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Hi all, brand new to the hobby , though I have been into 40k for along time via videogames and reading about them in White Dwarf over the years

As i stated in my intro thread , I now have the time and a little excess $$ so Im getting into actually playing/painting 40K as opposed to reading.

I have about 40 tyranids , but no HQ unit or new Codex and also 1 new Eldar codex and 6E rulebook plus a farseer , 2 wraithlords and 10 Rangers , so i decided to go with eldar to play at my gamestore, they are a good bunch and were very welcoming and not oo competitive, they mostly want to play and have fun, which is what I want to do also.

Is choosing the Eldart a bad choice? I know a new book is out in the fall, but I was thinking if I bought just the core units there wouldnt be too many changes and I understand that playing them is an "acquired taste"

Cheers

D163

Given their new Codex isn't all that far off, starting fresh with them now would lead to a good bit of wasted money. I'd look into what got books recently or what aren't due to get books for a while, and start there - or just hold off until Eldar arrive in the second half of this year.

 dude163 wrote:
...they are a good bunch and were very welcoming and not too competitive, they mostly want to play and have fun, which is what I want to do also.

is the best reason to go ahead and learn the army you really want to. Such groups are rare (at least for me), and it sounds like they won't stomp on you as you try to learn the nuances of an Eldar force. Sticking to core units is fine in light of the upcoming update, and besides, you'd always want to learn with the core anyhow...fancy shiny things just turn into dust collectors waiting for you to learn the game proper.

Just know the Eldar are unique - I don't play as them but I have against them and I will say they are a "Glass Cannon" type of force that cannot rely on weight of numbers, but instead maneuvering and combined lines of fire. Best of luck! And don 't be shy about posting some painted minis in the gallery!

Dark Eldar have, to me, a similar level of difficulty as Eldar, but are also, again for me, a really fun army to run.
As for Eldar being suitable for a new player, my advice is either proxy what you may already have for Eldar and different armies or see if friends will let you borrow theirs until you find one that you like the style of.
That way your less likly to end up with a bunch of unpainted minis gathering dust after some unsatisfactory outings.

No there not a waste of money dive straight in. There difficult to play at first bu youve go some good stuff. Get some DA and your good to go that wouldnt be bad There freally fun to play especially if someone else you knw is getting into it add some SS and DA and maybe a Fire prism.

Personally, I'm a collector first and gamer second, so I'll always advise you to pick the models you love the most and play the army they're from. You'll get more involved with the game and be happier with your spending

I'd rather loose with an army I love, then win with one I hate. That said, winning is kinda cool... We spend far to much time and money on this game to invest either in something that doesn't spark our interest.

Eldar are a finesse army, not forgiving of mistakes. So a pretty steep learning curve. But you do have the correct tool for any job, you just need to make sure you have the right one in the right place at the right time. While editions makes some units better or worse, generally the minis are still valid. So pick up things you like the look of to paint and use. When the new codex drops, they might be better or worse, but you should still be able to field them. And when you are not playing in a competitive environment, you have space in your list for one or two sub-par units.

Thanks, Ill persevere and see what happens

at the very least Ill have some cool minis for my 2 daughters to play with

Well, I'm a long-term Eldar player during the editions 3 to 5. But I've shelved them when the 6th ed. came out. An Eldar army is definitely hard to pull off these days. I'd either choose another army or wait for the next Eldar codex.

No choice is a bad choice, but all choices have different consequences. I find most people star with marines, and because of this they get complacent with their saves, dont make use of cover and most importantly, whine a stupid amount when us more *specilized* eldar players curb stomp them with smartz.

Trust me when i say starting a game on hard mode is the best way to be the best. I started when i was 11 with wood elves ( commonly seen as the hardest army to play in fantasy...by quite a lot) and mainly played against daemons (!) so i had to learn the rules as much as i could and make the most of tactics. I still lost of course, but each time it was by less and less unitl i now i can reliably draw with him, even with him having a surperior force. Eldar are a good start to the game because they have everything and are god at everything, but still need a lot of tactics. What i find when you win a opponent who has a better army then you is the best feeling i ever get from wargaming. Its the sense that you outplayed you enemy utterly, and toar apart his army a bit at a time, makes the heart soar.

for now wait for the new codex but go to ebay and snipe some deals if you can find them

Thats what Im doing, I got 2 Wraithlords for 20 bucks off a guy in France, and i think I may have found some wraithlords too for cheap


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also : I have some tyranids but need a current codex , would they be more competitive?

Eldar are an excellent choice for a new player. I started with Nids in 2nd Ed, but really learned the game well with DE. I enjoyed it a lot and got good rather quickly.
As with DE, playing Eldar teaches you how to think ahead of your enemy. Something that requires good mobility to utilize. And Eldar have that.
With a new Codex in the works, it might be a good idea to just read up on them. I recommend Gav Thorpe's Eldar Trilogy. Get excited about the army. Get some of your favorite models. Even play some games with their current Codex just to get a feel for them so you know how to adjust to their impending change. If you get good with a crappy codex, I've found it makes winning with a new and improved codex easier.

You will be fine as long as you stick to the essentials until the new codex.

Have fun painting and playing with them if that is the army that has a draw for you. Regardless of what some might be saying, it wouldn't be a "waste of money " with the new codex around the corner. That's crap.

The most you are going to run into is the fact that with such an aging codex, they are admittedly a hard army to play, when everyone else is going to be using Space Marine-style armies, whose 3+ armor saves will make you have to suck it up when your fragile troops get struck down. But there are perfectly fine ways to win with Eldar, they just (appropriately) take alot of finesse rather than the brute force that is working for most current armies .

I can't see GW making any major changes to the vast majority of what makes up the current Eldar Codex. Especially when it comes to the actual models. Wraithlords ain't gonna change. Squads of Dire Avengers will remain squads of Dire Avengers. If you like Fire Prism tanks, they are virtually assured to remain the same. A Jetbike-based army will very likely remain nearly the same. 90% of what you see in today's codex has existed in nearly the same format since 2nd Edition. No units have been phased out since 2nd edition, and they didn't even have actual models for them, like Dragon Knights or Eldar pirates, or a couple of special Characters in the 3rd edition codex that never got made.

The most you are going to see will probably be a number of cool new toys show up, and when they come out, you can add them to a solid stable of Eldar figures that will end up translating right over from this codex to that one. If anything, some oldies might even see point cost drops, so you can add more of them if you like them, or have space for the new toys.

Ok thanks

The other think I didnt realise was that there is a 6th ed update to the codex for the Eldar so some stats changed , some quite a bit

My main idea was:

using warp spiders and swooping hawks for harassment
guardian squads with BL for anti armour supported by 2 x 5 man ranger squads
add in 2 Wraithlords
and a tank or 2 and that should tide me over

I just got back from the 40k store and have 7 new jars of paint, soonce I get these guys Im all set to paint em

Eldar are slightly nerfed by 6th ed...but there are other units in the codex that work well...I've found people mortally afraid of wraith guard so they gun them down quick...

Leaving three teams of storm guardians running across a flank, wasting all armor and troops they see, because they get ignored.

Additionally, an aggressive approach from the other flank with awave sserpent packing a far seer and 10 warlocks all with singing spears can be much to deal with...

Play to the tendencies...rangers are overpriced, but no one ever gets to them...

And the jet bikes have improved

I won a 1250 against the new dark angels with a terminator heavy army. they are not bad just know that you cannot treat them liek marines or other armies. eldar units do one thing, they do it well, and often do it better than anything in the game. there are few things for the points that touch harlequins in close combat, they wiped 3/4 deathwing terminator squads off the map. note that was one squad of harliquins to i had an all comers list but my war walkers and wraithlord just plinked off a few models where they could and tried to pin but given my opponent they were all mostly useless make an all comers list and you can do well just know they have a steep learning curve and one mistake as eldar can cost you the game they are the least forgiving army out there

side question, why the heck are wraithguard so expensive?

70 bucks for 5 minis WTH!

Meganobz are 22.50 each (maybe more by now..)

DE Grotesques are the same..

GW prices can be silly high,

side question, why the heck are wraithguard so expensive?

70 bucks for 5 minis WTH!

Yup, it sucks, doesn't it? They have been $15us for many years now, for a sculpt that has been used non-stop since 1992 (or maybe 1994). So the horrible irony is that you can actually get 5 Finecast for the price of 4 of the old metal ones, at the balance of being that you just have to be able to afford all five at a time, as well as actually use them in those multiples. At least with the old single-figure way, if I already had 4, and only wanted another, it was just 15 bucks.

Or course, it's still that way if you head over to Ebay. And you'll get them in metal, too.

Eldar were my first army too, towards the beginning of 5th ed. It took me a long time to be able to win consistently with them, but it's always been fun. I love their fluff and models, and their gameplay once you get the nuances down.

I think many people are worried about Eldar's "viability" because the army doesn't have the safety net of 3+ armor survivability that armies like MEQ and Necrons have. Everyone who plays those are used to having elite, hard to kill troopers in their armies.

Relapse wrote:
Dark Eldar have, to me, a similar level of difficulty as Eldar, but are also, again for me, a really fun army to run.
As for Eldar being suitable for a new player, my advice is either proxy what you may already have for Eldar and different armies or see if friends will let you borrow theirs until you find one that you like the style of.
That way your less likly to end up with a bunch of unpainted minis gathering dust after some unsatisfactory outings.

I'd disagree as to Dark Eldar and Eldar having the same "difficulty level". I feel that Eldar are one of the most difficult armies to play now that Tau have just got a new 'dex.

Dark Eldar, on the other hand, are still a relatively new codex and yes, whilst the army itself does share of the inherent flaws built into Eldar (fragility etc.), Dark Eldar are much easier to pull off due to them not being reliant on psychic powers to carry them through.

The only thing keeping Eldar in the game, in my opinion, is Fortune. This godsend of a psychic power has saved my butt so many times that without it, I am seriously uncomfortable playing my Eldar.

So, because of their very precise play-style and unforgiving fragility, I would say that Eldar are definately not a good choice for a brand new player. Don't get me wrong, they are very rewarding to play and win with, but almost all the time you will find yourself fighting an uphill battle and will need to outsmart an opponent to make significant headway in a game.

Iranna.

Thanks for the info, speaking of tau, Im going to wait until the new Eldar codex is out in June before I spend too much more on minis, Ive dropped about 100 bucks so far and have enough for a small army for pickup games at the store

Until then Ill be playing some tyranids

Welcome to the Craftworld! The eldar community on here seems, while somewhat smaller than other races, a good source for knowledge and I know they've definitely helped me out with listbuilding in my local games.

I'd suggest to you what I was told when I first started if only to save you the hair pulling I experienced as a result of my own lack of forethought: troops! get to know your troops first before your aspect warriors! That and your Heavy Support. If you can master those two portions of the FOC, you'll be in much better standing than I was when I jumped into a meat grinder against Necrons and IG lol

This isn't really a hobby that is very friendly to "switching" armies (though your mileage may, of course, vary), so IMHO whether a faction is complicated or otherwise is not really a good indicator of whether you should play said faction or not.

Eldar are a cool, fun army to play - and especially with a new codex soon they are powerful as well. A 20 man squad of Guardians up close can worry even space marines with their sheer firepower.

Our 'thing' is that we have Aspect Warriors that excel at one thing and are at everything else e.g. Howling Banshees tear it up in CC but are ineffective out of 12" range (pistols) whereas Dark Reapers dominate long range with Reaper Launchers but there's only 3-5 of them therefore they won't do great in CC.

We also have some awesome special characters (Eldrad! ) and our Autarchs and Farseers are powerful and customisable.

Our major weakness is that we're very squishy. We only have one thing with 2+ armor (termies) and we're majority T3. We like to hit and not be hit, or we die.

Eldar are quite complex to play, but have got awesome models and some fun, flavorful and powerful rules.

It will be hard. However, with a new book on the horizon, you will be set up and ready for it when it arrives, and hopefully it will breathe new life onto your new army

Huh.

People keep touting "eldar are specialists" and that is just outdated and wrong. Sure Fire Dragons are specialists, but all the other units people take and consider good are ALL GENERALISTS. War Walkers with 2 scatter lasers are beloved because they can deal with anything short of heavy armour People like Warp Spiders because they can deal with a wide variety of targets with s6 guns. Harlequins are capable of dealing with everything from Orks to Terminators, and that is why they are the Eldar cc units of choice, alongside a bucket of other awesome rules.

Eldar aren't about specialization, its about either survivability (foot eldar with Wraithguard / shadow seer harlies / fortune) or about force concentration in awkward parts of the opponents board (Fast Eldar). Both of these strategies are primarily accomplished with units capable of dealing with everything.