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Well, I am starting an eldar army, but unfortunately don't know which craftworld to choose. I am going to ask the members of dakkadakka to help me decide!

One thing to consider is cost: jetbikes cost $15 US each. Saim-Hann warhosts are jetbike heavy. My future project is a mech eldar army with at least one unit on jetbikes, but it is a project for at least a few months from now, as the jetbikes will probably run me almost $200 alone. Of course, Iyanden armies (if you go with the craftworld fluff) are loaded with wraithlords and wraithguard, but I don't know how the money to points ratio stacks up there.

In my opinion though: Saim-Hann. The theme of the army brings to mind the Wild Hunt, one of my favorite mythical figures.

Sain-hain. Their colour scheme is wicked awesome for jetbikes! Who wants a yellow jetbike?

That depends, with both armies you would have a strong theme, but I'm going to have to go with Saim-Hann. DA RED ONES GO FASTA!!!

Jetbike army is a lot cooler than wraithguard and guiardian armie. Mounted Farseers, mounted autarch, shining spears, heaps of vehichles, fast moving everyfink!

The dead must join our ranks, lest we be force to join theirs.

Iyanden, for sure.

eh, they are BOTH cool, but choose whatever you want, mate!

I would go saim-hann because it seems like a way more dynamic and interesting style.

Iyanden is really resilient and tough, gotta love an eldar army where the average toughness of your infantry is 6!

Plus your name is iyanden so go for that!

Darkreaver55 wrote:One thing to consider is cost: jetbikes cost $15 US each. Saim-Hann warhosts are jetbike heavy. My future project is a mech eldar army with at least one unit on jetbikes, but it is a project for at least a few months from now, as the jetbikes will probably run me almost $200 alone. Of course, Iyanden armies (if you go with the craftworld fluff) are loaded with wraithlords and wraithguard, but I don't know how the money to points ratio stacks up there.

Oddly enough wraithguard are 15USD each too. Of course they were a lot less when I bought mine I'm always going to give the advice of "play what appeals to you".

Iyanden appeals to me because:
1. They have been an underdog Eldar army for so long - arguably they still don't work yet.
2. I prefer the methodical march of the dead to the "look we're like Orks speed freaks except we're ... also ... red.. umm"
3. WG and WL are resilient which can be hard to find in an Eldar force and makes them play differently

I say Saim-Hann. I had Alaitoc and revamped my army to Saim-Hann. I like the colors and bike option if you want to go by theme. I even saw a wind rider host available from a company in England. I have been remided that under 5th edtion rules Eldar are vanilla Eldar now and you aren't required to follow those themes if don't want to. I only have four jet bikes so far but I am working on it.

Who doesn't love necromancers? I mean, it's an army of armored elf zombies! Very armored elf zombies! With guns!

Iyanden, hands down.

Still it depends on the tactic you would lke to use if you want to go by army theme. Jet bikes are fast and Waith are slow.

Its an army of Elf Zombie Robots that shoot black holes, to be specific!

Wait a minute. It's not like if you choose Iyanden you cant you use jet bikes. And besides iyanden might be hard to paint because of that whole yellow thing.

A simple solution to painting yellow is to

Prime White

Bastcoat entire model with yellow (Not including the gun, of course)

Wash repeatedly with Gryphonne Sepia for desired effect.

And you know what? Biel-Tien craftworld kicks ass and is way better than Iyanden!!

If I was to ever make a Eldar army it would be either Saim-Hann or Ulthwe' so for that reason I suggest Saim-Hann.

It is no more expensive than creating any other bike army, much like how Iyanden is close in cost to a Terminator & Dreadnought heavy army.

Heck thinking about that alone makes me want to consider making a bike army that isn't marines.

Go for Saim-Hann

Iyaden, but only because I'm a fan.

As a player who runs both configurations, I have to say that Saim-Hann are my favorite. This is both because Saim-Hann are fun and powerful (flexible, fast, very different from other 40K armies), and because Iyanden are not very powerful in most situations, and often too slow and points-intensive to be much fun.

Jetbikes are a good value for 22 points. They have decent toughness and saves, something lacking among other Eldar. They are one of the fastest-moving Troops choices out there. This allows you to perform tricky feints, and to adjust easily to enemy feints (and your own tactical mistakes). Also, they can stay out of enemy CC reach, while fielding a decent amount of firepower for their points (a squad of 6 bikes with 6S6 24" cannons for 152 is a pretty good value).

Iyandedn, on the other hand, thematically requires you to use Wraithguard. These guys, while very cool-looking, really lack in mobility and range, while sucking up a lot of points per model. That is not a winning combination. While Wraithzilla is a decent build (3 Wraithlords, Avatar, Guardians), the Wraithguard tend to be dead weight. Dragons shoot better for the points, and their toughness and saves are easily negated by anti-MEQ weapons. True, the same might be said of bikes- but the bikes' mobility puts them far ahead. And buying a unit of 10 Wraithguard to get them to count as Troops is really not cost-effective in even a 2K-point battle.

You can choose any craftworld scheme and run it with atypical (read: more optimal) unit selections, but that's not really much fun. Being an Iyandedn player who is stuck viewing his signature units as dead weight is really kinda sad.

On the other hand, Saim-Hann does require a lot of bikes. The current bike models will likely be replaced within the next couple of years, so you might be building an army that will soon be surpassed. If you don't mind wrangling bikes off of folks you know (lots of people have 3 and rarely use them) or off of trading sites, Saim-Hann is great. If that's not your bag, or you MUST have the shiny new toys when they come out, you might want to avoid the bikes.

Wraithguard are expensive too. Especially for what they do.

If you want cheap yet powerful, you want neither of these armies. But if you want theme and fun, I'd say go Saim-Hann. Then get yourself some Serpents, and join the mechanized hordes!