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What are your preferred units and tactics?
I've noticed on a couple of threads now, that there are some pretty varied thoughts and strong opinions on what good/bad eldar units are.
So I'd really like to know people's thoughts on how they build eldar armies.
So - what is your normal army list for Eldar? What are your auto includes? Do you try to exploit anything with your army list? What survives most games?
Most importantly what's fun?
I'm not interested in the downsides of the units, as this is dicussed a lot over the forum. You only need to mention certain units in an army list to get a detailed analysis on exactly why they suck. (I know it's all accurate too and I'm not whinging about the advice, but rather then the normal overcosted/underpowered points I'd like some pro-eldar information )
I'm not looking at this from a points perspective either really - just whether some units can be fun or effective.


So I tend to take selections from the following

HQ
Eldrad/Farseer
Wraithseer

Troops
Pathfinders/Rangers
Wraithguard

Heavy Support
2 x fire prism
3 x wraithlord (2 shooting, one assault)

After that, if there any points left I'll play around with the 6th heavy support choice - reapers, d-cannons etc. I play survivalist eldar - I do this because everytime I attack, whatever I attack with dies.
I use the wraithseer to give the wraithguard 4+ FNP, they then get fortune on them so I get T6 3+/5+cover with re-rolls and 4+FNP. Being T6, they are quite hard to ID so they are a really survivable unit (other than str6 flamers). I have eldrad lead them (he gains fearless as a result IIRC) This sits on an 1 objective, the other is held by pathfinders. The wraithseer gives the wraith constructs -1 cover as a bonus to their shooting. The wraithlords fire Krak missiles, Bright Lances and starcannons at any vehicles in range, the prisms whittle squads.

So what does everybody else do? I know I'm in a minority with my style of eldar army, but it's what works for me in my local meta. I've never used weight of fire - I've always used ap2 fire.
This question has come about because I managed to kill 5 terminators in 1 turn with 1 squad of Dire Avengers I took as an afterthought. I'd never even given them the time of day before...and I'm wondering what other army combo's people take.

For example, everybody know's that shining spears aren't good or do we all just not use them because everybody says they're poor?
Has anyone managed to create a list they work in? For example, if you tar pit a unit with scorpions, then charge with the spears, that should make a mess of an MEQ/Horde unit.

So what do you enjoy doing with your eldar? And if you don't play eldar, what consistently annoys you mid game?
Thanks in advance

I face this frequently, but I find it hard to argue with scatter laser war walkers babysat by a farseer.

I like to take big squads of Warp Spiders. You have to build your army around it, but a full squad of Spiders with an Exarch with dual spinners can spit out 22 Str 6 shots. It makes them a little riskier to deepstrike, but no guts no glory! People don't expect it, and even with AP- the weight of fire they put out is downright nasty. They'll crush MEQ's underweight of fire, hurt TEQ's enough, and outright murder GEQ's. Also, they do great glancing vehicles to death, the deepstriking lets them get rear armor more often than not, and STR 6 weight of fire hurts MCs too.

Granted, I have a lot of daemons in my meta, so the high strength, high ap, lots of shots guns do wonders for me in that respect, YMMV.

Still, I think they're the most fun unit in the codex, with deepstrike, jump shoot jump, and hit and run, they can be a real pain

Well, favorite Eldar build in the 6th ed? Actually none, since I shelved my beloved Eldar army since the new rule set came out.
You forgot Warwalkers as mentioned. This is one of the best HS option in the whole game. In small pt games, I suggest 3 Warwalkers with shuricannons, 120 pts which are well invested. In larger pt games, scatterlasers give you the much needed fire support.

I was quite bummed when 6th edition arrived and discovered just how vulnerable my mechanized Eldar army became (I have 25 painted vehicles which leads to a lot of variety). Therefore, I had to substantially alter the army. I actually like the hybrid Eldar/Dark Eldar. The Eldar codex is dated, especially in regards to points values. The DE codex allows me to fill in a few gaps with more reasonably priced units. I've painted my Eldar/DE in a similar pattern in order to retain a coherent look across the table.

I normally run War Walkers, but have traded them out for the Bastion/Quad Gun. However, one of the biggest issues I've run across locally is the Aegis Defense Line. Folks love to use this and I am seeing blob IG units sitting behind them. Go to Ground for a 2+ save, then the order 'Get Back Into the Fight' gives you a Terminator save against most things. Therefore, Maugan Ra and the Nightspinner were worked into the army. Both circumvent the ADL quite well and both have S6 shooting which means I'm insta killing IG heavy weapon teams.

It's been fun and I've especially enjoyed the assault element. Playing mechdar in 5th meant I never utilized the assault phase, unless I was being assaulted and promptly removing models. I've been told assault is dead, but I think that is a bit overstated. It takes me a few turns to get to grips against a sit back and shoot army, but it will kill off blob squads in a single turn. The best I've done is drop 2 x IG Blob squads in a single game, but my opponent helped me by setting up a bit too close and I was able to reach assault on my second turn.

All in all, the army has been fun. I won't claim any kind of power list, but it has provided me with a lot of challenging games and I think there's really only been one game where it was truly lopsided; my IG opponent going first and 2 Manticores each getting 3 missiles and two Master of Ordnance had fantastic hits and gutted my army first turn (yes, 8 pie plates on turn 1).


Currently, my 1850 army looks like this:

Eldrad
Maugan Ra
Vect

10 Harlequins including Shadowseer, Troupe Leader, Death Jester and 7xKisses
5 Fire Dragons including Exarch, Tank Hunter, Crack Shot
3 Kabalite Trueborn, 2xSplinter Cannon

11 Guardians, 1 Warlock, Conceal, Starcannon
5 Jetbikes, 1 Cannon, 1 Warlock, Destructor, Singing Spear
8 Dire Avengers
10 Kabalite Warriors, 1xSplinter Cannon

Nightspinner

Bastion w/ Quad Gun

Yeah, Mech Eldar did take a hit this edition, but it's not really dead. I still like to use a WS for my Fire Dragons and fairly often, one for my Dire Avengers as well.

My favourite unit this edition, which has become even more awesome, is War Walkers with Scatter Lasers. The amount of fire they can put out is fantastic and, with glancing hits being so crucial, that S6 puts them at a very nice tier of power.

Well, a units that still works is the Seer Council. In the 5th ed, I usually played a Council on foot mounted in a Serpent, simply because its harder to pull off than a Council on jetbikes.
In the 6th ed, a Council on foot still works. Just attack an IC in front like an Archon with shadowfield or a PL like Fuegan. The enemy will have a hard time to take it down while iit moves across the board.

For me it's a footdar list

farseer x2
3x5 pathfinder
3x10 guardian
2x5 swooping hawk w/exarch
1x5 warp spider
3x3 dark reaper w/ exarch
2x wraithlord

Sprinkle in upgrades as needed, the wraithlords take a hell of a beating in the first couple turns, while everything else moves up/ kills troops. Hawks skyleap around dropping templates, Spiders DS in and str6 a tank to death. Enemy psykers hate the farseers, and guide and doom just make things more fun.

Most people will talk about warwalkers, but the few times I've used them, they generally get blasted before doing anything, so I decided to go with no armor at all and have been pretty successful.

 The Shadow wrote:
Yeah, Mech Eldar did take a hit this edition, but it's not really dead. I still like to use a WS for my Fire Dragons and fairly often, one for my Dire Avengers as well.

My favourite unit this edition, which has become even more awesome, is War Walkers with Scatter Lasers. The amount of fire they can put out is fantastic and, with glancing hits being so crucial, that S6 puts them at a very nice tier of power.

My typical mechanized list had 18-20 vehicles. I am waiting for some of the local scene to change up a bit before I try it again. Playing against 18 Wraiths demonstrated just how vulnerable my mechanized list was in 6th. It's hard for to to call 2 Wave Serpents a mechanized list.

 Sarigar wrote:

 The Shadow wrote:
Yeah, Mech Eldar did take a hit this edition, but it's not really dead. I still like to use a WS for my Fire Dragons and fairly often, one for my Dire Avengers as well.

My favourite unit this edition, which has become even more awesome, is War Walkers with Scatter Lasers. The amount of fire they can put out is fantastic and, with glancing hits being so crucial, that S6 puts them at a very nice tier of power.

My typical mechanized list had 18-20 vehicles. I am waiting for some of the local scene to change up a bit before I try it again. Playing against 18 Wraiths demonstrated just how vulnerable my mechanized list was in 6th. It's hard for to to call 2 Wave Serpents a mechanized list.

Well, Serpents are very vulnerable in cc now. Compare hitting on 6+ with hitting on 3+ for a moving fast skimmer. Wraiths make short work with a Serpent once it get caught in cc.

 dpal666 wrote:
For me it's a footdar list

farseer x2
3x5 pathfinder
3x10 guardian
2x5 swooping hawk w/exarch
1x5 warp spider
3x3 dark reaper w/ exarch
2x wraithlord

Sprinkle in upgrades as needed, the wraithlords take a hell of a beating in the first couple turns, while everything else moves up/ kills troops. Hawks skyleap around dropping templates, Spiders DS in and str6 a tank to death. Enemy psykers hate the farseers, and guide and doom just make things more fun.

Most people will talk about warwalkers, but the few times I've used them, they generally get blasted before doing anything, so I decided to go with no armor at all and have been pretty successful.

Warwalkers need to be in cover (preferably ruins) with a farseer to cast fortune on them. They then become frustratingly hard to eliminate. And six scatter lasers with guide are basically eliminating entire units every turn. Bring war walkers in all your heavy slots for extra lulz and toss in Eldrad for extra buffs.

Martel732 wrote:

 dpal666 wrote:
For me it's a footdar list

farseer x2
3x5 pathfinder
3x10 guardian
2x5 swooping hawk w/exarch
1x5 warp spider
3x3 dark reaper w/ exarch
2x wraithlord

Sprinkle in upgrades as needed, the wraithlords take a hell of a beating in the first couple turns, while everything else moves up/ kills troops. Hawks skyleap around dropping templates, Spiders DS in and str6 a tank to death. Enemy psykers hate the farseers, and guide and doom just make things more fun.

Most people will talk about warwalkers, but the few times I've used them, they generally get blasted before doing anything, so I decided to go with no armor at all and have been pretty successful.

Warwalkers need to be in cover (preferably ruins) with a farseer to cast fortune on them. They then become frustratingly hard to eliminate. And six scatter lasers with guide are basically eliminating entire units every turn. Bring war walkers in all your heavy slots for extra lulz and toss in Eldrad for extra buffs.

Fortuning Warwalkers? This would be too much. Stick them into cover. The squadron rules make them better than in the 5th. But if they go down, let them, don't care.

No, it's not too much. I play against a list that does it all the time and its nasty.

You should care if they go down, because each turn they fire, you opponent loses another effective squad or light vehicle of your choice.

They even have enough shots to seriously threaten fliers, especially with guide. War walkers are one of the things in the Eldar heavy slot that really makes things happen and that are truly fearsome. Many of their other heavies are frankly low priority targets for me.

My favourite is pure wraith. Only wraithguard troops backed up by wraithlords and a wraithseer in the middle.

Probably not the best list out there but tough as hell and looks good on the table.

We used to have a giant battle every so often with like 6 to a side. One time we were short a player so they let me fill in the points just to see all my wraith units. 60 wraithguard, 8 wraithlords and a couple of aspect warriors thrown in for grins. Didn't kill much but tied up half the other side for several turns with less than a third of our points.

Only downside is that all my guard and lords are the old metal ones so it makes for one small but heavy box to carry them in.

Wraithguard/Lord list.

2 10x Wraithguard
2 5x pathfinder
2x WraithLord EM + BL
1x WraithLoard Sword + SL
Avatar
Eldred
5x Harlies

I have to put my 2 cents in for the wraithwall. I've been having massive successes at my FLGS with Eldrad and wraithlords with wraithguard troop choices.
Most all comer lists just don't have the high strength shooting or numbers to stop wraith rampage. Throw in Eldrad with an avatar for even more fun, and drop one wraithlord for some Vibro-cannons if you're feeling especially vindictive.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 whembly wrote:
Wraithguard/Lord list.

2 10x Wraithguard
2 5x pathfinder
2x WraithLord EM + BL
1x WraithLoard Sword + SL
Avatar
Eldred
5x Harlies

this guy^


Automatically Appended Next Post:

CrowSplat wrote:
60 wraithguard, 8 wraithlords and a couple of aspect warriors thrown in for grins.

holy hell 60 wraithguard 8 wraithlords? do want.

Whenever I take my Eldar out I have a few units which I allways include. 3 squads of walkers and 3 Nightwings. The rest varies to some degree but usually include EJBs and Eldrad

tedurur wrote:
Whenever I take my Eldar out I have a few units which I allways include. 3 squads of walkers and 3 Nightwings. The rest varies to some degree but usually include EJBs and Eldrad

How many points do you play since you seem to play 6 HS units.

 wuestenfux wrote:

tedurur wrote:
Whenever I take my Eldar out I have a few units which I allways include. 3 squads of walkers and 3 Nightwings. The rest varies to some degree but usually include EJBs and Eldrad

How many points do you play since you seem to play 6 HS units.

Seems that many of these lists are at 2000+. My group tends to cap it at 1750 for most games to avoid crazy spam lists like these. Even so, our resident Eldar player has no problem putting out about 70 Strength 6 shots a turn without spamming any one unit. He normally takes 3 vypers, 3 war walkers, 9 spyders w/exarch and a WL w/scatter laser and EML, plus some guardian squads w/scatter lasers too.

 Seerpath wrote:

CrowSplat wrote:
60 wraithguard, 8 wraithlords and a couple of aspect warriors thrown in for grins.

holy hell 60 wraithguard 8 wraithlords? do want.

I kind of lucked into all of that. Apparently everyone at my FLGS that bought an Eldar army then didn't like decided I was the guy to sell it to. Since I was the only person with any interest in Eldar I pretty much got to name my price when buying their stuff.

 wuestenfux wrote:

tedurur wrote:
Whenever I take my Eldar out I have a few units which I allways include. 3 squads of walkers and 3 Nightwings. The rest varies to some degree but usually include EJBs and Eldrad

How many points do you play since you seem to play 6 HS units.

Seeing how the nightwing is a FA choice thats not än issue...

CrowSplat wrote:

 Seerpath wrote:

CrowSplat wrote:
60 wraithguard, 8 wraithlords and a couple of aspect warriors thrown in for grins.

holy hell 60 wraithguard 8 wraithlords? do want.

I kind of lucked into all of that. Apparently everyone at my FLGS that bought an Eldar army then didn't like decided I was the guy to sell it to. Since I was the only person with any interest in Eldar I pretty much got to name my price when buying their stuff.

You bought em by the pound then? I have 20 and have been trying to talk myself into getting more, but sadly they switched to Finecast so it's Ebay only now.

From the above, it seems we have 2 bases for eldar lists to start from.

Wraiths or guided walkers.

I'm definately going down the wraith path - I'm going to add a pair of nightwings and a phoenix to my list - I'll use these to sweep objectives clean while my wraiths hold the line.

Has anyone tried allying with marines?
I've also got space wolves and in big games, I'm considering allying a storm eagle with Logan Grimnar and 10 terminators (because I miss having something to do in the assualt phase, other than remove models or use wraithlords to hug things till the end of the game)

I'll be allying with IG, mostly to add tough armour and bodies on objectives.
They would get the Aegis with quad guns, and maybe a Valkyrie.

I did think of taking Marines, but IG seemed to fill most of the gaps.

But, the WW will be making an appearance.

Wraithwall is still too slow. 12" range and 6" move takes a long time to get in range, Often in objective games you are left with the 2 units of wraithguard at the end and the enemy still on an obective or two while you have two. With the massacre-major win-minor win scaling you rarely are able to do well in tourneys. With only win/loss, it can function. ~6/10

Warp spiders are good. No complaint at all with them in 6th. They were expensive for 5th but they are much more effective vs vehicles in 6th making them worthwhile. ~9/10 for the codex


War walker spam is dead. 5+ cover means they arent saving as much in cover, 36" range limits fire targets if you want to stay in cover, and 2HP made war walkers good, but not great anymore. I prefer running them with cannons and outflanking them as a cheap unit that puts out a lot of fire and can cause a bit of mayhem on one side. ~7/10


My current favorite unit is harlequins. 10 harlequins with shadowseer and kisses is 250 points plus a fortune/doom farseer/eldrad for ~370. For that point value they are unkillable at range bar ignore cover (2+ rerollable cover save off any terrain on the board). They also perform very well in melee. VS MEQ 40A at WS5, 27 hits, 20 wounds with 7 of those rending. Killing 12 marines (add in the farseer) marines a turn at I6 is incredible. You even kill ~6 terminators without factoring pistols. Rending makes them effective vs vehicles, ignoring cover for movement (shadowseer gives grenades), access to fusion pistols, and able to operate on their own without necessary vehicles makes them the undisputed most cost effective unit of the codex now. 10/10


I run a corsair army from IA11. Its a much more modern book that fills in a lot of the gaps the eldar are missing (fliers, blast templates, good anti-vehicle at medium range, cost effective mobility). I ally in Eldar to grab either Bel-Annath, Eldrad, or Yriel, depending on how competitive it is. along with some warp spiders to compliment the corsairs mobility.

zephoid wrote:
Wraithwall is still too slow. 12" range and 6" move takes a long time to get in range, Often in objective games you are left with the 2 units of wraithguard at the end and the enemy still on an obective or two while you have two. With the massacre-major win-minor win scaling you rarely are able to do well in tourneys. With only win/loss, it can function. ~6/10

This is the part I'm trying to find an answer to - At the end of most games, I've still got the same wraithguard,path finders and objectives I started with.

I need something to go get objectives too - I'm adding planes to clear objectives, but with transports being killable/easy first blood, I need something that won't die on the way over that can take objectives. At the moment, I don't attack.

Allied marine's in a storm eagle would work, but to be honest I'd rather use Eldar if I can.

Guadian Jetbikes would be a good unit to add to your wraithwall army.

Warwalker spam is not dead if they buy an aegis line, or there are ruins available.

Martel732 wrote:
Warwalker spam is not dead if they buy an aegis line, or there are ruins available.

Does the wall cover 25% of the walker? I thought it might come to mid shin at best ^^



My favorite Eldar list is still the Jetseer council, with or w/o baron ^^

I'm positive it covers 25% of the old model, because that's all my friend has.

He uses seer council on jet bikes as well, of course. I usually find its a race to crush all his vulnerable guardian troop choices , or a race to frag his farseer babysitting the warwalkers. Or both.