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I'm getting to where I've got enough stuff painted that I can consider fielding a full list again, and I'm going to set a goal to play in a tournament at KublaCon in May as my first real game back. Since I still have to do some painting to finish up this list, I figured now would be a good time to get some feedback so I don't spend too much time painting stuff I don't need. I'm incredibly unfamiliar with 5th edition rules, so things that just seem "off" are my biggest worries right now, with actual list strength in second place. I also kind of defaulted to 3rd edition tournament composition guidelines (at least a couple full troops selections) but I don't even know if composition is SCORED anymore, so that might be important to know.

Some background on the list: it's designed to have 3 parts: a stationary firebase of Reapers and Rangers, a walking/running firebase of Avengers (to take objectives) and a Wraithlord (to be threatening), and a highly mobile assault/destruction team consisting of the two elite units, their Wave Serpents, and the jetbikes. The Farseer is currently built to either ride along with the Scorpions helping them stay alive longer, to follow the Wraithlord around casting Guide, or hanging out near enough to the Dark Reapers to cast guide on them.

This might not be the most effective force, I realize, so pointers as to how to best tune things up are definitely welcome.

Rokugnar Craftworld Eldar - 1750 Points, 59 Models

Farseer - Fortune, Guide, Runes of Witnessing - 115 pts

Dire Avengers - 9 + 1 Exarch (Dire Sword/Pistol) - 142 pts
Dire Avengers - 9 + 1 Exarch (Dual ShurCannon) - 137 pts
Rangers - 5, Pathfinder Upgrade - 120 pts
Rangers - 5, Pathfinder Upgrade - 120 pts
Guardian Jetbikes - 6 + 1 Warlock (Destructor), 2 Shur. Cannons - 207 pts

Striking Scorpions 7 + 1 Exarch (Scorpion's Claw)
+Wave Serpent (TL Starcannon, Spirit Stones) - 290 pts
Fire Dragons 7
+Wave Serpent (TL Bright Lance, Spirit Stones) - 257 pts

Dark Reapers 4 + 1 Exarch (Fast Shot) - 207 pts
Wraithlord (Bright Lance + Eldar Missile Launcher) - 155 pts

Some notes: I'm waffling between two units of 5 Rangers, and one unit of 7-8 Rangers along with increasing my Scorpion/Dragons squads (at the moment, I think having an additional scoring unit might be a good thing). I can easily decide to give the Wraithlord the "dakka" selection (Scatter + Shurcannon) to save points or to deal with a more mobbish metagame. I'd like to avoid going with any FEWER Fire Dragons, as I've always liked their ability to gut a Marine unit, and any fewer and I risk not killing enough to matter.

Thanks in advance, all!

Few things;

You could quite happily get rid of one 5man pathfinder sqaud. 5 troop choices could well be overkill (if you want points elsewhere)

Your farseer would do well with spirit stones, allows two power/turn.

Give your dark reaper a tempest or EML. If you want to stay at range, keep the EML. if you want to kill troops in nastier ways at the cost of a 36" then drop fast-shot, get crack shot & get a tempest launcher

The Fire Dragons look good. Get one more dragon, make him an exarch & get a dragons breath flamer! Means they can take on virtually all unit types and do quite well (where previously more numerous sqauds would simply soak up 5-8 wounds without fuss)

For a mere 15pts for each squad of Dire avengers, the abillity to unload that extra amount of firepower can be invaluble. I.e Bladestorm.

The Striking Scorpins; getting the shadowstrike ability to allow you to outflank with your transport could provide a good amount of flexibility. If thats the case get Star Engines - so that they can get to where-ever with a 36" move meaning it shouldnt matter which egde of the board they turn up on. See outflanking rules bottom right of P.94 of the BGB.

You should fine the points for all those nessicary upgrades from that squad of Pathfinder rangers.

Most of what Razerous says is sound advice.

Having 2 pathfinder squads really isn't necessary if you can spend the points effectively elsewhere (and you can). Maybe go down to one squad of 6.

Farseers should have one or two powers (never more) and if they have 2 they should always have spirit stones so they can use them both.

As for the fire dragons, I'm not a fan of the exarch with the heavy flamer. Sure you can do fairly well against any target, but it costs a lot of points to make it so you can hit targets of opportunity that are not your primary focus. That and fire dragons are a one shot unit anyway. They simply don't have the range or the staying power to take the return fire they are going to suck up after dropping down 6" away from the enemy. I would recommend either keeping them just as they are or dropping 1 so you end up with a squad of 6 (which should be sufficient for tank hunting). The exarch is just a waste of points and temptation to use the squad for things they are not really good at.

The striking scorpion squad looks good, but at 8 members, it is what I would consider the bare minimum for a hand to hand unit. If you can spare the points (like from the pathfinders) it would be a good idea to go up to 10 men in the squad. You may also want to reconsider the weapons on their serpent. Star cannons only outperform scatter lasers if you can shoot at targets out of cover (and with no I saves) more than 33% of the time. So take that into consideration.

The dark reapers could probably do with some minor tweaking as well. A reaper exarch with fast shot and a reaper launcher (shooting at T4 targets) kills 1.6 a round out of cover and .88 in cover. One with crack shot kills 1.5 regardless of cover. With that in mind, crack shot is the much better buy of the two exarch powers. I would advise against getting a missile launcher. They don't cause much more damage than the reaper launcher against the heavy infantry that the reapers should be shooting at. Getting a tempest launcher (along with crack shot) gives the exarch insane amounts of killing power. 2 blast templates that hit 51% of the time, don't require line of sight, are S4, reroll wound rolls, are AP3 and ignore cover is almost too good to be true. I've had my reaper exarch wipe out whole 8 man squads on his own several times. Very few things kill MEQ's better.

Dire avengers. I would highly recommend you get bladestorm for these guys. You don't have to always use it, but there will be many situations where doing 50% more damage now is worth not being able to shoot next round (like on rounds where you are going to assault, or in places where you are unlikely to survive the next turn).

Phoenix wrote:Having 2 pathfinder squads really isn't necessary if you can spend the points effectively elsewhere (and you can). Maybe go down to one squad of 6.

I'll probably do this, or at least bring it down to 7-8 depending on the rest of the army. It'll probably be a good place to fill in points.

Farseers should have one or two powers (never more) and if they have 2 they should always have spirit stones so they can use them both.

Well, my idea with the Farseer is that he'll do one thing or the other thing but rarely both things. I'll most likely just bite the bullet and specialize him for riding along with the Scorpions, especially since you pointed out that the Tempest Launcher on the Reapers is guess (I hadn't noticed that part, holy crap that's awesome).

As for the fire dragons...

Agreed with you on all counts here, that's why they don't HAVE an exarch. The difference between having 6 and 8 is kind of miniscule, I'll run some numbers on them. Like I said, I like having them being able to roll up and burn down a Marine or Termie squad, too, so I need to do the math on whether or not I really need 8 or not.

The striking scorpion squad looks good, but at 8 members, it is what I would consider the bare minimum for a hand to hand unit. If you can spare the points (like from the pathfinders) it would be a good idea to go up to 10 men in the squad. You may also want to reconsider the weapons on their serpent. Star cannons only outperform scatter lasers if you can shoot at targets out of cover (and with no I saves) more than 33% of the time. So take that into consideration.

The squad will definitely go up to 10 as soon as I tweak the points costs elsewhere. I also just noticed for the first time that Wave Serpents can carry TWELVE models, and not the old ten (like I said, the last eldar list I made was a very, very long time ago). The Scorps are my main assault force as well as tying up a good chunk of an enemy army, so more models is definitely ideal here. The suggestion about Scatter Lasers is also a good one; at the moment I'm working with what I have painted first, and I don't have a painted Scatter Laser turret.

The dark reapers could probably do with some minor tweaking as well. (Lots of stuff...) Very few things kill MEQ's better.

OK, here's a revised list taking some of the suggestions into account. Just knocking the Rangers down by 2 models, dropping Guide, and tweaking a couple things saved a TON of points...

EDIT: Forgot to give the Scorpion Exarch the Shadowstrike power. Outflank is just too freaking sweet, especially for a melee unit mounted in a fast skimmer.

EDIT2: Also, "Option B" for the list would be to drop an additional ranger (down to 6) and give the Wraithlord Scatter/Shuriken (the "moar dakka" option) which would allow me to buy a Vyper with a Scatter Laser. That would leave me with just one dedicated heavy-tank killing unit (the Dragons' Wave Serpent) though it'll have a metric ton of really fast S6 weapons for popping Rhinos and rear armor. *shrug*

Rokugnar Craftworld v0.3
1746 Points / 59 Models

Farseer - Fortune - 85 pts

Dire Avengers - 9 + 1 Exarch, Dire Sword, Bladestorm - 157
Dire Avengers - 9 + 1 Exarch, 2x ShurCat, Bladestorm - 157
Rangers - 7, Pathfinders - 192
Jetbikes - 6 + 1 Warlock, 2x ShurCannon, Destructor - 207

Striking Scorpions - 9 + 1 Exarch, Scorpion's Claw, Shadowstrike
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, TL Scatter Laser - 312
Fire Dragons - 8
Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, TL Bright Lances - 273

Dark Reapers - 4 + 1 Exarch, Tempest Launcher, Crack Shot - 217
Wraithlord - Bright Lance + Eldar Missile Launcher - 155

Is Crack Shot definitely better than Fast Shot when it comes to the Tempest, though? Getting an extra template out of the deal seems pretty good to me, but the re-rolls to wounds probably cover that.

Without getting that much into math, lets just think about things for a second here. Lets say every template hits 2 guys (because its an easy number to work with). So with crack shot, you hit 4 guys (from 2 templates) and with fast shot you would hit 6. Now if they are T4 (MEQ's), then with fast shot you wound half of them, so you get 3 wounds. With crack shot, you wound half (so 2) but then you get to reroll failed wounds, so you wound 3. Looking at that, the two are the same. Now lets throw in the fact that crack shot makes the shots ignore cover saves. Which do you think is better now?

The new revised list looks great. I would stick with option A rather than droping your ranged anti tank power.