between Slow Eldar and Fast Eldar. You can build a decent list around either, the important thing is synergy between all of your units.
Slow Eldar features the Avatar, Eldrad, Wraithlords, a swarm of guardians, sometimes wraithguard, harlies, scorpions and even dragons. It wins by implacably marching up the battle field absorbing sickening amounts of fire power thanks to multiple fortunes, then destroying the enemy.
Fast Eldar features mechanized units, jetbikes, and occasionally jump infantry. It wins using its speed to create leverage and fire power advantages through isolating enemy units. A Fast Eldar player will use a wide host of tactics ranging from simple flanks, to the more complicated swing wing.

That said Fast Eldar is more competitive because Slow Eldar has really bad matchups vs Guard and DE- both of which will be common Tournament Opponents.

Step 2: The Skeleton

So you picked Fast Eldar! Now lets look at the basic building blocks for your army. I can't really put it more precicely than tehscat did so I'll just quote him

tehscat wrote:ELDAR BRICKS - build your army from the ground up!
5 avengers, TL EML serpent - 180 points
5 dragons, TL cannon serpent - 180 points
3 walkers, double scatter lasers - 180 points

Mix and match today! 5 squads of any type is 900! Buy 7 for 1260! In any sub-2k game, these are your power units, with prisms/night spinners becoming better than walkers around the 1500 mark from experience.

The only thing I would really add is
Scatter Lasers are perfectly acceptable on your Avenger Serpents.
3 Guardian Jetbikes + Warlock- cannon, spear, embolden- 129 points

So really if you want a good tournament list you should be picking units from these choices.
Other bells and whistles, such as tri flamer Storm Guardians, Bladestorming Dire Avengers, even Banshees and Warp Spiders can work, but they should never be the basis of your list. We'll talk more in depth about that later on.

So to get the proverbial ball rolling lets just follow the standard template, 1 troop per 500 points, 2 squads of Fire Dragons, and full heavy support.

2x(180) 5 Fire Dragons, Wave Serpent- tl shuri cannon

2x(180) 5 Dire Avengers, Wave Serpent- eml
(129) 3 GJB + Warlock- cannon, spear, embolden

2x (115) Fire Prism
(115) Night Spinner

Total: 1194 points

STEP 3: Picking an HQ

Farseer. end stop. An Autarch *can* be good, but he really only comes into his own in 2000 point games, where his master strategist rule can potentially effect more units. In terms of powers, doom is widely regarded as the best, because it can potentially buff the shooting of multiple eldar units, and generally encourages the Eldar tactic of focusing fire to eliminate a target enemy unit.
Runes of Warding is also a no brainer. It is the best psychic defense in the game. It has unlimited range, blocks enemy ld10 powers 50% of the time, and causes perils 37% of the time. Beutiful.

(95) Farseer- Doom, Runes of Warding

STEP 4: Shiny Bits

Now that we've got an HQ, it becomes apparent that we still have some points to play with! 211 points to be exact.

This is where we can personalize the army. You've got 211 points to play with, lets see what sort of directions we can go with.

1) Add an Autarch! There are mixed feelings about this guy, he bolsters reserve rolls, which makes playing the reserve game against alpha striking armies like guard and DE much more viable. But he also costs a fair amount of points. Its your call, some players swear by him. I personally like him more in larger point games, but he can work at the 1500 point level.

2) Upgrade that Farseer to Eldrad! Always a good choice in a tournament list. Eldrad brings a lot of flexibility to any list hes present in. He won't live up to his full potential outside of a foot list, but hes still very good.

Alternatly you can just grab spirit stones and an extra power- such as fortune, to get a bit more psychic loving out of him.

3) Add Holofields to your Heavy Support! There is a huge debate on this right now. it costs a lot of points per tank, but its a huge increase on the durability of the chasis

you can look at that chart to really get an idea. If you only care about pure fire power, holofields aren't worth it. If you think there is intrinsic value in protecting the av12 chasis- such as for tank shocking, ramming, contesting, and denying kill points- then holofields become an interesting choice.

4) Upgrade your Troops! Swap out some of those DAVU squads for full 10 man bladestorming Squads, or tri flamer storm guardians
(127)10 Storm Guardians + Warlock- 2 flamers, destructor
These will both increase your anti infantry capability, and make you feel like your troops are more capable of pulling more weight. You shouldn't be relying on your troops pulling weight, and they can often put themselves in very compromised positions by firing, but for semi competitive and casual games, having contributing troops is nice.

5) take warp spiders! These aren't the best, but they are the best fast attack. They have good synergy with jetbikes, and they have undeniably good guns. They are a bit overpriced these days, but I've run a squad to good measure. they make great backfield harassers.

6) Add more building blocks! You cannot go wrong with more wave serpents on the table. In fact in many ways I saved the best for last! Taking more DAVU serpents and more Fire Dragons can really go a long way to making your list as competitive as possible.

So now that we’ve got the general idea of list building out there, lets talk about tactics. You’ve probably noticed that Eldar are more fragile than space marines, outnumbered by most space marines, and out gunned by most space marines. How on earth then are we supposed to win? The answer is mobility. The most generic statement of Eldar’s style is to focus tons of fire power on weak points of your opponent’s army then slip away while they re position to strike back. Play fast and loose, using your speed to assist target priority, and focus on alpha striking enemy positions.

Lets get a bit more specific. The most common way Eldar players accomplish this goal is through a refused flank and its variation swing wing as coined by Fritz. The general idea behind it is that you use your speed to engage a spread out enemy on his weaker side, with all of your forces.
Take a look at this sophisticated Microsoft paint diagram as well.

The general idea is that you are fighting about 50% to 75% of their army with 100% of yours. By the time that they can remobilize to pin you down, you’re already hitting an other flank, or have obliterated the targets you engaged and now have an advantage against the rest of his army.

Target priority is also important. Knowing what can slow you down and hurt your mechanized units can be important. I’ll go through a list of things which should be top priority.
Long Fangs: 5 missiles with the ability to split fire. Shoot them off the table asap.
Ravagers: Dark Eldar’s main source of dark lance weaponry. Once again Scatter Laser to the face.
Devastators: Less scary than long fangs but still annoying
Valkries + Vendettas: These make guard as mobile as you, usually have 3 tl las cannons, and usually full of melta vets. Don’t deploy on the board if guard has first turn and these.
(Psy)rifleman Dreads: These are bad news. 4tl s7 shots are going to cause problems, and the GK versions are even scarier with s8 and fortitude. Warding can help against fortitude to an extent, but do be careful.

Those are some of the biggest threats of things that need to die. Target Priority is liquid, and there are no hard and fast rules. Keep a level head, and analyze what needs to be done each turn. The units listed above are some of the most dangerous targets. Generally with Eldar you want to think in a mix of short and long term. Basically ask yourself, where can I move and what can I shoot at that will give me a better position on the table and mitigate the amount of return fire that I take. Eldar can’t just point and click like Space Marines.

Don’t be afraid of reserves. Certain armies are very capable of alpha striking, and can leave an entire Eldar army in shambles before the game even begins. Imperial guard are one example, crushing amounts of fire power, and great alpha strike from valks / vendettas. If you don’t have first turn you almost always want to cower in reserves. An Autarch as mentioned above can help with this strategy, but hes not needed. By reserving if you go second, you are A) Denying his Valkries an alpha strike on tanks which haven’t needed a chance to move, and you waste two of his shooting phases. Reserves are also useful against Dark Eldar. Basically reserves are your go to defense against alpha striking armies. It can be very disettling for an alpha strike army to lose their alpha strike.

Don’t be afraid of close combat. Eldar aren’t great at it, but we aren’t bad at it either. Against armies like Tau and Imperial Guard, close combat can often be a safe place to hide from their vicious guns. So don’t be afraid to initiate charges with guardian jetbikes, storm guardians, dire avengers, and whatever else you have. Just make sure you know the capabilities of the units you are charging in against. Crisis suits are a great example. If your jetbikes can engage them in assault, they aren’t shooting at you, and the rest of the tau army can’t shoot at your bikes! So you are simultaneously protecting your unit and cutting your opponent’s fire power. Even charging against units that will obviously roflestomp your guys could be effective.



As you can see in this diagram, the Dire Avengers have assaulted the Space Wolves. Probably at the bottom of turn 5 or something, in an attempt to draw them off of the objective with pile in moves. Sure there is a chance that the Avengers will get wiped and the wolves will just consolidate onto the objective but its better than doing nothing. Also other units such as Warp Spiders, might actually hold out, and successfully pull the Wolves away. The game isn’t always about killing the other guy, sometimes its about stealing his objectives.

Don't forget Tank Shocking and Ramming. Wave Serpents are tanks, and they are fast. This means you can get s10 rams, and you can tank shock. Tank shocking has several uses. One, you can use it to push enemy squads off of an objective, and you can use use it to force enemy squads into a flamer template or away from your troops. You can even use tank shocks offensively, to deal with powerful units which otherwise you have no way of destroying feasibly with long range shooting power. I was browsing a thread in the tactics forum and this really jumped out at them. Basically, Flavius Infernus was explaining how you can basically repeatedly tank shock tough units like Paladins or Blood Angel Assault marines until they retreat off of the board. Hilarious.

Flavius Infernus on Dealing with Paladins wrote:GKs are Ld9. They only have Ld10 if Draigo has joined the unit.

...and I'm not sure if you picked up on the fact that they only need to fail *once.* After the first failure, they automatically fail all morale tests--including further tank shocks.

So you shock them a couple or three times and get lucky and they fail one. Then you keep shocking and, *every time* you shock them after the initial failure, they fall back 2d6 automatically with no test and no chance to rally.

If you're running 6-9 grav tanks against a big unit of paladins--even with Draigo--and you just shock all your tanks in there over and over again, there's a decent chance for at least one failure. If you don't get it the first turn, he'll maybe stun a few tanks and maybe kill one, and then you do it again (make sure to move everything at least 7") And once they fail even one time, they're dead.

This is really the big weakness of all GK lists--they're not fearless, and they're only Ld9 with no way to get a reroll.

And I wasn't kidding about ramming the tanks. The best way for Eldar to kill a psyfleman dread is to ram a wave serpent or falcon into it at full speed. If you can nail it in the back that's bonus, but it only has str6 so its DoG attack will do nothing, and if you can get the 21" draw on it, you're guaranteed a str10 hit with no rolling against the crappy Eldar BS3. You might lose a tank or two, but if you've taken out his paladins and psyflemen, he's probably not got much left.

I saw that post and I needed to add it to this guide, its too amazingly tactical to not be included. Anyway, keep in mind all of your tools in a battle. Say if you have a squad of troops whose transport got shot down and you have a mean enemy unit closing in to assault next turn. Hit them with a tank shock to push them on the otherside of your wave serpent. That way they won't be able to assault your troops until after they walk around the Wave Serpent. Being able to move your opponent's troops with your vehicles is a very clever way to help you win the battle

Avatar: This is the cornerstone of Slow Eldar armies. A mighty monstrous creature with ws10, and a fearless aura for 155 points. He’s a bargain. This is the unit that keeps your masses of troops from fleeing off the board, he keeps them stuck in close combat for counter charges, and just generally kicks ass when he gets to grips with his enemies. The one thing that the Avatar needs is FORTUNE. Fortune is the life blood of the foot eldar list which brings me to my next point.

Farseer or Eldrad: Eldrad is the best Farseer that you can include in a Slow Eldar army. He can cast fortune on 2 separate units, as well as toss around a guide or doom on your fire support. Very versatile incredibly good, and you want to take him as soon as you can feasibly afford him.
Of course, its not always possible to afford the points for Eldrad, and in low point games you may very well need to get a simple fortune seer to save points. But generally Eldrad is the way to do it. Don’t forget about his Divination powers, you can really mess with your opponent’s head by moving your army around before the game starts.

Karandaras: The Stealth rule is a funny thing. Independent Characters who have it confer it to any squad they join. So you could potentially attach Karandaras and Eldrad to a Wraithguard unit with conceal and benefit from 4+ cover in the open and 3+ cover in actual cover. re rolling of course from fortune. Then you have Karandaras in there who is fully no slouch in close combat. Of course you lose out on the all important fearless bubble from the Avatar, but hey- could be a fun trick! And certainly makes it a tough unit to destroy from ranged combat.

Harlequins These are your go to melee units of choice in a foot Eldar list. They have Rending to help deal with low save enemies, they have the same number of attacks as striking scorpions, and furious charge. The shadow Seer upgrade protects them from being shot up. Overall harlies are A great unit for keeping just behind your main lines and using to counter charge along with the Avatar. You can even give them fusion pistols if you like, which gives you a bit more anti tank. I make a point to put them in any foot list that I advise. They are far better than banshees because they cannot be targeted by units far away, and any shots which try and fail to get through the veil of tears, are wasted! When they get into combat, remember to hit them with one of Eldrad’s fortunes, and make sure their target is doomed. As noted by BlueDagger in context of Night Spinners, remember that against elite infantry you can re roll everything that isn’t a 6. This gives you more rends, which means more wounds. The Troop Master is also a good choice as having a power weapon is nifty when combined with their furious charge and doom support.

Striking Scorpions: These are actually acceptable in a foot list simply because of their outflank. This means that when they are *not* on the board they are providing a psychological effect on your opponent. Generally foot Eldar is going to have a huge mass of troops surging up the center, and having Scorpions in reserve encourages them to deploy in the middle out of the Scorpion’s reach. This means that your advancing wall will be marching straight into the enemy forces. That alone can be worth the value of the scorpions. And even if your opponent doesn’t care, you still have scorpions to charge into their fire support on the table edges. Don’t use them like Harlies, as general combat support for your phalanx. They are your special agents, disrupting the enemy backfield or force them to deploy in the middle.

Fire Dragons(in a Wave Serpent) … Yes they are that good. Like War Walkers in a mech list, Fire Dragons are just so good that you can include them and they’ll still be good. Maybe they’ll wipe out a high priority target before they die- in any event they’ll certainly draw fire from your Avatar and Wraithlords.

Guardian Defenders: These are your bread and butter troop choices 8 points a model, and fearless from the Avatar’s bubble. You generally want to be taking scatter lasers on them, as putting one shot weapons like bright lances and missiles is depressing on bs3 models. Break them into as many separate squads as possible, more squads = more scatter lasers, and moral isn’t an issue since your fortuned Avatar is providing fearless. Its also worth it to toss in a Warlock every here and there. Conceal can be used to conga line a squad out in front of your entire Phalanx, that way everybody has a cover save, the guys in front have a 5+ and the squads in back have a 4+. Its awesome until the ordinance barrage starts raining down…

Storm Guardians actually aren’t as useful in a foot list. Generally you aren’t hurting for short ranged fire power, and flamers aren’t great on units mounted on foot since its tougher to get good placement. Melta guns are an option, but they are still very short ranged. Generally I think its best to just focus on Guardian Defenders, who can contribute to transport shaking / stunning with scatter laser platforms. Foot Eldar as a general rule are rather starved for long range support, so every heavy weapon you can take is worth it.

Wraith Guard Taken in a squad of 10, with a spirit seer… and you’ve got a 400 point troop! If you take these take them with a Warlock with Conceal, and stick Eldrad here. These guys will primarily be getting your second fortune, since they are so expensive you really need to protect your investment. Toughness 6 is crazy tough, and re rolling 3+ 5++ saves are pretty solid. If they can get the enemy to within 12 inches those wraith cannons will mess stuff up. Many players say they are too expensive, others say they are totally worth it for helping to anchor your foot army. In any event I wouldn’t recommend them in games under 1750 points just because of the crazy cost of the unit.

Dire Avengers: these shouldn’t really be used very often in a foot list but they can have their place. 10 Guys, Exarch with shimmer shield and defend. Combine good movement placement with one of Eldrad’s fortunes to place them in such a way so to Block Multi Charges.

As you can see by my poor illustrations, the big angry red blob, now has to charge the Single Dire Avenger Squad, with a re rolling 4+ and 5++ instead of being able to sink into the juicy guardians. Even better is that on the next turn you can change fortune to the Harlequins, doom the assaulting squad and bail out the avengers with Harlies and the Avatar.
Really only use Dire Avengers if you are confident in your placements and use them to force your opponent to assault them, and not other more vulnerable units.

Guardian Jetbikes Guardian Jetbikes can be included in small numbers to provide a fast scoring element to your list. Run them like you would in a fast list, and make sure to keep them safe then turbo boost to an objective. They are cheap, so won’t detract too much from the focus of your army, and they can be game makers by claiming those objectives.

Warp Spiders: I don’t recommend these in a foot list, but I do recognize that other people who know what they are doing do. The general idea is that Warp Spiders provide mobile s6 fire power, and give target saturation with the rest of your infantry. These are definitely valid points. They can also use their movement speed to contest objectives away from the main force of your army, and they can tie down support units which would other wise cause problems to your advancing line- taking advantage of withdraw to not miss turns of shooting and springboard to wherever they are needed in your opponent’s backfield. So definitely a decent choice if you have points left over and don’t want other things.

Err… none of the other fast attack choices are really worth looking at.

This is where we get our heavy hitters and most of our anti tanks!
Wraith Lords One of the iconic unit choices in foot Eldar, toughness 8 is one of the highest in the game, s10 is incredible, and they have some decent weapon options. Generally I advice Missile + Bright Lance in lists with Harlequins, and Bright Lance + Sword in lists without. Missile + Lance is for dealing with ranged anti tank- which is hard for foot Eldar. 2 s8 shots at bs4 is pretty solid, and you can use those to plug into heavier tanks and hope for at least a shaken or stunned result. The Sword is more useful for lists without harlies because you’ll need the extra cc potency for when things inevitably devolve into close combat due to the short ranged nature of your most powerful guns. Generally magnets are awesome, as Lords will be included in low point games where harlies will not, so you will want to start with a sword in low point games, and gravitate towards 2 s8 guns in larger point games. In this way lords provide MC saturation with the Avatar, they help with long range anti tank, and they can also pull their weight in close combat. One of the cornerstone Units of Foot Eldar, Also remember to keep them within 6 inches of your Warlocks / Spirit Seer / Eldrad bubbles. This keeps them from deciding to shut down for a turn.

War Walkers Once again, very shooty, and very killy. Generally most foot lists I see and recommend contain a squad of 3 of these and 2 Wraithlords. These make an excellent target for Eldrad’s guide in the early turns. These are what you point at transports you need dead, or to hose down fire support units like long fangs. Another clever use of them is to make use of their large profile and use them to give cover to your wraithlords. War Walkers are quite good.
Dark Reapers and Support Weapon Batteries Sadly these have no place really- even in foot lists. They are heavy weapons, and therefore cannot advance with the rest of your force. They are also competing directly with Wraithlords and War Walkers, which is never good. As a result they will generally hold you back but if you absoultly love the models they can make a decent firing platform. IF you take Reapers make sure you go for EML + Fast Shot on the Exarch. That way the squad can contribute to long range anti tank, which is what foot Eldar generally struggles with.

Assuming we are building towards a reasonable sized army, of 1500+ points we will always want to start with a core of Eldrad and the Avatar and 3 squadrons of Guardian Defenders.
[155] Avatar
[210] Eldrad
[130] 10 Guardians + Warlock- Scatter Laser, Conceal
[95] 10 Guardians- Scatter Laser
[95] 10 Guardians- Scatter Laser

So that sets us back 685 points. You’ve got 30 warm scoring fearless bodies, a beastly MC, and your psychic support.

The next thing you want to look into is maxing out your heavy support since this is where we are going to get the bulk of our damage dealing units. Generally you’ll want to select between Wraithlords and War Wakers, for the sake of this list lets go for a squad of Walkers and 2 Missle Lance Lords

[155] Wraith Lord- Missile, Lance
[155] Wraith Lord- Missile, Lance
[180] 3 War Walkers- 6 Scatter Lasers

Since we decided to go for missile + lance Wraithlords we better get some harlequins to improve our counter charge capabilities

[206] 8 Harlequins- 8 kisses, Shadow Seer
Now we have spent a total of 1381 points and we have got a pretty solid foundation for our list! There are a lot of ways we could go about expanding this to 2000 points and each have their merits. I’ll post a few options, you can generally mix and match them to get a good feel for the army, and to fit your points limit.
- A Squad of Striking Scorpions to threaten outflank and encourage a central deployment by your opponent
- A squad of Wraithguard to provide a strong anchor for your forces
- More guardians for more scoring bodies and scatter lasers.
- A squad of Dire Avengers to be used as charge deniers as discussed above
- Warp Spiders for fast harassment and engagement of enemy fire support.
- Toss in some upgrades, maybe a few more conceal warlocks to extend your wraithsight safe zone and more potential cover providing units, a troop leader, fusion pistols and /or death jester for the Harlequins to make them stronger in close combat and able to contribute while walking, and with anti tank.

There are more options, than just these but I think that these are probably the best options of things you can add to your list. Generally as long as you keep the theme, you have a fair bit of luck with foot Eldar.

Lets talk about some basic tactics of using a big slow foot Eldar army.

Because I know you guys absolutely love my crazy Microsoft paint diagrams here is the basic battle plan of a foot Eldar army.



Notice how the Harlequins are not in the front lines, but rather waiting to make sure that they are not getting shot at by small arms, and to provide as much counter attack as they can. The avatar is situated in such a way as to give fearless to the entire army. The scorpions pressure your opponent to deploy centrally so that your march has one target, straight up the middle of the board. That’s the general idea of things.

Other strategies are mentioned in my review of Guardian Defenders and Dire Avengers. A large part of the game is going to hinge on how capable as a general you are. Your movement phase is incredibly important. You need to position your units so as to only offer up one unit at a time for being charged, and then you need to counter attack with harlequins, avatar, wraithlords, etc. If you get 2 or 3 squads of guardians charged at once you are in serious trouble. Make sure you place your units cleverly and only allow the enemy to slaughter one squad in assault, and leave themselves open up to being shot and counter charged on your turn.

I mention frequently in my unit reviews that psychic powers are important. And Eldrad will be casting like a maniac. It can be useful against other Eldar armies to include an embolden warlock in one of the Guardian Squads for Eldrad to hang out with. This ensures that his powers will nearly always go off, and gives more insurance against other Eldar players. Of course this is optional and Eldrad’s runes of witnessing will more often then not be enough. As for casting priority, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS cast fortune on the Avatar. It is imperative that he stay alive, because if he dies suddenly everything isn’t fearless! His other casts are a bit more liquid. If you take wraithguard they should be fortuned as well, but otherwise you are free to guide / doom / fortune away depending on who needs it most. You may fortune Dire Avengers if you are preparing to block off an avenue of assault with them, or your Harlequins if they are going to get into an assault. Guide can be useful on your warwalkers to help boost fire power on your advance, and when you get up close guideing one of the Guardian Squads and shooting them at a doomed target can force a lot of armor saves. Think carefully about your powers, certain powers will be more useful at certain parts of the battle and it is your job to develop a sense as to when they are most needed.

Things to watch out for!
Dark Eldar. DE are very scary for a foot Eldar list in large part due to the sickening number of poison weapons they can bring to bear. Focus on taking out ravagers and venoms first, then worry about the infantry . Its going to be an uphill battle either way.

Imperial Guard. Lots of large blasts, and incredible amounts of fire power. Be very careful with them, and try to shake as many different scary tanks as you can.

Space wolves- Long Fangs suck for Eldar. They ignore Wraithlord’s saves, they shred war walkers, and the blasts are nasty for guardians. Whatever you do make sure you make killing them your first priority.

So as you probably noticed the first two segments were contemplating creating a list up to 1500 or 2000 points. These are considerably larger and less constrained by the force organization chart than typical 500 point games. However, the same theories apply- you can build your list around pure fire power / maneuverability, or you can focus on target saturation, or some combination thereof. Whats important to remember is that your list needs razor focus to fit as much into it as possible.

My weapon of choice for 500 point armies is the humble shuri cannon. 500 point games are often played on a 4x4 board, so the extra range of the scatter laser isn't really worth it, and you can purchase a shuri cannon for 5-10 points. Due to the versatility of s6- as demonstrated earlier- you can really spam shuri cannons like they are going out of style and not really find yourself lacking against any particular targets that your opponent's will be able to field.

The other school of thought are Monsterous Creature Target Saturation. at 500 points it can be tough for an opponent to deal with an Avatar AND a Wraithlord- let alone 2 wraithlords... The point is you are either bringing a huge amount of fast fire power, or you are swamping the field with MCs.

Also, magnetization is your best friend- the wargear used in a 500 point list will likely be different from what you want to put in a 1500 point list. As a result make sure you magnetize your wave serpents / War Walkers / Wraithlords so that you can swap out war gear freely!

Lets take a look at BlueDagger's "LOL MC" list.

BlueDagger wrote:
[155] Avatar
[66] 3 Gu Bikes
[76] 3 Gu Bikes- cannon
[100] Wraithlord- 2 Flamers, Sword
[100] Wraithlord- 2 Flamers, Sword

Ok, thats three of the toughest monstrous creatures in warhammer 40K, all romping around the table at once. The troops are dirt cheap Guardian Jetbike Squads, who not only are incredibly cheap, but are fast enough to dip and dodge away from opponents, and use their speed to claim objectives at the end of the game.

The list that I personally use is as follows
[83] Farseer- Singing Spear, Doom
[202] 10 Storm Gu- 2 Flamers : Wave Serpent- tl Shuri Cannon, Extra Shuri Cannon
[134] 3 Gu Bikes + Warlock- Cannon, Singing Spear, Destructor
[40] War Walker- 2 Shuri Cannon
[40] War Walker- 2 Shuri Cannon

This gives me 3 template weapons for dealing with swarms, as well as 7 shuri cannons for general shooting and 2 singing spears for heavier tanks. The idea is simple, how can I fit as many special and heavy weapons into a list as possible.

There are of course variations, I've seen Avatar + 1 Lord and Gu Defenders and War Walkers, I've seen double DAVU Wave Serpents and War Walkers. So there is a lot you can do, the essential question you need to ask yourself when contemplating a 500 point list is "How can I fit in as many big guns in as many different slots as possible while still following the force organization chart?"

A large part of the answer to this question is the War Walker. While they are incredible in larger point games, they are even better in small ones. A War Walker with 2 shuri cannons costs 40 points That is the cheapest way to add heavy fire power to a list. Remember, whenever you can, do not squadron War Walkers when you have extra heavy support slots. The reason behind this is that spreading your War Walkers out allows them to split fire, and requires your opponent to target 2 units instead of one. This makes your fire power more efficient, and lessens the impact of your opponent's own fire power. An easy crutch to building 500 point lists is just trying to cram as many war walkers as you can into the list...

Ok. So what happens if you bring this list,

[80] Farseer- Doom
[170] 5 Dire Avengers : Wave Serpent- tl shuri cannon, extra cannon
[170] 5 Dire Avengers : Wave Serpent- tl shuri cannon, extra cannon
[40] War Walker- 2 shuri cannon
[40] War Walker- 2 shuri cannon

and your opponent brings this list
Librarian
5 Scouts
5 Scouts
Land Raider Something

At first glance it seems hopeless. You've got 8 cannons, but none of them are capable of scratching the paint of a Land Raider! Never fear. You still actually have the tools to deal with and defeat that list. Remember that you can generate up to 2 s10 hits from rams, and the destruction of that Raider = the destruction of your opponent's list. Of course you still have only about a 20% chance of destroying the Land Raider, but you can do it, and you'll have a 4+ cover save against shooting from flat out, so you can potentially smash into the land raider, pull back and smash into it again. Just make sure you pile your troops out and sit them on an objective and cover when you use your Wave Serpents as battering rams. You can also get a free Kill point by slaughtering his not mounted scout squad with War Walker fire.
EDIT: Changed the above paragraph to remove some confusing language- <3 Its correct now.

The point of that exercise is that a cunning General can find ways and tools to deal with even with units that they aren't expecting to see, Fire Dragons are great, and I include a squad in 750 point games, but at 500 points stick with more shuri cannons. 180 points is the minimum number of points you can spend on a Dragon squad, and you still need to fit in two troop choices. And since 500 point games are so constrained, making sure that your troops can contribute fire power to the list is crucial to most lists' overall performance. Dragons are great. Awesome units. There just isn't room for them in these low point games...

Which brings up my next point. Expanding from 500 points to 750+.

From here, is where you start transforming your list into what you will eventually field. The first thing you do is grab Runes of Warding for your Farseer. Get some psychic protection. After that it really is dependent on your list.

I like to get a squad of Fire Dragons in there, and then spend whatever points I have left getting some upgrades- a Destructor Warlock for my Storm Guardians, and upgrading a few shuri cannons to scatter lasers. Generally, until about 1000 points, I always take shuri cannons, and if I can't add another unit- then I start upgrading them to scatter lasers. That way it ensures that I have the most fire power possible in my army. After about the 1000 point mark, the scatter laser becomes better than shuri cannons on most mounts (shuri's are still best on Dragon Wagons).

Once again, keep your stuff magnetized. Your army will morph and change a bit, as points free up. So keeping your weapons easy to swap out will save you a lot of money in the long run!

I only have one problem, wraithgaurd are elite. NVM thats totally dumb and stuff. In part two of the footdar tactics you have them as troops.