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Hello all,

As the subject heading suggests, I'm thinking about getting into Eldar. Not for competitive reasons but for 'they look pretty neat and they're not another power armor army' reasons. Thing is, I'm not sure where to start. I've watched batreps and most of the lists seem rather mean. As in, it's all about the winning. I'm not all about that. I like fun, well rounded lists that provide a fun time. Not lists that aggravate my opponents and push them to not playing me anymore. Maybe that's unavoidable with Eldar, but that's the point of this thread!

Anyways, I'm starting from scratch. So I'm all ears to any and all suggestions. I'm aiming for 1500 but am also considering 1000. I hope to keep the cost 'relatively' low (tough with 40k it seems) but of course I don't want to buy units JUST because the price tag is low.

And before it's asked because I know it will be asked... I have no idea what I'm doing. Haven't picked a craftworld or anything. So literally all suggestions are welcomed.

Choose a craftworld that you want to paint, like the background for.

Perhaps there are particular models you like.

Eldar are very easy to start up. Pick your Warhost Detachment and buy what's on it. So three units of bikes or Guardians depending on preference, a Vyper or two, Farseer, three Aspect Warrior squads and so on and so forth. As you build towards that, you can make CADs at smaller point values using what you have. But you have a shopping list in the Formations. No need to stray out of those.

Craftworld absolutely doesn't matter if you haven't picked already. It's just a paint scheme. You don't get some bonus you using Eldrad with an Ulthwe paint scheme or Prince Yriel with Iyanden. Some people get a certain pull from a certain Craftworld, but that is normally what draws someone to Eldar in the first place. So forget needing a Craftworld.

Keeping a balance in a list isn't that difficult, even keeping it strong. Having three units of Jetbikes can be friendly, if you have only two Scatter Lasers per unit. Taking a Wraithknight is fine. Taking two is excessive. Taking Aspect Warriors is a good way to focus more on the skill of Eldar instead of the brute force. Taking War Walkers shows off the 'Eldar Trickery' with their move-shoot-run in a non-spam way. Even taking the feared D-weapons on Wraithguard can be friendly when there's only one unit of them. The key to a friendly Eldar list is variety in the units you take.

I'd start by flicking through the codex and looking at the models you like, the beauty of 7th edition is you don't have to take 2 troops and an HQ to be bound.

You like aspect warriors? Take an aspect host detachment. You like psykers? take a seer council. You like poets with guns? take one of the guardian warhosts.

But traditionally the best place to start for any army is 2 troops and an HQ and simply picking the ones you like the look of is fine to do.

As has been said, get what you like the look of. If it fits into a formation, all the better.

Farseers are great, and are better on a bike.
Will your units need transports? Falcons are the Razorback, and Wave Serpents are the now-not-so-OP Rhino of the Eldar. 12-model capacity, but no windows to fire out of.
Eldar are, in most cases, fast. Battle Focus lets most non-Wraith models run-and-shoot or shoot-and-run. Dark Reapers are the main exception, along with a couple of others.

You cannot usually go wrong with a couple of Dire Avengers (price them up first), or Windrider squads. Guardian squads are pretty good now, too. Avoid Rangers, unless you really like snipers.
Apart from that, read up on the formations, as that's supposedly how the Eldar deploy. Ignore them and just use the CAD if you want though, and you'll probably still get earache about cheese

I disagree that Craftworld building doesn't matter. A wraith heavy Iyanden list or a skimmer heavy Saim-Hann list are fluffy and look cool (be mindful of spamming).

If you want a fun eldar list, just take what you want, while covering your bases as a TAC list. Eldar units are specialists, so making sure you have the right tool for the job is easy. The army should be plenty viable with just the units. You can take the formations, and they make the already good army crazy powerful. But just the CAD will get you a force you can play more then once against your friends.

Picking a craftword and play style is the first choice. Do you want to go with bikes and grav tanks? Aspect heavy? Wraiths? Guardians? Once you decide that the rest will come together. It’s hard to make a bad eldar list.

The OP mentioned aesthetics. So I suggest choosing a craftworld. if green, then get lots of aspects. if black then get seers. etc.

there are (?almost) no underpowered eldar options.

I daresay it is just about possible to write a bad list. but it would be a challenge.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I'm at work right now so I'll make this quick: seems everyone suggests the 'take what you want route'. Which is what I love to hear. That just screams fun to me! The two things that really appeal to me are magic and bikes. Magic more so than bikes (due to playing Ravenwing, I have a bike army already but little to no magic). I'm not familiar with the craftworlds, so when I have time I'm going to dig around and see which craftworld satisfies those requirements the most (unless a kind gentlemen could tell me, which would save me the time and I would be grateful).

You want seer council then. Possibly 2 in a list.

Fluffily, craftworld ulthwe is the most obvious choice.

 ColonelFazackerley wrote:
You want seer council then. Possibly 2 in a list.

Fluffily, craftworld ulthwe is the most obvious choice.

Ulthwe is know for it’s seers, Saim-Hann for it’s bikes. Both worlds have both. He could go either way.

Next question is what paint scheme looks the best.

Seer councils are usually mounted on bikes too.

 Nevelon wrote:

 ColonelFazackerley wrote:
You want seer council then. Possibly 2 in a list.

Fluffily, craftworld ulthwe is the most obvious choice.

Ulthwe is know for it’s seers, Saim-Hann for it’s bikes. Both worlds have both. He could go either way.

Next question is what paint scheme looks the best.

Yeah I'm a little torn between the two. On one hand, I prefer Ulthwe but as mentioned before I also collect Ravenwing. So I already have a 'mostly black' army. Saim-Hann doesn't look as good, imho. But it's a paint scheme that's different than I'm use to. Which is very appealing!

I think it's great that you choose an army based on the aesthetics rather than which unit is more powerful. I do the exact same.

Okay, so the very first thing to do is look through the codex and decide what kind of look you want to your army (what theme you want to go with). You've already chosen a Jetbike and Psychic style, which is awesome. (I have the same for my army).
When you've decided what you want in your army, decide on a Craftworld. Or better yet, like I've done, create your own Craftworld. Make up your own paint schemes, background, characters, etc.
I thoroughly enjoy becoming immersed in the rich lore of 40k (especially Eldar) and creating your own elements of a new Craftworld is immensely fun.

Although, do keep in mind that a Eldar Jetbike armies are expensive to buy. Very expensive. Also, Eldar Jetbike armies are very powerful, especially with the help of Psychic powers. People may comment on cheese.

Regardless, it's enjoyable and when on a board, full painted, the army can look amazing.

Have fun with it, if you do decide.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I could go on for days, as Eldar are my 40k passion army. (Who would have guessed).

White seers?

seer council white garb. With harlequin friends.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/White_Seer

a little obscure. They are like the Eldar equivalent of the Grey Knights. Anti-chaos specialists.

Their Craftworld is the Black Library.

 Farseer Uruvion wrote:
I think it's great that you choose an army based on the aesthetics rather than which unit is more powerful. I do the exact same.

Okay, so the very first thing to do is look through the codex and decide what kind of look you want to your army (what theme you want to go with). You've already chosen a Jetbike and Psychic style, which is awesome. (I have the same for my army).
When you've decided what you want in your army, decide on a Craftworld. Or better yet, like I've done, create your own Craftworld. Make up your own paint schemes, background, characters, etc.
I thoroughly enjoy becoming immersed in the rich lore of 40k (especially Eldar) and creating your own elements of a new Craftworld is immensely fun.

Although, do keep in mind that a Eldar Jetbike armies are expensive to buy. Very expensive. Also, Eldar Jetbike armies are very powerful, especially with the help of Psychic powers. People may comment on cheese.

Regardless, it's enjoyable and when on a board, full painted, the army can look amazing.

Have fun with it, if you do decide.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I could go on for days, as Eldar are my 40k passion army. (Who would have guessed).

I wasn't aware of the price. I figured with that new box set that it would have made it a bit cheaper. I'll keep that in mind!

 PaulTheFirewoodSalesman wrote:

I wasn't aware of the price. I figured with that new box set that it would have made it a bit cheaper. I'll keep that in mind!

It does a little. The new box is $160 for about $185 worth of stuff if purchased a la carte. Basically a free vyper with the purchase of 3 boxes of bikes an a seer on a bike. As it looks to be its own box, you can probably get it via a discounter to save a bit more. If you trick out the contents of the box, it will get you about a 400 point list. It’s worth noting that the box is not actually everything you need for the windrider host, as you need both a farseer on a bike as well as a warlock conclave (of at least one guy). And if you want to include a warlock in each bike squad, you will need more, and at $33 a pop, they add up fast.

But bike armies are not cheap, regardless of codex.

What the windrider box will do is make a solid core to an army. Either as a HQ+troops for a CAD, or as part of the larger formation. From there, you can add whatever floats your boat. If you use formations, you can mix-and-match aspect warriors, as long as you take 3 squads. Or just a little of everything if you build it the old fashioned way.

 Nevelon wrote:

 PaulTheFirewoodSalesman wrote:

I wasn't aware of the price. I figured with that new box set that it would have made it a bit cheaper. I'll keep that in mind!

It does a little. The new box is $160 for about $185 worth of stuff if purchased a la carte. Basically a free vyper with the purchase of 3 boxes of bikes an a seer on a bike. As it looks to be its own box, you can probably get it via a discounter to save a bit more. If you trick out the contents of the box, it will get you about a 400 point list. It’s worth noting that the box is not actually everything you need for the windrider host, as you need both a farseer on a bike as well as a warlock conclave (of at least one guy). And if you want to include a warlock in each bike squad, you will need more, and at $33 a pop, they add up fast.

But bike armies are not cheap, regardless of codex.

What the windrider box will do is make a solid core to an army. Either as a HQ+troops for a CAD, or as part of the larger formation. From there, you can add whatever floats your boat. If you use formations, you can mix-and-match aspect warriors, as long as you take 3 squads. Or just a little of everything if you build it the old fashioned way.

In which case I might stay clear of bikes altogether. I don't have a dire need to make a bike army due to already having Ravenwing. So perhaps a more magic oriented Eldar army will be my priority.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Been playing around with some lists and holy moly they aren't cheap. Seems to be unavoidable with most armies (Grey Knights seem to be an exception), but it would appear that I'm looking at around $600 CAD for 1500 points of Eldar.

$600 CAD for 1500 points of Eldar.

That's about normal for a 40k army.
Start small, and get in a few games first. You might not like the way the game works for them.
But, as you already have an army, you know most of it already.
Run them as allies, to get the feel for them. If you want to run the Farseer and Warlocks on foot, get a troops squad to go with them, such as Dire Avengers. That's an AAD right there. Get a couple of Wave Serpents maybe, to keep up with your SMs.

 Skinnereal wrote:

$600 CAD for 1500 points of Eldar.

That's about normal for a 40k army.
Start small, and get in a few games first. You might not like the way the game works for them.
But, as you already have an army, you know most of it already.
Run them as allies, to get the feel for them. If you want to run the Farseer and Warlocks on foot, get a troops squad to go with them, such as Dire Avengers. That's an AAD right there. Get a couple of Wave Serpents maybe, to keep up with your SMs.

That's what I usually aim to do but I tend to have trouble making lists in the past. If I were to make a small 500 points list, I would obviously save tons of money. But I always seem to struggle bumping up the 500 points to something like 1000 points. Meaning, I never seem to be able to make a viable list by building upon 500 points. In most cases, with lists I've seen and conjured up (not talking strictly Eldar here), a 1000 point list will use little to no units from the 500 point list. Perhaps that won't be the case for Eldar?

Back at the start of the year, my FLGS did an introductory escalation league. I took the opportunity to dust off my Eldar project which has been simmering off and on since 2nd edition.

500 points

750

1000

1250


I’m not saying these are the most competitive lists out there, and are biased by what I own/like/paint. But gives you one example of how an eldar army can grow.

 Nevelon wrote:
Back at the start of the year, my FLGS did an introductory escalation league. I took the opportunity to dust off my Eldar project which has been simmering off and on since 2nd edition.

500 points

Spoiler:

Farseer, on bike w/spear
5 DA
10 guardians w/brightlance
3 jetbikes
Falcon, scatter laser, holofields.

750

Spoiler:

Farseer
10 man guardian, brightlance platform, WS w/brightlance, holofield
5 man DA, exarch w/power sword, shimmerfield (in one of the Falcons)
2xFalcons, scatterlaser, holofields

1000

Spoiler:

I added 250 on to the last list. Mostly in the form of a unit of fire dragons and a lot up upgrades. Like a warlock for the guardians, and mounting the seer on a bike, and giving him the laughing mantle. Ghostwalk matrixes for the falcons as well.

1250

Spoiler:

I wrote/packed a 1,250 list, but never got a chance to play it. I was basically the last one with a crimson hunter and a ranger squad.

I’m not saying these are the most competitive lists out there, and are biased by what I own/like/paint. But gives you one example of how an eldar army can grow.

Now that's exactly what I should aim for. Start off at 500 and work my way up. Thanks for the awesome example!

Wouldn't it be better to just take scatter bikes. Start with smaller three or four man squads and a seer and then bump them up in strenght for more points. This would both require less cash, and give access to stuff like WK or hemlocks in lower point games.

Makumba wrote:
Wouldn't it be better to just take scatter bikes. Start with smaller three or four man squads and a seer and then bump them up in strenght for more points. This would both require less cash, and give access to stuff like WK or hemlocks in lower point games.

If I had to do it over again, I’d grab the windrider box as a start point. Then some grav armor (falcons/pirsms/etc), because that’s what drew me to the army. The regular bettleforce is not a bad buy (once again, free vyper with purchase of DA/WS/guardians) If you are going with a bike-centric army though, the foot guardians are not going to be useful though, particularly if you use the warhost. I’m thinking of painting my spare squad in the same scheme as my DA. They might lack some of the details, but should blend OK. Actually, if you paint all the footsloggers in the battleforce as DA, that’s enough for the formation. This is looking viable.

Here is my hypothetical shopping list:
Windrider box - $160
Battleforce - $115
Jetbike warlock - $33
Falcon (sub-par, but I love them, should really be a WS) - $50

Total is about $360, and will net around 1,000 points. For GW, that’s not a bad point-dollar ratio.

Growing from there depends a lot on taste. Adding aspect squads will let you mix and match into the formation, so are easy to incorporate into the list. More tanks/transports are always useful. And then the WK can be included if you want

Here's my suggestion:
-Look at Troops. Pick two different options.
-HQs, pick something that fits your troops.
-Pick anything else you like. One box of it. Don't duplicate non-troops.

Beyond that:
-At first, stick to the CAD. The formations really know how to bring the cheese. And/or Spam. Its debatable if the Warhost is cheesy, but its certainly spammy.
-Storm Guardians suck. They are the only unit I feel the need to warn you about being fail.
-Avoid the WK. If you really love the model, you may be able to make it reasonable in large games. But probably not. Its that broken.
-Avoid putting more than 1 Heavy per 3 in any Windrider squads
-Avoid bringing DEs for Transports or WWPs. Getting into position is supposed to be the difficulty with a lot of CWE infantry. Making that trivial is pants-on-head broken. I'd suggest start without allies anyways though.
-Avoid duplicating non-troops. Even if you win hard, if no two units are the same, there should be something the opponent could have done. But when its just spam, its quite boring, and I think even more frustrating.
-Further, usually, just one box of non-troops. With those unit sizes, your opponents have options. Maybe not good options, but more options makes it more fun.
-Death stars usually aren't fun for the opponent. Don't put more than 1 HQ in a unit against noncompetitive players.

For you specifically?
-It may not be the most effective, but foot seers can be a lot of fun. They'll feel less cheesy for your opponent, too!
-Most Craft world's have most units. Uthwe is known for Guardians and Seers, but has Aspects and Wraiths too. Pick the fluff you like. If that guides your army style, so be it!
-Footdar can be a lot of fun. If you like casting, Farseer is the way to go! Warlocks in Guardian squads can have some amazing situational uses. Lets you really spread around the magic.

Well I've been going over a lot of stuff and I think I actually like the thought of Harlequins. Plus I know a guy who bought a whole bunch in hopes to get into 40k again. Never did so he's willing to sell for cheap.

So it looks like I'll have enough for the Cegorach's Jest and The Heroes' Path formations. I have enough for a Masque Detachment but it isn't exactly I would want it to look. I.e now enough skyweavers or starweavers.

Anyways, I'm also getting 2 units of wraithguard, a farseer on foot, a spiritseer on foot, and a waveserpent. So I might pick up the battleforce for the troops, make a CAD, and call it a day!

 PaulTheFirewoodSalesman wrote:
So it looks like I'll have enough for the Cegorach's Jest and The Heroes' Path formations. I have enough for a Masque Detachment but it isn't exactly I would want it to look. I.e now enough skyweavers or starweavers.

Anyways, I'm also getting 2 units of wraithguard, a farseer on foot, a spiritseer on foot, and a waveserpent. So I might pick up the battleforce for the troops, make a CAD, and call it a day!

In terms of Eldar, I'd start with a Jetseer.
If you want Wraithguard, take two units of 5 in Serpents and include a Spiritseer (she cannot take a jetbike).
However, Wraithguard is not a must have - I wouldn't call it a day.
I'd take two units of 10 Dire Avengers in Serpents and add 3 Warwalkers with scatterlasers. Much more bang for the bucks.

 PaulTheFirewoodSalesman wrote:
Anyways, I'm also getting 2 units of wraithguard, a farseer on foot, a spiritseer on foot, and a waveserpent. So I might pick up the battleforce for the troops, make a CAD, and call it a day!

You might want to check about Wraithguard being Troops.
I thought they got dropped as an option in the new C:CWE, even with Spiritseers.
IIRC though, GW have stated that the Iyanden suppliment is still valid, and that's full of Wraiths.

[After a re-read:]
Unless you mean to use the Guardians and DAs as the troops. You're good with that.

Yeah, WG aren't troops.

I can't endorse Cegoraths Jest enough. I've always loved it. Even when it gets shot off the table. And my opponents seem to love it too. Heroes Path can add a lot of fun to it too, but I'd suggest adding a CAD from somewhere (CWE or DE).

With what you got, an Eldar battle force would be perfect. Gives you options. And a foot farseer can go in any unit, really. Note that Harlies from Jest *don't* lose run-then-charge with a non-Harlie added, but it still feels more "right" to put the Seer in with Guardians defensively or DAs offensively.

Finally, I'd note that your Harlies are squishy. I'd build out your CWE to match thematically. That means I wouldn't go heavy Wraith or Tank. Footdar or mobile platforms seem to compliment Harlies better.

(Also, while the Masque is fun, its not as fun as a Jest plus a diverse set of CWE options, usually. I'll never field my Tau, SM, or any Eldar flavor as allies to eachother, but Harlies seem best fielded with other Eldar allies.)

I shouldn't be this excited about the start of someone I'll never meet's starting collection!