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Lets take a look at mech Eldar Troop Choices in 5th edition

In my 4th edition mech Eldar army I fielded either
3 Guardian Jetbikes with Shuriken Cannon 76 Pts
or
3 Guardian Jetbikes with Shuriken Cannon and Warlock with Destructor and Spear 134 Pts
for troops

Small jetbike squads are just not effective in 5th edition with the new true line of sight rules making it difficult to hide them. The Warlock on such a vulnerable squad is just too expensive in 5th while in 4th edition he made the squad very versatile with destructor for hiting hordes and shining spear to throw at vehicles.

With 5th edition I was looking into other troops choices that were more resilent.

10 Storm Guardians with 2 Flamers and Warlock with Destructor 127 pts 237 points with Wave Serpent with twin linked shuriken cannon and spirit stones.

I been playing Sisters lately and I really liked the Heavy Flamer and Flamer combination in a mech Squad so this squad
was the first one that came to mind. 3 flamers is very deadly to what ever squad I hit them with. However like Sisters squads the Guardian Squad is vulnerable to assault and Eldar do not have Faith points to help them live while getting assaulted.

10 Storm Guardians with 2 Flamers and Warlock with Enhance 132 pts

Swaping up Enhance for the Destructor gives the Guardians +1 WS and Initiative to be slightly more surviable in assault but probably not worth it as the destructor Heavy Flamer kills more and even with Enhance Storm Guardians are still outclassed by many assault units. The punch of the heavy flamer destructor is missed in this configuration.

10 Storm Guardians with 2 Flamers 92 pts or 202 with Wave Serpent with twin linked shuriken cannon and spirit stones.

Removing the Warlock makes the Storm Guardians only cost 92 points with 2 flamers. Not sure I like doing this it saves point but there is not as much punch for troop killing with just two flamers.


10 Dire Avengers 120 pts or 230 pts with Wave Serpent with twin linked Shuriken cannon and Spirit Stones.

Better Ballistic skill and range then guardians but does not ignore cover saves which the flamer templates do. Also slightly better in assault and can be made more so but that is not their primary purpose. Is 20 shots better then 3 flamer templates? The 3 flamer templates costs 7 pts more and the Dire Avengers are more survivable if they get assaulted but the risk of getting assaulted should be less with range 18 instead of like 8 for flamers.

10 Dire Avengers with Exarch with Dual Shuriken Catapults and Bladestorm 152

Exach adds 2 extra shots and the option to shoot 10 extra shots but give up next rounds shooting for 32 points. Can be worth it as you can't shoot when you get back into your vehicle to move to a new location but that might not be necessary with 18 range.

6 Guardian Jetbikes with 2 Shuriken Cannon 152 Pts

6 Guardian Jetbikes with 2 Shuriken Cannon and Warlock with Destructor and Spear 210 pts

9 Guardian Jetbikes with 3 Shuriken Cannon 228 pts

9 Guardian Jetbikes with 3 Shuriken Cannon and Warlock with Destructor and Spear 286 pts

The larger jetbike squads end up costing as many points if not more then the mounted troops choices. The warlock helps but with the new line of sight rules large jetbike squads become really difficult to hide. They can have pretty decent firepower with the shuriken cannons, twin linked catapults and destructor. However the unit of 6 with the warlock costs almost as much as the 3 flamer template 10 storm guardians and their wave serpent.

Pathfinders really have no place in a Mech list being static and Guardians with weapons platforms can not fire their weapons if they move so are not much use in transports.

The Storm Guardians with 2 flamers and Warlock with Destructor and maybe adding a Spear seems like the better troop but maybe that is because I played too much Sisters of Battle lately. The larger jetbike squads seem alright as well but I need to do more play testing. Have to find time to test my 2500 eldar list for Ardboys.

I've had pretty decent results with 10 Storm Guardians, 2 Fusion Guns, Warlock, Singing Spear, Destructor 130 pts.

I typically have enough anti horde shooting and this unit acts as a pretty good anti armor unit. Destructor also enables me to have another unit to hit hordes in a pinch.

While you are running (relatively) cheap Wave Serpents, it seems they need be able to accomplish more than a few Shuriken Cannon shots. Early in the game, they may not fire, but I've found several instances where in the later rounds, my Wave Serpents (or Falcons) will move 6" or less and fire off multiple shots (T/L Scatterlaser and Shuriken Cannon or whatever build the Falcon has).

Guardians with weapons platforms can not fire their weapons if they move so are not much use in transports

I'd disagree with this statement.

You can move and fire Eldar heavy weapons - not sure how useful this would be if you're disembarking them but you can fire them.

A weapon platform can fire even if it moved. That's right.
Thus 10 Guardian Defenders with heavy weapon (shuricannon, scatterlaser) mounted in a Serpent is another option.

Small Jetbike squads are too fragile. I'd take 9 Jetbike with 3 shuricannons plus Warlock with embolden.

But in a mech army, I'd take 10 DAs in Serpent, no Exarch upgrade, or 10 Storm Guardians with 2 flamers and Warlock with destructor, in Serpent.

Good layout of the basic choices, and good analysis.

About bikes:

Destructor is less useful on bike squads than Embolden. You want to use your superior mobility to avoid CC and take advantage of JSJ to get cover saves while denying them to your enemy, as well as using difficult terrain to slow assaults/strike first. Getting close enough to flame cancels a lot of that. Re-rolling leadership tests will help make your bikes an annoyance/threat until the last model.

Units of 3 jetbikes are actually useful still, but only as distractions. If you have 76 points sitting around, drawing S4 fire away from your objective-holding infantry units is well worth the cost. In addition, even one surviving bike is an objective-grabber/contester. And S6 cannons that can split their fire against enemy transports are always useful. If you crash a trukk, the bikes have done half their job. Bikes can also swoop in to serve as a very mobile speedbump, interposing between your firebase/whatever and threatening enemy units. So one or two 3-bike units is not a bad idea if your list is otherwise lean on KPs. 3 or more would be a bad idea.

That said, larger units of 6 plus Warlock are the new black for bikes.

About other Troops choices in mech:

DAs with PW/SS, Defend and Bladestorm are still a great choice. They make a decent anvil unit still, if not as good as before thanks to the combat res rules. If you have a hammer unit (Spears, Harlies, whatever) to match them, they're your best bet. I always take 2 units of mounted DAs in mech. They usually go towards separate targets, each backup up by something like Spiders or bikes, with a counter-charge unit nearby to aid either of them (or join in the initial assault).

As for Guardian units, I just feel that Avengers are usually a better idea to spend the points on transporting than any Guardian unit. Defenders are wasting their platform fire when they're mounted. Stormies do get the great flamer spray, but then they die in droves. If you do field Guardians in mech, I'd say no more than one unit of Stormies for softening targets in serious cover. I'd rather have 28 BS4 shuriken shots and a 4+/5+ save with attack reduction, though- even at twice the price. Given the cost of transports, the troops inside should really count.

If you happen to own a ton of Serpents, you could try 4x Defenders w/shuricannon and 2x Stormies, all in Serpents plus Yriel or somesuch. That kind of saturation fire might work, especially if backed with 2 prisms. You would certainly get multiple hits on special weapons troopers. The return fire/assault would not be pretty, though. Against hordes you would have to evade for a turn or two, then assault a flank. Against Marines... pray your roll well.

So I'd say a good mech troops layout would be 2x Avengers (PW/SS, Defend, Bladestorm) in Serpents (TL BL to up your anti-armor, stones), 2x 7 jetbikes incl. Warlock with Embolden, maybe 1x Stormies in Serpent. Add Fire Dragons x1 or x2 in Falcons/Serpents, Spears or Harlies, and a character or two. If you have the points left, take only one unit of Dragons and two Prisms. A jetbike seer and/or Autarch will help. Give either an anti-armor option (spear or fusion gun).

Hope that helps. Sorry so long-winded!